Category: Food

Let’s do a deep dive to the back of your kitchen cabinets.

Behind five or six half-full boxes of pasta, three different brands of canned diced tomatoes, and that bottle of Champagne vinegar you’ve always meant to use but never have, you will find a couple of truly surprising items that you have hazy memories at best of ever buying:

Three packets of fried chicken-flavored ramen noodles

A tin of smoked oysters

A vintage (but still unopened) jar of grapefruit marmalade

Some of us have a similar situation going with our liquor cabinets. A quick look will show pretty much exactly what we expect to see — a couple bottles of whiskey, maybe some tequila, and in my case about a dozen bottles of rum, because where there’s rum there’s citrus juice, and you have enough problems in your life without risking scurvy.

But in the back, behind the mainstream bottles of expected and respectable spirits, there is at least one bottle — and let’s face it, probably more — of some sort of purple-ish, fruit-flavored alcohol. It might be sloe gin. It might be plum brandy. There is almost certainly a bottle of blackberry brandy you have no memory of buying, using, drinking or even seeing before. It’s like the cocktail elves have paid a visit.

Let’s use a little of that blackberry brandy:

• ½ ounce blackberry brandy
• ½ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ½ ounce half and half
• 1½ ounces botanical gin – I very much like Hendrick’s Oasium
• ¼ ounce simple syrup

Chill a coupe glass with several ice cubes. Set it aside, telling it, “Go think about what you’ve done.” In point of fact, this more or less innocent piece of glassware hasn’t actually done anything, but it’s good to keep it on its toes.

In a cocktail shaker, add ice, the blackberry brandy, lemon juice, half and half, gin, and simple syrup. Shake enthusiastically for 30 seconds or so, until you hear the ice start to break up. Ideally, you’re going to want a few tiny ice chips floating on the surface of your cocktail, so shake until you hear them make an appearance.

Retrieve your coupe glass and discard the ice. Strain the cocktail into the glass. Because it has a stem, this glass will keep your drink colder for longer.

Ask your digital assistant to play a classic banger of a rock song from your youth. I recommend “Hold the Line” by Toto.

Sip your cocktail, and play a little game with yourself. Try to get an overall impression of the flavor. What does it taste like in the aggregate? Pretty good, right?

Now, try to identify each ingredient. Look for the flavor of blackberries. You’ll find it. Ditto with the lemon juice. And the creaminess of the half and half.

There are some cocktails I like to think of as an ensemble cast — together, they create something greater than the sum of their parts. I think of the Blackberry Holstein as a top-notch variety show. Each performer gets a solo.

Featured photo: Frozen Peanut Butter Salad. Photo by John Fladd.

• Permanent pizza: On April 2 popular mobile pizza oven DeadProof Pizza (deadproofpizza.com) announced on social media that it has found a permanent brick-and-mortar location at 94 Rockingham Road in Derry, the former location of Clam Haven. Details will be forthcoming.

• Bad Brgr in Rochester: A new location for smash-burger chain Bad Brgr will open in Rochester on Saturday, April 18, at 100 Wakefield St. The opening was originally scheduled for April 11 but was pushed back one week. The Bad Brgr team has announced that on Saturday they will hide $1,000 somewhere in Rochester and have a scavenger hunt. The new Bad Brgr location will have live bands and prizes, and the restaurant will donate an additional $1,000 to the local school district to help pay for student lunches. Visit badbrgr.com.

• Cookies and wine: There will be a spring cookie decorating class Saturday, April 18, from 10 a.m. to noon at LaBelle Winery Derry (14 Route 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com/labelle-winery-derry). Cookie guru Kelli Wright will guide participants through the process of creating spring-themed cookie designs. You may choose to add on a glass of LaBelle wine and a cheese plate to help with the creative process. After class you’ll leave with a set of four decorated cookies and the knowledge to re-create your designs at home. Tickets start at $59 through the LaBelle website.

