craft beer

Pumpkin Porter Beer Brownies Sundaes

29.08.2014 13 Comments

Pumpkin things are upon us.

Of course we have those pumpkin spice lattes that the weather is far too warm to warrant, and the overly orange plastic pumpkins that Target is trying to push on us, but it’s the beer that gets me most excited. It can be a triple digit August afternoon when a package of pumpkin porter arrives and I’ll still break into it as soon as I can open the box.

As early as July those hotly anticipated squash infused brews start to hit bottle shops and brew pubs across the land. From a pale lager to a deep stout, every style of beer has had a tryst with a pumpkin. Every brewer has a different take. Some like to spice it up, others favor a drinkable pumpkin pie, while some want the flavor to be a subtle background note you should have to work at identifying. Whatever you prefer when it comes to this super special release category, there is a beer that will suit your mood.

A box of He Said Baltic Porter brewed with pumpkin and spice arrived on my door step last week reminding me that the days of driving with the windows down and eating ice cream outdoors are rapidly coming to a close. So I did what any rational person would do: I made brownies. But, somehow, that didn’t seem like enough. So I made a pumpkin porter infused chocolate sauce and added in the more weather appropriate giant scoop of cold ice cream. Which makes this the perfect transitional recipe from the heat wave afternoons to the fireside evenings. It’s both pumpkin and ice cream, regardless of the weather in your town, this recipe fits.

Porters are a great vehicle for the flavors of pumpkin. The deep earthiness is delivered well with the roast notes of the darker beers and this beer is no exception. The flavors of pumpkin in He Said are perfectly mild in a way that I prefer, these beers can often be treated heavy handed. This Baltic porter delivers the flavors of pumpkin and spice without molesting you with them, it’s more seductive. It’s a deep, smooth porter that draws you in. And, apparently, makes you bake things. Or maybe that’s just me.

Pumpkin Porter Brownies Sundaes

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Ingredients

For the brownies:

1 ½ cups unsalted butter cut into cubes
10 wt ounces 60% chocolate about 2 cups
1 cup pumpkin porter
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup bread flour
½ tsp cinnamon
2 tsp espresso powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

For the Sundae:

10 wt oz dark chocolate 53% cocoa
2 tbs light corn syrup
1/3 cup pumpkin porter
1 quart vanilla ice cream

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400. In the top of a double boiler, or metal bowl set over (but not touching) gently simmering water, add the butter and the chocolate. Stir occasionally until just melted. Remove from heat, stir in 1 cup pumpkin porter and vanilla extract.
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the eggs on high until light and frothy, about 2 minutes. Add both kinds of sugar and beat for 6 full minutes. Add the pumpkin puree, stir until combined.
In a separate bowl add the flour, cinnamon, espresso powder, salt and cocoa powder, whisk until well combined.
While the mixer is on low, add the chocolate mixture to the eggs. Mix until well incorporated, stopping to scrape the bottom of the bowl to insure the batter is fully combined.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, sprinkle with dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
Grease a 9x13 baking dish, or spray with butter flavored cooking spray, pour in batter.
Place in the oven and immediately reduce to 350. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. The top should look completely dry but the center should still be fudgy. Don’t over bake. Remove from oven and allow to cool until set and come to room temperature before attempting to cut, about 1 hour.
Add the dark chocolate, corn syrup, and 1/3 cup pumpkin porter to the top of a double boiler over medium heat.
Stir until melted and well combined, remove from heat, pour over ice cream.

Beer Brined Scallops over Spinach Salad With Bacon Stout Dressing

25.07.2014 9 Comments

If you’re going to make me a salad, it better be a damn good salad. After all, you’re asking me to skip carbs and satisfying fried finger foods, I might resent you if it isn’t a really good salad.

Bacon is a good start, and so is beer. Scallops are a fan favorite as well. Let’s talk about those for a second while we’re at it. Scallops will most likely come to you via a grocery store seafood counter soaking in a milky phosphate solution (yum!) that will help keep it fresh longer as well as give it an unfortunate soapy taste and an inability to sear properly. The solution to this is beer. Well, more accurately, a brine. Soaking the scallops in a brine will flush out that unappetizing liquid and give you a great taste and a great sear. Which will help that salad taste amazing. And make people forget all about the missing french fries.

But there is beer and bacon and perfect scallops, so no one should complain. If they do, take away their beer.

Beer Brined Scallops over Spinach Salad With Bacon Stout Dressing

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Servings 2 entree portions or 4 appetizer portions

Ingredients

12 ounces pale ale
2 tbs salt
1 cup water
¼ cup lemon juice
8 jumbo scallops
salt and pepper
3 thick slices bacon
¼ cup chopped shallots
¼ cup stout beer
2 tbs brown mustard
2 tbs raw honey
3 tbs olive oil
3 tbs unsalted butter
1 lbs asparagus
3 cups baby spinach leaves
2 wt oz crumbled goat cheese

Instructions

In a large bowl stir together the pale ale, salt, water and lemon juice.
Add the scallops, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Remove the scallops from fridge and place on top of a stack of 4-5 paper towels. Add another layer of paper towels and allow to drain and dry for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with pepper on both sides.
Cook the bacon in a pan over medium high heat until cooked through, remove from pan, chop and set aside. Add the shallots to the bacon grease, cook until shallots have softened, about 5 minutes. Add the stout beer, scraping to deglaze the pan. Add the mustard, honey and pepper, whisking to combine. Slowly whisk in the olive oil, stirring until thickened. Remove from heat.
Melt the butter in a skillet over medium high heat until very hot. Add the scallops, flat side down, and allow to cook until a dark golden brown crust forms on the bottom, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook until seared on the opposite side. Remove from pan when a slight hint of translucent pink still remains at the center, don’t over cook.
Trim asparagus, cut into 2 inch pieces. Cook the asparagus in lightly salted boiling water for one minute, drain and allow to dry.
Plate the spinach, top with asparagus, goat cheese, and crumbled bacon, dizzle with dressing, top with scallops.

