Tangelo Madness

The Sample Lady at the grocery store and I have an understanding. As long as I don’t block traffic and stand around telling her dad jokes, she will look the other way as I take more than my fair share of samples:

“So, the police have released some details about that guy who fell to his death off the nightclub roof.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Apparently, not a bouncer.”

“Shut up and have some more pretzels.”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

Last week, the Sample Lady and I bonded over wedges of tangelo, which sounds like it could be the name of your aunt’s latest boyfriend with a pencil-thin mustache and too much gold jewelry but is actually a citrus hybrid of a tangerine and a grapefruit. It turns out that tangelos are insanely delicious — sweet and perfumy, but balanced with enough acidity to make them taste super-juicy.

One thing led to another and I ended up with a bag of them on my kitchen counter. I really, really thought about adapting a lemon cake recipe into a tangelo one, but curiosity got the better of me and I decided to see what fresh tangelo juice tasted like.

Even better.

For reasons known only to fruit geneticists and perhaps Pomona, the Roman goddess of oranges, tangelos, instead of taking after their large, grapefruity parent, are actually a bit smaller than standard run-of-the-mill tangerines and fit nicely into a lemon juicer. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a leftover plastic takeout container and squeeze five or six tangelos through it. The plastic container is flexible enough to allow you to squeeze the sides and pour juice neatly into a cocktail jigger.

Which leads us nicely to the topic of tangelo cocktails.

Two Tangelo Cocktails

#1 – A Beer-mosa

4 ounces fresh squeezed tangelo juice

12-ounce bottle of not-too-hoppy pale beer – a Mexican lager is great for this

This is very complicated, so pay close attention:

Pour the tangelo juice into a pint glass, and top it with beer.

Even though a tangelo looks like a pony in the tangerine stable and tastes really sweet and juicy on its own, there is something about a mild beer that calls to its grapefruit forebears and forges a bond. The slight bitterness of the beer clasps hands with the background bitterness of the tangelo juice and won’t let go. The beer tastes juicy, and the juice tastes even more refreshing, if that is possible.

While not as daintily sophisticated as a traditional mimosa, this might be my new brunch go-to.

#2 – Pencil-Thin Mustache

2 ounces vodka

½ ounce Aperol — a ruby-colored, slightly bitter liqueur made from rhubarb and miracles

½ ounce orange liqueur — in this particular case, dry orange curacao

3 ounces fresh squeezed tangelo juice

Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake thoroughly.

Strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. If you are prone to garnishes, a slice or twist of tangelo would not go amiss here.

It is hard to imagine any cocktail more orange than this one. It looks orange. It tastes orange. Not like oranges, mind you — tangelos and sunshine are the primary flavor profiles here. The Aperol and curacao add a bit of complexity, and the vodka hides in the background, but the fresh tangelo juice is the star here. Two or three of these could make porch-sitting an event.

I’m not entirely sure if there is an actual tangelo season, but it seems shortsighted not to drink a large number of each of these cocktails while the opportunity presents itself.

Featured Photo: Tangelo Madness. Photo by John Fladd.

In the kitchen with Jackie O’Dowd

Owner and baker of The Sweet Spot, 353 Riverdale Road, Weare, 529-6667, thesweetspotnh.com

“My grandfather was a Japanese chef in New York City. Both my parents were wonderful cooks…. I’ve always baked my whole life, since I was a little girl,” O’Dowd said. “I grew up in Long Island and I baked with my mother. I tried an office job. I didn’t like it, and then I tried a baking job and I loved it. … I worked in a couple of bakeries and coffee shops and then finally the fancy plating stuff with this pastry chef. Then, we bought this place. The previous owner [Just Like Mom’s] really wanted it to stay a bakery.

What is your ‘must-have’ in the kitchen?

Butter. I make everything from scratch. And I use real cream in all my chantillys, … My meringue is from egg whites, but I’ve separated the eggs. … But I guess butter would be the first thing.

What would you have for your last meal?

I would have linguine with white clam sauce. My father was a really good cook, a really amazing cook. And he had five daughters, and for our birthdays he would make us whatever we wanted. And every year I wanted his linguine with white clam sauce and he’d always be like ‘Jackie, that’s so easy! Like the easiest thing to make, come on!’ But I told him, ‘That’s my favorite.’

