Category: Food

In the kitchen with Maggie Prittie

Maggie Prittie calls herself a chocolate sommelier; “sommelier” in French translates to steward. She teaches people how to taste, pair and source fine single-origin chocolates, and teaches them the history, art, science and culture of chocolate. She has created, produced and customized chocolates for pastry chefs throughout southwest Florida. She has led more than 350 local wine and chocolate pairings. She has made chocolates for the directors of the Louvre Museum, the Salvador Dali Museum, the Ringling Museum, Sting, and Yo-Yo Ma, and on the set of a Food Network series. She studied under renowned chocolatiers Ewald Notter and Anil Rohira. She is a member of the FCIA (Fine Chocolate Industry of America). Originally from New Hampshire, she recently moved back to the state to share her knowledge as an educator, sales representative, and recipe developer with World Wide Chocolate in Brentwood.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

Aside from the normal appliances, a convection/toaster oven, wooden and rubber spatulas and parchment paper.

What is your favorite local eatery?

Totally depends on my mood. Never fast food!

What celebrity would you like to see eating your food, and why?

Giada De Laurentiis. She is genuine and not pompous.

What is your favorite thing to make?

I love challenging myself with developing new recipes all the time, like Pistachio Spaetzle or developing a good espresso chocolate chip cookie recipe.

What is the biggest food trend in chocolate right now?

The biggest trend presently is just acquiring cocoa. The prices are skyrocketing and will keep rising. Single origin, farmer awareness, craft chocolate seems to be on the radar and hopefully will be more trendy.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Grilled domestic lamb with pistachio spaetzle. For dessert, Ritz Carlton chocolate cake with chocolate panna cotta frosting and a drizzle of bourbon caramel sauce.

Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies
From the kitchen of Maggie Prittie

Wet ingredients
1 cup browned unsalted butter
½ cup dark brown sugar (firmly packed)
¼ cup light brown sugar (firmly packed)
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons vanilla paste (Prova)
2 room-temperature eggs
2 Tablespoons Prova Arabica Colombian Coffee Extract

Dry ingredients
2½ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cornstarch (adding cornstarch helps to make chewy cookies)

Chocolate chips
2½ cups Domori 75% Venezuela Wafer
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine them.
Brown butter, then let cool to room temperature (I let it cool in the bowl of the KitchenAid mixer).
Using the whipping utensil of the mixer, whip butter until soft, almost fluffy.
Slowly add all wet ingredients, adding separately, add eggs one at a time. Whip until well-mixed and almost fluffy.
Slowly add dry mixed ingredients into wet ingredients. I add them ¼ cup at a time.
Add chips once all dry is incorporated. Do not overmix.
(Adding the wafers while mixing does break some of them up.)
Bake on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet at 325°F for 10-12 minutes.
Let cool on rack.

Featured Photo: Maggie Prittie. Courtesy photo.

Taste of the Towns

Nashua Center fundraiser with food

Nashua Center will present its 21st Taste of the Towns event at the Sheraton Nashua on Thursday, May 2, at 6 p.m.. Eighteen area restaurants, caterers, brewers and distributors will present food and drink as varied as Thai food, baked goods, Mexican dishes or vodka.

Taste of the Towns is the Nashua Center’s signature fundraising event of the year. Proceeds go to support the Center’s mission to provide high-quality specialized care and support to small children and young adults with developmental difficulties in the greater Nashua area.

“Everyone involved in the event is very proud,” said Nashua Center’s Director of Development, Maryanne Gordineer. “We’re so proud of the vendors who come back year after year, and for them this is a way of connecting with the community and giving back.”

Gordineer described the event as a way for like-minded people to network with each other and chat in a relaxed, celebratory atmosphere.

“It’s a memorable experience,” she said. “It’s just fun!” Gordineer said there are usually more than 300 guests who attend the event and circulate around, socializing and tasting samples from the participating vendors: “I like to think of it as dinner by the bite.”

