The Beer Cook

Valentine's Day Lamb Chops with Roasted Thyme Potatoes and a Framboise Sauce

2012-02-13T02:16:00.004-05:00

I wanted to make something in the spirit of Valentine's Day but didn't want to go the route of the typical sweet dessert. So I decided to make a nice romantic dinner instead. I pan seared some delicious lamb chops and made a sauce with Lindeman's Framboise, a Belgian raspberry lambic. To go with it, I roasted potatoes along with fresh thyme. I often make potatoes like this when in need of a quick side dish. So easy, yet delicious. All you do is chop up some potatoes (you don't even have to peel them), drizzle with olive oil, season generously with salt, garlic powder, and fresh thyme. Then bake until golden brown.

So I think this dish counts as Valentine's Day themed, right? That pretty ruby color really pulls it through. The sweet and slightly acidic beer does a nice job of balancing the savory meat and potatoes, and the effervescence makes for a nice palate cleanser that makes you want to keep going back for another bite of lamb. Very enjoyable dinner. In my experience, the key to knowing your pairing is good is when you want to keep going back and forth between the beer and the dish.

Lindeman's Framboise is ideal for Valentine's Day. It pours such a pretty red color and has a sweet raspberry aroma. The combination of the effervescence, sweetness, and tartness would make a perfect pairing for a decadent chocolate dessert as well.

Here is a super technical overview of how I made this dish.

Ingredients:

lamb chops
red potatoes
olive oil
onion or shallots, finely chopped
salt
garlic powder
pepper
framboise
raspberries, fresh or frozen
fresh thyme
butter
garlic, minced

Directions:

Potatoes:
Preheat oven to 375. Chop potatoes and arrange on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Season generously with salt and garlic powder. Add plenty of fresh thyme (you can just pull gently down the stem against the grain and the leaves will come right off). Bake until golden brown, about 40 minutes. Sprinkle with some more thyme after baking.

Lamb Chops:
Melt some butter along with olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic to the pan. Simmer for about a minute. Turn the heat to high. Add the lamb chops, cooking for a few minutes per side, until nice and browned on the outside. Turn off heat and remove the lamb from the pan (you can cover them with aluminum foil so they stay warm). Splash in some of the framboise to deglaze the pan (oooh it looks so pretty at this point). Add in the raspberries, a little more minced garlic, a dash of salt, and a good amount of butter. Turn the heat to low and smash up the raspberries as you combine in the pan. You can also add in a little sugar if you want to balance out some of the acidity.

Now put it together all pretty like I did and serve to your significant other with a glass the beer :)

Young's Double Chocolate Cheesecake

2012-02-05T14:29:00.038-05:00

Hi guys! I started grad school a few weeks ago and I've been super busy. I wish I had more time to make blog posts, but I'm also enjoying school so I guess it's okay. Hopefully I'll have time to make the Valentine's Day themed recipe I have in mind soon :)

So Food Loves Beer Magazine asked me to recreate my mini Choklat cheesecakes recipe using Young's Double Chocolate Stout for an article on decadent desserts. Their preview issue comes out in March and you can follow them on facebook and twitter. Definitely my kind of magazine :)

I used the chocolatey stout in the filling and in the sauce. It really comes through in the final product. The cheesecake also pairs really nicely with a glass of Young's Double Chocolate Stout. It's like cookies and milk... except it's beer and cheesecake.

Enjoy and happy Super Bowl day!

Crust:

40 graham crackers (~ 1 1/2 cups crushed)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter

Filling:

16 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
½ cup Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

Chocolate Sauce:

1 tbsp butter

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup half and half

1/4 cup sugar

¼ cup Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

Directions:
Makes 18 mini cheesecakes.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Crush the graham crackers finely and combine with the butter and sugar. Press mixture into bottoms of greased muffin tins or baking cups. Bake the crusts alone for about 5 minutes. For the filling, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar using an electric mixer. Add in the vanilla and eggs as you continue mixing. Mix in the beer. Pour filling into the muffin tins and bake for about 22 minutes until set. For the chocolate sauce, bring the half and half to a simmer with the butter. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips, sugar and beer.

Note: This recipe makes a thinner sauce than shown in the picture. I melted in more chocolate chips so I could photograph it without the sauce spilling off. You can do the same if you prefer a thicker sauce :)

Happy New Year! My Favorite Dishes From 2011

2012-01-03T22:38:00.004-05:00

Just thought I'd start the new year by sharing some of my personal favorite dishes from 2011. Here are my top 6 in no particular order.

I hope 2012 is an amazing year for anyone reading! :)

1. Homemade Gnocchi With Dubbel Mushroom Sauce

Making gnocchi was so much fun. And the mushrooms with the beer made a delectable sauce. This picture from my beer dinner includes the crispy sage leaf which I think took the dish to another level.

2. Baked Jalapeño Poppers With Apricot Dipping Sauce Paired With Magic Hat #9

These poppers I made in September were so crunchy and cheesy and yummy. The sweet apricot sauce was a hit and it was just right paired with #9.

3. Potato Pancakes Topped With Smoked Salmon And Mango Beer Sauce

This was definitely a favorite of mine. It includes a combination of some awesome flavors: smoked salmon, potato, mango, Festina Peche, and cilantro.

4. Seared Tuna Sandwiches Paired With An IPA

These sandwiches paired with Jai Alai IPA from Cigar City were so good! The wasabi mayo, the apple carrot slaw, the perfect seared tuna. All together in one bite = amazing.

5. Beer Crepes

I went all out for my beer crepes and made each crepe with a different beer and different toppings. There was definitely something to love in each one.

6. Beer Battered Shrimp And Mushrooms With Lemon Butter Mayo

This is a basic you can't really go wrong with. Perfect batter and the buttery dipping sauce was so delicious.

Steamed Mussels with Ommegang Witte

2011-12-21T20:13:00.002-05:00

I wasn't really planning this as a blog post, but I couldn't help but want to take a picture and share it. Truly delicious. I am currently in Lima, Peru visiting all of my family. Eating some delicious food over here! But this I made just before I left. My friend and I were craving some mussels and decided our best bet would be to make them ourselves. No lie, better than any restaurant I've been to. Ommegang Witte was just right for this kind of dish. Nice and bright and citrusy. And delicious cooked in with all that butter and garlic.

I think mussels are such a great dish to make. They are delicious, take just a few minutes to cook, and they are not at all expensive. And it's honestly fun. A combination of my fascination with marine life and of food. They are still alive when you get them! (I love when you tap on them and they close up) And hey they also look kinda Christmasy with the red and green right?

Ingredients:

2 pounds mussels
12 oz Ommegang Witte (or other witbier)
2 plum tomatoes
4 tbsp butter
4 garlic cloves
2 shallots
juice from 2 lemons
a few sprigs of parsley
salt to taste
olive oil
1 baguette

Remove any beards from the mussels (the little stringy bits hanging out) and wash them. Throw out any mussels that are broken or that don't close when tapped. Chop 3 of the garlic cloves and the shallots. Chop the tomatoes and parsley. In a large pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallots and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the mussels to the pan and pour in the beer. You can add more or less, 12 oz was just an estimate. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes, or until you see the mussels open. Add the tomatoes, rest of the butter, lemon juice, parsley, and salt. Cook for another 2 minutes. Cut the baguette in half lengthwise and rub with a garlic clove that's been cut in half. Sprinkle with some salt and olive oil and toast in the oven. We also covered the bread in grated parmesan cheese before toasting and sprinkled some on the mussels. Serve mussels with the bread for dipping and pair with the beer.

Sweet Potato Pie Paired With The Bruery's Autumn Maple

2011-12-16T18:54:00.001-05:00

Alright, I know I'm a bit late but this is my Thanksgiving post.

So last night I went to a Cigar City beer vs wine dinner at Bash in Sunrise. Five courses, each paired with a beer and a wine. And then everybody votes on each course. Not surprisingly, beer won! But it was nice to go to one of these dinners and taste each course objectively and seriously see how much more I enjoy the beer with each course. I don't want to bash wine, but beer is just so much more versatile and compliments so many dishes incredibly well. My stance on beer was definitely reinforced :)

Anyway, this year for Thanksgiving I opted for a sweet potato pie instead of a pumpkin pie. It was my first time making a sweet potato pie and I really enjoyed it. Ingredients included brown sugar, maple syrup, cinnamon, and nutmeg. So yummy! Really, who needs a pumpkin pie?

The Bruery also strays from the typical pumpkin for their Fall seasonal. Their Autumn Maple, a Belgian style brown ale, is brewed with plenty of yams instead of pumpkin. It also uses maple syrup, molasses, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. So obviously, I had to make my pie again to pair the two. I think that at 10% abv the beer was a little too big for the pie, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Well speaking of Thanksgiving, even though it's already been two weeks, I want to share how thankful I am. I have to say I'm happier than I've ever been lately, which if you know me is a pretty big deal. I'm usually pretty jaded, bitter, and anxious. Nice qualities, huh? But I don't know what's wrong with me now. I'm happy. I am loving my new home, I'm really excited to start school next semester, I love all the friends I've been spending time with, and I feel very lucky to be part of the two best labs at FAU. So thanks to everyone that's part of my life right now :) Okay, I'll stop being lame and cheesy now. Back to the recipe.

