Category: Food

Courtney Parker

Courtney Parker of Nashua is the owner of Simple Sweets Bakery (simplesweetsbakery0.wixsite.com, or on Facebook @simplesweetsbakery11), a homestead business specializing in gluten-free baked goods made fresh daily, like cupcakes, cookies, muffins, doughnuts, brownies, whoopie pies and oatmeal cream pies. Orders are accepted via phone, text, email or Facebook messages, with deliveries within a 20-mile radius of Nashua. Dairy-free and soy-free options are also available. Now through Dec. 21, Parker is offering specialty Christmas orders for items like chocolate cream or pumpkin pies, peppermint brownies and gingerbread doughnuts.

What is your must-have kitchen item?
Definitely a silicone spatula.

What would you have for your last meal?
Chicken tenders and Jojo potatoes from Chicken ‘n’ Chips [in Nashua].

What is your favorite local restaurant?
Bistro 603 [in Nashua].

What celebrity would you like to see ordering something from you?
Obviously Carrie Underwood.

What is your favorite thing that you offer?
Snickerdoodles! They are my absolute favorite and are so easy to make!

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
Apple cider doughnuts.

What is your favorite thing to cook or bake at home?
I love to bake and will try just about any recipe, but I’d have to say my favorite thing to bake is anything that contains apples. The aroma from [them] reminds me of Christmas.

Simple sugar cookies
From the kitchen of Courtney Parker of Simple Sweets Bakery in Nashua
6 tablespoons butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1½ cup flour (Parker uses Cup4Cup brand gluten-free flour, or you can use regular flour)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Cream butter and sugar together. Add in egg and mix until smooth. Add vanilla, salt, baking powder, baking soda and flour and mix. Using a cookie scoop, place a teaspoon-sized scoop onto the cookie sheet. Bake for eight to 10 minutes.

Featured photo: Courtney Parker

New Italian option

The Chef opens in New Boston

For more than two decades, Angel Santiago has built his culinary resume at restaurants all over New Hampshire and Massachusetts, including local Italian spots Mangia Sano in Milford and Pasquale’s Ristorante in Londonderry. His first restaurant as owner — aptly named The Chef, which opened in New Boston last month — features a variety of traditional Italian and Italian-American dishes, from pizzas and paninis to fresh seafood and pastas, plus a full bar with domestic and imported wines, local craft beers and cocktails.
Santiago, who lives in New Boston with his wife, Christine, said the couple had looked at several potential spaces for a restaurant over the last few years before finding the one that fit the bill in August. The building on River Road near the Goffstown and New Boston town line most recently housed Sliders, an eatery that closed in the spring.
Since its opening, the chicken Parmigiana has been among the top sellers, as have the seafood entrees, which include seafood risotto and alfredo, cioppino (a fish stew), baked or fried haddock and stuffed lobster ravioli.
“We do a lot of seafood,” Angel Santiago said. “I buy a full case every week and I go through the whole thing. By Sunday I have probably one-third of a pan left over.”
Lunch is normally available from 11:30 a.m. to about 3 p.m., with options like fresh paninis and sandwiches, pastas, and seafood plates like fish and chips.
In addition to soups and salads, there are various house appetizers available on the dinner menu, like sauteed mussels, Buffalo chicken tenders, breaded and fried four-cheese ravioli, and arancini balls with peas, mozzarella and marinara.
The pizzas can be ordered with a gluten-free crust, and house specialty pastas include chicken or veal saltimbocca, piccata and marsala.
“One of the big things we’ve been doing is a family to-go meal,” Christine Santiago said. “It feeds a family of five and you get a half tray of chicken Parm or chicken broccoli alfredo, then a Caesar salad or a garden salad, garlic bread and five sodas, all for $50. We sell a lot of those.”
For dessert Angel Santiago makes cannolis and a tiramisu from scratch. A few other locally sourced treats, like a death by chocolate cake, are also available.

The Chef
Where: 737 River Road, New Boston
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, until 8 p.m.
More info: Visit thechef603.com, find them on Facebook @thechefofnewboston or call 384-2574

Featured photo: Haddock puttanesca. Courtesy photo.

Tastes of Thailand

Thai Food Connection opens in Manchester

Chicken krapow. Courtesy photo.

Not long after Republic Cafe moved all its operations down the street into its sister restaurant Campo Enoteca in August, Thailand native Annie Nault was walking down Elm Street in Manchester and saw a “for rent” sign in the window. She had worked in several Thai restaurants in southern New Hampshire and had been searching for a space that could be her own.

Khao soi. Courtesy photo.

“I knew it was a great opportunity, because I walk around here often and it’s always busy,” said Nault, who comes from Phetchabun, Thailand, and whose mother worked as a high school culinary instructor. “I’ve wanted to open a restaurant my whole life.”
Thai Food Connection, which opened Dec. 1, features a menu of authentic Thai dishes like soups, curries, appetizers, entrees and street foods — all of which showcase the diversity of flavors and options available from within the country, Nault said.