Coconut Cake with Pale Ale Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

27.06.2014 8 Comments

Beer and fruit have a bit of a sordid past. From the ill-advised orange slice served on the side of a hefeweizen, to the cringe inducing Bud Light Lime. Thankfully, plenty of remarkable unions have a sordid pasts. Beer and fruit just needed a few takes to get it right. The current state of beer and fruit, in the hands of remarkable brewers, is exciting.

Craft brewers have pushed the limits of what these two can do, bringing us remarkable examples like Festina Peche from Dogfish Head, and Orange Wheat from Hangar 24. Those brilliant brewers make beer with watermelon, cherries, marionberries, and pretty much everything else they can get their hands on.

It’s evidence of what beer can do, what it’s capable of. Think for a second of the first beer you ever tasted, probably a pale lager poured from a keg out of the back of a pick-up truck. The flavors in that beer were small, a ground floor offering, a beer made to vaguely satiate the masses. Craft beer being made now is being made to get people excited, make us think. Love it or hate it, it’s beer you remember.

It’s why beer and food go so well together. It’s the only alcoholic beverage that’s made with just about any ingredient in that meal on your plate. It was only a matter of time, and dozens of brilliant brewers, before beer and fruit started to make sense. And that was only the begining. You should see what those brewers do with chai, and chocolate, and carrots, and everything else you can throw at them.

Coconut Cake with Pale Ale Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

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Ingredients

For the Cake

4 eggs divided
1 cup butter
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup full fat coconut milk from can, shaken
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp coconut extract
1 cup pale ale beer
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup dried coconut flakes

For the Frosting:

1 ½ cup unsalted butter softened
8 wt oz cream cheese softened
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tbs lime juice
3 tbs pale ale beer
1/2 cup toasted coconut optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 .
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the egg whites, reserve the yolks.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Remove whites from mixer, add to a medium bowl, chill until ready to use.
In the mixer bowl add the butter and sugar, beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, beat until well combined.
Add the coconut milk, vanilla extract, coconut extract and beer, beat until well combined.
Lift the mixer heat, sprinkle with flour, baking soda and salt, stir until just combined. Add the egg whites, stir until just combined.
Pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan.
Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool completely.
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese, beat until well combined. Add the powdered sugar and beat until well combined.
While the mixer is running mix in the beer and the lime juice.
Frost the cake with the frosting, chill until ready to serve.
Garnish with toasted coconut just prior to serving, if desired.

Grilled BBQ Beer Chicken and Apricot Flatbreads

18.06.2014 9 Comments

Let’s say you and I get into it over pizza. We hash it out over the best pizza we’ve ever had. We talk about Naples, and LA, and both agree that New York beats Chicago, unless you want a casserole, then Chicago pizza will do.

And then I tell you that the best Ray’s pizza in New York is the one at 4th and Houston, to which (if you’re a New Yorker) you recoiler in horror that I’ve chosen said Ray’s instead of one of the 147 other Ray’s in Manhattan.

We finally just agree to get a beer and pizza and call it a day. Nowhere in our spirited conversation do we mention Seattle. Because the thing about Seattle is that beer is world class, so is the coffee and the produce can’t be beat, but the pizza…

We’ll just talk about the beer and the coffee and the produce and leave talk of the pizza out of it shall we? Similar to a discussion of the best people in the world named Joe wouldn’t include talk of either Buttafuoco or Francis. Let’s just stick to the good stuff.

Of course I have a theory about this. The same water that makes the beer fantastic and coffee legendary isn’t so kind with the pizza dough. But here is the thing about baking your pizza dough with beer, wherever you go in the world, your dough will be the same.

Water is for the weak, switch to beer and your pizza dough will become the stuff of folklore.

It might even be brought up in the New York vs Chicago debate.

Grilled BBQ Beer Chicken and Apricot Flatbreads

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Servings 4 (6-inch) flatbreads

Ingredients

Crust:

1 ½ cups flour
1 1/8 tsp rapid rise yeast
1 tsp sugar
½ cup wheat beer or pale ale
2 tbs oil
½ tsp salt

Chicken:

2 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 cup wheat beer or pale ale
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp smoked paprika
¼ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp cumin
¼ tsp salt
oil for the grill

Topping:

Stout and Sriracha BBQ Sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ tsp cilantro chopped
2 apricots thinly sliced
¼ cup red onion chopped

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, add the flour, yeast and sugar. Mix until combined.
In a microwave safe bowl add the beer. Microwave on high for 20 seconds, test temperature with a cooking thermometer and repeat until temperature reaches between 120 and 125 degrees Fahrenheit.
Add the beer to the stand mixer and mix on medium speed. Once most of the dough has been moistened, add the oil and salt while the mixer is still running.
Turn speed to high and beat until dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, tightly wrap with plastic wrap. Allow to sit in a warm room until doubled in size, about 45 to 60 minutes.
Remove from bowl and add to a lightly floured surface. Knead several times, cut into 4 equal sized pieces. Form each piece into 6 inch circles.
While the dough is rising, make the chicken. Place the chicken in a bowl, cover with 1 cup beer. Chill for 30 to 60 minutes. Remove from beer, rinse and pat dry.
Preheat the grill.
In a small bowl combine the onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin and salt.
Sprinkle chicken on all sides with spice mixture.
Grill chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.
Remove from grill, slice.
Oil the grill (alternately, you can oil the flatbreads). Grill one side of the flatbread until grill marks appear, about 2 minutes, flip and very lightly grill the other side, about 30 seconds, remove from grill. Place the flatbreads on a flat surface with the well grilled side facing up. Top with barbeque sauce, cheese, chicken, sliced apricots, cilantro, and onions. Place back on the grill, close over, cook until cheese has melted.