What is your favorite local place to eat?

That’s a tough question. I like Campo Enoteca [in Manchester], though. I just like the vibe in there. I like homemade pasta.

Who is a celebrity you would like to see eating something you’ve baked?

I love Joanne Chang [celebrity baker and owner of Flour and Myers+Chang in Boston]. I love her. Her recipes are great. … I also like Paul Hollywood [from The Great British Baking Show] … [H]e’s actually legit, he grew up baking bread with his father. So those are my two top bakers who are alive.

What’s your favorite thing on your menu?

Everyone here knows it: pecan sticky buns, which actually use Joanne Chang’s brioche recipe. I’ve tweaked it a little bit here, but really like the pecan sticky buns. My staff all know on the weekend when things are left over you save sticky buns for Jackie.

What’s the biggest food or baking trend that you see in New Hampshire?

Gluten-free, absolutely. … [Gluten-free baking] has advanced so much with new flour mixtures that I can bake almost anything gluten-free.

What’s your favorite thing to cook at home?

It’s not one thing. I get the Milk Street magazine and they have a lot of interesting recipes from all over the world. So I love to pick a recipe like that. For Christmas we always pick a different country and we’ll just dive into that country, something different and exotic, usually from overseas. Last week I made this Korean fried chicken from a Milk Street [recipe], and it was so good. It was so good, so satisfying. So if I’m home making something, I try and do something fun and interesting like that.

The Sweet Spot Maple Honey Granola

12 cups oats
4½ cups total raw nuts and/or seeds (chopped pecans and whole pepitas, for instance)
1½ handfuls whole almonds
3 teaspoons sea salt
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
1½ cups organic coconut oil, melted
¾ cup maple syrup
¾ cup honey
3 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups total dried fruit (dark and golden raisins, dried cranberries, etc.)

Mix oats, nuts, salt and cinnamon.
Mix wet ingredients separately, stir well. Add to oat mixture and stir by hand until all items are coated.
Add to parchment-lined, lightly sprayed full sheet pans (two pans). Spread evenly. Bake in 275°F oven. Stir every 20 minutes until nicely browned, approximately 1½ hours. Allow to cool.
Place in large bowl when cooled. Add dried fruit and mix well. Leave some clumps.
Store in airtight container.

Featured Image: Kristen Chiosi. Courtesy photo.

Thai food like Grandma used to make

New Dessert House satisfies a sweet tooth

By John Fladd

[email protected]

Some of Vasita Saktanaset’s favorite memories of growing up in Bangkok center around her grandmother’s cooking.

“She’s 82 years old right now and she’s still working,” Saktanaset said, “and her hobby is cooking. She actually used to like to open a small street restaurant. It was like a pop-up shop in front of the house. In Thailand you don’t have to have a health permit or anything like that. You can open up a restaurant and you can just say, oh today I want to sell something. You just unfold a table and you can sell it right away. She used to do that on and off for her hobbies. She loves cooking. So I grew up with a grandma who liked to feed me with her recipes.”

Saktanaset’s new restaurant, After Thai Dessert House in Concord, grew out of her love of Thai desserts. After she moved to New Hampshire, she found herself missing the sweets she grew up eating in Bangkok. There are many good Thai restaurants in the area, she said, but she found herself craving Thai desserts.

“I have a sweet tooth,” she said, “so I love dessert. I love bingsu [a treat made with shaved ice, condensed milk, and many, many other ingredients] and everything. And there’s no dessert shop around here — I mean Asian dessert shop. You have to drive like an hour to Boston to just grab a couple of bites of [Thai] ice cream or anything. It just made me miss my home country a little bit.”

Saktanaset’s husband and his family own the Siam Orchid Thai Bistro in Concord, and she said he encouraged her to open her own place.

“I saw the potential of this space downstairs from the Siam, and we already rent the whole building. [My husband said,] ‘Why don’t you use it for something that will earn money?’” At first, the idea was to open a dessert space for the restaurant upstairs, Sktanaset said, but soon the space took on a personality of its own, one that reflected hers.

“I just put all my passion in here — anything that I like. Sweets, sour foods, some cute stuff, snacks, everything here is something that I like,” she said.

Saktanaset noticed that many American desserts lacked complexity.