In addition to its role as a fundraiser, Taste of the Towns is a way to bring attention to the Nashua Center and the work it does for the Nashua community. Established in 1973, the organization helps people build fulfilling lives as part of the community. In the case of very young children, this can take the form of early intervention services to help families identify developmental challenges and give them support. For young adults with special needs, it might be helping them experience post-secondary education, whether it’s attending classes, getting vocational training, or just experiencing an aspect of college life like using a school’s gym facilities or cafeteria. The Center helps provide adult day services or residential services for other clients.

“It’s all about inclusivity,” Gordineer said. “We facilitate independence and community participation.”

Tickets for Taste of the Towns cost $75. They usually sell out quickly, Gordineer said.

For Gardineer, who started with the Nashua Center shortly before last year’s event, it was an introduction to New England foods. “I’d never had a lobster roll before!” she said, adding that it was a revelation.

Taste of the Towns
When: Thursday, May 2, at 6 p.m.
Where: Sheraton Nashua, 11 Tara Boulevard, Nashua
Tickets: $75 at nashuacenter.org
Participating vendors:
Bellavance Beverage Co.
Bistro 603
Friendly Toast
From the Barrel Brewing Co.
Graceful Baking
Imported Grape
K’Sone’s Thai Dining & Lounge
Liquid Therapy
Live Free Distillery
The Peddler’s Daughter
Prestige Beverage Group
Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse
Smokehaus Barbecue
Tara House Grill
Thon Khao
Tito’s Handmade Vodka
You You Japanese Bistro
Woodman’s Artisan Bakery

Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.

How do you blend spices?

Derry company shakes up flavor combos

The name of the Sal Terrae Spice Company came from owner Meredith Touma’s daughter, who was studying Latin at the time.

“It means ‘Salt of the Earth,’” Touma said. “To be the salt of the earth means to be excellent; to try your hardest, but not to be perfect.”

Derry-based Sal Terrae (salterraespiceco.com, 548-1490) specializes in producing spice blends made from ingredients sourced from around the world. As an example, za’atar, a traditional Middle Eastern mixture, has sumac as a core ingredient. Sumac, a deep red, intensely tart spice, is extremely popular in other parts of the world but difficult to find and source here in the United States.

“My husband is Lebanese,” Touma said, “and I send him home several times a year to bring high-quality sumac back with him.”

Touma started her business during the Covid lockdown. She said it was an outgrowth of her personal values. At the time, she was a stay-at-home mother of four and had made a commitment to always serve homemade meals.

“I wanted to teach my children to not be scared of new cultures or flavors,” she said. “During shut-down, [a lot of] people were eager to explore new things while they were stuck at home. Suddenly, there was a market for new flavors for them.”

The spice blends Sal Terrae sells vary from the traditional, like za’atar, to new blends that Touma has developed herself.

“The Beach Blend is the most unusual blend that we make,” she said. The blend, which includes smoked paprika, oregano, ginger and cloves, was developed with seafood in mind.

“It was partly inspired by Old Bay,” she said. “It’s a classic, but it seemed like it was missing something. It needed some smokiness and depth.” The smoked paprika adds a bittersweet quality that complements the savory flavors of fish, like salmon.

“It [Beach Blend] has a little sourness to it,” she said. “That acidic quality helps bring some of the more subtle flavors to the surface. That’s why they always tell you to cook your salmon with slices of lemon on top.”

That sourness plays a background role in some of Sal Terrae’s other spice blends, such as, surprisingly, the Sugar and Spice blend. Because it has a similar color to the “warmer” ingredients, it’s visually appealing and rounds them out. Traditional baking ingredients like ginger and cloves make sense. Three types of cinnamon are exciting to spice nerds and seem like a natural in this kind of blend. The cardamom is a little surprising, but welcome. And then there’s the subtle background sourness from the sumac, which brings the other flavors into sharper focus.