My recipe for Stout & Sriracha BBQ Sauce, you have to make it.

Jalapeno Cornbread Beer Bread Muffins with Salted Beer Honey Butter

13.06.2014 14 Comments

Jalapeno Cornbread Beer Bread Muffins, cooking with beer

There’s a contradictory element to cornbread.

It’s enough to be a meal all on it’s own, especially when you eat 4 of them, with a beer and some honey butter, but you miss the rest. You miss the ribs, and the greens, and the coleslaw and the mac n cheese and the fried chicken. You miss all those things that cornbread always sits beside on the plate. Maybe it’s just that cornbread is a social food, it just goes with everything. Or maybe it’s because your cornbread memories are accompanied by other comforting good-time food.

But either way, it’s a food that seems to be lonely all by itself. So you should probably make some beer fried chicken and some beer and bacon mac n cheese, maybe some stout BBQ sauce ribs while you’re at it.

Or just eat 4 of them with a beer and call it day.

Jalapeno Cornbread Beer Bread Muffins with Salted Beer Honey Butter

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Ingredients

For the muffins

1 1/4 cups cornmeal
3/4 cup flour
3 jalapenos chopped (remove seeds for a lower heat level)
1 ear of corn grilled (leftover grilled corn works perfect)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
¾ cup melted butter
¾ cup wheat beer
2 eggs
3 tbs vegetable oil

for the butter:

½ cup butter
2 tbs wheat beer
1 tbs honey
1 tsp Maldon salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400.
In a large bowl stir together the cornmeal, flour, jalapenos, kernels cut off the cob of corn, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Make a well in the center.
Add the melted butter, beer, eggs and vegetable oil, stir until jut combined.
Scoop into the wells of a muffin tin that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Bake at 400 until lightly browned and top spring back when touched, about 12 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool.
In a stand mixer, beat the butter with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Slowly add the beer and honey, mix until well combined, stir in the salt.
Scrape the butter onto a sheet of plastic wrap, roll into a log, refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.
Serve the cornbread with butter.

Porter Date Jam Crostini with Prosciutto, Arugula and Goat Cheese

09.06.2014 12 Comments

If there was any doubt about how much I like self-torture, you can defer to this: I’m writing another cookbook.

My first cookbook, The Craft Beer Cookbook took four months and most of my sanity to write. And here I am, doing it again. Maybe it’s the post publisher amnesia, maybe it’s that I had such a great time on the book tour, or maybe it’s that I like self inflicted torment.

Either way I’m nearing the half way point of writing my second cookbook. The topic this time is appetizers and party food. Craft beer lends itself to party food. The community of people that beer draws, and the flavors of the great beer that those craft beer people create just have to be shared. A book about food that’s at the center of a gathering of good beer and great people is therapeutic for me right now. It’s a reminder of the good parts of these lives we live, that the Quality of Life that we all strive for has more to do with who we share it with any other peripheral accessories that the world can offer.

A book about food that’s meant to be shared with people we love, I can’t think of anything I’d rather spend my time creating.

Porter Date Jam Crostini with Prosciutto, Arugula and Goat Cheese

Print Recipe

Ingredients

2 tbs olive oil
½ cup white onions
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup smoked porter
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbs molasses not black strap
15 madjool dates about 8 wt oz, pitted and chopped
1 long french baguette
4 wt oz goat cheese crumbled
4 wt oz prosciutto sliced
1/3 cup baby arugula leaves

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Cook the onions until soft. Stir in the garlic, then the porter, vinegar, molasses and dates.
Simmer until the dates have softened and broken down and the beer has reduced, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for about ten minutes.
Add to a food processor and process until mostly smooth.
Preheat broiler. Cut the baguette into 24, 1-inch slices. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet. Place under the broiler until golden brown. Flip the slices over and place back under the broiler until golden brown on the other side.
Spread each slice with porter date jam, top with crumbled goat cheese, prosciutto and arugula.

Porter Black Bean Dip

02.06.2014 11 Comments

I’ve been told that a writer is no greater than the sum of their experiences.

Experiences, those I’ve got, more than most. More than I’ll ever admit to. But are the ones I’ve accumulated the right inlay for the foundation of the life I want? I was never anyones high school sweetheart, but I was the mysterious girl at an Italian hotel. I’m not sure I’ve been anyone’s best friend, but I was the girl drinking beer at Elton Johns birthday party. I’ve never made cookies with my grandmother but I did learn to make a noodle kugel from a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor. I’ve never been to Disney World, but I’ve taken a taxi ride to feed monkeys in Middle Atlas. I’ll never be the person who works at the same company for 20 years, but I have taught anger management skills to gang members in South Central Los Angeles.

Are these the experiences that I’ll be glad I’ve accumulated? Are they the right ones because they’re more rare? Am I missing out on the beauty of a more traditional life? I’m not sure.

But I know that I have a gypsy soul that likes to wander, and doesn’t gravitate towards convention.

