Category: Food

A wine wonderland

LaBelle Winery owner releases debut book

Winemaker Amy LaBelle of LaBelle Winery in Amherst and Derry has opened full-service restaurants, launched her own line of culinary products and enjoyed recognition on the national stage as an entrepreneur — and just as 2022 came to an end, she’s also now a published author.

Released Dec. 16, Wine Weddings: The Ultimate Guide to Creating the Wine-Themed Wedding of Your Dreams, is LaBelle’s debut book, filled with photographs taken at weddings hosted at both of the winery’s locations. LaBelle also shares the details of planning her own wedding and offers general tips and advice on planning and hosting weddings of every size and type.

“The book came out of our decades of experiences with watching couples be stressed and the implication around a wedding day now. … There’s just a lot of pressure on these poor couples, and so I wanted to write a book that would help alleviate some of that pressure and stress, and give them a road map toward planning the wedding of their dreams,” LaBelle said. “So my idea for that was to theme your wedding as a wine wedding, so that every decision you have to make gets filled through the lens of wine, because wine is such a timeless theme. It’s always going to be in style, it’s always going to be appreciated, and you’re never going to get tired of it.”

Even though it required considerable work and coordination among her team, LaBelle said the entire book came together in only about three months, dating back to August.

“The book kind of just fell out of my head. It was the strangest thing,” she said. “I wrote 1,200 words a day for like 30 days straight … and I literally felt like the words were just tumbling right out of my brain. … Danielle Sullivan, who was my assistant on the book, helped me pull together all of the visuals from photos in our archives of all of the brides we’ve had.”

At about 10 chapters, the book covers everything from choosing invitation designs and wedding favors to creating your own menu of signature drinks and wine choices, and also includes a section about working with vendors. Hardcover print copies are available onsite in Amherst or Derry, or online at LaBelle Winery’s website — the electronic version of Wine Weddings was also scheduled to be released on Jan. 4 via Amazon.

“I’m actually ready to write a second book … because I think this is going to end up being a series,” LaBelle said. “So the first one was Wine Weddings, and the second book will be Wine Celebrations, so every chapter will focus on a different celebration that you can host at home through the lens of wine. … I’d like to get that book out in time for Christmas next year.”

LaBelle founded LaBelle Winery in 2005 at Alyson’s Orchard in Walpole and moved the operations to Amherst in late 2012. On Saturday, Jan. 28, the Amherst vineyard will hold a special 10th anniversary masquerade gala, complete with a cocktail hour, a four-course dinner, and performers like jugglers and fire-breathers. Proceeds from the gala will benefit both the ALS Association and LaBelle’s own charity, Empowering Angels, which promotes youth entrepreneurship opportunities.

“It’s going to be the party of the season,” LaBelle said. “We are closing down the restaurant that night, so we’ll be doing a cocktail hour throughout the building.”

By Amy LaBelle
Wine Weddings: The Ultimate Guide to Creating the Wine-Themed Wedding of Your Dreams, by Amy LaBelle
Hardcover print copies are available now through Amazon, Corkscrew Press, or wherever books are sold. They are available online at amylabelle.com or at labellewinery.com. The electronic version of the book was scheduled to be released on Jan. 4 via Amazon.

Featured photo: Amy LaBelle and her husband, Cesar Arboleda. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 23/01/03

News from the local food scene

• Chilling out: New England’s Tap House Grille of Hooksett is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a special three-day Ice Fest, happening on Thursday, Jan. 12; Friday, Jan. 13, and Saturday, Jan. 14, from 6 to 10 p.m. each evening at the Tap House’s sister location, the Oscar Barn Wedding Venue (191 W. River Road, Hooksett). This outdoor party will feature a massive ice cocktail luge, interactive ice displays, live bands, fire pits, food trucks and more. “We have the Bonhomme Carnaval, which is the mascot from the annual winter carnival in Québec City,” said restaurant co-owner Dan Lagueux, who’s originally from Québec, Canada. “We’re going to have our pizza oven and our Tap House Express menu, which will have some French-Canadian items on it. … We’ll have our poutine, [and] I also have maple toffee and sugar on snow.” Another special activity of Ice Fest, he added, will be a beginners’ curling rink courtesy of NH SCOT. “I played curling, growing up in Canada, for many years,” he said. “They’re lending us that rink for the week, so it should be fun. ‘Learn How to Curl’ is going to be an event there.” Entry tickets are $25 per person and can be purchased online; food and drinks during the event, Lagueux said, will be purchased using special tokens, with one token equaling four dollars. Parking to Ice Fest is available nearby at the Tri-Town Ice Arena (311 W. River Road, Hooksett) with shuttle buses going back and forth for the duration of the event. Through Jan. 31, Lagueux said, any leftover tokens you have can be used as cash at the restaurant. Visit taphousenh.com to purchase Ice Fest tickets and tokens.