According to Touma, turning the traditional concept of “warm” or “cool” spices on its head provides her a lot of room to introduce her customers to different ways of cooking and new flavor profiles. Indian and Middle Eastern cooking traditionally use mace, cinnamon and cloves in savory dishes, while most American cooks use them in sweet applications. By focusing on what sorts of profiles she wants to create, Touma puts together nontraditional combinations that give her customers new ways to appreciate their favorite foods.

“Even as the owner, I’m still learning something all the time from my own spice blends,” she said. “None of our blends are going to be completely perfect for everyone, but everyone can find one that is perfect for their taste.”

Touma said today’s cooks have resources that allow creativity that past generations couldn’t take advantage of. “They were largely limited to cookbooks or word of mouth,” she said. Today, if someone wants to try a new ingredient or to cook something completely new to them, they can look up options on the internet. This is exactly the role she hopes that Sal Terrae’s spice blends will play — being able to play with food traditions, without being locked into them.

Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 24/04/18

News from the local food scene

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

• Paint and Sip Night: Paint and drink wine in a relaxed, convivial atmosphere. Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, wineonmainnh.com, 897-5828) will host Paint and Sip events with art facilitator Andrea Stetson on Thursday, April 18, and Friday, April 19, at 6 p.m. These events are open to adults 21 and older. Every $50 ticket includes all materials, instruction and wine tasting. Register via Wine on Main’s website.

• Springfest: To Share Brewing Co. (720 Union St., Manchester, tosharebrewing.com, 836-6947) will hold its second annual Springfest celebration Saturday, April 20, from 1 to 9 p.m. The brewery will observe the arrival of spring and the release of its Festbier Spring Lager with bratwursts, sauerkraut and more. There will be stein-holding competitions at 2 and 6 p.m., and live music with Upright Dogs from 5 to 7 p.m.

• Foraging: Learn how to identify select wild edibles — mushrooms, berries, greens or even trees — via a slideshow and in-person samples to see and feel. The Hooksett Library (31 Mount Saint Mary’s Way, Hooksett, discover.hooksettlibrary.org, 485-6092) will host “From Field to Table: Foraging and Identifying Wild Edibles,” a presentation by Emily Makrez, owner of F-Word Farm and educator on all things fermenting, farming and foraging-related, on Wednesday April 24, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, but registration is required via the Library’s website.

A pint of jalapeños

A springtime tradition at Concord Craft Brewing

Dennis Molnar, co-owner of Concord Craft Brewing, says weather plays a bigger role in running a brewery than you might think.

“Most people, unless they’re die-hards, are pulled toward lighter beers,” he said of spring beer drinkers. Which explains the Jalapeño Cream Ale.

Molnar said one of the challenges of making specialty seasonal beers is knowing how much to make, and when to make it.

“We get people getting in touch with us all the time, asking, ‘Why can’t you make the Jalapeño year-round, or why can’t you make that very rich, heavy porter all year round?’ It’s hard to know what the right amount to make is, before people’s tastes change,” he said.

The Jalapeño Cream Ale originally started as a tribute to Cinco de Mayo, Molnar said, but after several years customers started to think of it as a generally springtime beer.

“It’s a Golden Ale,” he said. “It’s on the lighter side, which makes it popular for warmer weather. We use real jalapeños and let it age [with the chiles] for several weeks. There’s a little bit of spice there, but not so much that you can’t finish your dinner or anything.”

Before the Jalapeño this year, there was the maple-season-themed Logger Lager.

“Most years, in the late winter/early spring, we make a bourbon barrel-aged maple brown ale,” Molnar said, “but we had trouble getting barrels this year.” Instead the brewery put out a mazen, a German-style, medium-bodied golden ale with maple syrup. “We liked the name,” he said. “Also, small brewers [like us] make unpasteurized beers. That means that the yeast ferments out the maple sugars, and you’re left with a more subtle maple flavor.”

One of the advantages of running a small brewery is having the freedom to test out new ideas, Molnar said.

