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Ricotta Beer Pancakes with Blueberry Basil Syrup

Ricotta Beer Pancakes with Blueberry Basil Syrup

Evening pancakes are the best ones, but —hear me out— not for dinner. Sure, obviously pancakes for dinner are amazing, but I think we are missing the super obvious meal we should be having pancakes for. Dessert. Which, I realize, I just referred to as a MEAL but I stand by it. 

Pancake desserts should be a thing and I think it’s up to us to normalize this. Picture this (don’t close your eyes to picture it because then you won’t be able to read what I’m saying, but seriously, do it later) your favorite person calls you up (or more likely, texts you, let’s be honest), and says, "Hey, want to come over tonight to hang out, drink beer, and eat pancakes?" Obviously, you are VERY excited about this because it’s something new. NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED YOU THAT AND NOW YOUR LIFE IS COMPLETE. 

See, I told you, it’s a great idea. Your mission is clear: Dessert Pancakes and Beer Night. Get on it. 

Ricotta Beer Pancakes with Blueberry Basil Syrup

5 from 1 vote
Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

For the pancakes:

  • 1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 4 tablespoons (50g) granulated sugar divided
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup (60g) whole milk
  • ½ cup (120g)beer pilsner, pale lager, wit beer (maltier rather than hoppy)
  • 1 cup (240g) ricotta cheese
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs separated

For the syrup:

  • ½ cup (100g) sugar
  • 3 tablespoons water or beer
  • 1 ½ cups (255) blueberries
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon minced fresh basil leaves
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

  • Add the flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl, stir to combine.
  • Add the milk, beer, ricotta cheese and vanilla.
  • In a separate bowl add the egg whites, putting the yolks in the bowl with the flour mixture.
  • Mix the flour mixture until just combined.
  • Beat the egg whites until firm, while the mixer is running, slowly add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
  • Fold the egg whites into the flour mixture.
  • Heat a pan or griddle over medium high heat, spray with cooking spray or coat with butter. Add ¼ cup batter in circles on the hot surface. Once the edges start to look dry, flip pancakes. Cook until underside is golden brown.
  • Add all the syrup ingredients to a pot over high heat. Boil, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly before serving.
  • Top the pancakes with syrup before serving.

Southern Style Barbecue Beer Shrimp and Grits

Southern Style Barbecue Beer Shrimp and Grits

I’m gonna let you in on something. People send me recipes all the time, and I ignore them. Beer bread! Yes, I’m well aware. Beer can chicken! Done it. Rissotto but with beer! Mucho familiar. This goes on and on until the end of time. 

When you spend more hours than your basic levels of sanity will allow creating compelling recipes that include beer, you’ve explored all the far reaches of cooking with your favorite fermented beverages. But every once in awhile, someone will send me something that I feel an overwhelming need to make.

A good friend sent me a link to this recipe from Seattle chef Matt Lewis with the message, "This was the best thing I ate in college." And obviously this is a glowing review, but what makes it even more so is that she’s Southern. When a Southerner sends you another Southerns recipe for shrimp and grits, YOU MAKE IT. 

And it was fantastic. So obviously, now it’s your turn to make it. 

Southern Style Barbecue Beer Shrimp and Grits

Adapted from Chef Matt Lewis' Shrimp and Grits whereyaatmatt.com
5 from 1 vote
Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

For the grits:

  • ¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter
  • ½ cup (25g) diced white onion
  • 2 cups (312g) dry corn grits
  • 6 cups (48oz) chicken broth or stock
  • 1 ½ cups (342g) half-and-half
  • 1 cup (130g) shredded cheddar
  • 1 tablespoon hot sauce
  • 1 teaspoon salt plus additional to taste this will depend on how salty your broth is

For the shrimp:

  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon chili powder
  • ½ teaspoon onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 3 tablespoons (42g) butter
  • 1 lbs raw shrimp peeled and deveined (strongly recommend red shrimp*)
  • 1 shallot blub minced
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/3 cup (65g) beer (light lager, wheat beer, pilsner)
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 3 tablespoons (42g) lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • In a large sauce pan melt the butter. Add the onions, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the grits, cooking until coated in butter and starting to smell slightly like popcorn.
  • Stir in the broth, reduce heat to a low simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, stir in the cream and continue to cook until grits have softened, about an additional 10 minutes.
  • Stir in the cheese, hot sauce and salt.
  • In a small bowl stir together the cornstarch and spices (first 10 ingredients in the shrimp list), set aside.
  • Melt the butter in a large sauce pan. Add the shallots, cook until starting to soften, add the shrimp, toss until starting to cook. Stir in the garlic. Sprinkle with the spice mixture, stir to combine. Add the beer, hot sauce, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce, simmer until thickened.
  • Ladle the grits into 4 bowls, top with shrimp and sauce, sprinkle with parsley.

Notes

*Red shrimp, or Argentine red shrimp, is sweeter, milder and have a taste closer to lobster. They don’t turn rubbery when fully cooked, they stay soft and tender. The flavor and texture are far superior to other varieties and makes it well worth the time it takes to seek them out. Because they often come from South America, they are often found in the frozen section. 

Melting Beer Sweet Potatoes with Balsamic and Hazelnuts

Melting Beer Sweet Potatoes with Balsamic and HazelnutsLet’s talk about sweet potatoes, shall we? Of course we shall. It’s been a while since we’ve had any root vegetable related banter. I didn’t have sweet potatoes until I was a grown-up. A literal grown-ass human. This is a true fact. I did not grow up in a house where any orange vegetables, roots or tubers of any kind other than white potatoes, or squash of any variety were entertained. We were more the vegetables from a can or freezer bag sort. I’ve changed, I promise. 

The actual first time I saw a sweet potato being eaten by a real-life human I was in college. See, kids, you learn more than the stuff in books if you make it all the way to 13th grade! A friend of mine was just sitting there eating a microwaved sweet potato with sugar and butter as if that wasn’t the weirdest thing anyone had ever done, ever. I couldn’t get over it. In my head it was like eating broccoli covered in chocolate, I couldn’t even imagine. 

Melting Beer Sweet Potatoes with Balsamic and Hazelnuts

It took me a while to try it, you know with the gagging and all, and when I did I was astonished. I went from thinking my friend was a crazy person to being mildly angry with everyone from my childhood for keeping these little magical beasts from me. 

I have since made up for the time I spent sans sweet taters and now I eat them several times a week, I should probably add a line item in my budget just for them, it would be a wise financial move. 

When I got a shipment of beer press mail from Left Hand Brewing which included a velvety-malty-delicious Sawtooth Nitro amber ale, I knew I needed to soak some sweet potatoes in it. 

Melting Beer Sweet Potatoes with Balsamic and Hazelnuts

It was a wise move. And if you come over for Thanksgiving I’ll make you some. But you need to bring a pie, and maybe some beer.

 

Melting Beer Sweet Potatoes with Balsamic and Hazelnuts

5 from 1 vote

Ingredients
  

  • 2 ½ lbs sweet potatoes look for relatively uniform ones
  • 4 tablespoon melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup malty beer (amber ale, Oktoberfest, brown ale)
  • 3 tablespoons balsamic glaze*
  • ¼ cup roasted chopped hazelnuts

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 475°F.
  • Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into 1-inch rounds.
  • In a large bowl stir together the butter, garlic powder, salt, and beer.
  • Add the sweet potatoes, toss to coat.
  • Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Add the potatoes and the herb liquid to the pan in an even layer.
  • Bake for 15 minutes. Flip the potato rounds with a spatula, return the pan to the oven, rotating the pan so that side that was in the back of the oven is now in the front. Bake for 10 to 15 more minutes or until the top has started to brown and the potatoes are soft.
  • Remove with a spatula while the potatoes are still hot, if they cool on the pan they are likely to stick. Add to a serving plate
  • Drizzle with balsamic glaze, sprinkle with hazelnuts. 