“I knew it was a great opportunity, because I walk around here often and it’s always busy.”

Annie Nault


“In Thailand, when you go to any one place, they don’t have a variety [of options],” she said. “If you want chicken and rice, you have to go to this place, or if you want khao soi [curry with egg noodles], you have to go to another place, and they don’t sell anything else.”
Nault purchased a three-station wok for the restaurant and, during the months of renovation leading up to her opening, added all new furniture, curtains and kitchen equipment. A Thai mural and photos of her homeland taken by her friends adorn the walls, while an open kitchen is featured near the back of the restaurant.
Due to its location downtown, Nault said she expects Thai Food Connection to be a popular spot for takeout during the lunch hour. A full page of the menu is dedicated to lunch specials, like chicken, beef or tofu and vegetable noodle soup; pad Thai with chicken, tofu or shrimp; rice dishes, like stir-fried steamed jasmine rice with a hot basil sauce; and curries, like a mild coconut massaman curry and a coconut green curry with sliced chicken and roasted eggplant.
Other items include street foods like krapow, or stir-fried ground chicken with garlic, fresh chili, onion, pepper and basil; and various house specialties, like roasted duck curry, casseroled shrimp or lemongrass chicken with coconut milk, turmeric and Thai spices.
A chili pepper-shaped icon on the menu indicates that dish’s normal level of spice, but you can request anything to be as mild or as spicy as you want, Nault said.
“When you combine everything and all the ingredients with the chili, it reduces the kick of the spice,” she said, “so it’s not burning your mouth.”
There is also a small selection of desserts, like deep-fried breaded ice cream, a deep-fried banana roll topped with honey, and roti, or fried pan bread, with caramel sauce and chocolate syrup.
Online ordering and deliveries within a five-mile radius of the restaurant are also available, and Thai Food Connection is currently in the process of acquiring a liquor license, Nault said.

Thai Food Connection
Where: 1069 Elm St., Manchester
Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, until 10 p.m.
More info: Visit thaifoodconnection.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram or call 935-7257

Featured photo: Chicken satay. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 20/12/10

News from the local food scene

• LaBelle Winery expanding to Derry: LaBelle Winery will be expanding its business into Derry next year, according to a press release. Owners Amy LaBelle and her husband, Cesar Arboleda, recently announced the purchase of Brookstone Events & Golf on Route 111. The property, according to the release, will undergo significant renovations beginning this month, with the intention of creating a Champagne house, a restaurant and a wedding and event center. Plans also include an “artisan village” with several outdoor and indoor gathering areas, including a nine-hole par-3 golf course and a miniature golf course. The Champagne house will include a tasting room and a space where a new line of sparkling wines will be produced, while the restaurant will feature farm-to-table American cuisine and wood-fired pizzas served in an upscale casual environment. The golf courses and event center are scheduled to reopen in April 2021, with the restaurant and retail marketplace opening in June, followed by the winery tasting room in July. Visit labellewinerynh.com.

• Farm-fresh feasts: The Farmer’s Dinner, a New Hampshire-based farm-to-table dinner series, recently announced the schedule for its ninth season in 2021, according to a press release, and it will start with a dinner at Live Bee or Die Farm in New Boston on May 23. The series will continue with dinners at Dunk’s Mushrooms in Brentwood on June 12, a colonial dinner on July 18 in Derry, a dinner at Kimball Fruit Farm in Pepperell, Mass., on Aug. 14, and a dinner at Vernon Family Farm in Newfields on Aug. 29. Since 2012, The Farmer’s Dinner has hosted nearly 90 farm-to-table events across New England, feeding more than 17,000 people and raising more than $125,000 for local farms. Tickets are available now at thefarmersdinner.com.

• Blueberry farm retires: Durocher Farm in Litchfield, known as a destination for its early and late season varieties of pick-your-own blueberries for more than four decades, will not be returning in 2021. “The Durocher family has decided that the time is right to retire,” read a recent post from the farm’s Facebook page from Bob Marr, who has leased and operated the blueberry farm with his wife, Jennifer, for the past three years. “Both Jen and I have done our best to keep the farm open to the public but as in life, all good things must come to an end.” The farm, which was established in 1943 by the Durochers, according to its website, featured more than 2,500 blueberry bushes for picking that were originally planted in 1975.

• NHLC launches new website: The New Hampshire Liquor Commission has unveiled a new e-commerce website for its products, according to a press release. Online ordering with 90-minute same-day in-store pickup is now available at 10 Liquor & Wine Outlet stores across the state, including both stores on Interstate 93 in Hooksett and on Interstate 95 in Hampton, as well as the stores in Manchester, Londonderry, Salem, Pembroke, Rochester and West Lebanon. The new site also now has an educational platform with access to virtual and in-person experiences with celebrities, winemakers and master distillers. Users can create personal profiles on the site to search for and save their favorite brands. According to the release, the Commission recently surpassed $1 million in sales from its curbside delivery and in-store pickup program, launched earlier this year. Visit liquorandwineoutlets.com.

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