France is unarguably and immediately associated with food and superbly diverse beverages. It is the third largest country in Europe, surpassed only by Russia and Ukraine, and it has a climate as broad as its size. From the mountainous Alps, where the Rhône River originates, to the low flat countryside abutting Belgium where beer is the preferred beverage, to the cool air along the shores of Normandy, with its orchards producing Cidre de Normandie, and to the warm tropical sun of the Mediterranean, where hearty red wines abound, there are 307 wine designations (called AOP or Appellation d’Origine Protégée) and each can allow for several different types of wine (red, rosé, sparkling, etc.). When you put it all into perspective, France delivers approximately 2,900 different wines, not considering the many thousands of wineries.
So it comes as no surprise we can sample two very different wines that hail from the central region of France in Burgundy and the warm climate of the lower Rhone River valley, wines made from grapes grown a little more than 200 miles apart.
Our first wine is light and bright and hails from Beaune in the southern reaches of Burgundy. Louis Jadot 2019 Beaujolais-Villages (priced at $12.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets) is a wine from the region that is known for its pinot noirs. However, this is a wine made exclusively from the gamay grape. Beaujolais are among the wines with lower alcoholic content at 13 percent and became popular decades ago as a selection in the bistros of Paris. This wine can be considered a “middle ground” between Beaujolais Nouveau, which must be consumed within a year of its vinification, and Beaujolais Cru, made from superior grapes to cellar for a few years.
Louis Jadot, founded in 1859, produces its Beaujolais by adding grapes from 10 famed Beaujolais Cru villages of a total of 38 villages about the walled town of Beaune in the Cote d’Or region of Burgundy. The area’s granite and sandy subsoils contain a high percentage of manganese, which produces an especially deep and rich expression of gamay. The wine has a fruit-forward aroma of strawberries and black cherries that carries through on the tongue. It is medium-bodied with a fresh, juicy character, with good weight to the palate. This is a young wine and should be drunk within five years of bottling.
Traveling just a little over 200 miles south along two of France’s major arteries, A6 and A7, linking Paris to Lyon, and farther along at Orange, known as the autoroutes du Soleil (Motorways of the Sun), we find ourselves not 40 miles from the Mediterranean coast. Château Beauchêne Côtes du Rhône Grande Réserve 2019 (priced at $13.99 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets) is a wine rich in history, variety and complexity.
Owned by Michel Bernard, Chateau Beauchene is in Piolenc, four miles north of Orange. His family has been here since the 17th century as tenant farmers who profited from the social upheavals of the French Revolution, purchasing their first vineyard in 1794. Today the Chateau is the home of the winemaking and cultivation of the family’s vineyards, now accounting for almost 175 acres. Chateau Beauchene produces four white and rose wines, three Châteauneuf-du-Pape Rouge wines and four Côtes du Rhône Rouge Wines. This Côtes du Rhône is a complex blend of 30 percent grenache, 35 percent syrah, 23 percent mourvèdre, 8 percent marselen, and 4 percent carignon, with an alcoholic content of 14.5 percent. It has an intense garnet red color and a nose of red, ripe plums and black currant, along with a hint of spice. Subtle tannins accompany the long finish. This is not a sipping wine but one to be enjoyed with beef carpaccio, lamb or hearty cheeses. Like the Beaujolais, this wine is to be drunk within five years.
These two young wines, generated about 200 miles apart, have extremely different styles, color, nose and taste. The Beaujolais can be sipped in the afternoon, while the Côtes du Rhône can be enjoyed later in the day, alongside a hearty dinner. The differences are immediately recognizable and are to be enjoyed.
Gary “Diz” Window of Manchester is the head chef and owner of Diz’s Cafe (860 Elm St., Manchester, 606-2532, dizscafe.com), a downtown restaurant offering scratch-made comfort foods and home-cooked meals that opened in late May. Diz’s Cafe’s offerings includes appetizers, soups and salads, burgers and sandwiches, and entrees like meatloaf, chicken Parmesan and fish & chips, as well as a customizable “build-your-own” menu of at least one protein and up to three fresh sides, from Brussels sprouts to cauliflower rice. An industry veteran, Window got his start at the former Angelo’s Italian Restaurant on Hanover Street at the age of 16, first as a dishwasher and later as a line cook. He would go on to graduate from UNH with a degree in hotel administration and work at several other establishments in New Hampshire and Maine over the years. Diz’s Cafe is his first restaurant.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
The steam kettle. We need it to make the cheese sauce for our macaroni and cheese … [and] we cook the cauliflower rice in it.