Porter Black Bean Dip

Print Recipe

Ingredients

2 15 wt oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained
½ cup 4 wt oz cream cheese
2/3 cup smoked porter beer
½ cup cilantro plus additional for garnish
3 jalapenos chopped
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup cotija cheese

Instructions

In a food processor add the beans, cream cheese, porter, cilantro, jalapenos, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin and smoked paprika. Process until smooth.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Pour into a serving bowl, top with cotija cheese and cilantro.
Can be served warm or at room temperature.

Apricot Sriracha IPA Chicken and Session IPA’s for Summer

26.05.2014 9 Comments

For what seems like decades brewers have been involved in a bit of an ABV arms race to see who can bring to the table the IPA with highest alcohol content. The Top That ABV Game seems to be waining in favor of the Full Flavor Session IPA game, to the relief of lightweights across the land.

Now that summer is around the corner and long days of eating Hot Meat off the grill and drinking all day, session beers are more important. A session beer is a beer with low alcohol that you can spend a "long drinking session" consuming without becoming a cautionary tale. Mostly, these are beers that have less than 5% alcohol by volume (ABV).

Although a low ABV session beer becomes an important part of not becoming an unintended YouTube sensation with drunk antics, we also want to continue to perpetuate our status as the Craft Beer Queen, so "lite" beer won’t be considered. Session IPA’s are what we go to. The hops we want, the low alcohol that keeps us functional all day.

Here are some to seek out. This isn’t a "top ten"list, or a "best of" list. It’s just a list. A list of great session IPA’s to seek out when you want to drink all day without embarrassing yourself. If you have a session IPA you love, let me know.

Founders: All Day IPA ABV 4.7%

Lagunitas Brewing: Day Time IPA 4.65%

Stone Brewing: Go To IPA 4.5%

Fort George Brewery: Suicide Squeeze 4.5%

Sierra Nevada: Nooner Session IPA 4.8%

Firestone Walker: Brewing: Easy Jack IPA 4.5%

Southern Tier: Farmer’s Tan IPA 4.6%

Pizza Port Brewing: Ponto S.I.P.A. 4.5%

Apricot Sriracha IPA Chicken

Print Recipe

Prep Time 20

Total Time 20

Ingredients

1 lb very ripe apricots pitted
1/3 cup IPA beer
1 tsp sririacha
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 lb chicken thighs
salt and pepper
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs chopped shallots
3 tbs chopped flat leaf parsley

Instructions

In a food processor or blender add the apricots, IPA, sriracha, cornstarch, and balsamic, blend until smooth.
Salt and pepper the chicken thighs on all sides,.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat.
Sear the chicken breasts on both sides. Add the shallots, stir until shallots have softened.
Add the apricot mixture, reduce heat to a low simmer, simmer until sauce has thickened and chicken is cooked through, about 8 minutes.
Remove from heat, sprinkle with parsley.

Notes

This recipe needs fully ripe, sweet apricots. If you use under-ripe apricots, the dish will be overly sour. If you don't have over ripe (almost mushy) apricots, add 2 tbs honey to combat the bitterness.

Miniature Coffee Stout Cinnamon Rolls

14.04.2014 8 Comments

No matter how great beer is in meat recipes, bread will always be it’s culinary kindred spirit. Because the heart and soul of bread and beer is the same: yeast. The beast that gives us bread, also gives us beer. A few months ago I was interviewing a brewer at an LA brewery who told me how he really feels about his job, "I don’t work for the brewery, I work for the yeast."

It might sound intimidating, but really, nothing will work harder for you in the kitchen than yeast. It’s the most active ingredient you’ll ever work with, it becomes a cooking partner if you can just follow it’s rules and it will do more for your bread than you do.

And there is something about watching yeast dough rise, smelling it bake in your kitchen, and tasting it fresh from the oven that just has healing powers. Just follow the simple steps: make sure the yeast hasn’t expired, make sure the temperate is correct (use a cooking thermometer), and make sure your kitchen isn’t too cold, and you’ll be fine. You’re yeast will work for you to make a gorgeous loaf.

Then theres the beer, that has it’s own yeast, and it’s made from bread like ingredients. It’s a bread makers dream when it comes to baking the perfect batch of cinnamon rolls. You’ll get more than what you’ve worked for, and a batch of unforgettable rolls that are more than worth the effort they took. Plus you’ll be able to serve beer for breakfast, and that’s a dream all on it’s own.

Miniature Coffee Stout Cinnamon Rolls

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Dough:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 packets rapid rise yeast
1/4 cup dry milk powder
4 tbs butter
1/4 cup cream
¾ cup coffee stout
2 large egg yolk room temperature
½ tsp salt

For the Filling:

1/2 cup butter softened
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 tbs cinnamon

For the Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese
½ cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup Coffee Stout

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook add the flour, sugar, rapid rise yeast (do not use regular dry active yeast), and dry milk powder. Stir to combine.
In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter. Add the cream and stout, microwave for 15 seconds, test temperature and repeat until the temperature of the liquid reaches between 120 and 125 degrees.
Add liquid to the mixer and stir until incorporated.
Add the egg yolk and salt, mix on medium high speed until dough comes together and gathers around the blade.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit in a warm room until doubled in size, 1 ½ to 2 hours.
On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to an approximately 12 inch by 16 inch rectangle.
In a bowl stir together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
Spread the cinnamon-sugar butter evenly over the dough. Cut the dough in half, lengthwise.
Starting at the long end, roll each half into a tight log.
Cut each log into 1-inch rolls, place cut side up in a mini muffin tin (or tightly into a baking dish) that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 45 minutes (to make ahead, the second rise can take place over 12 hours in a refrigerator. Remove from fridge and allow to come to room temperature the following day prior baking).
Heat oven to 350. Bake until golden brown, about 22-25 minutes.
To make the frosting, beat the softened butter and softened cream cheese until well combined and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and mix until well combined. Add the beer and mix until light and fluffy. Spread frosting on rolls prior to serving.

