A Simple Bread: Focaccia

A year ago, the idea of me baking my own bread was akin to the idea of me becoming a nuclear physicist. And trust me, I'm not scientist. But then, for some reason, I decided to make focaccia. On my first try, it was delicious. And I mean, devoured in 20 minutes flat delicious. I was so proud of myself I spent three solid months making focaccia at least twice a week. Since then I haven't been baking as much, but here is my simple, malleable, recipe for focaccia:

Ingredients:

-1 package (21/2 tsp) yeast

-1 cup warm water

-1tsp salt

-pinch sugar

-2 1/2 cups flour (give or take)

-Sea salt, onions, sage, cheese, olives, sun dried tomatoes... whatever your heart desires or whatever you have on hand.

-Dissolve yeast in water with a pinch of sugar. (This is the trickiest part of making bread. I usually use tap water that is cool enough to put my finger in but warm enough that it feels pretty hot when I do so. You don't want to kill the yeast by making the water too hot, but you want it warm enough to inspire a reaction with the yeast and sugar.)

-The yeast mixture should begin to get bubbly, you know it is working if this happens. If nothing happens you have a problem with your yeast (make sure it is fresh!) or the temperature of your water.

-Mix whatever extras you want to put in the bread (I recommend sea salt, onions, parmesan cheese and sage for your first batch) with the flour. Start with 2 1/2 cups but the trick of making bread is to adjust the amount of liquid and solid ingredients to make the right consistency dough.

-Mix in the yeast/water/sugar and olive oil.

-Nead for between 5 and 10 minutes. This is important! Don't skimp! The thing about breads is that you need to "feel" the dough is the right consistency since this is hard to describe. It is easier than you think and after a few batches you'll know exactly when the dough feels "right". It should be not very sticky, but not dry. You should be able to mold it without getting your hands covered in goop, but it needs to be able to stick together.

-Put the dough in an oiled bowl in a relatively warm place, covered with a cloth, and let it rise until it doubles in bulk. This should take an hour or two. When it has risen, make two loaves from the dough. They should be relatively flat and oval-shaped. Let these loaves rise another 20 minutes.

-Top loaves with sea salt, cheese, sage or whatever you want.

-Bake on oiled pan or pizza stone for 30 minutes or until baked through. (They probably need a little more time than this.)

When the bread is done it will be warm, moist, and delicious. Enjoy!

Matzo Ball Soup (with a little help from a box)

Arlyn and Steve, two of my favorite relatives have always hosted our Passover Seder at their house. (Or at least for a long while.) None of us are very good Jews... but Passover has always been one of my favorite holidays... mostly because of the food. One perk of Passover dinner was Arlyn's matzo ball soup.

This isn't Arlyn's version (hers is better) but it is as close as I could get.

Olive Oil
Garlic (to taste)
One large onion
One box Trader Joe's organic Chicken Broth
Salt & Pepper to taste
Matzo Ball Mix (NOT the soup Mix, just the ball mix) + eggs and water as described on box
3 Carrots, peeled and cut in pieces
Celery, cut in pieces


Prepare matzo balls as shown on box. Refrigerate.

Saute garlic and onion in olive oil. When translucent, add carrots and celery.

Saute for 5 minutes. Add three cups chicken broth and salt and pepper to taste. Add more chicken broth as needed. If you want a very dense soup, add less broth. Bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until carrots are soft.

Make one-inch balls from the matzo ball mix. Drop them into the soup and boil for 20 minutes.

Serve and eat!!!

Donut Fresh Express

Ok, so i'm trying to get the taste out of my mouth from lunch at Yen Yen and i'm waiting around before a story I had to write that night for the Telegraph in Mont Vernon, so I figured "why not get some donuts"?

After all, haven't we all thought that at some time?

So, what town's in between Peterborough and Mont Vernon and has a good variety of donut shops? The answer here is Milford.

I initially stopped at the place that moved into where Santos Dumont once was, but they were closed, so instead I went to Donut Fresh Express, located on 101A heading towards the Oval past Granitetown Plaza.

Places like Donut Fresh Express are why I am glad that I am not a professional food reviewer. If an editor asked me for a thousand words on the food at Donut Fresh Express, I would probably just write "average" a thousand times.