Ingredients:

3 medium sweet potatoes, cooked
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
9 inch graham cracker pie crust

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, mash the cooked potatoes with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and stir to combine well. Pour the mixture into the pie crust. Bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool in refrigerator and top with whipped cream to serve.

Pumking Mousse

2011-11-15T03:26:00.005-05:00

Hello people who read my blog! I am currently in the process of moving so I've been a bit busy. This also means I've already packed a lot of stuff so I have nothing to measure ingredients with. Therefore, today's recipe is a pretty rough estimate. Also, I'm starting graduate school in January for an M.Ed. in Mental Health Counseling! I'm really excited to get to take classes again. Just wanted to share :)

So I had this bottle of Pumking from Southern Tier that I wanted to make something with. I use Southern Tier's beers in dessert recipes a lot. I almost used Pumking to make an ice cream with caramel swirls, which I'm sure would have been awesome, but I ended up making a quick pumpkin mousse instead. This is definitely one of the best, if not the best, pumpkin beers you will ever try. Unfortunately, it is sold out at most places until next year so you'll probably have a hard time finding it. I guess this post is a little late. Is that mean? For me to write about this and then say you can't have any? Sowey.

Anyway, this beer has some nice strong spice flavors and tastes like a really good pumpkin pie. My mousse almost feels like an edible version of Pumking. Along with beer and eggs, I used pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. The pairing of the mousse with the beer was also spectacular. Really, how could it not be? Then I got to thinking about a Pumking smoothie. You know, like an awesome mixed drink. So I made one of those too (not pictured). Pretty much the same stuff from the mousse, minus the eggs. I could really experiment all day long with this beer. Here is my recipe. And just a warning, it contains raw eggs.

Ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup pumpkin beer
3 tbsp sugar
4 eggs
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg

Directions:

Separate the egg whites and yolks into two bowls. Add the sugar to the egg whites and beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Add the brown sugar, pumpkin puree, beer, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the egg yolks. Stir to combine. Gently fold the contents of the two bowls together. And that's it. Takes 2 seconds. Okay maybe a little more, but it's really easy. You can eat it right away or let it set a little bit in the fridge. I topped mine with a little whipped cream and cinnamon.

Seared Tuna Sandwiches Paired with an IPA

2011-10-28T14:47:00.001-04:00

Okay, I tried to take a picture of these with my new camera that I don't know how to use yet and then the battery died so I apologize for the slightly blurry photo. I swear they were delicious. So my tuna sandwiches featured a carrot and apple slaw, wasabi mayonnaise, cilantro, and green onion. Awesome mix of flavors. I paired them with Jai Alai IPA from Cigar City. I originally wanted to pair them with Jai Alai that was aged on White Oak. Unfortunately, Total Wine was out of it. The regular IPA still worked great. At first, you might think that this beer is too big and that it would overpower a little tuna dish, but once all the components were together, they complemented each other quite well. The IPA was able to stand up to the wasabi and something about the clean fresh hop taste matched nicely with the flavors in my sandwich. This kind of sandwich is actually really easy and quick to make. You only have to mix some stuff together, sear for a few seconds, and you're ready to eat. Here is my recipe.

Ingredients:

4 kaiser rolls, lightly toasted
1 pound sushi grade tuna
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
3 teaspoons wasabi paste
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup shredded green apple
3 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped green onions
salt and pepper
sesame seeds
soy sauce
olive oil

Directions:
For the slaw, combine the shredded apple and carrot in a bowl. I used a cheese grater to shred them. Add the vinegar, green onions, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste. To prepare the mayonnaise, simply combine the wasabi paste and mayonnaise. Cut the tuna into 4 pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and coat with sesame seeds. Heat olive oil in a pan over high heat. When the oil is hot, place the pieces of tuna in the pan. Sear for about 30 seconds per side. To assemble, spread the wasabi mayonnaise on a bun, place the tuna on top, drizzle with a little soy sauce, and top with the slaw and bun.

Baked Jalapeño Poppers With Apricot Dipping Sauce Paired With Magic Hat #9

2011-09-27T21:55:00.000-04:00

Sooo I'm leaving for Colorado tomorrow for the Great American Beer Festival! Yay! I'll be in Denver until Monday. Guess I should be packing, but first I'll share my latest pairing. I got this idea the other night when I was out and had some yummy late night jalapeño poppers along with a Magic Hat #9. I was surprised at what a good combination it was. Then I figured I could really enhance that by making an apricot dipping sauce to go with the apricot flavor from the beer. Turned out really nice! Of course I thought of beer battering them but I decided to take it easy and just make this one a pairing. I also like just slicing the jalapeños in half and then topping them because they're a lot easier to core and you can easily stick the bread crumbs right on top. Oh and please make sure you wear gloves when preparing the jalapeños and don't touch your face! :)

Poppers:

1/2 lb jalapeños
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 tsp italian seasoning
olive oil
salt

Apricot Dippings Sauce:

1 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp minced garlic
pinch of onion powder
pinch of paprika
salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the jalapeños in half and remove the seeds and membrane. Combine the cream cheese, shredded cheddar, garlic powder, and salt. Spoon the cheese mixture onto the jalapeño halves. Combine the panko, some more salt, and italian seasoning in a bowl. Top the jalapeños with the panko mixture. Place the stuffed jalapeños on a baking sheet that has been drizzled with olive oil. Bake for about 25 minutes until golden brown. For the sauce, combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat.

Brown Ale and Shiitake Mushroom Risotto

2011-09-14T22:31:00.001-04:00

Ugh, it's been a while since I made something to share here. It seems like I always realize it's been a long time, then decide I'm going to make a bunch of stuff, and then another few months go by. Time goes by too fast. Doesn't give me a second to catch up. Anyway, I've been busy applying to grad school and stuff, so if I get in next semester hopefully I'll still find some time to make lots of food. Ooh, also my twin sister is moving to Lima, Peru in two weeks. So lots of changes and new things in the next few months. She's also taking her camera with her (the one I usually use to take pictures of my food) so it's time I get one of my own.

So, the most recent beer and food activity I participated in was a beer cook off at Lou's Beer Garden. I made my shrimp and scallops in a creamy coconut milk and witbier sauce. That was my first recipe on this blog, and still one of my favorites. I didn't win but it was still a pretty cool experience. I've never had the chance to give out my food like that to so many people, and everyone seemed to love my dish. It was definitely a challenge to make enough food for 100 tastings since I'm not used to cooking on such a big scale. But it was really nice to have people be able to taste my food instead of just looking at pictures. It was a little bit scary too, with all the judges peering over their papers and asking me to describe my dish. Eeek. Here are some pictures of my food at the event :)

Anyway, moving on to my beer risotto. To me, risotto seems like a perfect dish for beer experimentation. The typical risotto process is to cook some onions (or shallots) and maybe garlic in some butter or oil in a large pot. Then add the rice, and after a minute add some wine. Let the rice absorb the wine, and then add chicken or vegetable stock a bit at a time until it is all absorbed and creamy and the rice is perfectly cooked.

So, as you can see, there is a perfect opportunity to substitute the wine (and some of the stock) for any beer. I mean, think of all the options. If we have a brighter lemon zesty risotto we can use a yummy saison or a hefeweizen. We could do brown ales or even stouts to add depth to earthy flavors. We could make a risotto with pumpkin and some autumn flavors and add a pumpkin beer. We can even make sweet risottos and then there's a million other options there. I opted for a simple shiitake mushroom risotto and added Ellie's Brown Ale for another layer of flavor.

Ingredients:

5 oz shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
4 oz white mushrooms, sliced
16 oz arborio rice
5 cups chicken stock
2 shallots, chopped
12 oz beer
4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves of garlic, minced
handful of parsley, chopped

Directions:

In a large pot, melt two tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for a few minutes, until the shallots are translucent. Add the arborio rice and cook, stirring, for one minute. Add a cup of the brown ale and cook until the beer is absorbed. Reduce the heat and add a cup of broth, cooking until absorbed. Continue to add the rest of the beer and broth 1 cup at a time, waiting until each cup is absorbed before adding the next one. Meanwhile, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large pan and cook the chopped mushrooms for 5 minutes with salt and pepper. When the risotto is done it will be creamy and the rice al dente; it will take about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon of butter, mushrooms, and parsley.

