Category: Food

Running the Numbers

  • A 2-inch chunk of cucumber – I like using the long, skinny English cucumbers; they seem to have a little more flavor. Go ahead and wash it, but don’t bother peeling it. The peel will add color and flavor to the finished drink.
  • 2 ounces chili-lime rum – I’ve been using Captain Morgan’s for this. I do not regret it.
  • 1 6-ounce can of pineapple juice

Muddle the cucumber thoroughly in the bottom of your cocktail shaker. This means smooshing it up with a stick. If you don’t have a muddler you can use a wooden spoon, or a beer bottle if it fits, or if you’re up for a project you can actually go outside and find a stick (wash it before using it). I’ve heard of a guy who cut off the handle of a child’s baseball bat, presumably not while his child was using it. The point is that you want to crush this chunk of cucumber, body and spirit, until it is the consistency of applesauce.

Add the rum, and shake your rum & cuke for 20 seconds or so. This is what is called a “dry shake,” meaning without ice. When you muddle herbs or fruits or vegetables, you do it for three reasons:

1. By smashing your cucumber up, you’ve given it a lot more surface area to interact with the alcohol.

2. You’ve broken up the cell walls inside the cucumber and released some of the flavor compounds from their tiny prisons. (If you are really committed to breaking up the cells of the cucumber, you can freeze it first. Ice crystals will poke holes in the cell walls before you even get to it with the muddler.)

3. So now you have all these flavor compounds floating around unattached. Some of them like water just fine and will dissolve into it without complaint. Others are pickier and are waiting around for some alcohol to bond with. By dry shaking your rum & cuke before diluting it with melting ice, you’re swooshing the flavor and color chemicals around in an alcohol solution. On a molecular level you’ve kick-started a party. As you shake it up you’ll hear a “slosh-slosh” sound, but the botanical molecules will hear Ozzy Osborne’s “Crazy Train.”

At this point go ahead and add a handful of ice to the shaker, as well as the contents of the miniature can of pineapple juice.

Shake the mixture for another 30 seconds or so, then strain it over fresh ice in a Collins glass. It will have a gratifyingly foamy head on it. This drink is best suited to drinking with a straw.

This is a mildly refreshing drink. The cucumber flavor team has spread throughout the pineapple juice, keeping it from being too sweet. There is a subtle citrussy spiciness from the flavored rum.

Featured photo: Photo by John Fladd.

Organic farming in NH

Winter conference returns

Of the many events and conferences taking place at this time of year, one that probably escaped your notice is the Winter Conference of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire, taking place at Colby Sawyer College this weekend. This year’s conference is actually happening a month later than usual, said Kyle Jacoby, a program manager for the Association.

“It’s not our first ever conference in March, but it’s been a little while, so we’re excited to see what March brings us,” Jacoby said. “We always get a lot of people in our evaluations and through comments that say community is a big part of the event and the organization, so we really leaned into that with our theme this year, ‘Taking Root and Nourishing Community.’ We really like the word ‘nourishing,’ sort of an action of taking root, really feeding into all these connections between land and people and our practices.”

A core concept of organic farming is being aware and mindful of where our food comes from, Jacoby said, and this year’s conference will address the concerns of many different groups who are interested in that. He said this year’s conference will have “over 20 workshops for everyone from farmers to home growers, permaculturists, and educators. So we really have a full gamut of different workshops for all types of learners, farmers, home growers, home livestock [keepers], herbalists, hobbyists, educators, nonprofits and professionals. So we’re really excited about all those workshops.”

This conference’s workshops will span a wide range of interests from the technical (Soil Carbon Dynamics and Farm-Scale Management) to the academic (Carrying Seeds Forward: African Diasporic & Indigenous Traditions in New England Agriculture) to the narrative (Starting From Scratch: What We Learned Starting Our Farm). The concept of inclusivity extends to this year’s keynote speakers, Jacoby said. “We’re really excited. We decided this year it was going to be really valuable and important to uplift some local voices and some local initiatives, and so we connected with Dave Trumbull of Good Earth Farm and Sarah Hansen of Kearsarge Gore Farm, two farmers who’ve been really involved in a farmer collaborative CSA [Community Supported Agriculture] called Local Harvest CSA. They’re going to share some of their lessons and stories from this farmer collaborative and from their perspective as farmers in the state about how we come together as a community and connect with one another.”