In the end, just like Santos Dumont II (or whatever it's called), there is very little to differentiate Donut Fresh Express from the Dunkin Donuts that is literally within a minute's driving distance (within a minute's walking distance in the case of Santos Dumont, but that's another story)

In the end, i'm not sure what would bring someone to Donut Fresh Express instead of Dunkin Donuts when it comes to the taste or price of its food. One could make a case for the decor (formerly a Taco Bell, same paint scheme on the inside still but no tacos), or the employees (constantly yelling things in Chinese), or the customers (they all seemed like regulars, which says something) or even the neighbors (my friend operates a Yoga studio out of his house next door).

I'm not saying this place is bad, i'm not saying it's good either. I'm just saying it's there and they sell donuts.

Meal: Cup of Coffee, Glazed Donut and Crueller

Price: $3.61

Time: 4:30 PM

Time in and out the door: N/A, I hung around afterwards. The food was ready in less than a minute though.

Yen Yen

Yen Yen is an old school Chinese joint located in a strip plaza just south of downtown Peterborough. I could probably find the name of it somewhere but it's not particularly important, if you go directly south from downtown Peterborough you cannot miss it, it's just before Noone Falls.

Whatever it's name is, the plaza has three restaurants and sadly i'm thinking I should have tried one of the other ones. And I say sadly because I would like to endorse Yen Yen, but the General Tso's Chicken had was like one of those two part tests where one part is worth 25% and the other part is worth 75%: Yen Yen was perfect on the 25% part, but it totally bombed on the 75% part.

When it came to the 25% analogy, all the little incidentals were great. I got there 15 minutes after their lunch special ended, but they let me order it anyway, they turned off a tv next to my booth that was annoying, and the sauce, rice and egg roll with the General Tso's were very good.

But when it came to the meat in the General Tso's, I nearly threw up.

General Tso's is a good barometer of whether an all around American-Chinese Food restaurant is decent. Clearly old style Polynesian American Chinese Food joints generally have bad General Tso's, and I should have known that was what Yen Yen was by the decor, but they didn't make it clear otherwise and I paid the price.

A good plate of General Tso's should have solid chunks of chicken, but these croquets were stringy and had an inconsistent quality that made me wonder just what part of the chicken they got this meat from.

I might give Yen Yen another chance with another dish given the good service, but I will never have their General Tso's again.

Time: 3:30 PM

Meal: Special Combination Plate #9 with Egg Roll

Price: $7.95

In and Out The Door: 30 Minutes

Javanaise - The Javanaise

Javanaise, a deli bistro on Amherst Street in Nashua operated by the owners of the Hot Rize Cafe in Merrimack, is really, really close to being a good high end deli.

I want to recommend it, but it falls just short for one reason: if you run a deli, you should know how to slice meat.

The good people at Javanaise do not know how to do this apparently. I once bought their signature sandwich, the "Javanaise" (pictured to the left in a spinach wrap with a pickle), and I swear the roast beef was as thick as plywood.

You take the roast beef out of the Javanaise, it's delectable. The manager on duty offered free extra provolone in the pictured sandwich, and it too was pretty thick. While that's not as bad as thick and stringy roast beef, it still took away from what otherwise is an excellent sandwich.

The prices are slightly more than its closest competitor, Panera Bread (who also has longer hours), but that is negligible compared to the consistency of the meat in this sandwich.

If you're in the know, order the Javanaise at Javanaise without meat and you'll be satisfied. It's too bad that you have to make this special order though.

Meal: Javanaise sandwich

Time of Day: 12:30 PM

Price: $6.95 (not including chips or tax)

In and Out The Door: 20 Minutes

Website: http://www.lajavanaise.com/

Pho 88

The other day I went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Nashua and today's Cook and Book post takes us to another Pho joint called Pho 88, this time south of the border in Chelmsford, Massachusetts...kind of.



The take out menu says the restaurant is in Chelmsford while the City of Lowell's website says it's just within its city limits. Ultimately though if you tell a local that it's on Drum Hill, a strip of retail lots stretching from Exit 32 to the Merrimack River along Route 4, they'll know what you're talking about.