P.S. I have a good idea for my next recipe, can't wait ^_^

Marinated Eggplant Paired with Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

2011-08-16T20:44:00.002-04:00

Eggplant is not really the obvious choice to pair with this beer, but I just felt like they would go well together. And they did. See, you've got to trust your instincts! This eggplant appetizer comes from my sister's father-in-law. He owns a wonderful little Italian restaurant in Lima, Peru called Trattoria Napoli (here's their facebook page). I know most of the people reading this probably don't live anywhere near Peru, but if you ever make it there you should definitely check this place out. Everything there is made from scratch daily. Along with delicious pastas, pizzas, and calzones , he makes the most amazing eggplant ever. It's covered in Parmesan cheese and marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar overnight. He recommends eating this dish with lots of bread and wine. It is certainly delicious with wine but I decided to go down a bit of a different path.

Sorachi Ace is a delicious saison from Brooklyn Brewery. It's made with a Japanese hop called Sorachi Ace, which gives the beer it's lemony flavors. This is a unique and complex beer that you've really just got to try. So, the eggplant soaks in the olive oil and balsamic vinegar after being cooked and is all tender and oily. The brightness and flavors of lemongrass in the beer provide a nice contrast to the eggplant. The carbonation cuts through the oil and you get a fresh palate to enjoy the flavors all over again. It's also got these hints of herbs and spice that work really well with the flavors of the dish.

Here's what you need:

eggplant
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
a few garlic cloves
Parmesan cheese
parsley (you could also use other herbs, I added a little bit of thyme which went nicely with the beer)
salt

Cut the eggplant into 1/4 inch slices. People often suggest salting eggplant to either get rid of the bitterness or remove the water. I've done it with and without salting and I don't really think it makes a difference here. So I don't bother (I'm also pretty impatient). Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add eggplant in batches. Add salt and some minced garlic. Cook the eggplant slices on both sides until they start to brown. Then remove and add the next batch to the pan. While those are cooking, drizzle the eggplant that's done with olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, Parmesan cheese, and chopped parsley. Once it's all cooked you can leave it to marinate overnight or eat immediately with bread.

Beer Scampi

2011-07-21T23:13:00.001-04:00

I got another bottle of Dogfish Head Namaste because I liked it so much the last time I paired with it. I ended up using it in my dinner tonight. I made linguine and sauteed some shrimp with butter, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper. After removing the shrimp, I added the beer and lemon juice to the pan and let it reduce a bit. Then stirred in some more butter and finished it off with a little fresh parsley. The brightness of the beer was lovely with the lemon juice and shrimp. Who needs to cook with wine when you've got beers like this?

Beer Crepes

2011-07-15T16:13:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I made some crepes with beer in the batter. I wasn't really sure what direction to go in because there are so many options. Some beers would work better with a savory crepe, some would add a lighter flavor or a stronger flavor, and it might be fun to try a stout for a sweet one. So I decided to try three types for some variety. I made one big basic batch of batter, divided it into three equal parts, and added a different beer to each one. I built each crepe around the beer used in its batter, and they all turned out delicious. Sweaty Betty for my spinach, mushroom, and cheese crepe. Young's Double Chocolate Stout for my nutella, strawberry, and whipped cream crepe. And Gamma Ray for a banana, cinnamon, and brown sugar crepe.

First up: Sweaty Betty, a wheat ale. Brian said I should call them "sweaty crepes" but I didn't think that sounded too appetizing. I decided to use this one for my savory crepe. For the toppings I went with spinach, sauteed mushrooms, and melted swiss cheese. Then I paired it with the same beer. It was a wonderful pairing. As a matter of fact, all three of the crepe pairings were spectacular, and are probably in my top 10.

Next up, Young's Double Chocolate Stout. You can see the crepe is a little darker because of the stout. I think they're pretty. Sometimes I forget how yummy nutella really is, especially with strawberries. This was delicious, and the pairing with Young's Double Chocolate was perfect. The beer isn't overly sweet so the roastiness was a nice contrast to the sweet toppings. All of the crepes were awesome but out of the three I think this is the winner.

Last, but not least, Terrapin Gamma Ray. A wheatwine with 11% alcohol. It's made with honey and tastes almost like bananas, so why not go with a banana crepe? I tasted the crepe by itself and you seriously would have sworn there was banana in there. This beer really added some flavor. I combined the real banana pieces with cinnamon and brown sugar and topped it all with condensed milk. (If you're not using condensed milk as a dessert topping you are seriously missing out.)

Here's the basic recipe for beer crepes. This makes plenty since I was making three types, so you might want to cut the recipe in half. Also, experiment with adding more or less beer depending on how much flavor you want to come through.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
4 eggs
1 cup milk or evaporated milk
1 cup beer
pinch of salt
butter
3 tablespoons sugar (optional, depending if you're going for sweet or savory)

Directions:
In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add in the milk and beer, and slowly mix in the flour. You can use a blender to get it really uniform if you prefer. Melt some butter in a small pan over medium high heat. Pour a small amount of batter into the center of the pan and swirl around so it coats the bottom. Let it cook until it starts to get golden brown on the bottom and then flip. Cook until the other side starts to get golden and then remove. Continue until all your batter is gone. Now top your crepes with whatever you like!

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta Paired with Joe's Pilsner

2011-07-06T15:54:00.001-04:00

Here is a foolproof snack you can serve when guests are over. A few simple ingredients, incredibly easy to make, and always tastes amazing. It's pretty tough to go wrong with garlicky bread, tomatoes, and fresh basil. Yum. I paired my bruschetta with Joe's Pilsner from Avery. This crisp, clean pilsner is perfect between bites. Doesn't get much better than this.

Ingredients:

3 large tomatoes
2 tablespoon olive oil plus extra for bread
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cloves of garlic
6 fresh basil leaves
1 baguette
salt and pepper to taste

For bruschetta:
Slice bread into 3/4 inch slices. Cut a clove of garlic in half and rub the cut side of the garlic on each piece of bread. Brush each piece with olive oil and sprinkle with some salt. Toast in the oven until it starts to get crusty.

For the topping:
I boiled my tomatoes for 1 minute, peeled off the skin, and seeded them. You don't have to do this unless you want to. Dice the tomatoes and mince the garlic. Combine in a large bowl with the balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Chop the basil leaves and add to the mixture.

Strawberry Arugula Salad Paired with The Bruery's Hottenroth

2011-07-04T03:44:00.013-04:00

My sister and my brother-in-law requested something light for lunch on Friday, so I put together a salad with some stuff that was in the fridge. Strawberries, avocado, red onion, and baby arugula. I made a dressing with olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, and salt and pepper. This was a really good combination of flavors and a wonderful salad for the summer. The strawberries were especially delicious! I didn't initially plan on pairing anything with it, but that night I decided to pair the left overs with The Bruery's Hottenroth. I love this beer! It's a citrusy and refreshing Berliner Weissbier (hey, same style used in my last post!) and pretty much felt like an extension of the salad dressing. It also has an abv around 3% so it's great for a light salad. A simple and enjoyable pairing :)

(Hmm.. I just realized that a large percentage of my posts end with smiley faces)

Potato Pancakes Topped with Smoked Salmon and Mango Beer Sauce

2011-06-16T13:17:00.003-04:00

Man, it's been a month since I posted anything. I've been a kind of busy, trying to spend my free time preparing for the GRE instead of making beer dishes. But now that's done and I have my birthday and a couple of weddings coming up to look forward to. That means lots of good food and beer in my future. Hopefully I'll also be able to fit in some beer recipes.

So this recipe is kind of a combination of two ideas. Recently I made the most delicious sandwich I think I've ever had. You should definitely try it, just saying. I had some left over baked salmon that I shredded up and combined with mayo and lemon juice. I toasted up some bread and put the shredded salmon on it along with some sliced onion, sliced tomato, mango, avocado, and cilantro. Is that not a wonderful combination of flavors? So yummy. The second part of my idea came from when I went to the Dubliner a few days ago with some friends. I ordered the potato pancakes with smoked salmon on top. I really liked this idea and man do I love smoked salmon. Anyway, I decided to combine the flavors of these two meals and of course incorporate some beer.

I set out to make some potato pancakes with Nova salmon and a mango beer sauce. I mean fruits taste amazing with smoked salmon, and potato pancakes are often eaten with applesauce so I figured this had to work. And the the perfect beer for the sauce? Dogfish Head Festina Peche, a super tasty and tart peach Berliner Weisse. This was a great way to add some acidity to the dish and add a bit of effervescence to the sauce. So I picked up some delicious Nova salmon and got started on my potato pancakes. Very simple dish - just grated some potatoes, added an egg, some flour, and salt and pepper. Fried them until nice and golden brown and topped them with the nova. For the sauce, all I did was blend together my mango and beer, along with a little sugar. At this point I really wouldn't blame you if you stopped and just drank it as a bubbly tart mango smoothie. But I went on and drizzled a little olive oil in it and added the sauce to my salmon. I topped it all off with some cilantro. I loved the different textures and flavors in this dish: the crispy potato pancakes, the luscious salmon, and the sweet/tart sauce. Festina Peche also made for a wonderfully refreshing pairing. This dish would also work great using peaches instead of mango.

