Category: Food

The Weekly Dish 24/01/11

News from the local food scene

• Cookie decorating: Decorate winter-themed cookies at Station 101 (193 Union Square, Milford) on Tuesday, Jan. 23, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with Kate Saleau from Posy Cottage Cookies. For additional charge, Station 101 offers beer, beverages and snacks, and all necessary supplies will be provided for you to take home a box of six to seven cookies. Tickets are $70 and can be purchased on eventbrite.com.

• Willy Wonka wine dinner: Enjoy a four-course Willy Wonka-inspired dinner and wine pairing at LaBelle Winery’s (14 Route 111, Derry) Vineyard Ballroom on Saturday, Jan. 27, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tomato, basil and smoked Gouda bisque will be paired with a fizzy lifting drink for the first course, followed by baby green beans, shaved Brussels sprouts, roasted squash, cranberries, farro, herbs and honey rosemary balsamic for the second course with LaBelle Rose. The entree will include LaBelle Red Wine braised short ribs with whipped potato, roasted herbed carrots and demi glace paired with LaBelle Malbec, and blueberry crumble cheesecake with red wine blueberry jam and streusel crumble paired with blueberry pie martini for dessert. Tickets are $85 and can be purchased at labellewinery.com.

• 17th annual Chocolate Madness Wine Pairing Dinner: Zorvino Vineyards (226 Main St., Sandown) hosts its 17th annual Chocolate Madness Wine Pairing Dinner on Thursday, Feb. 1, starting at 6:30 p.m. with a cocktail hour and dinner at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $85 and can be purchased via eventbrite.

• Wines of Italy: From the Vine to Wine hosts The Wonderful Wines of Italy at Stroll Café & Wine Bar in Portsmouth (15 Portwalk Place) on Thursday, Feb. 1, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. led by wine expert Anne Arnold. Tickets range from $50 to $65 on eventbrite.

• Farm to table tasting: Enjoy a farm-to-table tasting hosted by Restoration Acres Farm at Black Swan Inn (354 W. Main St., Tilton) on Saturday, Feb. 3, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. featuring food from local farmers and artisans, wine and mead sampling from Hermit woods winery and live music by Audrey Drake. Tickets are $85 and can be purchased via eventbrite.

Saved by a salad

I have to admit there have been a lot of cookies over the past month or so.

And cake and homemade ice cream as well.

And, of course, beer and wine and cocktails.

And, now that I look back on it, a truly injudicious amount of melted cheese.

In fact, for the past week or so there has been a herd of angry wildebeests rampaging through my digestive tract. If I don’t eat something green soon, I’m not entirely sure I can control them. I’m long overdue for a salad.

Looking for an authoritative expert on salads, I consulted a tragically overlooked seminal treatise on the subject, Thomas J. Murrey’s 1885 classic, 50 Salads (By the author of 50 Soups). Mr. Murrey clearly took his salads seriously.

“Of the many varieties of food daily consumed,” he writes, “none are more important than a salad, rightly compounded. And there is nothing more exasperating than an inferior one. The salad is the Prince of the Menu, and although a dinner be perfect in every other detail except the salad, the affair will be voted a failure if that be poor.”

He continues, “It is therefore necessary for those contemplating dinner-giving, to personally overlook the preparation of the salad if they wish favorable criticism.”

The Prince of the Menu, indeed. At this point I’m with him on Team Salad, although I have to imagine his cook or his wife was not impressed with his personally overlooking their salad-making to make sure there were no salad shenanigans going on.

His actual recipes, however, seem to be of extremely variable quality. There is a Cherry Salad, for instance, which sounds delicious — fresh cherries marinated in three types of alcohol. But others, like Pigeon Salad and Frog Salad, are clearly of a particular moment in history. And yet others really seem to have been phoned in. Eels Mayonnaise calls for two ingredients, eels and mayonnaise. His Mint Salad calls for adding fresh mint to a salad.

I seem to be on my own here. What I want is a proper tossed salad — not a macaroni salad, or a Jell-O salad, or a lobster salad — a simple tossed, green salad.

