Category: Food

Cinnamon sugar bread pudding

Bread pudding is a fairly simple dessert that has a comforting quality to it, or at least to me it does. I know, summer may not be the time to think about a dessert that’s most delicious when served warm, but this recipe is too good to delay for cooler weather.

The most important things to know about this recipe focus on the bread. Challah really is the best choice. The bread is light and airy, which allows it to absorb a nice amount of butter and cinnamon-sugar mixture. The lightness of the bread also prevents the bread pudding from being overly heavy. Also, of note is that you really need to toast the bread. This not only allows the butter to melt, but it also provides a little bit of texture that is key to this dessert.

When you make this dessert, be sure to have some sort of topping nearby. If you want to keep it simple, some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream will make a fine finish for the bread pudding. If you’re looking to utilize your culinary skills, a bourbon sauce makes a lovely topping. You can find two different recipes for that on my website. Regardless of which topping you choose, I hope you find the bread pudding to be as comforting as I do.

Cinnamon sugar bread pudding
Serves 8

8 slices challah
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1-2 Tablespoons salted butter
3 eggs
2 cups whole milk
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chopped pecans

Toast challah slices.
While bread toasts, combine 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Spread butter on each slice, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.
Cut toast into small cubes.
Grease sides and bottom of an 8” × 8” pan with butter.
Place bread cubes in prepared pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, 1/3 cup sugar and vanilla.
Pour over bread, stir well.
Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Add pecans and stir well.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Uncover bread pudding, and bake.
Check after 30 minutes. If still wet, cover with clean foil and bake for 10 to 20 more minutes.
Allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving.

Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.

In the kitchen with Lauren D’Agostino

Lauren D’Agostino of Manchester is a plant-based chef, cooking coach and the owner of Chef Lauren’s Table (cheflaurenstable.com), which specializes in a variety of initiatives promoting a plant-based lifestyle. Programs include the Kitchen Mindset Lab (cheflauren.teachable.com), a virtual nine-week series of plant-based cooking lessons that can be accessed either live via Zoom or on demand for a total of 12 weeks following registration, along with downloadable recipes and meal guides. A full schedule of sessions running now through next spring is available to view online. D’Agostino is also available for hire as a private plant-based chef for small events and intimate gatherings, and has a few upcoming public appearances where she’ll offer some plant-based menu samples — find her at The Green Beautiful (168 Wilson St., Manchester) on Thursday, Sept. 1, and at The Social HQ (103 Nashua Road, Londonderry) on Thursday, Sept. 15. A native of Westford, Mass., D’Agostino graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst before going on to study pastry arts at Le Cordon Bleu College in Cambridge. Her interest shifted from pastries to plant-based foods both through her own personal lifestyle and following her completion of the holistic health coach program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In early 2020, D’Agostino released her first cookbook, which focuses on plant-based and gluten-free recipes using essential oils. A second plant-based cookbook is forthcoming.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

A whisk. It’s so simple, but [it’s a] game-changer.

What would you have for your last meal?

I would have a really pull-out-all-the-stops panini. I love a panini with a crusty bread, some melted plant-based cheese and just tons of flavorful filling ingredients. And then I would have a cannoli.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

I always have a really enjoyable dining experience when I go to Campo Enoteca [and] Republic. … I think they do a really nice job.

What celebrity would you like to host a dinner for?

Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart, because I just think that would be hilarious. They’d be great dinner guests.

What has been your favorite experience cooking for a client?

A couple of summers ago, I did a 30th birthday party for a woman who had no idea that I was coming. It was her wife who hired me as a surprise … and we went back and forth planning the menu all hush-hush. The menu really meant something to her, that her wife would go to such lengths to make sure she and her friends would enjoy the experience.

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

I would say plant-based as a whole. … What I’m excited to be seeing more of is healthy, fresh [and] local food options that are both fun to eat and flavorful, but are also functional and nutritious for the human body.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Plant-based pizza is totally my favorite. … I love pizza because it’s so easy and versatile, and you can do anything with it. It’s different every single time I make it, but it also always feels familiar to eat it.