Well, I've got a few things in mind that I want to make soon so hopefully it won't be as long until my next post :)

Ingredients:

3 russet potatoes
2 eggs
3 tablespoons of flour
1/4 cup canola oil for frying
1/2 pound Nova salmon
1 mango, chopped
1/3 bottle Festina Peche
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
cilantro
salt
pepper

Peel and grate the potatoes. Drain the excess liquid. Add the eggs, flour, and salt and pepper to taste. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add oil. When the oil is hot, form the potato mixture into pancake shapes and place in the pan. Fry for a few minutes on each side until golden brown. For the sauce, blend the mango, beer, sugar, and olive oil. Top the potato pancakes with the salmon and sauce and serve with a beer. Simple, right? :)

Seared Scallops and Asparagus with a Saison Pan Sauce

2011-05-15T20:22:00.001-04:00

Mmmm, scallops ♥! I wanted to make scallops with a beer sauce and asked in my last post for some beer suggestions. Someone recommended Le Merle from North Coast Brewing. I had never had it before and I love saisons so I decided to give it a shot. It's got some citrus and spicy yeast that works well with seafood, along with some light caramel notes to complement the seared scallops.

To prepare the dish, I first cooked my asparagus in a pan with butter for about 10 minutes. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a little lemon zest. After debearding my sea scallops I sprinkled them with salt and pepper. I seared them for about a minute per side in a hot pan with oil and butter. After removing the scallops, I made a simple pan sauce. I turned the heat off and poured in some of the beer, scraping up all the good stuff from the bottom of the pan. I added a little bit of cream, butter, and salt and it was good to go. I poured a glass of Le Merle to go alongside and enjoyed (but not before taking some pictures).

The beer worked pretty nicely in the dish. It made a nice tasty sauce and it played off of the lemon zest in the asparagus well. For the pairing I might have preferred something a little lighter. The beer was more boozy than I expected (7.9% abv) so it was a bit too strong to pair with the light dish. But overall, very enjoyable. My family loved it. They were fighting over the last few scallops. Thanks for the suggestions! Keep them coming :)

Mother's Day Dinner

2011-05-09T22:02:00.000-04:00

I made dinner for my mom last night for mother's day. The menu included: some absolutely delicious pan seared scallops with asparagus, lemon mushroom risotto, and a strawberry souffle with chocolate mousse on top. There was no beer involved in the dinner, but I wanted to share anyway. I actually used white wine in both the risotto and scallops. Hey, I've gotta cook with different things once in a while.

This was my first time making risotto. I really enjoyed the process of preparing it. It was actually relaxing watching the broth get absorbed into the rice as I stirred. I used some lemon juice, lemon zest, oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and baby bella mushrooms in my risotto. Came out really yummy.

The scallops were simply seared in butter and olive oil with salt and pepper. After removing the scallops, I added some white wine into the pan and made a tasty sauce. This is one of my favorite ways to make a sauce. You get the most flavor when you make it right where the food was cooked. A little beer (or wine), some butter, salt, garlic, and milk. Hard to get a better sauce than that. The asparagus were pan seared with butter, salt, garlic, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Perfect. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture of the scallops.

Both of these dishes are now at the top of my to cook with beer list. I think the right beer could make these extra interesting and tasty, so look out for that soon. If you have any suggestions for a beer I should use for them, or beers you would like to see used in any recipe, let me know with a comment! I don't mind a challenge :)

Hopslam Passion Fruit Sorbet

2011-04-26T21:38:00.038-04:00

That's right. Hopslam sorbet. I must say, this was a wonderful idea. Everyone loves this delicious Double IPA from Bell's for it's great hoppy aroma and taste. One of the main things I get from the nose is passion fruit. In fact, it smells almost exactly like it. I would know, I had some passion fruit puree and a bottle of Hopslam right next to each other. It's the same! I almost couldn't convince my family that there wasn't actually any passion fruit in the beer.

So I figured these two things together would make a great refreshing sorbet. Just some passion fruit puree, simple syrup, and Hopslam. Get the balance of acidity (from the passion fruit), sweetness (from the sugar), and bitterness (from the beer) just right and into the ice cream maker it goes. Delicious! Perfect for the hot weather we've been having lately. And if you have enough, you might even get a buzz from it ;) I think beer adds a nice little zest to sorbet that goes really well with icy cold fruit flavors. Oh and have I mentioned what an amazing fruit I think passion fruit is? It's so yummy! If I didn't drink beer, mixed passion fruit drinks would be my beverage of choice. That or bloody marys, but that's irrelevant.

Maple Bacon Coffee Porter Ice Cream

2011-04-14T12:16:00.014-04:00

The Funky Buddha's Maple Bacon Coffee Porter is currently the number one new beer in the country on beeradvocate.com. Look! How cool is that? Aren't you Floridians proud? In honor of all of their success, here's some ice cream made with their famous beer. So that makes this the number one new ice cream in the country, right? The delicious flavors of the porter work wonderfully for this. It's like an extra yummy coffee ice cream. And I couldn't resist adding some bacon that was cooked in brown sugar :)

Crispy Poached Egg on Creamed Spinach Paired with Dogfish Head Namaste

2011-04-10T23:22:00.006-04:00

It may look a bit weird, but this is a really cool dish. I'm surprised I haven't really done a dish with eggs yet on here. I eat eggs constantly: fried, poached, scrambled, soft boiled, hard boiled, omelettes. I especially love anything with a runny yoke. So I was looking for inspiration for something different to put a poached egg on, and somehow came across some pictures of cripsy poached eggs. It sounded amazing: a crunchy exterior and a warm runny yoke inside. I knew immediately that I had to make it.

So then I had to decide what to serve it with. When I was growing up, one of my favorite dishes was something my mom would always make. It was a piece of toast with a fried egg on top and a creamy spinach puree on top of that. With some parmesan cheese. Don't know where it comes from but it is still one of my favorite dishes. So this is kind of a take on those flavors. The toast in the panko bread crumbs, the fried egg is now poached, and instead of spinach puree I have creamed spinach. How could this not taste good? And I was not disappointed. Seriously heavenly. Brian was pretty skeptical when I first told him what I was making, but he was very pleasantly surprised. And don't even get me started on the pairing. That was almost the best part.

Namaste, a lovely witbier from Dogfish Head. It's made with lemongrass, orange peel, and coriander and is deliciously refreshing. It balanced the dish beautifully. You get the crunch from the poached egg, the salty egg yoke, the slightly bitter and creamy spinach, and some citrus and spice from the beer. So yummy!

So here is how it was made:

Ingredients:

panko bread crumbs
eggs
flour
oil
salt and pepper
vinegar

For the spinach:

1 package frozen spinach, thawed
1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup chopped shallots
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup half and half
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

For the spinach: Melt the butter in a small pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallots and cook until softened. Add the spinach and the rest of the ingredients. Adjust to taste.

For the crispy eggs:
The first step is poaching the egg. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add a splash of vinegar to the water. Place the egg to be poached in a small bowl. Swirl the water in the pot around with a spoon and gently place the egg in the water. Let each egg cook for about 3 minutes or until the whites are hardened. Don't overcook because you will still be heating them when frying. Remove the poached egg with a slotted spoon and place into ice water to stop the cooking. Once all the eggs are poached, you can place them on paper towels to drain until you are ready for the next step.

For the frying of the egg you will need three containers. One with a beaten egg, one with flour, and one with the panko bread crumbs. Season the flour with salt and pepper. Gently take a poached egg and place it in the flour. Once coated, immerse it in the beaten egg, and then coat with the panko. Place a pan over high heat and add about 1/2 an inch of oil. Once hot, add the coated egg. Cook on both sides until golden brown. From here just place the eggs on the creamed spinach and serve with a delicious beer. Enjoy!

Salmon Burger Paired with a Pale Ale

2011-04-06T22:45:00.002-04:00

So the other day I made a yummy little salmon burger and paired it with Victory Headwaters Pale Ale. I got the idea to make this when Brian and I went to a restaurant (which I will not name) and ordered a salmon burger that was pretty disappointing. I figured I had to be able to make something better. So I made some salmon patties, a lemony dill mayo, and toasted up some kaiser rolls. For the pairing, a pale ale was really nice. I normally would use something more subtle to pair with salmon but for the completed dish I thought a pale ale would work well. It was very refreshing and did not over power the burger. The beer cleansed your palate between each bite and kind of cut through the creamy sauce. I have to say, this was much more enjoyable than our experience at the restaurant, and I think this may be one of my new favorite pale ales.

