Album Reviews 22/05/26

Ghostkeeper, Multidimensional Culture (Victory Pool Records)

I suppose I wasn’t prepared for how much a band said to combine “elements of ‘60s girl-group melodies, country music, ‘90s indie rock, African pop, and traditional Aboriginal pow wow music” would come off like the soundtrack band from a late 1970s no-budget hippie-horror film, but there it is. I mean, I like this record overall (which means nothing, really; it won’t be getting into my summer mix CD rotation, to be sure); it’s probably good for one’s soul to hear a dude singer pontificating over a retro soul beat that’s decorated in Mellotron keyboards right out of Donovan during his peak acid-trip era. This quartet is from Calgary, Canada, but it’s not like anything you might be imagining; in fact the scene there does seem to be heavy into psychedelica and such. To cut to the chase, this is like Woodstock vibe retrofitted for Generation iPhone. It’s not annoying at all, which is all that’s needed in this zeitgeist as far as I’m concerned. A

Devil Master, Ecstasies Of Never Ending Night (Relapse Records)

By now you know how much I enjoy bragging about the endless promo releases that land on this desk. It doesn’t take much to get my full attention (and while I’m at it, if you’re in a local band that has an official release and wants a review in this space, really, send a message to my Facebook, it’s the only reliable method), but, as you’ve seen, I do tend to go for albums that have some sort of horror angle, like this one. That said, normally I ignore albums that are just schlocky, but in this case the title and concept (real devil worship) just hit me with a Stupid Stick, and here we are. The title track opens up this one with ’60s surf guitar more or less, and then comes the Raging Speedhorn-style doom-thrashing and all the other stuff that’s made Relapse my by-far-favorite indie metal label. The balance forward is prototypical death metal with an early Mastodon edge, with un-ironic titles like “Golgotha’s Cruel Song.” Beelzebub music done right. A

If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).

Lemon scones, two ways

This recipe has a choose-your-own-ending element to it. Some of you may want the sweeter lemon scones that are filled with white chocolate chips. Others may want a slightly tarter version with a lemon glaze. The nice part about this recipe is that it starts with the same base regardless of the ending you choose.

This recipe is simple, if you read it thoroughly before beginning. Each option has specific steps and ingredients that are required. Nothing crazy but just slight differences for shopping and cooking. The only key thing for both versions is that you purchase lemons. Bottled lemon juice doesn’t have enough acidity. Plus, you need the lemon zest for an extra bite of flavor.

Whatever option you choose, you are going to end up with a delicious treat!

Lemon scones, two ways
Makes 8

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
5 Tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, diced
3/4 cup buttermilk*
1 large egg yolk
2 Tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Option A
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
2 teaspoons sugar
Option B
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
Add butter.
Combine dry ingredients using a pastry blender (or two forks) until butter is reduced to the size of grains of rice.
Whisk buttermilk, egg yolk, lemon juice and extracts in a 2-cup liquid measuring cup or small bowl.
Add liquids to dry ingredients; mix until dough forms a ball. (You may not need to add all of the liquid.)
OPTION A: Stir in white chocolate chips. OPTION B: Skip to next step.
Place dough on a lightly floured surface and press into an 8-inch round. Cut into 8 wedges.
OPTION A: Sprinkle with 2 Tablespoons sugar. OPTION B: Skip to next step.
Transfer wedges to rimmed cookie sheet.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the scones are crusty on top and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
OPTION A: Serve warm. OPTION B: Cool slightly on a wire rack.
Combine powdered sugar and remaining lemon juice.
Coat top of scones with glaze.

Featured Photo: Lemon scones, two ways. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler.

Wines for barbecuing

What to pair with cooking and eating outdoors

Memorial Day weekend! Seems like just yesterday we were still blowing snow, but now the heat is upon us. Temperatures and the pollen count are rising, but after our long, cold winters it is time to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. What better way to do that than to barbeque our favorites: beef, pork, chicken, fish, vegetables and, yes, fruit! Everything tastes better when cooked and eaten outdoors! And we welcome the opportunity to try out new marinades, toppings, recipes.