• Get balanced: A new eatery offering acai and grain bowls, paninis, toasts, soups, smoothies, teas and other health-focused options is now open in Amherst. Balanced Cafe opened on Dec. 27 inside The Square on Amherst plaza at 135 Route 101A, the owners recently announced on their website and social media channels; the spot (most recently home to The Utopian restaurant) is their third location in the Granite State overall, joining two others in Plaistow and Windham. The cafe is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., its Facebook page said. According to its website, new “bistro bars” are also due to open soon at the Plaistow and Windham locations, featuring specialty cocktails, beer and wine. Visit eatdrinkbalanced.com.

Cheesy pull-apart bread

This bread is a deliciously indulgent way to end 2022. It’s a fairly simple recipe but does require a little bit of attention to detail.

The most important ingredient in this recipe is the bread. Although it’s going to be coated in butter and stuffed with cheese, the bread is the base for all that goodness. I highly recommend using sourdough for its denser dough and nice flavor. However, if you can’t find sourdough, a plain, crusty boule will work. Also, salted butter is preferred to give a little extra seasoning to the filling. The remaining ingredients are self-explanatory.

When assembling, it is important to be patient as you make this. You need to make slices into the boule, but you do not want to go through the bottom. The intact base will hold all of the buttery, cheesy goodness in place. When it’s time to pour the butter and add the cheese, go slowly. The more you can get inside the crevices you have created, the more buttery gooeyness you’ll have when it’s eating time. Once it’s done, I have one more piece of advice. Eat it as soon as possible!

Cheesy pull-apart bread
Serves 4-8

1 boule, preferably sourdough
½ cup (1 stick) salted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 scallions, diced
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Make cuts in the loaf of bread in ½-inch-wide rows and columns, stopping ¼ inch above bottom of the loaf. (You should have a cross-hatch pattern when done.)
Place butter in a bowl and microwave for 1 minute or until melted, stirring every 15 seconds.
Add garlic and scallions to butter. Stir well.
Place two long pieces of aluminum foil on top of each other, laying them perpendicular to each other, so that an X is created. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.
Place the bread in the center of the X.
Pour butter mixture over bread, attempting to get it into all of the cut areas.
Wrap foil around bread, covering it completely, and place in the oven to bake for 10 minutes.
Remove bread from the oven and add the cheeses, pushing it down into all of the slices. (Be patient. It takes time to get all of that cheese into place!)
Rewrap foil around the sides, leaving top open.
Return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
Unwrap and enjoy!

Featured Photo: Cheesy pull-apart bread. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler.

Holiday hot wine punch

With dry red wines from Austria

Winter started at 4:48 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 21. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year but also ushers in (at least) two months of cold days, only to be outdone by colder nights! With its roots in paganism, the solstice aligns with the modern holiday season of Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s. These holidays are celebrated in Northern Europe for weeks with fairs and markets in almost every town and city. Hot wine punches are served at these fairs and markets, ideal for warding off the winter chill.

German glühwein is traditionally served at stalls at Christmas markets across Germany and Austria to keep people warm as they shop and socialize. “Glühwein” literally translates to glow-wine, describing how you feel after you’ve been drinking tiny mugs of it outside over the holidays. The recipe is simple, and the most important rule to follow is “Do not let the wine boil, or you will boil off the alcohol.” Added to the dry red wine are an orange, granulated sugar, cloves, cinnamon sticks and star anise.

Weihnachtspunsch is a traditional German Christmas punch of tea, red wine, rum, fresh lemon and orange juice and spices. While the name translates as “Christmas punch,” this punch is ideal for any cold winter night.

Feuerzangenbowle is a festive German Fire Punch. This is an interesting punch in that in addition to the heated red wine, joined by slices of lemon and orange, along with the traditional spices of cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice berries and ginger, the ingredients include a lit sugar cone, soaked with rum that is poured over it, as the cone is perched on tongs, balanced on the ridge of the hot pot. That is impressive! Note that this concoction involves the handling of alcohol and an open flame! Extreme care should be exercised in the creation of this libation.

