Correspondent photo by JEN O'CALLAGHAN A hot Pumpkin Toddy is perfect on a cool day.
Correspondent photo by JEN O'CALLAGHAN The Great Pumpkin cocktail brings out a lot of fall tastes.
Correspondent photo by JEN O'CALLAGHAN Stella Blu's Jared Bracci hands a hot Pumpkin Toddy to a customer.
Stella Blu's Pumpkin Toddy
Correspondent photo by JEN O'CALLAGHAN A hot Pumpkin Toddy is perfect on a cool day.
Smashing pumpkins
The flavor of fall is available all over Greater Nashua. Here are a few suggestions to satisfy your pumpkin passion.
Pancakes: Check out the pumpkin pancakes at Parker’s Maple Barn in Mason.
Whoopie Pies: The Black Forest Cafe is serving Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with a maple filling. “They’re phenomenal,” reports marketplace manager Amy Kate Dallaire.
Lattes: A splash of pumpkin flavor makes for a satisfying cup of joe at Amherst’s A&E Custom Coffee Roastery.
Bagels: Don’t delay in getting your pumpkin bagel from downtown Nashua’s Bagel Alley. They are only sold for six weeks.
Cheesecake: Patisserie Bleu on Nashua’s Main Street offers 6-inch or 9-inch Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake in season.
Ice cream: Bruster’s Ice Cream on Amherst Street not only scoops up a pumpkin cheesecake flavor of ice cream, it also offers pumpkin yogurt.
By JEN O’CALLAGHAN Correspondent
Pumpkin is one of the quintessential flavors of fall, popping up in pies, breads and muffins as the leaves turn colors. Puree from the orange fruit of autumn keeps baked goods nice and moist, largely due to the fact that up to 90 percent of the average pumpkin is water.
But it isn’t just bakers who are celebrating the season’s harvest. Creative local mixologists have found ways to add a little pumpkin and a little spice to their cocktail menus.
Keeping cool at Z Restaurant in Manchester, chef and owner Tom Puskarich has brought back his popular Great Pumpkin cocktail. The cool mix of spiced rum, pumpkin puree, egg, nutmeg and cloves has officially been added to the eatery’s brunch menu.
The secret, Puskarich says, is in the rich, frothy foam created by the fresh eggs Puskarich buys from local farms.
“You just can’t beat local eggs,” he says. “There is no comparison in terms of flavor. You can tell in an instant.”
Puskarich also buys local pumpkins to make his own fresh puree for the drink, which bartender Mel Grusmark says is one the most popular seasonal offerings.
“My overall cooking philosophy is ‘classic dishes freshly inspired,’ ” Puskarich says. “I try to push the envelope and then pull it back just enough.” His menu undergoes two major seasonal changes per year – once in the fall and once in the spring.
In keeping with his aim to create “seriously fun food,” Puskarich’s cocktail menu boasts punny offerings such as Vision Quest (Ketel One vodka, ginger liquor, carrot juice and ginger beer), 5 Dollar Shake (rye, root beer and vanilla ice cream) and Pretty in Pink (strawberry puree, mint syrup and Sofia Coppola Champagne). His annual pumpkin cocktail gets its name from the popular “Peanuts” holiday special.
By the first of the year, the public fascination with pumpkins has usually waned, and the Great Pumpkin comes off the menu. But pumpkin lovers can enjoy it for several weeks after Linus’ annual Halloween sojourn to the pumpkin patch.
Heating up
When Jared Bracci of East Pearl Street’s Stella Blu began thinking of pumpkin beverages, he cooked up an idea to bring customers in from the cold.
“With the trend of martinis downtown, everybody’s making such great things,” Bracci says. “We’ve been hanging our hats on the hot drinks. We thought there was an avenue for that.”
Last year’s hot drinks went over so well that Bracci decided to put a twist on the classic hot toddy, using cognac instead of the traditional whiskey and mixing in pumpkin butter. In the nearly year since Stella Blu opened (and prior to that at Manhattan on Pearl), Bracci has established himself with his clientele as a mixologist who takes full advantage of the abundance of local produce.
“I look at drinks the same way a chef looks at seasonal cooking,” he says. “I think everything should be reflective of the season. That doesn’t mean you can’t get a mojito in January, but I’d prefer not to make one.”
Vanilla and cider flavors serve to complement the sweetened puree, which Bracci gets from Brookdale Fruit Farm in Hollis.
The toddy is already a hit with customers, and Bracci said his staff is using at least a gallon of cider a night to stir up the warm concoctions.
On a recent Friday night, regulars Christy Gaudette and Michael Baldassarre, of Nashua, perched at the restaurant’s long bar while Gaudette sipped a toddy.
“I love the concept of a hot drink on a really cold day,” Gaudette said. “The seasonal flavors puts you in the spirit of the season.”
“It’s nice to see someone doing something really different,” Baldassarre said. “The hot drinks here have been really great.” The duo makes a point to stop in at Stella Blu at least once or twice a week.
“You can go anywhere to get a cosmo,” Gaudette said. “It’s nice to come in and see what concoction Jared has come up with.”
STELLA BLU’S PUMPKIN TODDY
Serves 1.
4 ounces apple cider
Mulling spices
2 tablespoons sweetened pumpkin puree, plus additional puree for rim
1 ounce Stolichnaya Vanilla Vodka
½ ounce Navan Vanilla Cognac
Pumpkin butter
Pumpkin seeds
Cinnamon
Cider doughnut (optional)
Place apple cider in a pot. Add two pinches of mulling spices. Slowly heat cider, but do not boil. Add pumpkin puree, and stir for 10 seconds. Add vodka and cognac. Stir. Rim a sifter with pumpkin butter. Crush pumpkin seeds, and add a few punches of cinnamon. Place snifter upside-down in pumpkin seed mixture. Seeds will stick to the pumpkin butter. Pour cider mixture into glass, and serve.
Garnish with a piece of cider doughnut for dunking.
(Recipe courtesy of Jared Bracci)
Jen O’Callaghan can be reached at jenocal@comcast.net.