What would you have for your last meal?
A grilled rib-eye steak and Brussels sprouts, with a craft beer.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
Piccola [Italia Ristorante in Manchester]. I’ll usually get a chicken Parm there.
What celebrity would you like to see eating in your restaurant?
It will never happen, but for me, it would be Eric Clapton. More reasonably, I think, would be Adam Sandler.
What is your favorite thing on your menu?
I’ll go with the Southwest chicken sandwich, which is one of our top sellers. You have the Sriracha cream, the guacamole, the bacon and the fried chicken, and it just kind of all goes together.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right nw?
I would say it’s that people are really interested in knowing what they’re putting in their body now more than ever. … One of the things we do here is really try to accommodate everyone’s dietary wishes, [like] keto or vegetarian.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
I really enjoy cooking outside on the grill, like steak tips, marinated chicken, asparagus, that kind of stuff. … We’re getting to the end of the season for that, but we usually go as long as we can until there’s snow.
Homemade guacamole From the kitchen of Gary “Diz” Window of Diz’s Cafe in Manchester 12 avocados 1½ cups onions, diced 1 tablespoon garlic, minced ½ cup cilantro, chopped ½ cup lime juice ¼ cup jalapenos, minced ½ cup tomatoes, diced Salt to taste Combine all ingredients except avocados and mix thoroughly by hand. Add avocados and mash.
Food & Drink
Summer farmers markets • Concord Farmers Market is Saturdays, from 8:30 a.m. to noon, on Capitol Street in Concord (near the Statehouse), now through Oct. 31. Visit concordfarmersmarket.com. • Contoocook Farmers Market is Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to noon, at 896 Main St. in Contoocook, outdoors through Oct. 31. Find them on Facebook @contoocookfarmersmarket for updates. • Milford Farmers Market is Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 300 Elm St. in Milford (across the street from the New Hampshire Antique Co-op), now through Nov. 21. Visit milfordnhfarmersmarket.com. • Salem Farmers Market is Sundays, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Salem Marketplace (224 N. Broadway). Visit salemnhfarmersmarket.org.
Annapurna Curry & Sekuwa House opens in Manchester
Chicken chili. Photo courtesy of Annapurna Curry & Sekuwa House.
A new eatery offering authentic Nepalese and Indian dishes — from momos and curries to harder-to-find options like sekuwa, or skewered meat with aromatic spices — has opened in Manchester.
Annapurna Curry & Sekuwa House is a full-service restaurant and bar that opened its doors on Oct. 17 in the former space of the Glow Bar on Hanover St.
According to chef and co-owner Joshua Ghising, Annapurna gets its name from the series of mountain peaks in the Himalayas in north-central Nepal, not far from the district where he was born. After several years working in Indian and Nepalese restaurants, Ghising, who moved to the United States in 2018, said he was encouraged to open his own by several friends and family members who loved his cooking. He found the space that would become Annapurna in late 2019 and began renovations the following February.
“[The menu is] … a combination of Nepalese and Indian food,” Ghising said. “We have tandoori, chicken tikka masala [and] madras. … That is all Indian food, and then for Nepalese food, we have momos and sekuwa.”
Momos, or Nepalese dumplings, are available per orders of 10, steamed or fried and stuffed with chicken, pork or vegetables. Chicken and pork momos also come with a tomato sesame sauce. Other appetizer options include chicken, beef or vegetable chow mein; spicy Nepalese style beef or chili with onion, green pepper and tomato; aaloodam (fried and boiled potatoes with spices); and marinated chicken wings or deep-fried pork ribs with a garlic-ginger paste.
Sekuwa, which can be prepared with chicken, pork, goat or any mixed combination of the three, is one of the dishes unique to Annapurna, according to Ghising.
“Sekuwa is very famous in Nepal,” he said. “We marinate [the meat] with typical Nepalese spices … and then we grill it.”
Annapurna also offers a half-dozen types of biryani (meats or veggies served over basmati rice with cashews and cilantro) and naan, or handmade leavened white bread. In addition to plain naan, there’s a garlic naan with herbs and spices, a stuffed naan with potatoes and spiced herbs, and a sweet peshwari naan stuffed with coconut.