Chickpea salad four ways
From the kitchen of Lauren D’Agostino of Chef Lauren’s Table

Basic recipe: “chicken” salad
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
¼ cup diced celery
¼ cup diced red onion
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
2 Tablespoons plant-based mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch black pepper

Enhanced recipe: Buffalo “chicken” salad
2 Tablespoons hot sauce
Enhanced recipe: “tuna” salad
½ a lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon dried dill
2 teaspoons kelp granules

Enhanced recipe: “egg” salad
½ teaspoon black salt
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon onion powder

Mash the chickpeas, either using a food processor (pulsing until coarse and leaving a few larger pieces) or using your fist in a medium-sized bowl (a potato masher also works well). Add all the other ingredients to the bowl and stir to combine.

Featured photo: Lauren D’Agostino, private plant-based chef and owner of Chef Lauren’s Table. Courtesy photo.

A multicultural feast

We Are One Festival returns

A celebration of the region’s Latin American, African and Caribbean cultures, the We Are One Festival features authentic food, live music and dance performances. The free event, now in its 21st year, returns to Veterans Memorial Park in Manchester on Saturday, Aug. 20.

The festival as it is known today first came together in 2013, after two separate events that were held in the Granite State throughout the previous decade — a Latino Festival first organized in 2000 by Latino Unidos de New Hampshire, and an African-Caribbean celebration founded the following year by Ujima Collective — combined their resources. This is the first year since the pandemic hit that the event is back in full swing, said Shaunte Whitted, co-chair of the We Are One Festival’s planning committee with Sudi Lett. In 2020 it was reorganized as a community health fair, while last year’s festival had no live performances.

One of the biggest draws to the festival has always been the food and, as in previous years, you’ll find a diverse lineup of options available throughout the day. Local vendors have traditionally included restaurants and community members, with a wide variety of cuisines represented.

“This year, I’m very excited to report that we have six registered food vendors with the city, [which] is actually a little more than what we usually have. I think we normally average around four,” Whitted said. “There’s going to be some African dishes, Caribbean dishes, Spanish food and comfort [and] soul food. … We’ll have empanadas, rice and beans, baked macaroni and cheese, various chicken entrees, collard greens and banana pudding parfaits.”

Don Quijote Restaurant in Manchester, for instance, is a longtime participant of the festival that will be returning as a vendor once again, Whitted said. Newcomers include Gumaa’s Bar & Grill, which opened in January in the Queen City’s Kalivas Union neighborhood — it’s known for its traditional African and Caribbean meals like oxtail stew, jerk chicken, goat meat and fried tilapia. Also attending this year’s festival will be A Taste of Monrovia, an eatery hailing from Worcester, Mass., that serves options native to Liberia, a coastal country in West Africa.

“They do a lot of spicy soups,” Whitted said. “They have palava … and it’s a smoked meat or fish that’s usually accompanied in the soup. I myself have tried the African pepper soup.”

Soel Sistas, a Nashua-based catering and meal prep business specializing in soul food and Southern comfort classics, will also be attending, as will Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream, which recently opened a shared space with Prime Time Grilled Cheese, its first Manchester location.

A full schedule of performances is in store for this year’s festival, including hip-hop, R&B and soul singers, an African drum band, Latina dancers and more. Most have either 15- or 30-minute live sets planned on the stage, Whitted said, while DJ 4eign — from the Boston-area radio station JAM’N 94.5 — will also be there from noon to 4 p.m. Other components of the festival will include a health fair, sponsored by the Manchester NAACP and the NH Black Women Health Project.

We Are One Festival
When: Saturday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Veterans Memorial Park, 723 Elm St., Manchester
Cost: Free admission; food is priced per item
More info: Email festival co-chairs Shaunte Whitted at shauntewhitted@yahoo.com or Sudi Lett at sudi.lett@gmail.com
Event is rain or shine.

Featured photo: Scenes from the We Are One Festival. Courtesy photos.

A taste of the Middle East

Mahrajan Middle Eastern Food Festival returns to Manchester

By Jack Walsh

listings@hippopress.com

For the past 50 years the Mahrajan Middle Eastern Food Festival has taken place at Our Lady of the Cedars Melkite Catholic Church in Manchester. The three-day event returns from Friday, Aug. 19, through Sunday, Aug. 21, and will feature a variety of authentic Middle Eastern items to order.

The festival is a celebration of Middle Eastern culture — primarily through Lebanese food, as Our Lady of the Cedars Church was founded by Lebanese families. Rev. Thomas Steinmetz of the church said that the event has greatly evolved over the past 15 or so years and continues to grow.

kebabs lined up on grill
Scenes from the Mahrajan Middle Eastern Food Festival. Courtesy photos.

