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Stout BBQ Meat Ball Sliders

Stout BBQ Meat Ball Sliders

Stout BBQ Meat Ball Sliders

"Do pigs…smell like bacon?'

I’m talking to a Hat Grabber at a party in Vegas. Hat Grabber is shorthand for a very young, very pretty, fairly vacant, girl who does things only she can do without getting punched in the face. This includes things like grabbing the hats of the heads of men she’s just met, putting it on her head, and forcing everyone to answer the question, "OH MY GOD, HOW CUTE DO I LOOK?" Hat grabbers.

I’m talking to a Hat Grabber about growing up on a farm, and she asks me if pigs smell like bacon.

"Live pigs? Do live pigs smell like bacon?" I’m a little confused and wonder if I actually heard her correctly.

"….yeah. I mean, I’ve always wondered that."

I’m mostly thinking about how quickly I can exit the conversation without hurting her feelings. "No," I answer, "They don’t smell that good. Also, cows don’t smell like hamburgers."

She laughs. She thinks I’m hilarious. I point to the waiter circulating the party with a silver tray of mini burgers. "How cute are those?! You should eat one!" She grabs her Hat Grabbing accomplice that has just returned from the bar and heads right for the cute food.

I’m relieved, I feel like I’ve been rescued. I owe the remainder of that evening to cute mini burgers. Burgers that actually do smell much more like bacon than live pigs do.

Stout BBQ Meat Ball Sliders -4

Stout & Sriracha Beer Barbecue Sauce Recipe 

Stout BBQ Meat Ball Sliders

Ingredients
  

  • 1 lb ground chuck
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup breadcrumbs
  • ¼ cup stout beer
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 batch 2 cups Stout & Sriracha BBQ Sauce (link above)
  • 12 slider buns

Instructions
 

  • In a large bowl add the meat, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, salt, egg, bread crums, and beer. stir until just combined (about two of three turns with your hands). Over handling the meat will make it tough and mealy.
  • Place bowl in the fridge for 1 hour and up to 1 day (this will help keep it’s shape during cooking.
  • Using a cookie scoop, make balls just smaller than a golf ball with the chilled meat.
  • Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat until very hot. Add the meat balls, pull the skillet back and forth over the burner to roll the meat balls around in the pan. Cook until meatballs are just starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat and add the barbeque sauce, cover with a lid, cooking at a simmer until meatballs are glazed and sauce is very thick.
  • Place one to two meatballs inside slider buns. Serve warm.

Stout BBQ Meat Ball Sliders -1

Porter Braised Beef Short Ribs Sandwiches with Jalapeño Beer Cheese Sauce

Porter Braised Beef Short Ribs Sandwiches with Jalapeño Beer Cheese Sauce  #beer #recipe #tailgating   

Porter Braised Beef Short Ribs Sandwiches with Jalapeño Beer Cheese Sauce 2

On the way to making quick chicken tacos I decided to make a burger. One that takes a couple of hours, one that I decided to call a sandwich instead because I felt like it. One that I decided to spice up with jalapenos. Because things that take a few hours need to be made. There’s a feeling of accomplishment, of unguarded control, a way to push back against the restraint of the rest of your life, the parts that you can’t govern as you want.

But you deserve a little control, a little bit of your life that you have total say over. A little bit of something that goes right, and no one is pushing you around, or taking advantage of you, a space where your work doesn’t go unnoticed. No matter what great things you’ve done this week, and I know there have been plenty, you won’t be getting a parade. Or a Congratulations card. Or even a confetti shower when you walk in the door. But you should, because I’m sure you’ve done something to deserve those things. But with these, all that hard work won’t go unnoticed. You might not get a piñata and a present, but you will get some delicious sandwiches. Even though I’m sure you deserve much more.

 

Porter Braised Beef Short Ribs Sandwiches with Jalapeño Beer Cheese Sauce

 

Porter Braised Beef Short Ribs Sandwiches with Jalapeño Beer Cheese Sauce

Ingredients
  

For the Short Ribs:

  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 lbs bone in beef short ribs
  • 3 tbs flour
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • 1 tbs brown sugar
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 ½ cups beef broth
  • 12 oz porter beer

For the Beer Cheese Sauce:

  • 2 tbs butter
  • 2 fresh jalapenos diced
  • 2 tbs flour
  • 2 tbs cornstarch
  • 1 cup IPA beer
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 2 cups 4 wt oz shredded cheddar cheese
  • 8 sour dough rolls split