Notes

*Balsamic glaze is easy to find in most grocery stores. It’s usually found near the vinegar, it’s sweeter and more syrupy than normal balsamic vinegar.

White Bean Turkey Beer Chili (for Thanksgiving leftovers)

White Bean Turkey Beer Chili (for Thanksgiving leftovers)

white-bean-turkey-beer-chili-for-thanksgiving-leftovers4

Please excuse the interruption from your otherwise lovely Holiday weekend while I boss you around.

If you have leftover turkey this is what you should do with it. Make yourself some warm-your-bones chili, full of the beer brined turkey that you obviously made, and use it as an excuse to open a beer for lunch.

Because if you still have family in town, you’re gonna need it.

But if you’re reading this on any day of the year that is not punctuated with holiday sales and over-zealous shoppers looking for dirt cheap TV’s, then you can always substitute cooked chicken. Or just leave it out all together. It’s cheese and beans and beer, it’s a win no matter what.

white-bean-turkey-beer-chili-for-thanksgiving-leftovers3

 

White Bean Turkey Beer Chili

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cups white onion chopped
  • 1 cup chopped carrots
  • 1 rib of celery chopped
  • 4 large garlic cloves minced
  • 1 cup wheat beer
  • 1 cup chicken or turkey broth
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
  • 2 15oz cans cannellini beans (rinsed and drained)
  • 1 15oz can Great Northern beans (rinsed and drained)
  • 1 jalapeno chopped
  • 2 cups cooked turkey cut into cubes
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
  • ½ cup Chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions
 

  • Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add the onions, carrots and celery, cooking until the vegetables has softened, about 8 minutes.
  • Stir in the garlic, cooking for about 30 seconds.
  • Add the beer, scraping to deglaze the pan. Stir in the broth, cumin, chili powder, red pepper, beans, jalapenos and turkey. Simmer until turkey is cooked through, about 8 minutes.
  • Stir in the heavy cream, remove from heat. Salt and pepper to taste.
  • Ladle into bowls, top with cheese and cilantro.

white-bean-turkey-beer-chili-for-thanksgiving-leftovers2

Chipotle White Ale Cranberry Sauce

Chipotle White Ale Cranberry Sauce

Chipotle White Ale Cranberry Sauce3

This is a game changer.

It’s the "best cranberry sauce ever" for cranberry sauce people, also for I-don’t-like-that-stuff people, and even for "don’t judge, but I like the phallic looking, ridged, gelatinous, canned version, don’t hate" people.

It’s smokey, spicy, and has a slight hint of beer. A  recipe that requires you to open a beer, then "figure out" what you should do with the remaining 1/2 cup.

It’s also a make ahead, one step, one pot, fifteen minute dish that makes holiday prep easy.

We can do this. We can make it through the holidays. Although we may need much more than 1/2 cup beer to helps us get that job done.

Chipotle White Ale Cranberry Sauce

Chipotle White Ale Cranberry Sauce

Servings 6 -8 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 12 wt oz fresh cranberries
  • 1 cup white ale*
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 medium sized chipotle chili in adobo minced
  • 1 tbs adobo sauce
  • pinch salt

Instructions
 

  • Add all ingredients to a pot, bring to a low boil.
  • Boil, stirring frequently, until thickened, about fifteen minutes.
  • Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to serve.
  • Can be made three days in advance.