“It used to be smaller,” he said. “On a Sunday afternoon we’d do it behind our old church, the little church that we had on South Beech Street. … When we moved to our current location, it allowed us to expand the festival, and it’s been much larger for the past 15 or 16 years.”

Options at this year’s event will include lamb and chicken kebab dinners, tabbouleh salad, traditional Lebanese pastries and more. In addition to a wide variety of food there will also be a bar, along with Middle Eastern music and traditional cultural dances. For the kids, there will be a section full of activities and games, as well as a petting zoo and a bounce house.

Marylou Ashooh Lazos, head of the festival’s food production, suggests people order their food ahead of time online in order to make sure that they get their chance at grabbing some of the more highly anticipated dishes. The threat and impacts of Hurricane Henri during last year’s festival forced its cancellation on the final of the three days. But despite this, Lazos said, event organizers sold out of all their prepared food.

According to Lazos, the lamb shawarma, prepared in a wrap with tahini sauce, parsley, tomato and pickles, is the most popular meal at the festival.

“It started with the meat that was left over from the lamb kebabs that couldn’t be skewered neatly,” she said. “We used to cut them into shaved ribbons, so it’s very tender meat, and we trim off all of the fat.”

There will also be available options for vegetarians, such as falafels made with chickpeas and fava beans, as well as lubyeh, or green beans cooked in a garlic and tomato sauce and topped with seasoning. This will be on each prepared plate — or you can order a lubyeh dinner, featuring the green beans served over rice pilaf with bread.

A meal making a return is mujadara, a meatless dish made with lentils and rice that’s also gluten-free.

“We used to make mujadara the traditional way with cracked wheat, but we switched that to respect our gluten-sensitive people,” Lazos said.

Desserts, meanwhile, will include a lighter version of baklava known as baklawa, as well as ghrybe (almond butter cookies with powdered sugar) and coosa pita, a creamy custard made with eggs, milk, sugar, cream of wheat and coosa (a summer squash, similar to zucchini) that’s layered between sheets of phyllo dough.

While this is a fundraiser, Steinmetz and the church aims to make this a weekend event of fun to bring families together within the community.

Mahrajan Middle Eastern Food Festival
When: Friday, Aug. 19, 5 to 10 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 20, noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 21, noon to 5 p.m.
Where: Our Lady of the Cedars Melkite Catholic Church, 140 Mitchell St., Manchester
Cost: Free admission; foods are priced per item
Order online: mahrajan-nh.com

Featured photo: Scenes from the Mahrajan Middle Eastern Food Festival. Courtesy photos.

The Weekly Dish 22/08/18

News from the local food scene

• Celebrate with spuds: Join The Potato Concept for its one-year anniversary celebration at Rockingham Brewing Co. (1 Corporate Park Drive, Unit 1, Derry) Friday, Aug. 19, from 4 to 8 p.m., which also happens to be National Potato Day. Lauren Lefebvre and Brandon Rainer of The Potato Concept will be serving several of their specialty loaded baked potato flavors, including jambalaya, barbecue vegan tofu and the loaded classic, the latter of which features bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, chives and sour cream. Each of these options is $12 and includes a sweet potato cupcake with marshmallow frosting from Bearded Baking Co., and Rockingham Brewing Co. will have its Rum Raisin Spud Heavy on tap. Axes on the Go, a mobile ax throwing venue, will also be out in the parking lot. Visit thepotatoconcept.com.

• Greekfest Express returns: Assumption Greek Orthodox Church (111 Island Pond Road, Manchester) is holding its annual Greekfest Express on Saturday, Aug. 27, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Now through Aug. 21, orders are being accepted for a variety of freshly cooked Greek dinners, like marinated lamb kebabs, half-roasted chicken, pasticho (Greek lasagna) and Greek-style meatballs in a tomato sauce. All dinners come with rice, Greek-style green beans and bread, while other available a la carte options include open-faced ground beef and lamb gyro plates with fries, spinach or feta cheese petas, and tossed Greek salads with or without grilled chicken or gyro meat. For desserts, there is baklava, loukoumades (fried dough balls), and various Greek cookies, like koulourakia (crisp braided butter cookies) and finikia (honey walnut cookies dipped in honey syrup). Pickups will be drive-thru only on the church grounds — no walk-ins. Visit foodfest.assumptionnh.org

• Ballpark brews: There’s still time to get your ticket to this year’s Gate City Brewfest, a family-friendly event returning to Holman Stadium (67 Amherst St., Nashua) on Saturday, Aug. 20, in its traditional format for the first time since 2019. Organized by Bellavance Beverage Co. in partnership with the City of Nashua, Gate City Brewfest is expected to feature more than 150 individual beers, ciders and seltzers to try from dozens of local and regional purveyors, all in a wide variety of styles. While the event’s signature chicken wing competition will not be returning this year, there will be a greater food truck presence, along with a full schedule of live music planned. Tickets are $50 per person at the door, $15 for designated drivers and attendees under 21, and free for kids ages 12 and under. See gatecitybrewfestnh.com or visit issuu.com/hippopress to check out our story on the event, appearing on page 25 of the Aug. 11 issue.