While your food is on the grill, you need something to “wet your whistle.” I suggest something light and summery. Our first wine fits that description perfectly. The 2020 Ruffino Lumina Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie,available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, originally priced at $11.99 and reduced to $8.99, is a medium-bodied, lively and elegant Italian white wine. Made from grapes harvested in the vineyards of Delle Venezie, northeastern Italy, this wine offers delicious flavors of crisp golden apple, citrus and pear. Ruffino’s status was well-established when its Chianti won awards in the fourth quarter of the 19th century. This wine carries on that reputation by Ruffino’s sourcing premium grapes, combined with traditional wine-making processes of fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. Chilled, this wine can be sipped alone or paired with light fare such as prosciutto, cheese, a bruschetta or a light salad.

Our next wine, the 2021 Joel Gott California Sauvignon Blanc, available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, originally $13.99 and reduced to $10.99, is the perfect complement to grilled shrimp, scallops, swordfish, or marinated and grilled chicken and vegetables. The wine has a bright straw color. Citric notes greet the nose, along with other fruit — melons and peaches. On the palate, bright tropical notes appear with strong acidity, followed by a crisp finish of sweet red grapefruit. The 100 percent sauvignon blanc grapes come from Sonoma and Lake counties to Monterey and Santa Barbara. Why the diverse vineyard locations? According to the Joel Gott website, Sonoma vineyards offer flavor and complexity, Lake vineyard offer citric notes, and Monterey tropical notes. Santa Barbara grapes offer minerality, and this blending of grapes across hundreds of miles produces a balanced, food-friendly wine.

For those who are drawn to red wines rather than white, a bottle of Beaujolais, made from the gamay grape, is the wine to pair with grilled chicken, hamburgers, grilled pork, sausage, salmon or tuna.The 2018 Robert Debuissson Beaujolais-Villages, available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, originally $16.99 and reduced to $8.99, is a wine that can work with a wide variety of entrees. In the glass the color is a deep cherry red with slight purple tints. To the nose the wine is fresh with strawberries and cherries. The fruit persists on the tongue with a lightness that allows it to pair well with rich, oily fish such as salmon and tuna or grilled chicken and still be bold enough to be paired to hamburgers. This is a fruity wine with light tannins and a soft texture that is somewhat lower in alcoholic content than more robust reds.

For steak-lovers there is no better match than a wine from Bordeaux. The 2016 Château La Gorre Cru Bourgeois from Medoc, originally priced at $49.99 and reduced to $23.99, is a superb blend of 60 percent merlot, 35 percent cabernet sauvignon and 5 percent petit verdot. The color is ruby red; there is rich, deep blackberry, plum and cherries on the nose with more fruit, leather, and spice on the tongue. The right amount of tannins from aging on oak makes this a balanced bottle of wine, but these tannins dictate the bottle should be decanted a couple of hours in advance to allow it to open. This is a great wine to be drunk now or cellared to be enjoyed with that steak in a couple of years.

Warming weather begs us to get out and barbecue. Plan your meal, pick your entrée, and pair some great wine to be quaffed while cooking, along with more wine to pair with what is being served. Enjoy

Featured photo. Courtesy photo.

In the kitchen with Rylan Hill

Rylan Hill is the head chef of New Hampshire Pizza Co. (76 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2125, newhampshirepizzaco.com), which opened in downtown Concord in January. With the overall focus of highlightling locally produced ingredients, the full-service dine-in restaurant features brick-oven artisan pizzas as its centerpiece, along with house appetizers, salads, brunch items and desserts like homemade gelatos, ice creams and sorbets. It’s the latest venture of longtime Concord restaurateur Joel Harris of Dos Amigos Burritos — he opened that eatery’s first location in Portsmouth in 2003 before coming to the Capital City four years later. Hill, who grew up in Somersworth, worked stints at each of the Dos Amigos locations over the years prior to taking over the kitchen of New Hampshire Pizza Co., creating the entire menu and building relationships with local farms along the way.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

A chef’s knife. I believe I have about 15 knives now, ranging from utility and paring all the way up to a cleaver.