Instructions
 

  • Sprinkle the salt on all sides of the short ribs. In a small bowl stir together the flour, chili powder, black pepper, garlic powder, cumin and brown sugar. Sprinkle the ribs on all sides with the flour mixture.
  • Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the short ribs, browning on all sides.
  • Add the broth and beer, bring to a low simmer. Add the lid at a vent, cooking until short ribs are tender and falling off the bone, about 2 ½ hours, remove from heat. Using two forks, shred while still in the pot. Allow to sit in braising liquid for ten minutes, remove from braising liquid.
  • In a pan over medium high heat, melt the butter. Add the jalapenos, cook until softened. Sprinkle with flour and cornstarch, whisk until well combined, allow to cook until a light brown color.
  • Add the beer and the milk, bring to a low simmer. About ¼ cup at a time, whisk in the cheese, making sure all cheese is melted before adding more. Keep warm while you make the burgers (sauce will thicken as it cools, add additional milk or beer and add to heat if the sauce thickens too much).
  • Add the ribs into rolls, top with cheese sauce. Serve warm.

Porter Braised Beef Short Ribs Sandwiches with Jalapeño Beer Cheese Sauce3

 

 

 

Beer Brined Corned Beef Sliders with Pickled Cabbage Slaw

 Beer Brined Corned Beer Sliders with Pickled Cabbage Slaw 

Conred Beef Sliders with Pickled Cabbage Slaw3

I just turned my completed book into my publisher.

One hundred recipes, along with sixty-five photos, are now out of my hands. You’d think I’d be relieved, so did I, but I’m worried. I just let go of the summation of 90 percent of my waking hours from the past 4 months. It’s in someone else’s care, and that scares the crap out of me.

I have these momentary panics:

Did I make the pavlovas enough, do the directions make sense?

I say jackass in the book, will people hate that?! 

Was I clear about how grateful I am for this, or will I come off as smug?!

I even worry about whether or not you’ll like it, as if I’m just an insecure school girl. I thought I would be relieved and elated, but I’m more anxious than I’ve been during this entire process. I want people to love it, to leave me glowing reviews on Amazon and tell their friends about how much they love it. I hope that happens, but for now, I’m still losing sleep.

For the time being, I have a St. Patricks Day recipe for you. I posted my veggie lovers St Patricks Day offering last week, but this one is about that corned beef we all associate with that Irish Holiday.

So if you will, drink a pint and say an Irish prayer for me and my forthcoming book.

Conred Beef Sliders with Pickled Cabbage Slaw

Beer Brined Corned Beef Sliders with Pickled Cabbage Slaw

Ingredients
  

Corned Beef

  • 3.5 lb beef brisket
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • 3 tablespoons curing salt this will make the meat pink
  • 3 tbs whole allspice berries
  • 1 tbs whole cloves
  • 1 tbs ground ginger
  • 2 tbs mustard seeds
  • 2 tbs whole peppercorns
  • 1 yellow onion quartered
  • 2 cups water
  • 3 12 ounces bottles of stout
  • 8 cups ice

Pickled slaw:

  • 2 cup red cabbage shredded
  • 2 cup savoy cabbage shredded
  • ½ red onion thinly sliced
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 2 cups apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbs kosher salt
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • ¼ tsp groung ginger
  • 2 tbs whole dried allspice berries
  • 2 tsp whole cloves
  • 2 tsp black peppercorns
  • _
  • 12 soft potato dinner rolls split to resemble hamburger buns

Instructions
 

  • In a large pot or Dutch oven, add brown sugar, 3 tbs curing salt, 1 cup kosher salt, 3 tbs allspice berries, 1 tbs cloves, ginger, mustard seeds, 2 tbs peppercorns, along with 2 cups of water.
  • Cook on high just until the salt and sugar dissolve, remove from heat. Add 2 bottles of stout (reserve the last bottle for cooking) and 8 cups of ice, stir until ice has melted and brine is cool.
  • Add the brisket, cover with lid and refrigerate for 3 days and up to 10.
  • Remove from brine and rinse well. Discard the brine and clean the Dutch oven well.
  • Place the brisket back in the cleaned pot, along with the onion, pour the remaining bottle of stout and then cover with cold water until the brisket is fully cover with one to two inches of water above the beef.
  • Bring to a low boil, cover and reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Simmer for 3 hours or until the meat if fork tender. Move to a carving board, thinly slice against the grain.
  • While the brisket cooks, make the pickled slaw. In a sauce pan over medium heat, add the lemon juice, vinegar, salt, sugar, ginger, allspice, cloves and peppercorns in a pot. Bring to simmer just until the salt and sugar dissolve, remove from heat. Allow to cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, add the cabbage and onion. Pour the cooled pickling liquid over the cabbage and onion, refrigerate for one hour.
  • Slightly warm the buns, fill with corned beef and slaw before serving.