Witbier Steamed Clams and Mussels Over Linguine

2011-03-25T13:49:00.015-04:00

Alright, so this was my first time cooking with clams and mussels. Beer is classically used in Belgium to steam mussels, so being "the beer cook" I knew I eventually needed to make something with beer and shellfish. I originally wanted to make linguine with clams, and then decided to use both mussels and clams for my dish. It all turned out really yummy and I was pleasantly surprised by the price of the shellfish (especially the mussels!) and how easy they are to prepare. I can't wait to cook with this stuff again. I also decided to try out a new beer for this recipe. I wanted a Belgian Witbier to cook the shellfish with and saw Troublette at Whole Foods. It's from a brewery in Belgium called Brasserie Caracole (Caracole means snail. Look at the cute little snail on the bottle!) I had never had it before but saw online that it had some pretty great reviews so I grabbed it. I'm glad that I did because it ended up working beautifully.

So it was pretty exciting to make this dish. The mussels and clams are supposed to stay alive until you cook them. They should be tightly closed before cooking. If one of them is open and doesn't close when you tap on it, it means it's dead and should be thrown away. If they don't open when they are steamed it also means they were already dead. I was nervous that I would somehow kill all my clams and mussels before dinner and that none of them would open when cooked and I would have to throw everything away. But as I lifted the lid and saw the last few crack open I thought, "Yay my clams and mussels aren't dead! ..Well I guess now they are. But they opened! Yayy!" It's pretty fun to watch them pop open. At least for me, I don't know what you do for fun. Anyway, it's really such an easy and relatively affordable dish that ends up looking and tasting pretty fancy. Here's how I made mine :)

Ingredients:

1 pound linguine, cooked al dente
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced
2 cups beer
8 ounces clam juice
1/2 pound mussels
15 clams
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Rinse the shellfish and scrub off any sand. Debeard the mussels (This means removing the little seaweed-like stringy things coming out from between their shells). Make sure all the shellfish are closed tightly. If they are not, give them a little tap on a table. If they don't close up, discard them.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook until softened.
Add the beer, clam juice, and half of the parsley to the pan.
Place the clams and mussels in the liquid and cover. Let them cook for about 5 to 8 minutes. Remove the opened shellfish and set aside. Discard any that didn't open.
Add the butter, lemon juice, salt, and pepper to the liquid. Let this simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the shellfish back in along with the cooked pasta. Add the olive oil and the rest of the parsley. Gently combine everything and enjoy with a glass of beer. It's also good with a bit of grated parmesan cheese.

Celery Root Soup

2011-03-22T01:19:00.008-04:00

I've been wanting to make something with celery root ever since I had celery root mashed potatoes at a Brooklyn beer dinner a while back. I had never tried it before and I loved the unique flavor it gave the potatoes. So I finally got around to buying my own. They are said to resemble a mix of celery and parsley in flavor. You just cut off all the ugly outside part with a knife and then you can boil it like a potato.

I was thinking of using my celeriac in the mashed potatoes that went with the beef brisket at my beer dinner, but I was warned that some people have an aversion to the taste of celery. Instead, I used it to make myself a yummy creamy soup for lunch. I made the soup with some White Rascal that was left over from the beer dinner and also used the beer as a pairing. I was pretty excited when I tasted the two together. It was such a nice match of flavors. I was a little sad that no one was around to experience the pairing with me, but at least I got to eat all of it.

Well, I had actually written down the recipe for this. But it's gone. I can't find it anywhere. So all you get is the picture :( But I'm pretty sure there was butter, milk, celery root, parsley, onion, celery, and garlic involved. I don't know, all the things you might expect :) If I find the recipe I'll update.

Beer Dinner #2

2011-03-13T22:45:00.009-04:00

I had a little beer dinner at my house last Saturday night. Anyone who knows me knows I love beer dinners. Going to them is what really got me into beer and food. I think they are a perfect way for people who may otherwise not try some beers to get into them. They showcase what beer and food can do together and how beer can make a meal special.

Quoting Garrett Oliver in The Brewmaster's Table, "And this is what real beer can do: it can make every single decent meal that you have an interesting and memorable flavor experience. It can be something that will light up your senses and make you actually want to pay attention to what's happening on your palate. Paying that little bit of attention, both to your food and to your beer, is the difference between having an 'OK' culinary life and having one filled with boundless riches of flavor. Learn a little bit about the amazing variety and complexity of flavor that traditional beer brings to the table and in return I promise you a better life." See? Doesn't that sound awesome?

So I planned for five courses all paired with beer and invited some people over. This is the second beer dinner I've put on for friends where I cooked all the courses. I ended up repeating a few of the dishes from the last one I did since it was all different guests. I think everything ended up pretty successful. Here's a little summary of the courses along with some snapshots.

1. I chose my coconut shrimp and scallops dish for the first course. Shrimp and scallops cooked in coconut milk and beer on some toasty bread with some mango papaya salad. This dish was the first post ever on my blog (which I just realized was almost exactly a year ago). And it's still always a hit. I used White Rascal for the sauce and the pairing. Good example of what beer can add to a dish as an ingredient. It just wouldn't be the same without it. The witbier works really well with the coconut milk, mango salad, and seafood.

2. The second course was ceviche. Because I just didn't want to have a dinner without it. So good. I was considering doing my tuna tartare with a stout reduction instead but couldn't commit to not making a Peruvian ceviche for everyone. Definitely next time. So we tried it with Stone IPA and Victory Helios because we wanted to see how each would complement the dish. I always love IPAs with ceviche but it was nice that Helios provided something bright and kind of funky to go with the acidity in the dish.

3. The third course was a newer one. My homemade gnocchi with a dubbel mushroom sauce. I was a little scared to prepare this for the dinner since one of the dinner guests has Italian parents who prepare amazing gnocchi for her all the time. But she approved and said they were just right :) I used Ommegang Abbey for the sauce and paired it with Korbinian. The only change I made, which I think is an awesome one, was to add crispy sage leaves. I fried them up in a little oil so they get all crispy and shimmery and pretty and delicious and then put one on top of each serving. If you can't tell, crispy sage leaves are my new obsession. They taste so good, even by themselves. I can't stop snacking on them. They were perfect with the rich mushroomy sauce and they went great with the dopplebock pairing.

4. The main course was Old Chub braised beef brisket and some mashed potatoes. I cooked the brisket for a few hours in Old Chub and a bunch of other yummy stuff. Old Chub, a scotch ale, is perfect for slow cooking meat with its flavors of caramel and smoked malt. Super rich and tasty dish. And once the meat is all melded with the flavors of the beer, the pairing becomes perfect. I was almost going to go with a lamb chop dish for the entree but I figured this would get me more bang for my buck. Although people didn't need too much food at this point. Everyone was starting to get full.

5. But there's still room for dessert! Or, in this case, breakfast. French toast with strawberry syrup paired with Wake-n-Bake from Terrapin. I used Challah bread and cooked up some strawberries with maple syrup. Coffee stout with french toast. What more could you want? This is a picture of some I had the next morning with a little bacon on the side. The bacon was not included in the dinner :P

So thanks so much to those of you who came. I hope you had a good time and enjoyed everything. I had a lot of fun cooking for you guys :) ♥

Can't wait for the next one!

Beer Poached Pears With Mascarpone and Blue Cheese Stuffing

2011-02-25T21:29:00.006-05:00

So I decided to try poaching some pears. Poached pears are usually made with wine and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to see what a beer could do. I figured a tripel might work well so I went with Victory's Golden monkey. The hints of fruit and spice in the beer were a great match for the cinnamon and vanilla I used in the poaching liquid. The combination of all of it simmering away smelled seriously good. I started by peeling and coring four pears. I filled a pot with a bottle of the beer and a bit of water so it would be enough to cover all the pears. Then I added some cinnamon sticks, vanilla, and sugar. I brought the poaching liquid to a boil, then reduced the heat and added my pears. I let them cook until nice and tender. After removing the pears, I continued cooking the liquid until it was reduced to a yummy syrup. For the stuffing I combined mascarpone, blue cheese, walnuts, and some of the syrup. I made a little chocolate sauce with cream, semi-sweet chocolate, and butter. Stuffed the poached pears, put a little syrup on them, and then placed them on top of the chocolate. Pretty huh?

Spinach and Mushroom Quiche Paired with Hitachino Nest White Ale

2011-02-23T21:32:00.007-05:00

This is actually one of the most successful pairings I've tasted. Two wonderfully light and fresh components: a delicious quiche (mine included spinach, mushrooms, cheese, and onions) paired with a slightly tart witbier. Hitachino Nest White Ale, like most witbiers, is a perfect pairing for these kinds of brunch foods. You get all of that awesome spice, citrus, and yeast flavor (possibly my favorite flavors in beers) paired with a fluffy quiche and a citrusy salad. The creamy lemon dressing I used for the salad really took the pairing to the next level. It was a perfect match for the refreshing citrus notes in the beer. With every bite and sip back and forth, each component of the pairing tasted better and more interesting. That's what beer pairings are really all about: combining beer and food to allow the the flavors of each to shine through.