At the risk of sounding Murreyesque, I also have some strong feelings about salad:

(1) A tossed salad shouldn’t have more than six ingredients, including the dressing. Any more than that, it gets too busy and the flavors get in each other’s way.

(2) A good tossed salad should be exactly that: tossed. Individual bowls of lettuce with dressing poured over the top are clumsy at best, and at worst depressing and a sign of poor moral character. The salad should be made in a large bowl, dressed, then thoroughly tossed with a set of tongs.

(3) Lettuce: There are two tribes in Lettuce Nation: crisp lettuce and tender lettuce. I fall strongly on the side of tender lettuce, but if you are a Romaine enthusiast, could I ask that you chop it reasonably well, so your guests aren’t left gnawing on Romaine stems?

Here is the salad I made tonight:

My six ingredients are Bibb lettuce; canned diced tomatoes (obviously, fresh tomatoes would be better, but there won’t be any good ones for another eight months); a diced avocado; shredded, mixed Italian cheese; sesame sticks, and a maple Dijon vinaigrette.

Maple Dijon Vinaigrette

  • ¼ cup (80 grams) maple syrup
  • 3 Tablespoons (32 grams) finely minced shallot
  • 2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
  • 1 Tablespoon Canola oil
  • 1 Tablespoon whole-grain Dijon mustard
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1 garlic clove, finely minced

Put all ingredients in a bowl and whisk vigorously. If you have a miniature blender — a Magic Bullet, or something similar — that will work even better.

In addition to flavor, the mustard brings lecithin, an emulsifier that ties everything together. The maple syrup brings sweetness, and the vinegar brings acid, but the star of this dressing is the shallot. This is worth making once a week.

Featured photo: West 75th. Photo by John Fladd.

In the kitchen with Chelsea Annett

A self-taught baker and a caretaker by nature, Chelsea Annett has a love for baking and cooking that sprouted when she was a young adult conversing with farmers and learning how to use seasonal ingredients. She was a special education teacher for 14 years before establishing Table, through which she provides baked goods and locally sourced, seasonally inspired food at farmers markets and now at her new location in Concord (55 N. Main St., Suite B), open Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

My must-have kitchen item is a bench scraper. It has so many functions: cutting butter into dough, slicing and lifting dough and scraping the counter to clean up.

What would you have for your last meal?

I have way too many favorites to choose a last meal but probably freshly picked strawberries that are still warm from the sun or a perfectly ripened tomato. I feel like you can actually taste the sunshine.

What is your favorite local eatery?

My favorite local eatery right now is probably Sour Joe’s pizza. Greg, the owner, is another person with a passion working so hard to pursue his dream. And I love that he uses a sourdough crust. It’s unlike any other pizza around here.

Name a celebrity you would like to see eating in your restaurant?

I would love to see Erin French from The Lost Kitchen enjoying something I made. She has exquisite taste and is involved in her community of food growers and makers.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

I always get asked [about] my favorite thing that I make. Right now I offer a galette on Saturdays that is pretty outstanding. It’s flaky dough that is folded around cheddar cheese and thinly sliced sweet potato and then we crack an egg over the top and bake it until it’s just set and top with a sprinkle of sea salt. The original favorite which is still at the top of the list is the brown butter chocolate chip cookie that is made with sourdough. It’s incredible.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?

I don’t really know what the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now is. I tend to steer away from trends. I am interested in food that comes from someone’s heart and is their passion. That’s the best food. Not trying to be anything else.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

My favorite thing to cook at home is sourdough bread. I love all the components of it and I’m fascinated by the process.

Rosemary Shortbread
From the kitchen of Chelsea Annett

2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold butter
Maldon sea salt

Heat oven to 325°F. Pulse the sugar, salt and rosemary in the food processor. Add flour and pulse several times. Cut butter into small pieces and add to the flour mix. Pulse until the mixture looks like sand. Press dough into an 8” parchment-lined pan. Prick dough with a fork and sprinkle with Maldon salt. Bake until golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.