Lime Sugared Blackberry and Coconut Pale Ale Pastry Cream Tart

11.04.2014 15 Comments

When I was a kid I thought you grew up, picked a life and that’s were you sat. You stayed in this grown-up place, and that was it. You’d found your grown-up life and you were done.

But my grown-up life seems to go through a comprehensive metamorphosis every few years. New city, new job, new people. For a natural-born gypsy with the soul of a wanderer, this isn’t a bad thing. Experiences are satisfying and change can be cleansing.

But then there are times when it seems catastrophically difficult, even when it’s necessary. Like cleaning out road rash so the wounds of a bike crash will heal. Sometimes it’s the cleaning that hurts more than the crash. But it’s part of the process, part of the evolution, part of necessity of growth that keeps us from the stagnation that will kill our souls.

Growth, change, healing, just because it hurts doesn’t mean it isn’t the right path. Keep moving forward, keep breathing, know that it isn’t selfish to fight for your own happiness. Know that it’s hard because it’s worth it.

These are the days I bake. The days I cover fruit in sugar. The days I open a beer, grab a friend and take stock of the things I’m truly grateful for. Because no matter what is on the the hard list, the good list can always be longer.

Lime Sugared Blackberry and Coconut Pale Ale Pastry Cream Tart

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Tart Crust:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
½ cup unsalted butter cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
¼ cup ice cold beer
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Coconut Pastry Cream:

1 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup full fat coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 egg yolks
1/3 cup Saison beer or Hefeweizen
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch

For the Blackberries:

1 lbs black berries
½ cup granulated sugar
Zest from one large lime about 2 tbs

Instructions

Add ¾ cups of flour, salt and sugar to a food processor, pulse to combine. Add the butter and egg yolk, process until well combined and dough gathers around the blade.
Add the remaining flour and pulse 6-8 times or until all the flour has been coated.
Transfer to a bowl. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the beer until completely incorporated into the dough (don’t add the beer in the food processor or your dough will turn into a cracker). Dough will be very soft.
Lay a long sheets of plastic wrap on a flat surface.
Place the dough onto the plastic wrap, form into flat disks.
Wrap disk tightly in plastic wrap, chill for 1 hour and up to 3 days.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Roll the tart dough into an even circle on a lightly floured surface. Line a tart pan with the crust. Prick bottom of the tart with a fork several times, adding pie weights if desired.
Bake at 350 until lightly golden brown, about 15-18 minutes. Allow to cool.
In a sauce pan off heat add the milk, cream, coconut milk, vanilla, egg yolks, Saison, sugar and cornstarch, whisk until well combined. Add to medium heat, whisk until thickened, about 10 minutes.
Pour pastry cream into crust. Chill until set and cooled, about 3 hours.
Add the sugar and lime zest to a food processor, process until all the lime oils and sugars have been well combined, about 3 minutes (this can be done days or even weeks in advance, keep in an air tight container until ready to use.)
Just prior to serving, add the blackberries to a bowl, pour the sugar over the berries, toss until well well coated.
Top tart with the berries prior to serving.

Salted Beer Caramel Topped Blondies

07.04.2014 14 Comments

I was in a port town in Greece, waiting for a boat to take me back to Italy, when I decided to spend the last bit of money I had with me on Baklava. This was the moment I realized how important food had become to me. I had just spent my last year of college working three jobs in order to save enough money to buy a plane ticket to Europe and hope that my Europe On A Shoestring guide book would get me through the trip with enough money leftover to make my first student loan payment when I got home. Like any great obsession, there is very little choice in the matter. It either grabs you or it doesn’t, and it often isn’t until it’s too late that you see that the shark has your leg.

A side effect of this affliction is an extraordinary fixations that it creates. Sometimes it’s a dish. Sometimes it’s an ingredient. Sometimes its a cooking method.

I have in no way been saved from these fixations. It’s gnocchi, and goat cheese, and roasted chicken, and the perfect dinner rolls, and caramel, and so many more.

I started making caramel a few years ago, it’s simple. You just need a candy thermometer and the patience not to walk away, since that will always be the moment the sugar burns. Caramel has become an obsession, what I can put in it, or on it, or with it, or how many times I can make it during Christmas before people start to roll their eyes.

Don’t leave me alone with sugar and a pot. You never know what you’ll come back too, but it’ll probably be a dark amber color and taste like beer.

Salted Beer Caramel Topped Blondies

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Ingredients

For the Blondies Layer:

½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg plus 1 yolk
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs stout beer
1 ¼ cup bread flour
1 tsp salt

For the Caramel Layer

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
¼ cup heavy cream
¼ cup stout plus 1 tbs divided

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment add the butter and brown sugar, beat on high until well combined.
Add the egg, yolk and vanilla extra, mix until well combined, light and fluffy.
Add 2 tablespoons stout, stir until combined.
Sprinkle the flour and salt over the butter mixture, stir until combined.
Spread evenly into a greased 8X8 baking pan.
Bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Allow to cool completely.
In a pot over high heat add the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, corn syrup, heavy cream and ¼ cup stout. Stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
Allow to boil until a dark caramel color and reached 248 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 8 minutes. Allow to cool for ten minutes.
Pour over the blondies layer, chill until set, about 3 hours.

Brown Ale Farro Risotto with Roasted Mushrooms

24.03.2014 10 Comments

There is one thing I can’t stop doing every time I travel.

