Many Portsmouth residents have fond memories of Harold’s Restaurant. It was the place to go to celebrate special occasions for many years, and former patrons can’t stop talking about their favorite recipes. We’ve collected three of them here, French Silk Pie, Duck Butter, and Florentine Dressing.
Duck Butter
Online, many people were talking dreamily about the creamy spread, presented with toast points. Some wondered if it actually contained duck fat. Turns out it’s a simple but delicious cream cheese and blue cheese spread. Here’s how to make it.
1 8-ounce package of softened cream cheese
3 ounces of room-temperature blue cheese
4 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves of grated garlic
¼ cup grated onions
Dash of Tabasco sauce
1 tsp of salt
Beat Cream cheese until fluffy, add in other ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until serving.
You could serve with crackers or go fancy with the toast points. Just make toast, trim the crust, cut on the diagonal, then cut in half.
French Silk Pie
Use a store-bought or prepare your own graham cracker pie crust.
1 ½ sticks of softened butter
2 ounces of melted semi-sweet chocolate (Baker’s is the suggested brand)
1 cup plus teaspoons of sugar.
2 tsps vanilla extract
3 large eggs
In a mixer, mix butter, sugar vanilla, and melted chocolate until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat in each egg for 5 minutes. Pour the mixture into the prepared crust and refrigerate.
Now, if you’re nervous about using raw eggs (even though it’s the classic recipe), do this instead. Whisk the eggs and sugar together and heat them in a double boiler until they reach 160 degrees. Be careful not to go over, we don’t want to make scrambled eggs. Let them cool for 10 minutes once they heat temperature.
A double boiler can be as simple as setting a metal or glass pan in pot of simmering water on the stove.
Florentine Dressing
This fondly remembered dressing is really a simple lemon vinaigrette. The original recipe for this dressing calls for a gallon of oil, so we scaled it down for home use.
½ cup neutral flavored oil (like Canola or use olive oil if you prefer)
¼ cup of lemon juice.
4 teaspoons grated onions
4 teaspoons sugar
Pinch of garlic powder
Pinch of cayenne powder
¼ tsp salt
Whisk lemon juice and seasonings together, then slowly whisk in oil.