Featured photo: Katie Pope of Confections by Kate. Courtesy photo.

Live free and dine

Gourmet takeout market and culinary school opens in Nashua

On Wednesday, Dec. 20, Hollis resident Karen Calabro opened the doors to Live Free and Dine, a gourmet takeout market in Nashua offering meals made with locally sourced ingredients and cooking classes for all ages.

Calabro knows first-hand how transformative healthy eating can be, having started her own journey to a healthier lifestyle 15 years ago by making healthier food choices and creating meals from scratch, resulting in a 152-pound weight loss. As a professional chef, she aims to bring healthy options to those in her community.

“During Covid I was watching how restaurant after restaurant was going under, how quality was going down … [due to] the product shortages and the fact that there’s less and less variety now to some extent ….’’ she said. “I make things from scratch and I live very close to the earth and I wanted to make [that] kind of food for other people as well. … I just felt like somebody who has a background in culinary as long as me who has so many friends who are just fabulous, fabulous chefs and all these really great farms around me, I thought, ‘Gosh, this is really a no-brainer for me.”

Working with local farms and stores, Calabro offers ever-changing seasonal breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert menus with vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free options that can be ordered a la carte in store or online for pickup. Items include Italian sausage, Korean candy pork belly, blueberry poppyseed pancakes, valhalla rose turkey, ginger molasses cookies, tiramisu, fruits of the forest pie and more.

Calabro’s professional journey in the food industry started when she was 13 years old, but her cooking experience dates back before that when she would help her mother cook in the kitchen for parties she would host.

“I [remember] as a child being the one in the kitchen doing the food and production with her by her side. … We would host parties for upward of 80 to 100 people. This was just the two of us and this is as a young child I learned knife skills.”

Knife skills are among the things Calabro will teach in her classes, beginning with rudimentary skills and tricks of the trade.

“I almost feel like people want to learn to cook a different dish and meal and everything, and that sounds romantic, but really it would be better for you to learn basic skills and [for me to show] you how to do those things and then [you can take] those skills back to the kitchen ,” she said. “It’s a professional culinary education, and you’re going to be working in a commercial kitchen that has commercial equipment.”

With safety in mind, classes for young children won’t have them working with anything hot or sharp, but will instead teach them how to measure, mix and combine ingredients while introducing them to the idea of making their own food.

With decades of experience, even working her way up to sous chef at the Torrey Pines Sheraton Grand in San Diego, Calabro says the creating Live Free and Dine has been a learning curve.

“The problem has been nobody has ever done this before, so we’re kind of trying to figure out how we can service people in the best way we can and what kind of food we can produce,” she said.

Live Free and Dine
Where: 650 Amherst St., Suite 6, Nashua
Hours: Wednesday through Friday, noon to 7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Weekly Dish 24/01/04

News from the local food scene

• Paint night at Spyglass Brewing: Paint a 16×20-inch canvas while enjoying a free drink included in the ticket price with All Ways Art at Spyglass Brewing (36 Innovative Way, Nashua) on Thursday, Jan. 11, at 6 p.m. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased at allwaysart.com.

• Winemaker’s dinner: Enjoy a winemaker’s dinner on Friday, Jan. 19, at 6:30 p.m. at Zorvino Vineyards (226 Main St., Sandown). A seasonal charcuterie and artisanal bread display with Vintner’s Select Semillon and Z Labs Chocolate Tangerine wine will be served at the welcome reception. The first course will be roasted winter squash grilled leek and Gruyere savory bread pudding with Zorvino Vineyards Gewurztraminer, followed by fig and pomegranate glazed “kurobuta” pork with Zorvino Vineyards Estate Grown Marquette for the entree. Dessert will be chocolate ganache and caramelized banana tart with Z Labs s’mores. Tickets are $85 and are available at eventbrite.com.

• Cookie decorating: Kate Soleau from Posy Cottage Cookies will be at Station 101 (193 Union Square, Milford) on Tuesday, Jan. 23, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. for a winter-themed cookie decorating class. All necessary supplies will be provided for you to take home a box of six or seven cookies. Station 101 also offers beer, beverages and snacks for additional charge. Tickets are $70 and can be purchased via eventbrite.