What would you have for your last meal?

That’s the hardest question ever. … I guess I would chalk it up to a hot tin roof sundae. Just your standard couple of scoops of ice cream, with hot fudge, whipped cream, walnuts and a cherry.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

Industry East in Manchester. I love that place. I’ve had a bunch of their flatbreads and whatever they’ve had on special a few times. Last time I went, I had a braised octopus tentacle and, man, that was good. … Lemon Thai, also in Manchester, is great. I think they have some of the best Thai food in New Hampshire.

What celebrity would you like to see eating at New Hampshire Pizza Co.?

I have three right off the top of my head. Anthony Bourdain, absolutely. Also I would say Jack Black, and then … I kind of consider these guys one unit, but the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. … Those guys are geniuses.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

The pan-fried pork chop, which uses the pork from Brookford Farm [in Canterbury]. … I made that one night for dinner, and then the next day I ended up going back to get more pork chops and doing it again for a second night because it was so good. So as an appetizer, that was something that I really wanted to bring on every day. … I would say that, and then I’m also a sucker for the margherita pizza.

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

Mini things, like mini cupcakes, doughnuts and stuff like that. … If I were to be broad, I would say just doughnuts, flat out. I’ve been noticing a lot more of the small doughnut shops opening and they’re doing all these crazy doughnut flavors.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Anything breakfast, or ramen. Those are two things that you can do a thousand different ways.

Basil pesto
From the kitchen of Rylan Hill of New Hampshire Pizza Co. in Concord

¼ cup toasted pine nuts
2 bunches basil (approximately 4 cups), stems and all
½ cup grated Parmesan
1 cup grated pecorino
2 garlic cloves
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons sea salt
1¼ cups extra virgin olive oil

In a medium saucepan, toast your pine nuts on low heat, stirring occasionally until golden. In a food processor, pulse your pine nuts, garlic cloves, lemon juice and lemon zest to a paste. Add half the amount of basil and sea salt, and ¼ cup of olive oil, pulsing until smooth. Add the remaining basil and pulse until smooth. Add the Parmesan and pecorino and blend on high, while slowly adding the rest of your olive oil. Once smooth and creamy, you can enjoy it right away.

Featured photo: Rylan Hill. Courtesy photo.

Sips, sweets and savory eats

Taste of the Region returns to Derry

After a successful outdoor event in 2021, the Greater Derry Londonderry Chamber of Commerce’s signature Taste of the Region is moving back inside the Tupelo Music Hall for the first time in three years. The event returns on Thursday, June 2, and will feature a variety of sweet and savory items from area restaurants, plus drink samples from breweries and wineries.

Several businesses, mostly from Derry and a few surrounding towns, offer samples to vie for your vote in at least one of three categories — “savory,” “sips” or “sweets.” Each vendor can opt to participate in one, two or all three of them, said Chamber president Ashley Haseltine.

“The vendors … are really excited to participate,” she said. “I think this event gives us a great opportunity to highlight the diversity in the region that’s available, and also just to spread the word that these restaurants are open and looking forward to reengaging with the community.”

Upon paying the entry fee, attendees will receive access to all of the food and drink samples that will be on display. This year’s participating vendors include a combination of returning and new faces to the local dining scene, in addition to some previous Taste of the Region champions. Destination India Bar & Restaurant, which opened its doors on East Broadway in early 2021, won last year’s “savory” category for its chicken tikka masala and mixed vegetable curry. They’ll be back this year, Haseltine said, along with Rig A Tony’s Italian Takeout, the winner of last year’s “sweets” category for its eclectic dessert spread of cookies, whoopie pies and more.

Other returning vendors will include Clam Haven, also owned by Rig A Tony’s founder Lisa DeSisto; Casa Java Cafe, which has in the past featured freshly baked cookies; and Rockingham Brewing Co. and Zorvino Vineyards, both of which have many of their own popular pours.