Now, about the wine! Recipes for these punches call for a dry red wine. Therefore, a bottle of cabernet sauvignon, Chianti, zinfandel or merlot will do, but I believe that if we are about to make a German hot punch, a German dry red wine should be used. However, I encountered a small “speed bump.” My quest (albeit perhaps not exhaustive) for a German dry red wine met with some disappointment in the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets. So I purchased two Austrian dry red wines.

Our first wine is a 2015 Höpler Pannonica Blaufränkisch Zweigelt Pinot Noir, priced at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets at $12.99. What an incredible bargain! The color is a dark ruby hue. To the nose there are dark blackberry notes, along with a little plum. The nose carries through to the tongue with flavors of blackberries, along with some gentle spices and very soft tannins. This is an Austrian blend of 40 percent blaufränkisch, 35 percent Zweigelt and 25 percent pinot noir. The Zweigelt variety was created in the 1920’s by Professor Fritz Zweigelt, by crossing varieties of blaufränkisch, St. Laurent and pinot noir. Zweigelt is the most widespread red wine variety in Austria.

Our second wine is a 2017 Anton Bauer Zweigelt Feuersbrunn, priced at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets at $17.99. Another great silent bargain! This 100 percent Zweigelt has a color that is a bit more purple than the first wine, along with the nose and tongue also ever so slightly more intense than the first bottle. This wine hails from the Wagram viticultural region of Austria, on the banks of the Danube. Known to produce excellent Grüner Veltliner, the region is ideal for the production of this superb red varietal.

So gather round a fire pit and enjoy the crisp winter cold with a cup of any of these hot wine punches, and if you lack the ambition to flame a rum-soaked sugar cone, you can curl up in front of the fireplace with a glass of either of these fine, light, dry red wines! You will delight in these new experiences.

In the kitchen with Pete Parenti

Pete Parenti of Milford is the owner and founder of Troubadour Spice Blends ( troubadourspiceblends.co, and on Instagram @troubadour.spice.blends), offering a lineup of two dozen handcrafted spice blends, from beef, chicken and rib rubs to an espresso steak blend, a Jamaican jerk blend, a hickory maple blend and several others. An Air Force veteran and musician, Parenti initially got into crafting his own spice blends as a side hustle, passing them out mostly to friends, family members and co-workers. When the pandemic hit, he decided to jump into it full-time, choosing the name “Troubadour” in reference to the song by country music legend George Strait. Each one of Parenti’s spice blends is inspired by his travels around the world, both personally and while in the military — in addition to ordering them online, you can find many of his selected flavors at Grasshoppers Garden Center (728 River Road, New Boston), Artisans Boutique by Recycled Creations (25 Main St., Wilton) and Sweet Beet Market (11 W. Main St., Bradford). Sweet Beet Market’s in-house cafe also offers the Troubadour Tempeh on its breakfast menu, seasoned with Parenti’s Jamaican jerk blend.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

It would be my stainless steel mixing bowl … because without that, I’m back to making one jar at a time. That big mixing bowl gives me the ability to make large batches.

What would you have for your last meal?

A bacon double cheeseburger, seasoned fries and an ice cold beer, preferably an IPA from maybe Smuttynose or Great North Aleworks. It’s got to be a New Hampshire IPA.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

Taco Time in Milford. … Great atmosphere over there, and great food.

What celebrity would you like to see trying one of your spice blends?

The Zac Brown Band. … I remember seeing that they do this thing called an Eat and Greet with their fans before a concert, and supposedly the food is fantastic.

What is your favorite spice blend that you offer? What is your favorite thing to use it in?

I like them all … but I think the one I find myself grabbing the most is my Lone Star chili and fajitas blend. It basically just reminds me of all the time I spent in Texas while I was in the Air Force and eating the food down there. … My favorite thing to put it in is something I call my Mexican casserole, and it’s kind of like a lasagna. I’ll layer flour tortillas, beef, refried beans, taco sauce, cilantro and then plenty of that seasoning.

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

This might have been going on for a long time, but I just kind of became aware of it. … It seems to me that in New Hampshire, people are really on the lookout for high-quality all-natural ingredients. Either they’re cooking with them or they’re going to find them at a restaurant. … That kind of relates to what I’m doing too, because I definitely look for that when I make my spice blends. There’s no fillers, no MSGs [and] no anti-caking agents like silicon dioxide.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Definitely pasta. It’s simple, easy, it makes a lot of servings and it’s delicious.

