New Restaurant Recipes in New Hampshire

Today is the first day of my trip across the country in order to try out new restaurants and collect memorable recipes. I'm starting in my own backyard, New Hampshire, to look for the first of my restaurant recipes. The beauty of the countryside that I drive through makes me wish I were a photographer as well as a food enthusiast. Those of us who live in this area tend to forget to look around and appreciate the rugged beauty, and overlook the small streams that leap from one piece of granite to another. It is the Franconia Notch area of New Hampshire, and I am heading to the Restaurant at Sunset Hill.

I couldn't have asked for a better start to the trip, and have found the first of my restaurant recipes. It is a not a complex dish, but every bite is worth savoring. Duck is not a very common dish with most people in my town, but the sauce and the spices will make this memorable for the friends that are waiting for my emails. I really appreciate Sunset Hill House for the following recipe:

Duck Bombay

3lb duckling
1 T salt
1 t cracked black pepper
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t ginger powder
2 slices bacon
1/4 C green onions, chopped
1/4 C sliced almonds
1T Mango chutney
1/4 C brandy

Mix ingredients two through five together, and rub onto duckling (there will be some left over).
Roast duck at 350 for 1 hour, let cool, and split duckling in half, and optionally remove breast and leg joint bones.
Julienne and brown bacon, add green onions and almonds, and sauté until almonds are golden. Mix in chutney.
Before serving, brown and warm duckling under broiler. Place on plate. Add Brandy to sauce, and flame. Pour Bombay Sauce over duckling and serve.

After dinner is over, I go for a walk with my dog Ralph. I did remember to bring him some scraps from tonight's meal to add a little flavor and zest to his dog food. He is unusually quiet tonight, as is the rest of the landscape. No traffic, no bright lights, just spectacular scenery from six different mountain ranges. If I didn't live here I would want to spend more time walking through the trees waiting to spot the ungainly, huge moose with their impossibly long legs. I would also take time to drive through covered bridges built by those New Englanders of generations past, and visit the antique stores that hold small treasures from those same lives.

Since this is one of my favorite areas in my home state, let me talk a little more about the area. Franconia Notch is the area around the towns of Sugar Hill, Franconia and Easton. Since I am here in early summer, many of the visitors around me spend their days hiking, kayaking, or fly fishing in the mountain streams. Southerners may find the lakes a bit chilly for swimming, but many of the rest of us love the bracing water, especially as the summer days get longer and warmer. I also see many photographers, both amateur and professional, even though summer draws fewer photographers than the spectacular fall foliage display.

I hate to leave this beautiful area, its wonderful food, and its gracious people. But new adventures call, and I have many more restaurant recipes to discover.