• Willy Wonka wine dinner: LaBelle Winery’s (14 Route 111, Derry) Vineyard Ballroom will be decorated with Willy Wonka-themed decor for their four-course Willy Wonka wine pairing dinner on Saturday, Jan. 27, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The first course will be tomato, basil and smoked Gouda bisque paired with a fizzy lifting drink. For the second course, baby green beans, shaved Brussels sprouts, roasted squash, cranberries, farro, herbs and honey rosemary balsamic will be served with LaBelle Rose. The entree will include LaBelle Red Wine braised short ribs with whipped potato, roasted herbed carrots and demi glace, paired with LaBelle Malbec. Dessert will be blueberry crumble cheesecake with red wine blueberry and streusel crumble paired with blueberry pie martini. Tickets are $85 and can be purchased at labellewinery.com.

West 75th

New Year’s Eve is supposed to be a romantic holiday. In my experience, it’s a little over-hyped. The best New Year’s Eve I ever had was when I was 8 years old. I was being babysat by an older cousin. At midnight we went outside and honked the horn of my uncle’s car, then went back inside and ate buttered noodles.

I might be jaded about New Year’s, because I’ve never been invited to a swanky party.

Be that as it may, when it comes to romance, nothing holds a candle to NASA.

The Mars rover Opportunity was launched in June 1993 and landed on the surface of Mars seven months later. It was one of a pair of rovers sent on that mission; its twin, Spirit, was sent to the opposite side of the planet. The two rovers took geological samples and surveys, made measurements and took photographs.

The mission was supposed to last 90 days, but through a combination of superb engineering and mind-bogglingly good luck the two probes kept working long past the point anyone had dreamed they could. After five years Spirit got mired in dust and couldn’t move anymore, but Opportunity kept going month after month, for a staggering 14 years.

Eventually, after operating for 57 times its designed lifespan, Opportunity wound down. Before the ground team at NASA ended its mission in 2018, they broadcast one final message to Opportunity.

They played Billie Holiday’s 1944 recording of “I’ll Be Seeing You”.

It’s the most romantic damn thing I’ve ever heard of. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Does this have anything to do with New Year’s Eve?

Not particularly, except that much like Opportunity, most of us have lasted much longer than we’ve had any right to expect. And as we look back over the past year and wonder if we’ve accomplished anything or not, the mere fact that we are still here is a little miracle, and if we’re very lucky, some of us have someone to play Billie Holiday for us.

And whether we’re at a swanky party or eating buttered noodles, it’s a good occasion for a fancy New Year’s cocktail.

West 75th Cocktail

  • 1 ounce apple brandy – I like Laird’s Applejack
  • ½ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • ½ ounce Chambord raspberry liqueur
  • 2 dashes orange bitters
  • 3 ounces Lambrusco, chilled – Lambrusco is a sparkling Italian red or blush wine. It’s a little sweet, so many wine enthusiasts can be a bit sniffy about it, but I like it, and it was made for this cocktail

Combine the brandy, Chambord, lemon juice and bitters with ice in a cocktail shaker. Swirl and shake to chill.

Strain into a Champagne flute.

Top with Lambrusco.

If you are alone, sip, while listening to “I’ll Be Seeing You.” It’s OK to cry. If you are at a party, sip, while playing “Tiny Bubbles” by Don Ho. The other guests will be confused but incredibly impressed when you sing the chorus in Hawaiian.

Lambrusco leans toward the fruity side of sparkling wine, which pairs well with the apple brandy. The apple brandy might make this drink a little too boozy-tasting, but the Chambord pulls it back to berry notes. That might make it a tiny bit too sweet, but the lemon juice and bitters pull everything back into line. This cocktail is a balancing act that succeeds like a pretty girl on a tightrope juggling knives.\

It’s a very small miracle, like Billie Holiday, buttered noodles, or a happy, sleeping space robot.

Featured photo: West 75th. Photo by John Fladd.

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