Many of the eatery’s main course dishes feature some variation of chicken, lamb, goat, seafood or vegetable curry. They can be ordered in a thick curry sauce (including with boneless chicken or goat chunks, or jumbo shrimp); korma, or a house sauce with cashews, almonds and light cream; and madras, a hot coconut, red chili and hot mustard sauce with ginger and fresh herbs.
Annapurna has some sweeter menu items, too. The lassi, for instance, is a smoothie-like drink featuring yogurt, milk and sugar that’s blended with mangos, bananas and strawberries. On the dessert menu, items include mango- or chocolate-flavored ice cream; gulab jamun, which feature milk dumplings soaked in rose-flavored sugar syrup; and ras malai, or fried milk pastries that are soaked in honey and saffron.
A full bar is in the rear of the restaurant, featuring four beers on tap and several more available by the bottle, as well as a few wines and mixed drinks. Ghising said takeout orders are also accepted, with free deliveries within a four-mile radius.
Annapurna Curry & Sekuwa House Where: 123 Hanover St., Manchester Hours: Daily, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., and 5 to 9:30 p.m. (open until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday) More info: Visit annapurnahouse.com, find them on Facebook @annapurnacsh or call 232-7145
Featured photo: Pork sekuwa. Photo courtesy of Annapurna Curry & Sekuwa House.
Cocktails and mocktails created for flavor-seekers of all ages
The Dad: A new father does a fair bit of daydreaming in the early days, largely about the bonding experiences he hopes to have with his kid as they grow up — going to football games, field-dressing a deer, rebuilding a carburetor — that sort of thing.
Life often takes a jagged left turn, though, and for men like me at least, those stereotypical father-child moments are more elusive than you’d think. Being the sort of man I am, and the excellent but offbeat teenager my child has grown into, most of these experiences are off the table.
We are vegetarians and ambivalent about the outdoors, so the deer are probably safe.
Someone reminded me the other day that cars don’t even have carburetors anymore, which is frankly a relief, because I’m not sure what a carburetor is, though it sounds vaguely threatening.
And the closest The Teen and I would ever get to the going-to-a-game experience would be if we could score tickets to an off-Broadway, all-drag reboot of The Music Man.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is that you take your bonding experiences where you can find them.
Which is why I was happily gob-smacked recently when The Teen asked if they could make me a cocktail. I suggested that they make a non-alcoholic one, so they could taste it as they went along and develop something that they liked too. This led to several actual back-and-forth conversations and a week-long project that involved a frankly stunning lack of eye-rolling and muttering under the breath on both our parts.
These are the results of that project: The Teen has developed a set of non-alcoholic beverages, which I have then adapted for more adult tastes.
The Teen: There’s this idea that non-alcoholic drinks shouldn’t be super-complicated or fancy and I don’t like that because I am both super-complicated and fancy. There’s so much culture built around bars and drinking that I don’t think other types of drinks should be ignored. Non-alcoholic drinks should have a certain sophistication, a certain je ne sais quoi to them. I have tried to make drinks that are delicious and have a sense of style to them.
The Drinks
Non-Alcoholic Cocktail No. 1: Whispers of Ogygia
Whispers of Ogygia. Photo Courtesy of John Fladd.
½ oz. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
½ oz. non-alcoholic blue curacao
½ oz. simple syrup
2 sprigs (~ 1.5 grams) fresh mint
5 ¼-inch slices (~ 25 grams) cucumber
6 ice cubes
3 oz. extremely bubbly sparkling water, like Topo Chico Mineral Water
1. Add the first six ingredients to a cocktail shaker. (I like the kind with the built-in strainer in the top.) Shake until very cold.
2. Strain into a rocks glass, over more ice.
3. Add the sparkling water and stir gently.
4. Garnish with a cucumber wheel.
The Teen: This drink has a very islandy/oceany feel to it. The color is sort of a bougie Mediterranean blue. In Greek myths Ogygia was the island where the nymph Calypso was exiled. It’s the island where Odysseus was shipwrecked. This drink tastes sweet and fresh and windy, in a way. The citrus of the lemon is a good bridge between the cucumber and the mint.
Dad’s Alcoholic Riff No. 1 – Calypso’s Icy Gaze
Calypso’s Icy Gaze. Photo Courtesy of John Fladd.