And not just when I get to leave the country, but even when I just leave the state. I just need to wander around a market. A locals only place, stocked with whatever people who live in the neighboring streets like to eat. Once while in Costa Rica, in a small and run down town, I found myself in a small market that had just lost all power.

"It happens," the shop owner told me, "We just stay open, hope the light from the door can reach to the back." I made a mental note not to buy any thing perishable, but did leave with 3 bags of coffee and an unidentifiably spice that I later used on roasted vegetables.

Sometimes these little adventures just bring me back to an ingredient that I forgot that I loved. My recent trip to a local market in a neighborhood heavily populated with Italian imigrants lead me to buy a bag of farro. I love this little grain, much more than rice, much more than quinoa and I can’t understand why it isn’t used more often. It doesn’t get mushy the way that rice can, it has a nice almost chewy texture, tons of those vitamins/protein/ health benefits that people seem to like, and much more flavor than other trendy grains.

Plus it cooks up really well with beer. Which means it wins.

Brown Ale Farro Risotto with Roasted Mushrooms

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Servings 4 entre sized portions, 8 side dish portions

Ingredients

For the Risotto:

2 cups 15 wt oz faro
6 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
3 tbs olive oil
½ white onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
3 tbs unsalted butter divided
1 cup plus ¼ cup brown ale, divided
¼ cup heavy cream
2 wt oz about ¾ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

For the Mushrooms:

8 wt oz assorted wild mushrooms
3 tbs olive oil
½ tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Instructions

Add farro to a large bowl. Cover with luke warm water, let stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Drain well.
Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Add the mushrooms, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss until well coated. Roast for 15 minutes, stir and roast for an additional ten minutes. Drain the liquid off the mushrooms, set mushrooms aside.
Place the chicken broth in a saucepan and bring to a low simmer, keeping to warm, but not boiling.
In a separate pot, heat the 3 tbs olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, but don’t allow to brown. Add the garlic and cook until you can smell it, about 20 seconds
Stir in the faro and 3 tablespoons butter, cooking until the farro is completely coated with butter and it smells slightly nutty, don’t allow to brown. About 2 minutes.
Add 1 cup of the brown ale and cook until the pan begins to dry, stirring frequently. About 6 minutes.
Add about ½ cup of broth into the farro. Stir frequently until the farro is almost dry, and then add another ½ cup and repeat until the farro is cooked. This process should take about 30 minutes. Don’t leave the risotto while it’s cooking, the farro on the bottom of the pan burns easily. (if you run out of broth, just use hot water the same way you would broth)
Once your risotto is cooked through (taste it to verify that the farro is cooked and not crunchy), turn heat to low and add the cheese, cream, remaining 3 tablespoons butter and ¼ cup brown ale and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the roasted mushrooms just prior to serving.

Irish Red Ale Butternut Squash Soup with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate

12.03.2014 13 Comments

When you write a cookbook, you fall in love with some of the recipe. You don’t love them all the same, you don’t even remember them all the same. Recipes aren’t like children, you’re completely allowed to have favorites.

When I wrote The Craft Beer Cookbook (affiliate link), there were a few recipes I immediately feel love with, like Hefeweizen Brioche Pull Apart Bread (page 82), and the Porter Osso Buco (page129), and Amber Ale Carrot Cake with Mascarpone & Beer Spiked Cream Cheese Frosting (page 179) and a few I added because I was already in love with them, like the Beer Pecan Cinnamon Rolls (SO GOOD! page 26) and this soup.

This was a soup that I’d been making for years, with and without beer. Gleefully sprinkling the bowls with two of my culinary guilty pelasures: goat cheese and pomegranate seeds. Adding in the hop bitterness of an Irish red ale gave a great balance to the creamy decadence.

Now that we are around the corner from Saint Patricks day, I’m sharing this recipe with you. It’s a new way to celebrate the Irish, and a vegetarian friendly one at that (if that’s your thing). After all, corned beef isn’t even a tradition in Ireland. But beer always is.

Irish Red Ale Butternut Squash Soup with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate

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Ingredients

1 3.5 to 4 lb butternut squash
1 head garlic
6 tbs olive oil divided
2 shallots sliced
2 ½ cups vegetable broth
1 cup red ale
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
¼ tsp turmeric
pinch cayenne
½ cup cream
3 ounces goat cheese
½ cup pomegranate seeds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400.
Cut the squash down the middle lengthwise, scoop out and discard the seeds. Place cut side up on a baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tbs olive oil.
Rub most of the white papery skin off the garlic head. Cut the tip off the head of garlic, exposing the cloves. Place garlic on a small square of aluminum foil. Drizzle with 1 tbs olive oil, fold aluminum foil up over the garlic to form a tight packet. Place garlic on baking sheet with the squash.
Place baking sheet in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the garlic and allow to cool. Continue to roast the squash until fork tender, about an addition 20-30 minutes (total of about 1 hour). Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to handle. Gently scoop out the flesh (should be between 4 and 4 1/2 cups).
In a pot over medium heat, add the remaining 3 tbs olive oil and the shallots. Allow to cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots have caramelized, about 15 to 20 minutes (do not cook at too high heat or the shallots will burn). Add the broth and the beer and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the roasted squash, add the soft garlic cloves (discard the rest of the head) and stir until well combined.
Use an immersion blender to puree until smooth (you can also work in batches to puree in a food processor or blender). Add the salt, pepper, turmeric, cayenne and cream, allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
Ladle into serving bowls, garnish with goat cheese and pomegranate.

You can buy The Craft Beer Cookbook at cookbook, Barnes & Noble and Urban Outfitters.