“We also have things like our Green Market Fair, and a lot of exhibitors, raffles, different activities for people to engage in,” Jacoby said. The Green Market, he explained, is an ongoing activity throughout the conference where organizations can exchange information, and attendees can make connections and build support networks. “We have a number of nonprofits or small businesses [and] some of our local co-ops or organizations that work to support farmers, like Northeast SARE, which is Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, the MOSCA, the certifying agency that a lot of our farmers now have turned to to get certified. And we’ll have Rimmel Greenhouse, the Hampshire Herbal Network, the Granite State Grazers, Kearsarge Food Hub, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Witching Hour Provisions, the UNH Extension. So it goes on and on.”

Jacoby said more people have started to pay attention to food production in recent years, and this conference — like NOFANH itself — provides a way for those people to turn their interest into action.

“A lot of the things we see — both anecdotally and through data that we’ve seen – that there’s just increasing demand nationally for organic food and we have a lot of farmers in the state, and home growers too, who believe a lot in the philosophy and the principles of organic and want to ensure that they’re doing that … for themselves but also for the their communities.”

NOFANH
The 2026 Winter Conference of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire will take place Saturday, March 7, at Colby Sawyer College in New London. For more information about the conference, or to register for it, visit nofanh.org/winterconference.

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Tamworth Distillery

The comfort of an egg sandwich

Breakfast eats to get you going at The Cure Cafe

Rachel Ormond is the owner and operator of The Cure Cafe in New Boston.

“About three years ago we went up to Loon Mountain,” she said, “and there’s a little cafe on the top of the mountain. That was the first time Colin ever ate an English muffin, egg and cheese sandwich and he loved it.” At the time, Ormond’s 3-year-old son Colin was being treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a form of blood cancer.

“He’s really picky at the best of times,” Ormond continued, “and when you’ve been on cancer treatment, and you take all sorts of steroids, your taste buds change and your cravings are very distinct. He ate exclusively mac and cheese and chips for quite a while, so for him to eat an egg and cheese sandwich was really exciting. And then, he ate egg and cheese sandwiches every single day from that day on for two years. … So when we opened the Cafe, the first sandwich on the menu was The Colin, and it’s our egg and cheese on an English muffin because that’s what he loved. And then [my daughter] Charlotte always got a sausage egg and cheese, so now we have The Charlotte. And then that was it until their dad, Robert, was a little jealous. He was like, ‘Oh, what about me? I want a menu item.’ So, there was born ‘The Robert.’ My husband’s a big, jacked bodybuilder, so he’s got two eggs, double meat on an everything bagel, because that’s what he loves. And actually The Robert is super popular.”

The Cure Cafe is the local coffee-and-muffin joint in New Boston.

“I’m an avid coffee drinker myself,” Ormond said, “and I would frequently drive to Bedford, to Manchester for coffee, to Milford for coffee. So when this space opened up and the opportunity arose, my reaction was, ‘First of all, we need espresso within driving distance.’” As a result, the cafe offers a full menu of coffee options, from lattes and espressos to a range of iced coffee drinks.

“We serve any of our drinks hot or iced,” Ormond said. “We make cold brew and iced coffee and just regular drip as well. We sell cold brew and iced coffee and iced lattes all day long. We probably sell more iced drinks than hot drinks, truthfully. And in the summertime we will almost exclusively sell cold [drinks].”

In addition to coffees, teas and breakfast sandwiches, all of which feature an over-hard egg (“We’re more than happy to do an over-easy egg if you ask,” Ormond said), the breakfast menu includes a range of muffins and goods baked in house.

“We make all of our pastries every day,” Ormond said. “We’ve got cinnamon rolls, which are humongous, and our most popular muffin flavor is the lemon-blueberry. Every time I don’t make lemon-blueberries, people are like, ‘Where’s the lemon blueberry muffin? I’ll come back tomorrow.’ So I make them all the time because it keeps the people happy. And then we always have croissants or spinach and feta pastries. We switch up our scone flavors — usually blueberry, white chocolate-raspberry, and an apple-cinnamon.”

The lunch menu features salads and a range of sandwiches.

“We call all of our sandwiches here ‘sammies’ though, for fun,” Ormond said. “Our smoked turkey BLT is super popular now. … it was on the seasonal menu, but it’s transitioning into the permanent menu because it’s been so popular. We only use sourdough bread for sandwiches here, usually toasted. The smoked turkey BLT, the BLT, and the chicken salad all get it toasted. The club’s the only one that doesn’t get served on toast. But a lot of people request that we don’t toast it, so I really think it’s up to personal preference.”

The Cure Cafe
8 Mill St., New Boston, 741-5016, curellc.toast.site
Hours: Wednesday through Monday, 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Closed on Tuesdays and during weather emergencies.