The Dad: Greek myths are really rough on women. Calypso was imprisoned on Ogygia because her father was the titan Atlas, who had opposed the gods. Calypso herself wasn’t involved; this is just the sort of thing that happened to female relatives of jerks in the myths. (If you really feel like shaking your fist at the gods, look up what they did to Pasiphaë.)
According to The Odyssey, Odysseus was shipwrecked on Ogygia and Calypso found him so beautiful that she kept him there for years, before he managed to “escape.” Clearly, we are relying on his version of events here.
Calypso is not here for your nonsense.
2-3 sprigs (1.5-2 grams) fresh mint
4 slices (~25 grams) cucumber
1 oz. lemon juice
1½ oz. very cold vodka
A “slip” of traditional, alcoholic blue curacao
~ 1 oz. dry ice (optional, but highly cool)
1. Muddle the cucumber and mint in the bottom of a cocktail shaker.
2. Add ice, lemon juice and vodka. Shake vigorously. (I like to shake it really hard, until I hear the ice splinter. A lot of bartenders will tell you that this is not a good idea, because the ice fragments will dilute your drink too much, but that’s actually the effect we’re going for here.)
3. Strain into a martini glass. (See below.)
4. Pour a “slip” of blue curacao down the side of the glass. It will puddle in the bottom and give this drink a blue/green layered look.
5. Smile and take a picture of the drink, because it looks extremely fancy.
6a. At this point you can drink this and have a perfectly civilized cocktail. It will start out a little acidic and bracing from the lemon juice, then get sweeter as you work your way down to the blue curacao. If you would like it a little sweeter, add a tiny bit more curacao. The term “slip” is extremely vague and bartenders tend to use it as a code for “Use your own judgment.”
6b. If you decide to add dramatic flair to this cocktail, add a nugget of dry ice to it. It will bubble and churn and mist will flow over the side of the glass, making it a very good drink for Halloween. The bubbling and churning will mix the drink, turning it a very assertive green. Like the will of Calypso. [Editor’s note: Dry ice in cocktails is a whole to-do that requires some dry ice education and safety steps so that it doesn’t cause injury. The Betty Crocker website (bettycrocker.com) offers a good explanation.]
A note on cocktail strainers: There are all sorts of devices designed to help a home drink-maker strain a cocktail. The traditional tool involves hooks and a spring and intimidates me. Some cocktail shakers have an internal strainer in them. I find it takes a long time to strain some drinks through one of these. Recently, I have started using an inexpensive strainer that is designed to fit over the drain in a kitchen sink. It is extremely inexpensive, it works well, it is easy to clean, and it fits exactly over the rim of a martini glass.
Non-Alcoholic Cocktail No. 2 – A Cascade of Roses
A Cascade of Roses. Photo courtesy of John Fladd.
The Teen: At first, I wanted to make a drink that was similar to a Cherry Airhead, one of those really sour candies. I really like a combination of sweet and sour. Getting this right was a long and arduous process of mixing and drinking and mixing and drinking and mixing and drinking. I used citric acid because it seemed like a good way of getting the sour flavor I was looking for without adding any liquid. It ended up a little intense, but the seltzer spread the flavor out a lot and gave it some sparkle.
When I was done making this, I wanted a name that referenced its rosy red color, so I decided to call it “A Cascade of Roses.” After thinking about it a while, I decided to add rose water to make the flavor more rosy. Rose water can be tricky to use, but six drops is just about enough. I think it adds a subtle, background flavor.
1 oz. cherry syrup – as artificial as possible
½ oz. maraschino cherry juice
¾ teaspoon citric acid (available in many grocery stores this time of year, because of canning, or online)
6 ice cubes
6 drops rose water
5 oz. plain seltzer
Maraschino cherries for garnish
1. Combine the first five ingredients in a shaker. Shake until mixed and cold – about a minute.
2. Pour into a wine glass.
3. Add seltzer and stir gently.
4. Garnish with maraschino cherries.
Dad’s Alcoholic Riff No. 2 – Les Cerises du Roi
Les Cerises du Roi. Photo courtesy of John Fladd.
The Dad: I love the idea of a deeply cherry-flavored cocktail. The trick is to try to avoid making it taste too much like candy. In the end, I had some good luck in making my own cherry syrup (see below), but the resulting drink was a little bit frou-frou. After thinking it over, I decided to reclassify it in my mind as “rococo” and really embrace the over-the-top effeteness of it.