Homemade pasta carbonara
From the kitchen of Pete Parenti of Troubadour Spice Blends

1 pounds angel hair pasta, cooked al dente
2 sticks butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 shaker Parmesan cheese
8 eggs
1 to 2 packages bacon, cooked and chopped
Parsley, chopped
Troubadour Spice Blends Pig Dust seasoning
Black pepper

Boil the pasta until it is cooked al dente, then drain and place the pasta back into the pot (save a ladleful of pasta water for later). While the pasta is cooking, cook and chop the bacon, then set aside. Chop the parsley and set aside. In a large bowl, place the eggs, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese and the saved ladleful of pasta water. Whisk together and set aside. Finish the pasta by first adding in the sticks of butter. Slowly pour in the egg-cream-Parmesan mixture and stir everything together until the pasta absorbs all of the liquids. Add lots of Pig Dust seasoning, chopped bacon and parsley and a bit more Parmesan cheese. If desired, sprinkle on some cracked black pepper. Serve and enjoy.



Queen City roasts

Eighty-Eight Coffee Co. opens in Manchester

Over its nearly eight-year run, The Local Moose Cafe in Manchester gained a following for its soups, sandwiches and scratch-baked goods, including a rotating lineup of craft doughnuts. Now, the cafe’s owners are switching gears in favor of offering single-origin coffees roasted in small batches, in addition to teas, a daily selection of toasts and some grab-and-go pastries.

Eighty-Eight Coffee Co., as the Queen City Ave. shop is now known, arrived the week of Thanksgiving following a roughly four-month-long hiatus. Owners and brothers Bo Tong and Marc Lee — along with Tong’s wife, Natalia Umpierrez-Tong — temporarily took a break, closing the shop in early July with the goal to return later in the year.

“With The Local Moose, our intention when we opened seven years ago was to be a cafe, and from that, our menu grew and then it felt more like we were running a restaurant that served coffee,” said Umpierrez-Tong, who added that they began roasting their own coffees in house in 2020. “Whereas now, we’re a coffee roaster with some food items as well. … I think, for me, that’s one of the biggest differences is [that] now the focus is on roasting coffee, getting the profiles that we want and pulling out different flavors.”

The trio agreed that a name change was the best way to help introduce that concept. Their new name, Umpierrez-Tong said, is rooted in Chinese culture — both Tong and Lee are lifelong Manchester residents of Chinese descent.

“In China, the number 8 is considered very lucky, and two 8s are twice as lucky,” she said. “So we thought it would be fun to just bring some of our family’s culture to the community.”

From a Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk and espresso to house specials like a maple latte prepared with local maple syrup and a chili mocha with cinnamon, cayenne and chocolate sauce, there’s a lot of variety here for coffee lovers to enjoy. In addition to drip and pour-over coffees, there are cold brew and nitro brew options, with beans that are sourced from several regions in Central and South America, like Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua.

“With the pour-over, we’re manually grinding and brewing the coffee for customers instead of, say, getting it out of an airpot,” Tong said. “It takes a little bit of time, but it’s fresher and it’s cleaner. The recipes we use for the pour-overs are precise for that bean.”

The shop also carries an assortment of loose-leaf teas and, for food, offers a small toast menu utilizing its own house-made white breads — there’s an avocado toast with local honey and Maldon salt, a peanut butter and banana toast with chia seeds and the option to add granola, and a cucumber and hummus toast with sesame seeds and pea shoots, among others. A pastry case at the shop’s front counter also regularly carries a selection of items like doughnuts, scones, muffins, cookies and pastries they call crunch rolls.

“It’s a Japanese milk bread with almost like a crunchy cookie topping,” Tong said of the crunch rolls. “That’s something that I actually tried to remake from a pastry house in Chinatown. … I wouldn’t say it’s 100 percent exactly like the ones in Chinatown, so that’s why I renamed it the crunch roll. So that’s something that’s different that I guarantee you won’t find in the city.”

Bagged coffees are available for sale inside the shop, and Tong said the trio also has plans to eventually obtain some local wholesale accounts.

Despite their name change, Umpierrez-Tong said they’ve already seen many of the same faces come through the doors in the days since their return.

“We are so humbled by the amount of customers that we retained,” she said. “Even after our longer than expected break, they came back and they were so psyched to see us.”

Eighty-Eight Coffee Co.
Where: 124 Queen City Ave., Manchester
Hours: Wednesday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
More info: Visit eightyeightcoffee.com, or find them on Facebook and Instagram

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Eighty-Eight Coffee Co. in Manchester.

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