• Science fiction, dinner and MURDER: There will be an immersive sci-fi themed murder mystery dinner party on April 18 at LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Step into an evening full of suspense, secrets and unexpected twists as the mystery unfolds around you performed by professional actors. During the event you’ll enjoy a three-course dinner. Tickets are $84 through the LaBelle website.

• “Nothing Gold Can Stay”: There will be a special chef’s dinner presented by The Sleazy Vegan Cafe (205 N. State St., Concord, 877-328-7838, thesleazyvegan.com/concord) Saturday, April 18, at 6 p.m. This dinner will be prepared to reflect local springtime ingredients, as well as the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost. There will be non-alcoholic beverages available; you may bring your own wine or beer to enjoy responsibly during the meal. Tickets are $100 at the-sleazy-vegan.square.site.

• Gourmet festival: The 38th Annual Gourmet Festival and Auction will be held Sunday, April 19, beginning at 4:15 p.m. at the Event Center at Courtyard Nashua (2200 Southwood Drive, Nashua, 952-4536, eventcenternashua.com). Enjoy a sampling of delicious food prepared by 20 local chefs, wine and spirits tastings, Gourmet’s infamous “Golden Brick” raffle, and a live and silent auction featuring more than 100 items to bid on. All proceeds benefit local families at risk of homelessness. Visit frontdooragency.org/events/gourmet-festival-and-auction.

• Drumshanbo dinner: Local Street Eats (112 W. Pearl St., Nashua, 402-4435, local-streeteats.com) will host “A Curious Night in Drumshanbo” Monday, April 20, from 6 to 9 p.m. This will be a four-course dinner inspired by Drumshanbo’s award-winning gins transformed into thoughtfully crafted cocktails paired with chef-curated dishes. Tickets are $103.22 through the Local Street Eats website.

From the 1933 recipe booklet Cooking with Cold by the Kelvinator Refrigerator Co.:

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• 1/3 cup (90 g) peanut butter — I’m not sure what the peanut butter was like in the 1930s, but I used a mainstream, brand-name, lots-of-sugar-salt-and-stabilizers peanut butter. The kind your kids like.
• 2 medium-sized jalapeño peppers — the original recipe calls for half a cup of diced green pepper, but this gives it a bit of flavor. Check out the heat level before you use them, but given how mild the jalapeños in New Hampshire supermarkets are you are unlikely to do yourself an injury.
• ½ cup chopped pimento — this isn’t something you run across every day. I roasted and chopped a red bell pepper instead (see below).
• ½ cup (about 40 g) chopped celery
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• ¼ cup whipping cream

Roast a red bell pepper.

Place a bell pepper — it can be any color, but red is the most dramatic — on a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper or a silicone mat. (The pepper will release some liquid as it roasts, and this will help prevent a mess in the stove.)

Move one of the racks in your oven to its highest position and set the oven to a low broil. Leave the pepper to completely char, then turn it with a pair of tongs to char the other side. When the entire surface of the pepper has burned to a papery consistency, take it out of the oven and place it in a sealed container — a bowl with a fitted lid will work well for this, or even a regular bowl, with a plate on top.

Now walk away. Leave the pepper to steam for 20 minutes or so. The hot pepper juices — some of which have leaked out onto the baking sheet you were prepared enough to lay down — will loosen up that papery, charred skin. Now you can wipe it away from the body of the pepper with your fingers — which will get sticky and gross. And the actual pepper will fall apart in your hand. You will have to wipe the seeds away, and flick them into the sink — also a little gross. (This is why TV chefs don’t do this on camera.) But you will be left with a beautiful, perfectly roasted pepper that you can chop up for this recipe.

Putting together the rest of this “salad”:

Cream the cream cheese and peanut butter together until they are light and fluffy, then mix in the peppers, celery, seasonings, and lemon juice. Set aside briefly.

Whip the heavy cream and mayo together until fluffy, then fold it into the rest of the mixture. Spoon it into a lidded container, and freeze for several hours, then cut it into cubes and serve it to a confused but impressed dinner date.