1 oz. homemade cherry syrup
1 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
1 oz. kirsch
3 oz. plain seltzer
Upscale cocktail cherries for garnish
1. Shake the first three ingredients in a cocktail shaker, with ice.
2. Pour into an extremely froofy glass – the froofiest you can find.
3. Add seltzer and stir gently.
4. Garnish with several upscale cocktail cherries. I like the Bada Bing brand.
Cherry Syrup:
1 part (by weight) frozen cherries (the ice crystals in the cherries will break up the cell walls and give you more juice)
1 part (by weight) sugar
(A pound of frozen cherries and ¾ cup sugar will give you ~1½ cups of syrup.)
1. Put the cherries and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. As the cherries start to thaw, they will start giving off juice. Stir to combine.
2. When the cherries are thoroughly warmed up, mash them with a potato masher. It won’t matter if they have pits in them. The masher is a democratic tool and will mash any fruit regardless of its pit status.
3. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sugar is completely dissolved – three to four minutes.
4. Strain into a jar, label and store in your refrigerator.
Non-Alcoholic Cocktail No. 3 – Reverse Hot Chocolate
Reverse Hot Chocolate. Photo courtesy of John Fladd.
The Teen: This was not my idea. I want no part of this.
The Dad: I am a passionate ice cream maker. One of my favorite flavors of ice cream from when I was a kid is peppermint stick. It’s really hard to find anymore, so once a year or so I make my own. As I cook the base for the ice cream, dissolving peppermint candies in milk and cream, I always think how much I would like to drink a cup of it on a rainy fall day —never mind the ice cream.
This is a spin on that.
2 cups whole milk
1 cup half and half
75 g. crushed starlight mint candies (about 15 candies, once you’ve unwrapped them)
1. Unwrap and crush the candies. I use a hand-held vegetable chopper – the type with the plunger on top that you pound with your fist, often with a wild look in your eyes. If you decide to use your food processor to chop these up, you might want to freeze the candies first, so the dust doesn’t heat up too much in your food processor and get gummy and inconvenient.
2. Add all three ingredients to a small saucepan and heat until the candy fragments have dissolved, but before the mixture boils (about 200 degrees). It will turn a delicate shade of shell-pink.
3. Pour into mugs and serve.
Makes two to three servings.
Dad’s Alcoholic Riff On His Own Drink – Pink Cocoa
Pink Cocoa. Photo courtesy of John Fladd.
The Dad: The classic sitting-around-in-a-ski-lodge-with-your-leg-in-a-cast drink is hot cocoa, with a generous slug of peppermint schnapps in it. I’ve taken that and turned it on its head. This is a mug of hot peppermint, with a generous slug of chocolate in it.
10 oz. Reverse Hot Chocolate (see above)
1 oz. chocolate vodka (see below)
½ oz. crème de cacao
1. Add all three ingredients to a mug.
2. Stir.
3. Drink and pretend to be classy.
Chocolate Vodka
750 ml 80-proof bottom-shelf vodka (The chocolate flavors of the finished infusion will cover any subtle flavors you might get from an up-market vodka. You will be filtering this, which will largely remove any rough flavors from your discount vodka. Save your money for all the frou-frou, exotic ingredients The Teen and I have asked you to buy for our other recipes.)
½ cup (about 2 oz.) roasted cocoa nibs
1. Combine in a large jar with an airtight lid. If you worry about such things, place a small piece of wax paper between the mouth of the jar and the lid.
2. Shake vigorously.
3. Store somewhere cool and dark for four days. I put it on top of the freezer in our basement laundry room. That way, I remember to shake the jar every time I go downstairs to switch the laundry over or get something from the freezer.
4. Oh, yeah — shake two or three times per day.
5. After four days, filter into a bottle, through a coffee filter in a funnel. This will take longer than you think, so just walk away and let the filter do its job. It knows what it’s doing. If you stand there, watching it, you will be tempted to play around with it. You’ll probably want to do this in stages. Just walk away and watch a round of The Great British Baking Show or something, then come back and pour a little more into your filter, until you’ve filtered the whole jar.
6. Make sure to label your bottle.
Non-Alcoholic Cocktail No. 4 – Unnamed Passion Fruit Beverage
Unnamed Passion Fruit Beverage. Photo courtesy of John Fladd.
The Teen: I really like the flavor of passion fruit. I like how sour it is but still mouth-wateringly fruity. That is my favorite combination of flavors in the whole world. Passion fruit has a juicy quality that just exactly suits me. I’ve tried to make this drink passion fruit-forward, but not soda-like.