“We can make a small batch and see how it works out,” he said. At the moment, he and his team are thinking about something new for the summer, a cherry wheat beer.

“It should be a fun, light, bright-colored beer,” he said. “We’ve finally got a good source for cherry purée.”

During the summer the brewery’s customers drink beers that are lighter in color, texture and percentage of alcohol, but in the fall they start drinking heavier porters and stouts.

“Our Squirrel Fights Nut Brown Ale is really popular,” Molnar said, “and Apple Crisp — like the dessert — Porter is one of our most popular fall beers. We almost always brew a pumpkin beer, too. Some people really like pumpkin beers around that time of year. A lot of them don’t actually like eating pumpkin, but they love seeing it in a glass.”

Right now, the flavor of the moment is jalapeño. Because it has become identified so strongly with springtime, it will be around for the rest of the season.

“We’ll have it in stores until the beginning of June,” Molnar said, “and on tap for a little longer.”

Featured Photo: Photos courtesy of Concord Craft Brewing.

A great French baking contest

This year’s theme is plays and musicals

How much do you know about the French-speaking world other than France or Quebec and could you express that knowledge in a cake?

On May 18, 10 teams of amateur bakers will have an opportunity to do just that at the Franco-American Centre’s Third Annual Fleur Délices, a cake-decorating competition dedicated to spreading knowledge about the Francophone world. Teams will bring everything they need to build elaborately decorated cakes with a French or French-influenced theme.

“This goes hand-in-hand with our mission at the Franco-American Centre,” said Nathalie Hirte, the event’s organizer, “to introduce people to the world outside the France/Quebec box.”

For the event’s first year the Fleur Délices’ theme was French-speaking countries around the world, Hirte said.

“Last year, it was fairy tales; this year our theme is Plays and Musicals of the French-Speaking World,” she said. “What’s happened in the past is the contestants have looked at our suggestion list, then gone and picked something else completely. As long as their cakes meet our criteria, they’re good.”

Fleur Délices — the name, which indicates “delicate and delicious,” is a pun; it sounds like “Fleur de Lis,” the symbol of France — is inspired by The Great British Baking Show, a television baking competition known for its creativity and kindness. Like its inspiration, Fleur Délices will require competitors to make and present cakes, but unlike the television show, there will be no baking on site.

“None of the venues we’ve held the event at have ovens,” Hirte said. Competitors will bake their cakes at home, then bring them to the event along with frosting and any edible elements they need to put their finished cakes together. Teams can have one or two participants. Single-person teams will have an hour to decorate their cakes; pairs will have 45 minutes.

Each cake must have a minimum of two tiers, and one of them must be a sponge. (“That’s another influence from the British Baking Show,” Hirte said.) The icing must include at least one buttercream. All cakes must have a 3D element that is made from an edible material. Other than that, the organizers have not been overly specific about their requirements.

“We didn’t want to limit the bakers’ creativity,” Hirte said. “We just want them all on a level playing field.”

Two or three judges will walk around during the competition, visiting teams at their stations and asking questions. They will judge individual cakes on taste, texture, overall appearance, creativity and their representation of the theme. The overall winner of the competition will be chosen from an average of the judges’ scores and will be presented with an engraved cake platter.

A People’s Choice winner will be chosen by the spectators. Because it will not be possible for every spectator to taste each cake, the People’s Choice winner will be based almost entirely on appearance.

“We guarantee that everyone will get two to three samples,” she said. “The last two years, nobody has left hungry. We always get positive feedback on the event.” The People’s Choice winner will be presented with a charcuterie board.

Fleur Délices is open to bakers 16 and older.

“The past couple of years we’ve had some French teachers and their students compete,” Hirte says. “That’s been fun.”

Registration for competitors is $20 per team and is open until Friday, April 26, on the Franco-American Centre’s website. Tickets for spectators will go on sale within the next week or so through the same website.

Featured Photo: Teacher and student team. Courtesy photo.

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