Featured photo: The Cure Cafe. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 26/03/05

• Slice of Pi: The Canterbury Shaker Village, 288 Shaker Road in Canterbury, will celebrate Shaker Pie Pi Day on Saturday, March 14, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. “Join us at Canterbury Shaker Village for a slice of pie and an informal talk (which may include pie charts) about pie in both Shaker and American history,” according to shakers.org, where you can register for the event. Register by Saturday, March 7.

• Pizza fundamentals: There will be a family-involved pizza-making class with Ohana Sourdough at Barrel and Baskit (377 Main St., Hopkinton, 746-1375, barrelandbaskit.com) Friday, March 6, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The cost will be $18 per pizza, but all ingredients and equipment are included. Register online at barrelandbaskit.com.

• Brunch with heels and sparkle: The Vanderbilt Room & Banquet Facility (48 Lowell Road, Hudson, 810-7337, vanderbiltroom.com) will be the venue for Hudson Honeys Drag Brunch, Sunday, March 8, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For $60.54 through eventbrite.com, guests will get a brunch buffet and then Sticky Honey will host a drag show while guests sip mimosa specials.

• Patriotic tea: The Nashua Historical Society (5 Abbott St., Nashua, 883-0015, nashuahistoricalsociety.org) will host Steeped in ’76, a tea party to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and the Boston Tea Party, Sunday, March 8, beginning at 12:30 p.m. Guests will enjoy an elegant tea service featuring teas, scones, petite sandwiches and sweet treats, all served amid red, white and blue décor. Designed for ages 6 and up, the afternoon offers engaging activities for history lovers of all generations. The cost for Historical Society members and children under 18 is $18. The price for non-members is $25. Reservations are required; seating is limited. Visit nashuahistoricalsociety.org/events.

• Burgerama: The Bedford Village Inn in Bedford has kicked off its nearly month of special burger recipes known as Burgerama, available in the Tavern. Through Saturday, March 7, it’s “BVI Favorites” week with a BVI Big Double, a BVI Black and Blue Burger and Sausage Pizza Sliders served with herbed parmesan fries, according to the menu at bedfordvillageinn.com. Starting Sunday, March 8, it’s a new week of burgers — Smokehouse Week, where a BBQ Pork Burger, Wicked Smoked Brisket Burger and Smoked Andouille Sliders are served with smoked paprika fries. See the website for the full menu for all of March and a description of all the burgers.

• Get your tickets: The Nashua Center’s annual Taste of the Towns event will take place Thursday, May 7, 6 to 9 p.m. at the Sheraton Nashua, 11 Tara Blvd. in Nashua, according to nashuacenter.org/taste-of-the-towns, where you can purchase tickets and sponsorships. The lineup of participants includes Bellavance Beverage Co., The Imported Grape, In the Mix Bartending, K’sone’s Thai Restaurant & Lounge, Le Gris Charcuterie, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse, Soel Sistas, Tara House Grill and Woodman’s Artisan Bakery, according to the website.

Vinegar Pie

You will need a pre-baked pie crust for this recipe. You can make yours from scratch, but let’s face it; that can be intimidating. The way people talk about making pie crust makes it sound like a harrowing experience. In point of fact, once you’ve figured out the process it’s pretty straightforward; it’s just difficult to describe. It’s one of those things you’ve got to dive into and get your hands covered with flour. If you know a grandmother, have her show you.

In the meantime, if you don’t have the confidence to tackle making a crust yourself, just buy a premade one, or a frozen crust that you just have to thaw out and roll into a pie pan. A store-bought pie crust will work perfectly well in this recipe. Just follow the directions on the package to “blind-bake” it — to bake it before adding the filling.

The filling may be one of the easiest pie fillings you’ll ever make. It makes an apple pie look like differential calculus.

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup (198 g) brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt
  • 6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, melted
  • 3 Tablespoons cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Do what you have to do to have a pre-baked pie shell ready for you.

This pie is so easy that it really isn’t worth the hassle of getting out your electric mixer. Get out a mixing bowl and a whisk.

Whisk the eggs, brown sugar and salt together. Whisk in the melted butter. Whisk in the vinegar.

Boom! The filling is done. Pour it into your prepared pie crust and bake it on the middle rack of your oven for about 35 minutes. Take it out when it’s brown and not jiggly anymore. Set it aside to cool.

Like many egg-based pies — quiche, for instance — this will be puffy and domed when it comes out of the oven, then it will settle down as it cools.