Anyway, I have to say, I can make a pretty damn good quiche. I think the key to a perfect quiche is to not use too many eggs because it becomes too dry. But that's just my opinion. I do about 3 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream (or half and half), 1 cup of cheese, and then whatever I want to fill it with. For this, I sauteed the mushrooms and onions first and then layered them and the spinach into the crust followed by the cheese and the egg/cream/seasonings mixture. Then just bake until set.

Blueberry Strudels Paired with a Stout

2011-02-07T23:46:00.008-05:00

I bought some blueberries a while back and totally forgot about them until today, so I figured I should use them quickly before they got moldy. I was thinking of making a sorbet with them (I haven't used my ice cream maker in so long!) but everyone in the house was craving something more like this. So I just cooked up some blueberries and strawberries with sugar and a little lime juice. Then placed the filling on puff pastry dough and baked them. For the pairing, I decided to try it with a can of Young's Double Chocolate Stout that was lying around in the fridge. Such an easy drinking creamy beer, it was almost like having milk with my dessert. But the subtle chocolaty flavors paired nicely with the strudel. I think it'd also be really good with a bigger, richer stout, but I liked that the beer didn't overpower the dish.

Just as a side note, my mom made aji de gallina today. It's a slightly spicy Peruvian dish with shredded chicken in a super creamy sauce. It's usually served with rice, potatoes, and hard boiled eggs. Damn, sometimes I think I should have a Peruvian food blog. You guys have no idea how good some of that stuff is! Anyway, so Brian came over today to have some aji de gallina (his favorite) and paired it with Young's Double Chocolate as well. It was a surprisingly amazing pairing. I think it was the creamy textures that worked so well together. Or maybe the sweetness of the beer with the spicy chicken. I couldn't stop going back and forth between the dish and the beer. Good stuff.

Anyway, I got off track. We had some extra blueberry filling so I saved it to use as a jam. We ate it with crackers and different types of cheeses. Yum yum. Also had some of the strudels with blue cheese on top. I don't know if you're aware, but putting a fruity filling inside a puff pastry and eating it with blue cheese is amazing. I don't know why, but it's something I always do.

Mini Choklat Cheesecakes

2011-01-22T02:46:00.010-05:00

Choklat is an imperial stout from Southern Tier brewed with bittersweet Belgian chocolate. That's the same brewery that made all the beers that allowed for my Creme Brulee ice cream, Mokah Souffle and Pumking bread pudding. Beer cheesecake has been on my list of things to make, so when I saw that Choklat was in stores again I decided this would be the one. So instead of making chocolate cheesecake, I made normal cheesecake and let the beer shine through as flavoring. Then I made a chocolate sauce using the beer as well. I'd say this is as good as any cheesecake you'd find in a fancy restaurant. Enjoy! :)

Crust:
2 tablespoons butter
20 graham crackers
3 tablespoons sugar

Filling:
16 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons Choklat

Chocolate Sauce:
1 tbsp butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup half and half
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Choklat

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Crush the graham crackers finely and combine with the butter and sugar. Press mixture into bottoms of greased muffin tins. Bake the crusts until golden brown. For the filling, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar using an electric mixer. Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature so it's softened. Add in the vanilla and one egg at a time as you continue mixing. Add the beer and adjust for how much you'd like in your cheesecake. With these big beers a little goes a long way, so start small and add more as needed. Pour filling into the muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes until set. For the chocolate sauce, bring the half and half to a simmer with the butter. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips and the rest of the ingredients.

Homemade Gnocchi With Dubbel Mushroom Sauce

2011-01-11T23:42:00.007-05:00

Today we have a pairing and a beer recipe. I made some delicious home made gnocchi and covered them with a creamy mushroom sauce. The sauce included Maredsous 8, a Belgian dubbel from the same brewery that makes Duvel. I added just enough for a nice hint of complexity, but not enough to over power the flavors of the sauce. I used a different beer for the pairing: Weihenstephaner Korbinian. The malt in this dopplebock worked well with the earthy mushrooms and the cheese flavors, and the 8 percent alcohol was able to stand up to the richness of the sauce. Really good stuff :)

Gnocchi:

4 russet potatoes

2/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

Sauce:

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon minced garlic

about 10 white mushrooms (or mushrooms of your choice), sliced

3 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/3 cup beer

parsley
salt


Maredsous Dubbel, used in sauce.

Prick the potatoes a few times with a knife or a fork. Microwave for 5 to 10 minutes (depending on your microwave) on each side until they soften. Carefully peel the potatoes while still hot and mash with a fork or potato ricer. Add the flour and salt to the potatoes. Add enough egg until it binds together. Knead with your hands on a floured flat surface. Add more flour as needed but be careful to not add too much. I ended up only needing 2/3 of a cup but it can depend on your potatoes. Once you can form your dough into a ball and it's not sticky, roll out sections of the dough into ropes. Use a knife to cut gnocchi sized pieces. Roll the pieces on a fork for the ridges. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and drop in the gnocchi in batches. Remove with a slotted spoon when they float to the top.

Weihenstephaner dopplebock
paired with the dish.

For the sauce, melt one tablespoon of butter in a pan. Add the sliced mushrooms and garlic. Cook over medium heat until the mushrooms start
to brown. Add the evaporated and regular milk. Stir in your cheese until melted and well blended. Add salt to taste. Add the beer and remove from heat. Pour sauce over gnocchi and top with chopped parsley and parmesan cheese. Pair with a dopplebock.

Beer Battered Shrimp and Mushrooms with Lemon Butter Mayo

2011-01-07T16:34:00.003-05:00

If you have beer, flour, and oil on hand, you can start beer battering stuff right now. It's really simple. I made this dinner for my mom, sister, and boyfriend. We couldn't decide between mushrooms and shrimp so I made both. This worked out really well because the dipping sauce I made was amazing with both of them. My batter just consisted of flour, beer, and seasoning. I also added a splash of milk but it was a small amount so I don't know if that makes a difference. Brian described the batter as being not too heavy but still having substance and being fluffy yet crunchy. He said it was very well balanced ^.^ I just think it was delicious.

The beer I used for the batter was Native Lager. It's an American lager brewed with all malt, not like those mass produced lagers most people are used to, so it has some real flavor and body but is still easy drinking. Native Brewing was actually started by Adam Fine, who also started Fresh Beer Distributing in South Florida.

The sauce I made was a buttery, lemony mayo dip with parsley. It made for kind of a tangy creamy sauce that worked well with the fried textures of the batter and the delicious mushrooms and shrimp inside. You really have to try this.

At the end Brian requested fried Oreos, so my mom dropped a few in for each of us. In case you were wondering, beer battered Oreos are really good. My mom and sister had never had fried Oreos before and were pleasantly surprised. My sister said they tasted like the corners of brownies. Yum.

Ok recipe time:

For the batter:

2 cups beer

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

oil for frying

This was enough batter for about a pound of shrimp and 15 medium sized white mushrooms.

For the dipping sauce:

4 tablespoons mayonaisse

2 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons of butter

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Combine flour and beer and adjust the amounts as needed so its not too thick or thin . Season with salt, garlic powder, and cayenne, or whatever spices you prefer. Combine a bit of extra flour with some salt and coat the mushrooms and shrimp with the flour. Then dip each piece into the batter and drop into a few inches of hot oil (I don't have a deep fryer so I just used some oil in a pot). When they are golden brown, remove and place on a plate lined with paper towels. For the sauce, melt the butter and combine with the rest of the ingredients.

Monk and Cheese

2010-12-31T15:32:00.009-05:00

So I made some crab mac and cheese. Well I guess it's not technically macaroni, so rotini and cheese. Using beer adds a nice depth to macaroni and cheese, and Monk In The Trunk Organic Amber Ale was perfect for it. Not too light, not too strong, and it really enhanced the flavors of the cheese. Sipping the beer alongside the dish made for a delicious pairing. Here is my recipe.

Ingredients:
8 ounces pasta (I used rotini)
5 ounces crab meat
1/2 cup Monk in the Trunk
1 1/2 cups shredded Gruyere cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon flour
salt to taste

Cook the pasta as you normally would. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a saucepan and add the chopped onion and garlic. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the milk and beer. Slowly add in the cheese while stirring. Whisk in the flour and season with salt. Remove from heat and add the cheese mixture and crab meat to the pasta. Place in a baking dish or ramekins. Combine the rest of the butter with the bread crumbs and coat the top of the pasta. Bake in a 400 degree oven until the top is golden brown. Pair the dish with Monk in the Trunk.