Molasses Stout Glazed Salmon with Herb IPA Mashed Potatoes

05.03.2014 15 Comments

No matter how often you move, there are things that you forget. Every time. You forget that you won’t know which drawer to put Sharpie markers and batteries in (they always end up in the same drawer), you’ll turn to grab the knife from where is "used to be," you won’t know where the Target is, or where to take your dry cleaning, or where to buy the best prosciutto and you can forget about that guy who offered to sharpen your knives for free if you bring him cookies THAT guy doesn’t exist in your new land.

I have a gypsy soul, I’ve never missed my own bed, I don’t have the home sick gene, I’m never nervous about new roads or new words or new food. I look forward to building a new database of people and place. But there is a learning curve with a new place. Things I didn’t know that I didn’t know. I’ve had to adapt to a new climate, one that was not 80 degrees on Christmas, and involves a near wardrobe change when I need to run out to the car to grab the beer I left in the back.

But the upside is that beer would have been overly warm in my old land, in this place, it was the perfect 43 degrees and ready to drink.

Now I just need to find a guy to trade knife sharpening for baked goods and I’ll be half way there.

Molasses Stout Glazed Salmon with Herb IPA Mashed Potatoes

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For The Potatoes

2 lbs russet potatoes peeled and chopped
6 tbs unsalted butter
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp salt
½ tsp sage minced
½ tsp thyme. minced
½ tsp rosemary minced
3 tbs IPA beer

For the Salmon

1 tbs olive oil
¼ cup shallots
2 tbs soy sauce
1/3 cup stout
2 tbs molasses not blackstrap
¼ tsp smoked paprika
¼ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp onion powder
4 4-6 ounce Salmon fillets

Instructions

To Make the Potatoes:

Add the potatoes to a pot of lightly salted boiling water. Allow to boil until fork tender. Drain and return to pot.
Add the remaining potato ingredients, stir and mash with a potato masher until well combined.

To Make The Salmon:

Preheat oven broiler.
Add the oil to a pot over medium high heat until hot but not smoking.
Add the shallots, cook until softened and slightly browned, about 3 minutes.
Add the soy, stout, molasses, smoked paprika,onion powder and chili powder. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until slightly thickened, about 6 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spray lightly with cooking spray (or drizzle with vegetable oil.
Place salmon on the foil, skin side down.
Brush liberally with glaze.
Broil for 3 minutes, re-brush with glaze, and place under the broiler for 3 more minutes. Repeat (re-brushing and broiling) until the salmon is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork.
Serve over potatoes.

Stout Soaked Mushrooms and Herbed Goat Cheese Crostinis

03.03.2014 22 Comments

Photos from my Instagram account

I made it.

From LA to Seattle, up Highway 1. Past fat lazy seals, miles of winding coastlines, epic Redwoods, and into an unusually sunny Seattle. Although the sun has now given way to the typical rain, it’s somehow comforting.

Although figuring out how to wield a camera in low light has been a bit challenging.

But the food isn’t. This part of the word has gorgeous produce, fantastic seafood, incredible beer. I’m starting to get familiar with the Northwest breweries and the beautiful beer that I’m now so close to. If you know of a local brewery I should go to, please, I’m all ears.

As I unpack the boxes, rely heavily on my navigation to get around, figure out what local stations to set my car radio to, and try to amend my ill-equipped wardrobe (warm socks?? I need new socks?), I’m excited to be here. My Gypsy Soul gets to wander a new city.

Stout Soaked Mushrooms and Herbed Goat Cheese Crostinis

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 wt oz 1 ½ cups assorted dried mushrooms (I used Porcini, Shiitake & Chanterelle)
12 ounces stout beer
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs unsalted butter
¼ cup chopped shallots
½ tsp kosher or sea salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 baguette sourdough or French
4 ounces chevre goat cheese softened
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp chopped fresh sage
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

Instructions

Put the mushrooms in a small bowl or jar. Cover with the stout beer. Leave at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours or until the mushrooms are soft and have reconstituted.
Drain the mushrooms and rinse well to remove any residual grit.
Slice the mushrooms into thin slices (unless mushrooms were pre sliced).
In a pan over medium high heat melt the butter with the olive oil.
Add the shallots and cook until softened and starting to brown, about 5 minutes.
Add the mushrooms to the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cook until most of the oil and butter has been absorbed, about 5 minutes.
Preheat the boiler on the oven.
Slice the baguette into 18-24 slices.
Place the slices on a baking sheet. Place until the broiler until golden brown, about 2 minutes, flip over and place under the broiler until golden brown the opposite side.
In a small bowl stir together the goat cheese, thyme, sage and rosemary.
Spread each slice with goat cheese, top with mushrooms.
Serve immediately.

Beer Soaked Oven Fries

13.01.2014 24 Comments

People have irrational culinary fears, I get it. Some people avoid recipes using yeast like they are circus clowns in a dark alley. Some people can’t wrap their brains around the idea of plunging food into hot oil without a spotter. I have an irrational fear of mall Santas so I get it, there are just some things we tend to avoid.

Although I assure you, you’d be just fine if you wanted to fry these suckers in hot oil. I also assure you that if you bought a deep fryer your football parties will never be the same. But if you aren’t there yet, I get it.

I spent most of the summer cooking everything I ate on my backyard grill, taunting the grill-less into Sad Face reactions. One of my go-to sides was grilled french fries. I cut them large enough as not to slip through the grates and I learned that soaking them in a salt brine gave you that creamy middle and crispy outside that you really want in your french fries.

Now that most the grills in America are covered in the unsavory film of winter, I’ve switched to the oven method. The salt water soak is still the way to go when you want that creamy/crispy combo, and letting the baking sheet heat up in the oven will give you more of that golden brown outside that you’d get from that scary vat of hot oil.