You often hear of old-fashioned pies like this described as “poverty” pies, or Depression Era pies. The explanation is that the vinegar is a stand-in for fruit that frugal housewives couldn’t afford. I’ve never bought that explanation. You can’t afford a couple of apples, but you have eggs, butter and (depending on the recipe) cream? Think instead of New England or the upper Midwest in the middle of winter 100 or more years ago. You’ve got access to chickens and a cow — or your neighbor does — but fruit is hard enough to come by that you’ll save it for a special occasion. If you’re baking a pie for your family, you’ll use vinegar as a flavoring agent that will give the filling an acidic tang.

Which is what you’ll find here. This is a sweet, super-buttery, rich pie with a background sourness that cuts through that richness and is extremely satisfying. It’s a good dessert pie, but even better with gossip over a couple cups of strong coffee.

Featured photo: Vinegar Pie. Photo by John Fladd.

Smell and sip

How to taste whiskey

Much like wine enthusiasts or microbrew beer fans, whiskey connoisseurs have strong opinions, and a lot of them. They will debate endlessly about subtle differences and argue about whether a particular whiskey has flavor notes of leather, or vanilla, or peat. Then there are drinkers who don’t know much about whiskey. Maybe they remember drinking something that they enjoyed once, and somebody told them it had whiskey in it. Now they want to learn more about whiskey. Where does somebody even get started figuring whiskey out?

According to Rachel Manna, a manager at Tamworth Distilling in Tamworth, a good first step is narrowing down the number of whiskeys you want to learn about at first.

“We always ask people what their preference is,” she said. “Some people are bourbon drinkers, some people are rye drinkers, some people just don’t know. So we really like to kind of walk them through and, you know, talk about the differences between the different types of whiskeys, talk a little bit about flavor notes.”

Somebody new to the world of whiskeys might not know that there even are different types of whiskey, she said, so learning a little bit about the differences between Scotch, bourbon, rye and any of the other types of whiskey will help a new whiskey drinker wrap their head around the general flavor profiles.

“They’re all a little bit different,” she said. “You’re going to get the aroma, you’re going to have the taste, you’re going to have a finish; ultimately, you’re looking for a balance of flavors.”

“For instance,” Manna continued, “our [Tamworth Distilling’s] bourbon is a ‘high corn’ bourbon, and it’s 100 proof — and the proof factors in as well — so you’re going to get completely different notes than you’re going to get from our straight rye. That is a little bit of a lower proof [a lower percentage of alcohol]. And then when you go into something like our William Whipple Winter Wheat Whiskey, that has toasted chocolate and caramel malt in it, those are going to give you completely different notes as well. So a lot of it is just trying [different types of whiskey], and working it through your palate and seeing the different notes that hit when you’re tasting them.”

Manna explained that even the act of drinking a whiskey will affect its flavor. Taking a long pull from a favorite cocktail is physically different than cautiously tasting something new.

“Our recommendation is to breathe it in through your mouth,” she said, “in a sense, versus your nose; put your nose in the glass, and then take the breath in through your mouth. That’s where you’re going to really pull out those different flavor notes. And then where it hits on the tongue and showcases the different notes that are in the whiskeys. Even adding a little drop of water to a whiskey really opens it, can change it a little bit.”

Manna said that in New Hampshire distillers are only allowed legally to offer a few choices of whiskey at a time for guests to compare.

“There are state regulations,” she said, “so, realistically, when you go to tasting rooms, you can’t have any more than five half-ounce pours in a ‘flight.’ A professional taster might see it a little differently, but on a small-scale personal level I think that five is a good amount. Especially a higher proof, it’s all going to stick over time, and the tastes will blend together. And you need to cleanse your palate between tastes. For us civilians, the standard is we just drink water. Our distillers, when they are tasting stuff, they drink a lot of soda water — a really strong soda water — to cleanse their palates as well as unsalted crackers, because sometimes they’ll be tasting through 20 barrels or more [of whiskey]. They use droppers so the droppers hit the middle of their mouths when they’re tasting. And then, they can spit it out afterward, because clearly that’s a lot to taste after a while.”

Whiskey tasting
The tasting room at Tamworth Distilling (15 Cleveland Hill Road, Tamworth, 323-7196, tamworthdistilling.com) is open Thursday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. In addition, Tamworth Distilling is present at the Concord Summer and Winter Farmers Markets. There will be a fireside tasting of Tamworth’s whiskeys at the Blue Bear Inn (534 Mountain Road, Francestown, 808-0174, bluebearinn.com) Thursday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. Tickets are $55.20 through eventbrite.com.

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Tamworth Distillery

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