Chipotle Stout Sloppy Joe’s Sliders

 

I spent a few days up in Napa last month. While I was hanging out at Bear Republic those guys were nice enough to show me around and even let me jump behind the bar. While I was behind the bar, most likely annoyingly in his way, the bar manager asked me what my favorite style of beer was. To be honest, I didn’t have an answer. I wanted to try his special release stuff, those beer that never make it into bottles. And the Peter Brown Tribute that I had heard about but hadn’t been able to taste yet, but I still am not sure if I could pick one all-time favorite.

It depends on what I’m eating.

I do tend to favor lower alcohol beers, because I live in LA and we like to drive here.

I like a dry hopped IPA.

Or a circusy White.

And I will always stand in line for a spicy beer.

But, if I had to choose only one style of beer to cook with, that would be easy. Stouts are by far my favorite beer to cook with. They work well with beef and fabulously with chocolate. Spicy stouts are always intriguing, and although the go-to recipes for those seems to be a meat product, I  also want to figure out a really great chili chocolate cake recipe made with a spiced stout.

Lucky for us, more and more breweries are making beer with spices so check out your local beer store and ask around. Here are some of my favorites:

Stone Smoked Porter W/ Chipotle Peppers

Mikkeller Texas Ranger 

Bootlegger Black Phoneix Chipotle Coffee Stout

I really encourage you to find a great beer for a brewery close to home. Stop in some day and see what they suggest. Maybe there is even a brewery close to you that won at last weeks Great American Beer Festival. Take look, make  some notes on what you want to try, but don’t forget to drink what you love, because you love it, regardless of how many or how few prizes it has under it’s belt.

 

 

 

Chipotle Stout Sloppy Joe’s Sliders

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tbs oil
  • 1 lb 80%/20% premium ground beef
  • 1/2 white onion chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 1/4 cup Chipotle Stout or Porter
  • 1 small chipotle pepper from can in adobo sauce
  • 1 tsp adobo sauce from can
  • 4 oz tomato paste
  • 1 tbs mollasas
  • 2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1/4 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 14-16 slider buns warmed

Instructions
 

  • In a pan over medium high heat, add the oil and ground beef, cook until browned, stirring and breaking up meat. Using a slotted spoon, remove meat from pan.
  • In pan with residual oils, cook the onions until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir.
  • Add the beer, stir to combine.
  • Remove a small chipotle pepper from the can. Using a sharp knife and fork, chop very well until nearly reduced to a paste like substance. Add chipotle to the pan along with tomato paste, adobo sauce, molasses, cumin, paprika, salt, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Allow to cook until well combined and slightly thickened.
  • Add meat to the sauce pan, stir until well combined.
  • Fill slider buns with meat, serve warm.

 

 

 

Chicken Sliders With Zucchini Buns

 

At the end of the month I have this little cooking on TV gig that I’m incredibly excited about. And as much as I strive to be unique and impervious to social pressure, none of that has been able to penetrate my own vanity. After the initial shock of being asked to cook on CBS, Los Angeles wore off my first very female thoughts went something like this:

"What am I going to wear?"

"The camera adds ten pounds. Awesome."

So here I am, trying to stay as healthy as possible until I can school the Los Angeles metro area on the mid-day news with an introduction to cooking with beer all while still trying to run two food blogs that dazzle you with fun and delicious food. Not as easy for me as I’d like.

I did, however, discovered that if I give up dairy, which I already find skeevey in it’s unmanipulated state, the battle to lose those last few pounds becomes much easier. Butter and goat cheese have been the only real sacrifices, the rest has been easy to ignore or replace.

Don’t forget to come back on Wednesday when I give the best chocolate ice cream I have ever had that happens to be dairy free. It’s insane how creamy it is. You’ll want that recipe.

This recipe, which is dairy and gluten-free, gives you this delicious little mini burgers that are only about 90 calories each. And I am now one step closer to cooking on TV and not crying about it.