Notes

*Use a white ale, Belgian ale, Hefeweizen, or craft cider

Chipotle White Ale Cranberry Sauce3

Sriracha Bloody Beer with Chili Sugar Bacon + New Years Resolutions For Beer People

Sriracha Bloody Beer with Chili Sugar Bacon + New Years Resolutions For Beer People

Sriracha Bloody Beer with Chili Sugar Bacon

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We do this too often. Spinning a resolution in a sacrifice that will ultimately give way to our guilt over lack of follow through. It’s not your fault, it’s the resolution. You can spend all year giving up coffee, carbs, sugar, or sleeping in, but that’s not what we should focus on at the dawning of a brand new year. It’s not supposed to be torture, it’s meant for celebration. So don’t put yourself in a culinary time out, or throw yourself into a debt related guilt prison, give yourself a gift. Grow yourself and your interest. Save the torture and regret for Lent. If you’re a beer person, you’ve got some options. But you already knew that, you’re way more creative than those vodka soda people.

1. Get certified in beer. Make it a goal to study hard, read up, and earn yourself a Cicerone Certificate, which is a certification that proves to the world that you actually know beer. And if anyone questions you, you will now have the proof you need to silence your opposition.

2. Brew your own. If you’ve been wanting to try your hand at homebrewing, there is no better time to start. Buy a starter kit, join a homebrew club, and realize that your first batch will suck, possible explode in the fridge, and then the next one will suck less. If that doesn’t scare you off, then you’ll make a fantastic brewer someday. After you stop sucking at it (don’t worry, everyone sucks at first).

3. Go to a beer festival. There is no better way to connect with the craft beer community than to drink with us. Nearly every state has a Craft Beer Week, there are ale fests, stout fest, holiday beer fests, fresh hop fests, summer ale fests, (and on and on), in every state. Find one locally or go to a giant gathering of craft beer lovers from all over the world like The Great American Beer Festival.

4. Invest in glassware. You’ll be shocked at the flavor difference between your favorite beer when you drink it from shaker pint (or, god forbid, a mason jar) and when you sample it from a glass made specifically for that beer style. If you appreciate beer, and especially if you invest in good bottles, you’ll love serving it the proper way. Although the names of  a few of these glasses are a bit suspect, I love the line of glassware from Crate & Barrel (my favorites: stout glass, half pints, IPA glass, wheat beer glass, craft beer glass).

5. Learn beer terms. Grab a great intro to craft beer book like The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer,  Beer Pairing: The Essential Guide from the Pairing Pros by Julia Herz and Gwen Conley or The Beer Wench’s Guide to Beer: An Unpretentious Guide to Craft Beer by Ashley V. Routson and learn how to speak the craft beer language (affiliate links).

6. A new brewery every month. Most cities have more than enough established breweries or new start ups to take care of twelve months of brewery hopping. Stop in, grab a flight, and don’t forget to chat up the staff, beer people are the friendliest kind.

Sriracha Bloody Beer with Chili Sugar Bacon-3

 

Sriracha Bloody Beer with Chili Sugar Bacon

Servings 2 cocktails

Ingredients
  

Garnish:

  • 2 Celery ribs
  • 2 strips thick cut bacon
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • 2 tsp brown sugar

Cocktail:

  • 1 cup Calamato or tomato juice
  • 1 cup IPA beer
  • 1/2 tsp celery salt plus additional for glass rims
  • 1 tsp Sriracha
  • 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tsp brine for a jar of spanish olive
  • 1/4 tsp cream style horseradish
  • 1 tbs lime juice about 1 medium lime
  • 1 tbs lemon juice about 1/2 medium lemon
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • Ice

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Thread the bacon through oven safe skewers.
  • Sprinkle with brown sugar and chili powder.
  • Place on a wire rack over a baking sheet.
  • Bake until bacon is crispy, about 15 minutes.
  • Rim glasses with celery salt. Add all cocktail ingredients to a shaker half full of ice, swirl to combine. Strain into prepared glasses, garnish with celery and bacon skewer.

Sriracha Bloody Beer with Chili Sugar Bacon-1

Mile High Chocolate Stout Pie

This past Sunday, as I stood at a podium in the middle of a convention center talking about the glorious interplay of beer & chocolate  and how to pair the two, I was asked which chocolate stout I recommend.

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