New participants include One Happy Clam, a food truck operated by former longtime Clam Haven owner and Derry native Rick Metts. He’ll be parked right outside the main entrance to the venue, Haseltine said. This will also be the first Taste of the Region for Messy Mike’s Barbecue, a food trailer and catering company known for its slow-smoked meats, fresh sides and house sauces.

During the tasting, attendees are invited to vote for their favorite item in each of the three categories. If you especially like what you try, most of the vendors will also be selling discounts on gift certificates and merchandise in addition to their provided samples.

Taste of the Region
When: Thursday, June 2, 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry
Cost: $35 admittance per person (includes full access to food and drink tastings; tickets are available both in advance online and at the door, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the Kyle B. Ross Memorial Scholarship Fund)
Visit: gdlchamber.org
Masks are recommended but not required.

Participating food and beverage vendors
• Bellavance Beverage Co. (bellavancebev.com)
• Casa Java Cafe (casajavacafe.com)
• Clam Haven (clamhaven.com)
• Destination India Restaurant & Bar (destinationindianh.com)
• Messy Mike’s Barbecue & Catering (messymikesbbq.com)
• One Happy Clam Food Truck (find them on Facebook @onehappyclam)
• Rig A Tony’s Italian Takeout (rigatonysitalian.com)
• Rockingham Brewing Co. (rockinghambrewing.com)
• Windham Terrace Assisted Living (windhamterrace.com)
• Zorvino Vineyards (zorvino.com)
More vendors are expected to be confirmed soon.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 22/05/26

News from the local food scene

• Jewish feasts: Online ordering opens on Wednesday, June 1, for Temple B’Nai Israel’s 25th annual New Hampshire Jewish Food Festival, which is being held virtually once again this year. From June 1 to June 30, you can visit tbinh.org and order from the temple’s menu of traditional Jewish-style foods, most of which feature recipes that have been handed down multiple generations. Offerings will include sandwiches with corned beef, pastrami and tongue from Evan’s New York Style Deli in Marblehead, Mass., served on seeded and unseeded rye bread from Laconia Village Bakery. They’ll be available for individual orders as well as in custom deli sandwich “picnic packs” with coleslaw, pickles, deli mustard and rugelach. New this year are two Middle Eastern items — halva, a sweet treat available in vanilla, marble or pistachio flavors, and a homemade Israeli salad with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and onions in a lemon dressing. Other options have included matzo ball soups, crispy potato latkes, New York-style knishes and hamantaschen (triangular-shaped filled cookies), available in three flavors. All online orders will be available for pickup by appointment at Temple B’Nai Israel (210 Court St., Laconia) between Friday, July 22, and Sunday, July 24. Visit tbinh.org.

• May the best chowder win: Heading up north this Memorial Day weekend? You might want to check out Waterville Valley Resort’s 32nd annual Chowderfest, happening on Sunday, May 29, from noon to 2:30 p.m. at the Waterville Valley town square (33 Village Road, Waterville Valley). Several area restaurants will be vying for your palate to win the coveted title of best local chowder. A full schedule of live local music is also planned out on the town square’s gazebo. Chowderfest admission is $7.50 for adults and $5 for kids ages 12 and under — the fee covers samples of each participating chowder as well as a voting ballot. Visit waterville.com.

• Making a difference: The Common Man restaurant group of New Hampshire has launched the Common Man Ukraine Relief Fund to benefit Ukrainian refugees and assist with relief efforts in Poland and surrounding countries. According to a press release, the fund has committed to matching up to $1 million in donations. Earlier this month, Common Man owner and founder Alex Ray also traveled overseas to meet with Polish and Ukrainian Rotary representatives and other agencies working to provide relief to Ukrainian refugees who are fleeing the ongoing war in their home country. According to the release, in partnership with Granite United Way, the Common Man has been part of a New Hampshire-based effort to bring relief to Ukraine. Most recently, they’ve begun offering their restaurants as collection sites for donations of critical supplies. Donations to the relief fund can be made online at thecman.com, or by texting CMAN4UKRAINE to 41444. One hundred percent of the donations will be directed to relief efforts in Ukraine, the release said.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!