Chicken Sliders With Zucchini Buns

Ingredients

For The Patties

  • 1 lb ground lean chicken
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup panko (for GF, use crushed potato chips)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp dry oregano
  • 1/2 tsp dry basil
  • 1 cup fat free chicken broth

Condiments & Toppings

  • 1 to 2 large zucchinis, cut into 1/4 inch rings (buns)
  • Avocado Slices
  • BBQ Sauce
  • Pickled Jalapenos
  • Tomato Slices

Instructions

In a bowl, combine all the the patti ingredients (except the chicken broth) with your hands until well combined.
Spray the inside of a skillet (with a lid) with cooking spray, allow to get hot but not smoking.
Form the chicken mixture into patties about the width of your zucchini slices and about 1/2 inch thick. Cook on one side until browned on the bottom, flip and allow to cook for about 1 minute. Add the chicken broth until about half way up the sides of the chicken patties. Cover with a lid and allow to steam for about 3 to 5 minutes or until chicken patties are cooked through. Because fat is responsible for moist patties, very lean meat becomes dry very easily. This is the method I use to make sure the chicken is cooked through but is not dry.
Remove from pan and allow to drain.
Add the patties to the zucchini slices, top with condiments and serve.

(Makes about 8)

Beer Braised Chicken Sliders With Hoisin Beer Barbecue Sauce

There’s a good chance that when you think about cooking with beer, a meat recipe comes to mind. Your Dad’s beer marinated ribs? Beer can chicken? Beer braised pork? There’s a good reason for that.

Not just for the spectacular flavors that craft beer can impart on the meat, but because beer, especially high acid beer, acts as a meat tenderizer by breaking down tissue.

For this recipe you are free to run the spectrum of beer styles. Most recipes I write will be accompanied by stern warning about using any beer other than the type called for, this isn’t one of those recipes. That IPA I keep shaming you into avoiding? You can even give that a try. My gut instinct with a recipe like this was to use a light, high acid beer with herb notes (basil, sage, oregano) but I opted for a porter to test my "Any Beer Goes" theory.

The porter effect, as I am now calling it, gave a "meatier" quality to the chicken. Which turned out wonderfully, and gave this a bit of a pork taste.

The beer I used for this recipe was the Payback Porter by Speakeasy. It’s a fantastic choice for a porter because the notes are similar to those I see in barbecue sauces and rubs: smoke, coffee, cocoa, and molasses.

Next time I’ll use a beer with a high acid content for a little contrast, but as far as the beer that you pick, experiment and let me know how it goes.

 

Beer Braised Chicken Sliders With Hoisin Beer Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients
  

For the Barbecue Sacue:

  • 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3 cloves fresh garlic minced
  • 1 cup hoisin sauce
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 cup beer

For The Braised Chicken:

  • 2 tbs canola oil
  • 3 chicken breasts boneless and skinless
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups beer
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 15 mini Hawaiian bread rolls

Yield: 15 sliders

    Instructions
     

    • Heat 2 tbs canola oil in large pot or Dutch oven. Sprinkle the chicken with salt on all sides. Place in the pot and cook on each side until browned, about 2 minutes per side. Cover with 1 1/2 cups of beer and 1/2 cup chicken broth, cover and cook for 15 – 20 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked.
    • While chicken is cooking, prepare barbeque sauce by warming olive oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds; add 1 cup beer, hoisin sauce, chili powder and soy sauce. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until thickened and reduced, remove from heat.
    • When chicken is cooked, remove from pot and allow to cool. Using two forks, shred chicken to as thin slices as possible, then add to hoisin barbeque sauce pan, tossing well to coat.
    • Split rolls in half across the middle to resemble small sandwich buns, fill with chicken.

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    BLT Caprese Sliders With Puff Pastry Buns

    Small food is for the commitment phobic. 

    Or maybe just for those of us that want to experience everything. 

    I don’t want to have to decide between a pull pork sandwich, bree grilled cheese and a burger. I want them all. Which is why I will always owe a debt of gratitude to Spain and the brilliance of Tapas. 

    Some people want to hunker down with a bowl of their favorite food and call it a day. I fancy myself more of a food gypsy. I want a bite of everything. I’m the girl at the Thanksgiving dessert table that takes a sliver of each piece of pie, brownie, and cake onto one plate because the idea of not knowing what each type of pie, plus the cherry brownie, plum tart and the pumpkin turtle cheesecake all taste like is unthinkable. While other people can just take a slice of apple pie and watch the game. Lucky bastards. 