5 oz. passion fruit green tea, iced (I like Lipton’s Orange Passionfruit Jasmine Green Tea, made with four tea bags per pitcher.)
1 oz. fresh-squeezed lime juice
½ oz. simple syrup
5 ice cubes
1 oz. commercial passion fruit cocktail (This is something you have walked past a zillion times in the supermarket, but you’ve probably never noticed. It comes in a cardboard container. It’s in the fruit juice aisle at the store, probably on the top shelf, with pear nectar and stuff.)
1. Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake until extremely cold. This may dilute the drink a little, but that is what you’re going for here — subtlety, Dad!
2. Pour into a Collins glass, perhaps with extra ice.
3. Drink this on the porch, with tasty snacks.
Dad’s Alcoholic Riff No. 4 – “What Are They Going To Do? Fire Me?”
“What Are They Going To Do? Fire Me?” Photo courtesy of John Fladd.
The Dad: The Teen has opted for subtlety in their final drink. That’s marvelous. There is a time for gentle and subtle. Like a delicate butterfly lighting on your finger.
Other times call for a brute confrontation with Reality. Like an angry buzzard crashing into you from a great height.
This is one of those drinks. It should be drunk in the largest, most garish glass you have. That shrunken-head tiki glass you thought was so cool on vacation that time, that you’ve never used? Break that baby out. It’s game time.
4 oz. passion fruit cocktail
2 oz. dark rum. I like Myers’ for this.
1 oz. crème de banana (Because bananas and passion fruit get along very well, like friends who often make questionable decisions together.)
3 oz. plain seltzer
lime wedge for garnish
1. Add passion fruit cocktail, rum, crème de banana, and ice to a cocktail shaker. It doesn’t really matter how you are shaking this particular drink, but if you’ve chosen this one, you’ll probably be in the mood to be pretty brutal about it.
2. Pour into your large, garish glass.
3.Add the seltzer and stir gently, if you can.
4. Garnish with a lime wedge and maybe a paper umbrella, if your trembling fingers allow.
• Fired up:Learn to make fire cider at the Beaver Brook Nature Center’s Brown Lane Barn (52 Brown Lane, Hollis) during one of two workshops on either Thursday, Nov. 5, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., or Sunday, Nov. 8, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Fire cider is a New England traditional remedy and preventive medicine made with apple cider, honey, garlic, onions, ginger and horseradish, an immune stimulant that’s also a great added flavor to salads, stir-fries and veggies. Participants of each class will learn the history of vinegar and honey remedies, then taste and make fire cider to take home. Ingredients are provided — you bring your own grater, cutting board, knife, vegetable peeler and measuring cup. Masks or face coverings are required. The cost is $22 for Beaver Brook Association members and $25 for non-members. Visit beaverbrook.org.
• Bowlful of deliciousness: A new takeout eatery offering made-to-order rice and pasta bowls prepared with fresh ingredients is now open on Manchester’s east side. Bowlful held its grand opening on Oct. 20, in a takeout kitchen space inside Nickles Market (1536 Candia Road, Manchester). Its menu consists of various rice and pasta bowls inspired by the travels of owner Gerard “Jay” Desmarais — there’s a cilantro lime rice bowl with chipotle black beans, green chili corn, fresh salsa and sour cream and the option to add either chicken or shrimp; a bacon fried rice bowl with broccoli, a teriyaki glaze and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, also with the chicken or shrimp option; and a ground pork bibimbap bowl with sauteed mushrooms, carrot ribbons, sweet sesame sauce and a drizzle of Sriracha. Other non-rice options include a macaroni and cheese bowl, and a spicy pork sausage bowl with spaghetti noodles and a garlic butter broccoli saute. Bowlful is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Visit thebowlful.com.
• Taco Time restaurant coming to Milford: The Milford-based Mexican food truck Taco Time recently announced its plans to open a brick and mortar location. Taco Time Cocina & Cantina Mexicana is expected to open later this year at 11 Wilton Road in Milford, in the former space of the Rivermill Tavern. Rosana Vargas and her husband, Reymundo “Rey,” launched Taco Time, specializing in tacos, taco salads, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, chilis and other fresh Mexican options, in 2018. Follow them on Facebook @tacotimenh for updates on the new location’s grand opening.