Although I do promise that if you do decide to deep fry your potatoes, you’ll be fine. It’s not that scary, not like, say a grown man in a red suit that lurks near a Hollister.

Beer Soaked Oven Fries

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1.5 lbs russet potatoes
12 ounces pale ale
1 tbs kosher salt
water
¼ cup canola oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp sugar

Instructions

Cut the potatoes into ½ inch strips.
In a large bowl add the beer and 1 tbs kosher salt. Add the potatoes to the beer, add just enough water that the potatoes are fully submerged, about 1 to 2 cups.
Cover and chill for at least 3 hours and up to 12.
Move the oven rack to the top 1/3 of the oven, place a rimed metal baking sheet on the rack. Preheat oven to 425.
Drain the potatoes and rinse well. Place on a stack of paper towels and pat dry. Add to a large bowl, drizzle with canola oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, sea salt, black pepper and sugar. Toss until well coated.
Pour the potatoes onto the baking sheet in an even layer.
Bake for 20 minutes. Turn with a spatula and bake until golden brown, an additional 15-20 minutes.

Chocolate Stout Shortbread Cookies

23.12.2013 22 Comments

I need to start a petition.

To change the usually paring of Milk and Cookies to Beer and Cookies. First of all, it’s just a better idea. If you want to lure friends over, "Hey I’ve got beer and cookies" will go over much better than the alternative. Second, milk is gross. Sure, you turn it into butter, cream or cheese and I’m in. But a tall glass of liquid that was recently inside of a cow just makes me gag. I’m not sure if I have ever in my life drank a glass of milk that wasn’t in the form of blended ice cream. Not even as a kid, I was the juice and cookies type. Now, it’s beer. A nice milk stout is as close as you can get me.

So next time you find yourself at my house and I offer you cookies, don’t expect a glass of milk. But I will give you some good beer, and some cookies made with beer. So I hope that’s a good substitution.

Of course it is, it’s beer and cookies.

Chocolate Stout Shortbread Cookies

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Shortbread

1 ½ cups butter softened
1 ¼ cup sugar
½ tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
3 cups flour
2 tbs cornstarch

For the chocolate layer:

3 cups 18 wt. oz dark chocolate chips (60%)
2 tbs heavy cream
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons chocolate stout or imperial stout
1 tsp Fleur de sel or other flaky sea salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the butter, sugar, almond extract and vanilla extract. Beat until well combined, light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with the salt, flour and cornstarch, mix until just combined.
Line a 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper. Press the shortbread dough into the bottom of the baking sheet in an even layer.
Prick all over with a fork.
Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes or until the edges have just started to turn golden.
In the top of a double boiler (or a metal bowl set over a pot of water, but not touching the water) over gently simmering water, add the chocolate, cream and stout. Stir until the chocolate is smooth and melted. Pour over the shortbread in an even layer.
Sprinkle with salt. Chill until set, about 3 hours and up to overnight.
Cut into squares. Chill until ready to serve.

Beer Cheese Ball

12.12.2013 8 Comments

I was a lifeguard for three years in college. Mostly at summer camps, poorly run water slide parks and a bad summer on floating dock in the middle of a dirty lake.

Late one night at a summer camp in Western Canada the guys who ran the camp decided to let the pre-teen campers, hopped up on Sysco ice cream and fudge sauce, jump into the pool. For about two hours I watched as they seemed to instinctively go from one side of the pool to the other, cheering, waving their hands, jumping up and down. When that got boring, they just did it all on the other side of the pool.

The following week, after Ice Cream Social Night, the pool was opened again, and the same thing happened again with a completely different group of adolescents doped up on saccharine. Every week after was the same routine. "WE LOVE THIS SIDE OF THE POOL!" they all seemed to be cheering, and a few minutes later, "NO THIS SIDE OF THE POOL IS THE BEST!"

We don’t grow out of that by the way, we just find more adult ways of shifting from one side of the pool to the other, "WE LIKE MINI SKIRTS!" no, wait, "WE LOVE MAXI SKIRTS!" And as cool as we think we are in the beer community, we do it too. "WE LOVE HOPS A LOT!" but, wait, "MALTY BELGIANS ARE THE BEST EVER!" While hops and malt, opposing forces that could never live without each other, will always be held in equal regard when it comes to importance in the beer making process, the "in beer" seems to favor one or the other. We have made a bit of a shift in the past year, from the Hop The Crap Out Of This Quadruple IPA to the Malty Sweetness Deep And Roasty Belgian ales. To celebrate this shift, I used a red ale that has tons of malt but didn’t forget the hops. A common ground in the middle of that Hops vs Malt pool.

I’m up for either, as long as you don’t trash talk the other side of the pool, you know you’re going to be back there in a few minutes.

Beer Cheese Ball

Print Recipe

Ingredients

5 wt oz cream cheese
2 wt oz goat cheese about ¼ cup
4 wt oz shredded Asiago cheese about 1 cup
4 wt oz shredded parmesan cheese about 1 cup
1/3 cup red ale
½ tsp garlic powder
½ cup chopped chives
1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

Add the cream cheese, goat cheese, Asiago cheese, parmesan cheese, beer, and garlic powder to the food processor, process until well combined. Add the chives and pulse until just combined.
Place on a sheet of plastic wrap, form into a ball, wrapping with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours and up to 24 (flavors develop overnight, don’t be afraid to make this a day ahead of time).
Remove from the plastic wrap, gently roll in chopped walnuts until coated.
Serve with pretzels or crackers.