    BLT Caprese Sliders With Puff Pastry Buns

    2 sheets  Puff Pastry

    3 tbs butter, melted

    1/2 tsp course Kosher salt

    5-6 Roma Tomatoes

    2 tbs Pesto Sauce

    20 spinach leaves

    4 balls Fresh Mozzarella, Bocconcini size

    10 slices of bacon, cooked and cut in half

    Preheat oven to 350.

    On a lightly floured surface, roll out one sheet of puff pastry to approximately 14.5 inches by 16.5 inches. Using a 3 inch biscuit cutter, cut out 20 circles. Repeat for the second puff pastry sheet.

    Brush each puff pastry round with melted butter and sprinkle lightly with salt.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and transfer the circles to the baking sheet(s), butter side up.

    Bake for 16-19 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

    While those are baking, prepare your ingredients.

    Cut each Mozzarella ball into 5 slices, set side.

    Cut the off the stem end of the tomato, as well as the opposite, pointed end of the tomato. Cut the remaining tomato into ¼ inch slices. You will need 20 slices.

    Once the puff pastry has cooled, assemble to sliders:

    Take one puff pastry round, spread with about ¼ tsp of pesto sauce. Top with a tomato slice, then a spinach leave, then mozzarella slice, then slice of bacon and top the entire thing with another puff pastry round. Secure with a 3.5 inch skewer, if desired.

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    Semi-Finalist Pulled Chicken Sliders with Hoisin Barbecue Sauce

    I’ll end the suspense. I didn’t win. I had a great time and the competition was fierce. Well, they were actually really nice, lovely people, but people who had run themselves around this recipe circuit quite a bit. One woman, Roxanne, Has over 800 winning recipes to her name! Pascal owns a restaurant, Jennifer and Jamie have both made names for themselves winning dozens of recipe contests all over the country. Me? This was the 4th recipe contest I’ve ever entered. I was the rookie for sure. It was a fantastic experience for, I met some great people, had a wonderful trip to San Diego, I have such a better understating of what the judges are looking for and I am ready for the next contest, bring it on.

    They even put me up in a fabulous hotel the night before the event. Here is Tater and I, enjoying the room:

     For those of you want to try out my Semi Finalist Chicken Sliders, I am now able to post the recipe:

    Pulled Chicken Sliders with Hoisin BBQ Sauce & Pickled Slaw

     

    Serves 4 – 6

     

    4 Foster Farms chicken breast halves, boneless and skinless

    1 ½ cups red onion, peeled and sliced into thin rings

    2 cups cucumber, peeled and cut into matchstick sized pieces

    ¼ tsp salt

    1/3 cup lemon juice

    3/4 cup apple cider vinegar, plus ¼ cup, divided

    2 tbsp sugar

    8 whole dried allspice berries

    1 tsp whole cloves

    ½ tsp black peppercorns

    2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

    1 tsp fresh garlic, minced

    1 cup hoisin sauce

    1 tsp chili powder

    ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce

    1 tsp sesame oil

    20 mini Hawaiian bread rolls

    In medium bowl, combine onion, cucumbers, salt and lemon juice.  Let stand and room temperature 30 minutes.

    In small saucepan over medium high heat, combine ¾ cup apple cider vinegar, sugar, allspice, cloves and peppercorns.  Bring mixture to a boil and cook for 30 seconds.  Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.  Strain the liquid to remove the cloves and allspice then pour over the onions and cucumbers and refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes.

    Meanwhile, place chicken in large pot or Dutch oven.  Fill with water to completely cover chicken.  Place on stove over medium-high heat and bring to a slow boil.  Cover and cook for 15 – 20 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked.

    While chicken is cooking, prepare barbeque sauce by warming olive oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds; add remaining vinegar, hoisin sauce, chili powder and soy sauce.  Cook for 3 minutes or until thickened, remove from heat and add sesame oil and stir well to combine.

    When chicken is cooked, remove from water and allow to cool.  Using two forks, shred chicken to as thin slices as possible, then add to hoisin barbeque sauce pan, tossing well to coat.

    Split rolls in half across the middle to resemble small sandwich buns.  Fill each bun with about 2 tablespoons of the chicken and top with pickled slaw.

    Cookin in the fancy kitchen:

    *The slider pictures, as well as the above picture of me cooking were taken by a photographer for Foster Farms, Charlie. Here is his website for more information: http://www.charliegesellphotography.com/#

    *The picture of Tater was taken by my husband.

    *I didn’t get a chance to take picture =(