Beer Cheese Sandwich

2010-12-30T18:24:00.005-05:00

This was just a little experiment I did. I had a bottle of Rastafa Rye Ale from Blue Point brewing. I was thinking of making fondue with it and dipping pumpernickel bread in it to play off the rye theme. But I don't have any fondue equipment so I decided to make a "fondue sandwich" ... or a cheese steak? A sandwich with beer and cheese basically. So I just made my fondue with some Gruyere and cheddar. Cooked some steak, put it on the toasty bread with lettuce and tomato, and then added the cheese. Maybe not the most healthful sandwich, but a pretty interesting flavor combination :)

Tuna Tartare with Balsamic Stout Reduction

2010-12-17T02:36:00.007-05:00

I got the idea to make a balsamic reduction with a beer. I decided a stout would work best so I went with Dogfish Head Chicory Stout. Reducing the beer and vinegar brings out their sweetness and results in an interesting concentrated flavor. I used more beer in the ratio so that those flavors would come out more. I wasn't really sure if all this would go with tuna tartare but that was my plan so I went for it anyway. Surprisingly, the sauce actually seemed like it was made for the tuna, which I guess it really was. It's also worth mentioning that I paired my tuna tartare before with Jai Alai White Oak IPA. That was a great pairing because the piney notes of the beer really complemented the dish. So if I were to do a beer dinner (which I'm thinking of doing at my house at the beginning of January) I would probably make this dish with a stout, pair it with an IPA and then save the stout to pair with a later dish.

Anyway here are the ingredients and directions:

Ingredients:
chopped sushi grade tuna
some kind of toasted bread
chopped avocado
balsamic vinegar
stout
soy sauce
lemon juice
olive oil
wasabi paste
ground ginger
sesame seeds
salt
pepper

For the reduction, bring the balsamic vinegar and beer to a boil. Make sure you are using a large enough pot because it bubbles up a lot from the carbonation in the beer. Once it boils, reduce the heat and let it cook until syrupy. Combine the rest of the ingredients (except the bread obviously) and drizzle with the reduction. Serve with the toasted bread. Super easy right?

Blue Cheese Souffle with Moonglow Pear Sauce and a Prosciutto Salad

2010-12-10T15:24:00.002-05:00

This was my first attempt at a savory souffle. I made a blue cheese souffle and cooked some pears in Victory Moonglow Weizenbock for a sauce. I also made a prosciutto salad to go with it and then paired all that with Ayinger Weizenbock. Victory Moonglow is fruity and spicy and perfect for cooking the pears in. Kinda similar to Schneider Aventinus that I used a while ago to cook apples. So the pears and beer were cooked down with some brown sugar and then pureed. The sauce came out delicious. Unfortunately, it's not in my picture since I tried to take one quickly before the souffle deflated. But trust me it was really good. When I do another beer dinner I definitely want to incorporate this sauce somehow.

Anyway, it was a really nice contrast to the blue cheese and the saltier flavors of the souffle and salad. Although blue cheese is a strong flavor, the souffle is still a subtle dish so I felt that pairing it with the same beer that the pears were cooked in would overpower it. Ayinger Weizenbock was the perfect pairing, and dude that is one delicious beer. Look how pretty!

Ommegang Abbey Crab Bisque

2010-12-03T00:36:00.003-05:00

I had some Ommegang Abbey Ale left over from my two beer pumpkin soup so I used it in my crab soup. So nummy. From what I remember: crab, onions, tomato paste, butter, garlic, beer, evaporated milk, parsley, salt. Can you tell I've gotten lazy with writing down recipes? Good stuff though, and dubbels are really versatile with cooking. They work in both sweet and savory recipes and always add something special.

Black Tuesday Ice Cream

2010-11-07T18:27:00.003-05:00

My friend Phil from Dosbeerigos was able to get an 09 bottle of Black Tuesday through a trade. After a long night of tasting, there was a little bit left in the bottle. Instead of letting it go to waste I took it home and made some ice cream out of it. For those of you who don't know, Black Tuesday is a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout at almost 20% alcohol that is released once a year at The Bruery. The flavors of bourbon and vanilla really came through in the ice cream... in a good way :)

Two Beer Pumpkin Soup

2010-10-27T00:28:00.004-04:00

I carved some pumpkins yesterday and then roasted the seeds and made a pumpkin soup. I decided to use two beers in the soup - A pumpkin ale (Shipyard Pumpkinhead) to highlight the pumpkin flavor and a dubbel (Ommegang Abbey Ale) for it's sweeter caramel and fruit notes.

Here is a pretty rough estimate of ingredients:

2.5 lb chopped pumpkin (I scraped mine from the inside of a pumpkin I was going to carve)
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup whole milk
4 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 cup Pumpkinhead
1/2 cup Ommegang Abbey Ale

Place the chopped pumpkin in a large pot and cover with water. Bring water to a boil and cook until tender. Puree the pumpkin in a blender and return to the pot. Over medium heat add the rest of the ingredients. Top with roasted pumpkin seeds. For my pumpkin seeds I covered them in a mixture of melted butter, salt, garlic powder, cinnamon, and paprika before roasting for 45 minutes.

Maduro Lamb Shoulder Chops With Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2010-10-21T01:11:00.004-04:00

So I guess I lied when I said I was gonna be posting stuff more often. Oh well.

I had this really tasty dish a few weeks ago and never got around to sharing it, so I thought I would now. I roasted some lamb shoulder chops with Cigar City Maduro Brown Ale. Cigar City is an awesome brewery from Tampa which has some really interesting beers. I love visiting them whenever I get a chance. This beer is a great brown ale which also happens to work beautifully for cooking. The distinct flavor of lamb in my dish worked really well with the beer's rich flavors.

Also, I think one of my new favorite pairings is Maduro with sweet potatoes (specifically, buttery, creamy, sugary, mashed sweet potatoes). So good!

Here's what I used:

Ingredients:

lamb shoulder chops

salt

black pepper

garlic powder

thyme

Maduro Brown Ale

Sweet Potato:

4 medium sweet potatoes

5 tbsp butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup milk

salt to taste

Dipping Sauce:

2 tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp greek yogurt

1 tbsp mayonnaise

2 tsp chopped parsley

salt and garlic powder to taste

Season the lamb with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Heat some oil over high heat on a large pan and brown both sides of the lamb. Place the lamb chops into a baking pan. Add some thyme and a bottle of Maduro Brown Ale. Cook in a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Make sure to spoon some of the juices from the pan onto your plate. You know what to do for the mashed sweet potatoes and the dipping sauce :)

Beer and Coconut Milk Ceviche

2010-10-05T17:18:00.002-04:00

I've always been against calling anything "ceviche" other than the traditional Peruvian version. Just lime juice, salt, fish, onion, aji amarillo, cilantro, sweet potato, and probably some corn. That's really the best kind and the way it should be. But this way of "cooking" meat is really cool. And delicious. And maybe we shouldn't be limited to only preparing it one way. So I decided to experiment just a little bit... using beer of course. Beer dinners often include ceviche paired with beers, but never with the beer in it. So I gave it a shot.

I made a whole batch of ceviche the normal way and just reserved 1/4 of the fish to experiment with. I was making food for my family and didn't want them to be a bit disappointed if I tampered with their delicious ceviche. So for my portion, along with the lime juice, I added coconut milk and a little bit of Unibroue's La Fin Du Monde (which was left over from the multiples cooking class). It worked just as I had hoped for. Somehow the beer and coconut flavors were so well matched, it's like they were meant to be used together. La Fin Du Monde's citrusy, yeasty flavors and the subtle sweetness of the coconut milk balanced the dish beautifully. And of course pairing it with the beer resulted in perfect harmony. I also included some shrimp and added the traditional sweet potato which still worked amazingly, especially with the hints of coconut.

Maybe I'm just crazy since no one else except me got to try the dish, but I thought it was delicious. I'll have to experiment again on a bigger scale and get a second opinion.

Oktoberfest Pot Pie

2010-10-02T13:29:00.006-04:00

I made another beer chicken pot pie this week and wrote down the recipe for it. This time I used Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen. I chose this beer because I thought the bready malts and sweet caramel notes would give a nice touch to a chicken pot pie and complement the crust. Very yummy result.

My recipe was featured in the Oktoberfest edition of the Fresh Beer Times. I know a lot of people ask me how they can know what events or beer dinners are coming up. Subscribing to the Fresh Beer newsletter is a great start. You can check the upcoming events section and find tastings, beer dinners, and many other special events that are happening in south Florida. Be careful though, you're going to want to go to pretty much everything. Here is a link to the latest issue,which includes my recipe :)

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 cups chopped white mushrooms
10 ounces boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
2 cups chopped baking potato (1 large potato)
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup peas
1 can evaporated milk (12oz)
1 1/2 cups Ayinger Oktoberfest
4 tablespoons butter
1 cube chicken bouillon
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper
2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 egg
2 tablespoons flour
2 frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed

Directions:
Melt two tablespoons of butter in a large pot. Add the onions, celery, mushrooms, and chicken breast, cooking over medium high heat. Season with half a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of black pepper. Once the chicken is browned on all sides, remove it and set aside. Add the milk, 1 cup of the beer, potatoes, carrots, and peas. As the vegetables are cooking, add the garlic powder, chicken bouillon, thyme, and the rest of the butter and salt. Once the potatoes are cooked through, turn off the heat. Add the last 1/2 cup of beer. Dissolve the flour in a small amount of water and stir into the pot to thicken the mixture. Add the chicken back to the pot and place the mixture into 4 oven safe bowls. Cut the puff pastry into pieces big enough to cover each bowl. Beat the egg with a little bit of water and brush onto the sides of the bowl. Cover each bowl with the pastry sheets, pressing down on the sides to seal. Make a small slit on the top of each pie and brush with some of the egg wash. Bake in a 350 degree oven until the pastry is golden brown.