Looking at the list of ingredients, at this point, you are probably saying to yourself, “There’s no way.” This seems like a very odd dish. And I have to confess that I have no idea how or why anyone came up with it, but it is — hold on to your hat — very tasty. It’s just very unexpected. If you find that you’ve become jaded and your palate has become numb to caviar, truffles and wagyu beef tartare, this might be a dish that jolts you back to your senses and braces you to soldier on for another day.

Which is not to say that this wouldn’t go super-well with a glass of Champagne.

Featured photo: Frozen Peanut Butter Salad. Photo by John Fladd.

Daiquiri contest continues for a third year

One of Manchester’s most recent traditions is built on a foundation of rum and lime juice. The Third Annual Manchester Daiq-Off, a daiquiri-making competition hosted by 815 Cocktails & Provisions, will pit some of Manchester’s best bartenders against each other to make the best, fastest and most original daiquiris this Sunday, April 12.

“This is a competition to make one of the most simple classic cocktails,” said Sarah Maillet, co-owner of 815, “which is the daiquiri. So you’ve got lime, simple syrup and rum.” Because it is such a simple cocktail, it is a good indicator of a bartender’s skill, she said. There’s nowhere to hide.

“This competition is [between] local bartenders who come together and it’s based on speed, accuracy and taste,” Maillet said. “The first round is about making the fastest, cleanest daiquiri possible. And then from there the competition narrows until the finalists, the last two, face off head to head. But as much as this is about our industry, the public is obviously welcome. It encourages the public to participate because It’s really cool to see a showcase of talent like this. It reminds people that the bar and restaurant industry is at its best when it’s a little bit competitive, maybe chaotic at times, but a whole lot of fun.”

The Daiq-Off is a bit of a metaphor for that industry, Maillet said, observing that there has been a change in attitude among the area’s bars and restaurants over the past few years.

“When my business partner Ryan and I opened 815 11 years ago, we didn’t get much of a welcome,” she said. The things that we heard were like, ‘I’ll give them a year.’ Over the past few years though, you’ve seen more of a banded community coming together.” An increasing number of bars have embraced craft cocktails, she said, and the owners and bartenders of most of them have known each other for years. “So it’s just like the camaraderie was instilled in friends already before it was implemented into the [bar] community, and I feel like it’s just had a ripple effect through the greater Manchester community over the years.” Perhaps symbolic of that spirit, restaurateur Nick Carnes from Shopper’s Pub and Eatery will be the announcer and emcee of this year’s Daiq-Off.

The competition will consist of three rounds, Maillet said.

“The first two rounds are all about speed, accuracy and taste. And then the wild card at the end, where [the competitors] have the ability to bring an ingredient, like a simple syrup or some sort of thing, to add in to the wild cards at the last round. They have a little bit more time, but the judging is based more on the creativity side of daiquiris.” Last year’s overall winner was Marissa Chick, at the time the bar manager of the Birch on Elm, with a bubble-gum daiquiri that included a handcrafted tincture that took more than a week to prepare.

Maillet said there will be 15 competitors this year, all but one of whom are Manchester bartenders.

“We will have one home bartender who came the first year,” she said. “So in my opinion, he’s grandfathered in. So he’s coming back this year. He wasn’t here last year. I’m pretty excited about that. Then as far as the breakdown goes, we didn’t limit the number of bartenders per establishment this year. We want this to be a snapshot of the industry itself. So for the places with several entrants, they’re going to go head against each other. For example, there will be four bartenders from the [Wild] Rover. They’ll all go head-to-head with each other, and then one Rover bartender will move on into the rest of the competition.”

The Third Annual Daiq-Off
When: Sunday, April 12, from 3 to 7 p.m.
Where: 815 Cocktails & Provisions, 815 Elm St., Manchester, 782-8086, 815nh.com
Spectators and competitors are encouraged to dress in festive tropical attire. Tickets are $28.52 through eventbrite.com.

Featured photo: A classic daiquiri by Joshua Silva, a bartender from 815 Cocktails and Provisions, who will compete in Saturday’s Daiq-Off.