Traffic and limited parking are probably the only negatives about this place. Pho 88 shares what looks like a 1940s mini-tenement turned into a strip mall with a few other businesses, including two inferior eateries.

The interior is casual but formal, comfortable and trendy at the same time, and in addition to Vietnamese fare, they have Shabu Shabu (if you've never heard of it, think fondue plus ramen soup) tables.

Today's meal was Goi Ga, which is basically a big plate of spicy cole slaw with chicken strips and chopped peanuts in a chili vinagrette. The same dish can come with shrimp or tofu in the place of chicken, or as a combination salad with chicken and shrimp.

I don't know what I can add that the photo above doesn't already say. This dish is at once piquant and flavorful yet hearty and filling. And all for slightly more than what you'd spend on a high end value meal at McDonald's or Burger King.

And while I didn't ask the waitress, I can't imagine that there are alot of calories in something that seems to be primarily cabbage, carrots, mint, basil and onions yet tastes like a marriage between cole slaw and kimchi with Southeast Asian flavors thrown in.

It's worth the drive for those living near the F.E Everett Turnpike here in the Granite State as well as anyone who happens to be travelling through Massachusetts' fourth largest city.

Meal: Goi Ga with Da Chanh (Vietnamese Limeade)
Price: $8.25 (not including the Limeade)
Time of Meal: 1:30 PM
Duration of Time in Restaurant: 30 minutes

The Seedling Cafe

I once had a friend who worked at Indian Head Plaza (the closest thing to a skyscraper in downtown Nashua) that would almost daily go to the Seedling Cafe. I'm not as big a fan as he is, but I don't disagree with his judgement.

Hidden away on Water Street across from the Parc du Renaissance Francaise, the Seedling Cafe is a hidden treasure combining gourmet cuisine with the charm of a luncheon cantina.

They name all of their panini wraps after their employees who I assume choose the ingredients. The menus also say some of them are "award winning", but you need to go to their website, theseedlingcafe.com, to see what those awards were.

There are only small things to nitpick with when it comes to the Seedling. I think the portions are a little small, but they aren't terribly small (as you can see above), the location is kind of out of the way but not really that far out of the way (within walking distance of Main Street), and the sandwich I had ("the Anne") could use a little more dressing.

In the end, the Seedling is a solid A-. It's a good lunch choice for those in downtown Nashua and a good value for the quality of food they give you.

Order: "The Anne" panini wrap

Time of Meal: 11:30 AM

Entrance to Exit: 20 minutes

Price of Meal: $7.75, not including drink or tax.

Vietnamese Noodle House

Today's review is about the Vietnam Noodle House, a tiny hole in the wall Vietnamese joint just steps from the corner of Main and Temple in Nashua.

I've lost track of how many times i've gone there, but I always notice the sign on their wall: "对不起，我们不会讲中文但是请慢用!", or "Sorry, we aren't able to speak Chinese, but please enjoy your meal"....written in Chinese.

但是, can mean "but" or "yet", but i've always assumed it's "but" since their wait staff never sticks around too long even though it seems to be a mom and pop establishment, and they're probably too busy to learn how to speak Chinese since they keep on leaving Nashua.

I've always relied on two favorite dishes at the Noodle House, and today I chose one of those two: the Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Tofu Soup, or "Canh Chua Tau Hu". Smaller than their other soups, or "Pho" as its called in Vietnamese, they make up for it with a side of sticky white rice.

I slather hoisin sauce on the rice and sriracha onto the soup, which already is richly flavorful with chunks of tomato, carmelized onions, celery, red pepper flakes, scallions, and probably some other things i'm forgetting along with of course, tofu.

It's basically like the Chicken Soup your mom made for you on cold days....if your mom just happened to hail from Saigon.

The only shortfalls for the noodle house are the service, which is usally average at best: today I don't think the maitre'd spoke any English (she doubled as the cook) and as usual, and you can see them putting tap water into a glass onto your table, which is generally a no-no these days given the amount of lead that's likely from the local water supplies.

As you can see in the picture, I just got an Orangina and forgot about the water altogether, and the food came out pretty quickly, so you can't complain too much about anything else.

Meal Price: $8.25, not including tax and drink

In and Out The Door: 30 Minutes

Time: 2:30 P.M