“The cake and foods you buy in bakeries here are a little too sweet for me,” she said. “Asian desserts are less sweet, softer in texture, and everything is light and fluffy.”

For instance, After Thai’s coconut cake is a moist cake that relies on most of its sweetness from the natural sugars in the coconut and is frosted with unsweetened whipped cream, which adds richness and even more moisture to the cake without covering up the flavor of the cream itself.

Strawberry Roti is a fusion of influences from Thailand, India and the United States.

“The roti [a flaky fried flatbread] is actually Indian,” Saktanaset said. “And you have condensed milk and strawberry sauce and condensed milk and just the whipped cream. This is street food in Thailand. It’s just like you can find anywhere there. They roll it up as a stick, but I think it’s a little hard to eat, so we adapted it a little and chopped the roti in pieces.”

After Thai serves a couple dozen desserts at any given time, including bingsu [the shaved ice], custards made with rice or taro, and bubble tea, with large tapioca pearls.

“I want to have more,” Saktanaset said, “but we want to find out what sells. Right now I only pick the ones that I like. Because if I want to have it, I can have it right away. That’s the key point of this dessert shop.”

After Thai Dessert House

Where: 4 Kennedy Lane, Concord, 229-8291
When: Thursdays 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 to 9 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays until 9:30 p.m., and Sundays until 9 p.m.

Desserts from After Thai can also be ordered through Siam Orchid Thai Bistro (12 N. Main St., Concord, 228-1529, siamorchid.net).

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Kiddie Pool 25/04/10

Family fun for whenever

Bunnies and eggs

• The Easter Bunny will arrive in a student-built airplane when he visits the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, aviationmuseumofnh.org) on Saturday, April 12, at 11 a.m. The Easter Bunny will get a water cannon salute from the Manchester Airport Fire Department on his arrival and will hand out candy and take photos with fans from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., when he will leave on a fire truck, according to an Aviation Museum press release. The event is free and families are asked to arrive by 10:30 a.m. for this outdoor event. The day will also feature free admission to the museum until 1 p.m. and free activities for kids in the museum’s classroom, the release said. The event will feature chocolate treats from Granite State Candy Shoppe and coffee and goodies from the Common Man Roadside, the release said. After 1 p.m., admission to the museum will cost $10 for ages 13 and up, $5 for ages 6 to 12 and for 65+ and military and veterans; kids 5 and under get in for free, the release said.

• Merrimack Parks and Recreation will hold its annual Easter Egg Hunt in Wasserman Park for Merrimack residents only on Saturday, April 12, starting at 10 a.m. with egg hunt times grouped by age. See merrimackparksandrec.org.

• The Well Church in Nashua will hold an Easter Egg Hunt for kids Saturday, April 12, in Greeley Park. Register at eggnh.com for a time slot and BYO basket.

Cats invite dogs

• The Fisher Cats will play a series of games against the Harrisburg Senators starting Tuesday, April 15, at 6:35 p.m. At the Wednesday, April 16, game, also at 6:35 p.m., it’s Waggin’ Wednesday, when your (leashed) doggos can come to the park. Games continue through Sunday, April 20 — on Friday, April 18, the team plays as Los Gatos Feroces and on Saturday, April 19, they’ll debut their New Hampshire Space Potatoes alter ego, honoring the Granite State’s potato and UFO history. See milb.com/new-hampshire.

Kids on stage

• The teens of Ovation Theatre Company (ovationtc.com) will present Monty Python’s Spamalot School Edition on Friday, April 11, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 12, at 1 and 7 p.m. at the Derry Opera House (29 W. Broadway, Derry). See derryoperahouse.org for tickets.

• Disney’s Frozen Jr. will present Actorsingers Youth at the Janice B. Streeter Theater (14 Court St., Nashua) on Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 13, at 2 p.m. See actorsingers.org for tickets.

• The Palace Youth Theatre will also present Frozen Jr.on Thursday, April 10, and Friday, April 11, at 7 p.m. at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org). Tickets cost $17.

• Friends of the Amato Center will present Seussical The Musical on Friday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 12, at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 13, at 2:30 at Souhegan High School in Amherst. Tickets cost $18 for adults, $12 for seniors and kids. See amatocenter.org/ riverbend-youth-company.