Summer bellinis

Another reason to buy prosecco

Legend has it that the bellini was invented by Giuseppi Cipriani, owner of Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy. Sometime between the mid-’30s and the mid-’40s he created this seasonal beverage made with puréed fresh Italian white peaches and prosecco, and as the legend states, he named the drink bellini as it reminded him of the peachy-pink color of a toga worn by a saint in a painting by Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini. The bellini has been selected by the International Bartenders Association (IBA) for use in the annual World Cocktail Competition (WCC) in bartending. There are variations to this blend, some of which call for the addition of mandarin orange juice, strawberry purée or pomegranate juice, but the peach purée reigns supreme when one thinks of the bellini.

Today it is easy enough to find several labels of prosecco, some relatively inexpensive and others a little pricier. The price points on most proseccos are generally accessible: from less than $10 per bottle to a little more than $25 per bottle. Several labels available in New Hampshire still come from Italy, but there is an increasing supply coming from California. As I am a firm believer that “life is too short to drink cheap wine,” I opt for the better quality, sometimes reflected in its price point.

Prosecco is made from a blend of grapes but the Italian varieties must contain at least 85 percent glera, with the rest being local and international varieties, including chardonnay, pinot blanco, pinot grigio and pinot noir. It is produced using the Charmat method: The base wine is produced, but instead of bottling, it is put into a sealed stainless steel tank, kept cool and under pressure to produce the effervescent bubbles. It is then filtered and bottled. This method of winemaking eliminates the second fermentation and riddling, the freezing and disgorging of the lees, and the addition of the dosage, or sweet wine — all the intensive work required of the Methode Traditionelle production of Champagne. With the Charmat method a small dosage of sweetened wine may be added, but this is added to the bulk wine before bottling. The bubbles of prosecco may be smaller, and the taste generally of more fruit than a sparkling wine produced by the Methode Traditionelle, but I like to think of this as a comparison of apples to oranges, a comparison a whole other column can be devoted to!

In making our bellinis, I selected the Santa Margherita Prosecco Di Valdobbiadene Superiore D.O.C.G. Brut, available at the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlets, priced at $25.99, reduced to $19.99. This wine comes from the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene region of Veneto, Italy. It is made from 100 percent glera grapes. The winemakers allow the wine to sit on its lees for three months after fermentation, producing a creaminess not found in other proseccos I have tasted. The color is pale straw, the bubbles full, and to the nose there is citrus, peaches, pears and a touch of almond. To the tongue it is crisp and clean, with a fair amount of apple and more citrus. This is a delightful prosecco to sip enjoy with a meal or pair with a peach purée, to create a magnificent bellini!

Now, about the peach purée. It is tough to find! You can find it online, and Shaw’s sells a cocktail mixer, Stirrings Simple Peach Bellini, available at $7.99. This is a mixer created from real ingredients without preservatives; however, it is made from orange juice concentrate and peach purée. It’s pretty good and provides one with an easy recipe for that bellini: one part of the mix to four parts of prosecco, poured into a chilled Champagne flute. Doesn’t get much easier than that! But I have found I can create my own peach purée, by cutting an organic peach preserve with a little of the prosecco to create a purée, adding a couple of drops of lemon juice to cut the sweetness, then following through with the 4-to-1 recipe, or proportions to suit one’s taste. If you have the time and interest, you can create your own peach puree. All you need is a food processor or blender, a little sugar, honey or maple syrup, and of course fresh peaches. The concoction can be frozen!

This is a great libation for a hot summer afternoon. Slightly sweet and light in alcohol (the prosecco is typically 11 percent), it is a wonderful drink to impress your guests with your superior tastes and talents, and your impressive knowledge of wines and the history of cocktails. Enjoy the summer heat on your deck and patio with a cool bellini!

Featured photo. Courtesy photo.

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