• Italian specials: Join the Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford) for an Italian Restaurant Week in its dining room. From Nov. 1 through Nov. 14, the eatery will feature a three-course prix fixe menu of popular Italian dishes from different regions throughout the country, with your choice of one of several options for each course. The cost is $65 per person and reservations in advance are strongly recommended. Visit bedfordvillageinn.com.
When I was growing up, my mom served meat and potatoes nearly every night. Our vegetable was peas or cooked carrots, and once a week or so we had an iceberg lettuce salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and carrots with dressing from a bottle. So I don’t really know how I developed a taste for complex flavors. But I grow — and cook with — a lot of garlic and find it adds depth and intensity to soups and stews. Now is the time to plant some for next year. Growing garlic involves less work than anything else I grow. There really are only three steps: plant it, mulch it and harvest it. Once you have an established bed of garlic, it’s also the least expensive crop. I planted this year’s crop from last year’s crop, and that one I planted from the crop of the year before. You really only have to buy garlic once, so long as you plant some extra and save it each year for planting. I choose my best-looking, biggest garlic each year for planting. The hardest part of planting garlic for the first time might be to find garlic sold for planting. You can’t just go to the grocery store to get garlic because much of it has been treated with chemicals to prevent it from sprouting, and most is the wrong kind for New England. I went online to see about buying “seed” garlic. Many major suppliers are already sold out, and prices have skyrocketed since last year. Try your local farmer or farmers market — they may still have some. There are basically just two kinds of garlic: soft neck garlic, which is what you probably get at your grocery store, and the stuff we grow here in the Northeast called hard neck garlic. Most soft neck garlic (the kind that is braided and hung on walls) comes from California and keeps nearly forever. It is less hardy than hard neck garlic, a bit bland, and less interesting to cook with. Hard neck garlic has a stiff stem in the middle of each bulb. In my opinion it has a much more complex flavor. It will keep in a cool place until spring, but not much longer. Then it either sprouts or dries up. There are many named varieties of hard neck garlic, but all are excellent. To plant garlic, take a bulb (or head) of garlic and separate it into the cloves that surround the hard “neck” or flower scape. Depending on the variety of garlic, you might have just five cloves or as many as a dozen. I like big cloves, as they are easier to peel and use. So each year I select for big cloves and plant them. Over the years my crop has produced bigger bulbs and bigger cloves. Garlic needs full sun (defined as six hours of sunshine) and rich soil. In a 30-inch wide-raised bed I add a couple of inches of compost and stir it into the soil, loosening the soil in the top six inches. To plant, I draw furrows eight to 12 inches apart with my CobraHead weeder, a single-tine tool that is curved like a bent finger. Next I push cloves into the soil so that they are three or four inches apart and about three inches deep. Always plant them with the pointy end up. After covering them with soil I pat the soil down with my hands. The last step is to mulch your garlic. I use mulch hay or straw and put almost a foot of fluffy material over the bed. Fall rains and winter snows will cause the hay to settle — I end up with about four to six inches of material in the spring. The mulch keeps the soil from freezing until January, allowing roots to get well-established before the garlic cloves go dormant. It also prevents most weeds from germinating and growing next year, though I weed the bed well before planting, which helps, too. Garlic is tough stuff and will push right through my layer of mulch, though most weeds do not. Depending on the weather and when you plant, your garlic may send up green stalks this fall. Don’t fret if it does. Those sprouts will die back in winter, but the garlic will send up new ones in the spring. Next July the garlic you planted this year will be ready to harvest. Each bulb grows about seven long pointy leaves that surround the cloves and protect them. When three or four leaves have turned brown and started to dry up, it’s time to harvest. If you wait too long, all the leaves will have dried up and the garlic will not store as well — it will dry out too soon. You can store garlic best in a cool, dry place. Ideally 50 degrees with moderate humidity. You can also freeze garlic instead of storing it at room temperature, I’ve read (but I’ve never tried that). For freezing, separate the cloves but don’t peel them. You can freeze them in a zipper bag or jar for a year or more. Don’t store garlic at room temperature in oil, as it can produce deadly botulism. For centuries some cultures have believed that garlic helps ward off colds and the flu. Or maybe good garlic breath will just get that guy behind you in the checkout line with no mask to stand back a little!
Featured Photo: Hardneck garlic showing central neck or stalk. Photo by Henry Homeyer.