Introduction to ‘The Planets’

• The NH Philharmonic will present “Drawn to the Music —The Planets” featuring visuals by local students paired with Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” on Saturday, April 12, at 2 p.m. and Sunday, April 13, at 2 p.m. (with a livestream option for Sunday) at Seifert Performing Arts Center in Salem. Tickets cost $35 for adults, $30 for seniors, $10 for students. See nhphil.org.

Outdoor excitement

• Author Susie Spikol will come to Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Saturday, April 12, at 11 a.m. to discuss her new bookForest Magic for Kids: How to Find Fairies, Make a Secret Fort and Cook Up and Elfin Picnic. The book features “50+ magical activities for everything from finding hidden flower fairies in your own backyard and making a special wizard staff to creating a tiny woodland village and making your own forest potions,” according to a Gibson’s press release. Admission is free and no registration is required, the email said.

The Weekly Dish 25/04/10

News from the local food scene

• Cheers and farewell: WineNot Boutique in Nashua has announced on its website that it will close its doors later this year. Owner Svetlana Yanushkevich posted, “Starting this September, WineNot will no longer have a retail space, but we’re not going away! Instead, we’re expanding our experiences — bringing you special wine events, new collaborations with local businesses, curated travel adventures, and unique ways to stay connected.”

• Dining with experts: LaBelle Winery in Derry (14 Route 111; labellewinery.com) will host An Evening with America’s Test Kitchen Chefs, specifically Bridget Lancaster & Julia Collin Davison, on Thursday, April 10, at 5:30 p.m. The evening will include five courses, each paired with wine. Tickets cost $150 or $200 for VIP tickets.

• Greek Easter bake sale: The Assumption Greek Orthodox Church Ladies Philoptochos Society will hold an Easter Bake Sale on Saturday, April 12, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the church hall at 111 Island Pond Road in Manchester. Spinach peta, cheese peta, Greek cookies, Greek pastry and Easter bread will be available for sale. Quantities are limited. For information call the church office at 623-2045.

• Making fresh pasta: Learn to make Italian dishes from an expert chef at Angela’s Pasta, Cheese & Wine (815 Chestnut St., Manchester, angelaspastaandcheese.com). The next cooking class is Tuesday, April 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. Admission costs $95 per person; call 625-9544 to reserve a spot.

• Searching for the best chicken coop: The New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation (295 Sheep Davis Road, Concord, 224-1934, nhfarmbureau.org) is sponsoring a Chicken Coop Competition. Follow the link on the Federation’s website and submit your pictures of your coop along with a detailed description by April 30. Judging will be done by the professionals at NHFB, NOFA and Osborne’s Farm and Garden Center. Winners — one from each category — will be announced on May 2.

Treasure Hunt 25/04/10

Hello, Donna.

I saw someone had some dishes and asked you their worth. That prompted me to reach out and see if you have comments or information about this child’s rug that I inherited from my mother-in-law approximately 11 years ago. I don’t know how long she owned it or where it originated from. Also I’m wondering if you have a value you would suggest.

Your help and time are greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Lisa

Dear Lisa,

The hooked rug has a sweet subject!

Hooked rugs are tough to evaluate without a real visual on them. So my end suggestion is to bring it to a local antique shop. They will be able to approximately date it for you and tell you if it was hand hooked or machine done.

Age, subject and fine details all go into putting a value on them. I have seen even modern hooked rugs bring substantial value because of the work in them. But I’ve also seen modern machine-made ones in stores that look like older ones.

I think, Lisa, I would try to find out more information on whether it was handmade by your mother-in-law or someone in the family etc. If so, try to come close to when it was made. Then when you bring it to be evaluated you can provide that information to help.

It’s a sweet rug, Lisa, but a lot depends on whether it is older, newer, hand done, machine done, and made with newer materials or older ones.

Good luck in your hunt for information and let’s hope it is a treasure!

Donna

Note: Some of the best hooked rigs I have seen were hooked with rags from a homestead! Reusing everything is what you did then.

Donna Welch has spent more than 35 years in the antiques and collectibles field, appraising and instructing. Her new location is an Antique Art Studio located in Dunbarton, NH where she is still buying and selling. If you have questions about an antique or collectible send a clear photo and information to Donna at [email protected], or call her at 391-6550.

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