Pumking Bread Pudding

2010-09-27T18:11:00.006-04:00

I made some spiced pumpkin bread pudding using Southern Tier's Pumking (hmm I use a lot of Southern Tier for desserts but hey they're perfect for that). I don't do much baking so I wanted to practice making baked goods infused with beer. I don't have a recipe for it but basically it consists of left over bread, milk, walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and beer. And a little Pumking and sugar syrup. Nice fall treat. I think I'd like to add more beer and less milk next time and see what happens :)

I've really been slacking on making stuff for the blog lately. I have a lot fewer posts this month than usual. I suppose it's partly because I started a new job and was more concerned with that. But I want to get back on top of it and try to make at least one beer related meal a week. I also want to work on getting nicer pictures of my food. So let's see how well I stick to that.

Multiples Cooking Class

2010-09-20T20:42:00.007-04:00

So I had a cooking class the other day for some friends. These friends happen to be triplets and I also happen to have a twin sister, so we made it a "multiples cooking class." With beer of course.

I met Peasha (aka Patricia) when we both worked as servers at a Japanese Restaurant. We found out we had a lot in common: We're both from Latin families (I'm Peruvian, she's Cuban), we both majored in Psychology, and we're both multiples. I'm an identical twin and she's a triplet. Both of us work at FAU now and sometimes get to have lunch together. A few weeks ago when hanging out with Peasha and her sisters, Cristina and Elena, they mentioned that they wanted to learn to cook. So we decided to have a cooking class where I would teach them my style of cooking. So I set aside Wednesday, the 15th at 8:00 pm to have a cooking class with the triplets and my sister.

triplets: Elena, Cristina, and Peasha

twins: Me and Valeria

The menu was: stuffed mushrooms, fish tacos, lamb chops with roasted thyme potatoes, and chocolate souffle. I brought a four pack of La Fin Du Monde (Peasha's favorite beer) and some other beers to cook and pair with, including: Ommegang Abbey Ale, Rogue Chocolate Stout, and White Rascal. Even though they wanted to learn basic things, I chose some food items that people might not make on a regular basis because the same techniques can apply to more everyday foods. All the courses turned out delicious and Patricia, Elena, and Cristina were the best students anyone could ask for. Four days later Peasha told me that they had already made the stuffed mushrooms twice and that Cristina made steak and pork the way I taught them. They were really serious about learning! Here's a recap of the evening, although I didn't get many pictures of the final products.

Learning!

Stuffed Mushrooms
I chose stuffed mushrooms because they're awesome and a quick and easy appetizer with simple ingredients. These were the first thing to be ready and eaten. They even said it was the best homemade thing they had ever had. ♥
You can see my recipe here.

Stuffing

Topping with cheese

Eating!

Beer Battered Fish Tacos with Pineapple Salsa
Fish tacos were chosen so we could try some beer battering which could also be applied to other dishes, such as fish and chips or onion rings or anything really. We used White Rascal for the battering. Elena whisked together the batter, Peasha coated the fish, and Cristina did the frying and flipping. Throw that crunchy fish on a tortilla with some pineapple salsa, lime mayonnaise, and lettuce and dinner's ready. Here's the basic recipe.

Peasha coating the fish in batter.

Salsa ingredients

Lamb Chops
Lamb chops were my choice for the entree because they are freaking delicious and if I could show them the basic techniques for that, they could apply it to steak and other meats. Before the dinner I was contemplating between salmon, roasted chicken, steak, or lamb as the main course. In the end I chose lamb but I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, so I made it up as we went along. We seasoned the chops with salt, pepper, and fresh mint and seared them with some onions and garlic. Once the they were done we removed them and I made a sauce by deglazing the pan with Ommegang Abbey Ale (getting all the delicious flavor up from the bottom of the pan) and adding butter, milk, and some other seasonings. This may have been the biggest success of the night.

Helping Peasha with her knife skills.

My class :)

Yummy lamb chops!

Roasted Thyme Potatoes
These are super easy to make. You just wash and chop up a few potatoes and arrange them on a baking sheet. Add olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and thyme. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour and you've got a really tasty side dish.

Potatoes before going in the oven.

Everyone helping with the thyme.

Lamb and potatoes

Chocolate Souffle
Chocolate souffle for dessert because of how surprisingly easy yet delicious it is. Well I guess it wasn't dessert since we ate it before the lamb and potatoes. But we are adults now and can choose whatever order we want to eat our dishes in :) We made a chocolate sauce to put on top with melted chocolate chips, milk, butter, and sugar. We paired the souffle with Rogue Chocolate Stout. And we left one of the souffles uncooked to chill in the fridge. That makes some yummy chocolate mousse.

Whipping up some egg whites.

Sister teamwork!

Brian pitched in

Chocolate souffle

I had so much fun. I can't wait to do something like this again! Thanks to Peasha, Cristina, Elena, and Valeria. And my mommy who was there too. And Brian even though he only woke up when the food was ready. You're all awesome!

Southern Tier Creme Brulee Ice Cream

2010-09-13T21:28:00.003-04:00

Damn. How has it already been three weeks since my last post? I've been slacking. But there will definitely be more recipes going up in the next few weeks. (I gotta try some stuff with pumpkin beers!) For now, here's the recipe for the Creme Brulee ice cream from my last post.

1/2 cup of heavy cream
2 cups half and half
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup Creme Brulee Stout (a little goes a long way)
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp butter

Bring the heavy cream and half and half to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Whisk the egg yolks, gradually adding the sugar. Continue whisking until the egg yolks are pale yellow. Pour about half of the hot cream slowly into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the egg and cream mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium low heat until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate for a few hours and then pour into an ice cream maker.

Southern Tier Creme Brulee Banana Wontons with Creme Brulee Ice Cream

2010-08-25T13:47:00.003-04:00

The name says it all. Another beer from Southern Tier that tastes like a decadent dessert. Just the smell of it is amazing. Butterscotch, caramel, and a hint of coffee. How could I not make a dessert with this? I had some left over wontons and thought of making banana wontons. Then I remembered the Creme Brulee and I decided to go all out and make banana wontons with the bananas cooked in Creme Brulee, Creme Brulee ice cream, and a Creme Brulee syrup. The ice cream itself is simply the perfect ice cream flavor. It's like butterscotch and coffee ice cream combined. Two of my favorite flavors! I even added some butter to the ice cream to highlight the butterscotch. I'll post the ice cream recipe another day when I redo it so I can write it all down. The beer was instantly compatible with the banana, cinnamon, and caramel flavors throughout the dessert. And the syrup... I should keep that on hand at all times. Here's the recipe for the wontons and syrup.

banana wontons:
2 bananas
2 tsp honey
1 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp Creme Brulee
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter
20 wonton wrappers
oil for frying

sauce:
1/4 cup Creme Brulee
1 tbsp butter
cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar

For the wontons, melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for about 10 minutes. Fill each wonton with a teaspoon of the filling. Seal the edges with water and pat out any air. Heat a large pan over high heat and fill with enough oil for frying. When the oil is hot, add the wontons. Reduce the heat to medium and cook on both sides until golden brown.
For the syrup, combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat. Cook until thickened.

Crab Rangoons Paired with a Pilsner

2010-08-19T22:49:00.005-04:00

Crab Rangoons and Lagunitas Pils

Crab rangoons are basically wonton wrappers filled with cream cheese, crab, and green onion. I wanted to pair them with a beer and decided to try a pilsner so the clean and crisp flavors could complement the fried wontons. I tried them with both Lagunitas Pils and Victory Prima Pils to see what would work better. Lagunitas Pils is maltier and Prima Pils is hoppier, so they both complemented the dish in different ways. I liked the way Prima Pils' hoppiness and crispness worked between bites of the rangoon. It was not too overpowering but still enough to wake up your mouth. It was more of a contrast to the dish whereas Laguintas Pils kind of melded into the dish because it was less hoppy and a little sweeter. My mom preferred Lagunitas with it and I think I preferred the contrast Prima Pils gave, but they both worked. I'd also be interested in trying a saison, a hefeweizen, or even a sour beer. There's lots of flavors to play off of with the cripsy wonton, cream cheese and crab mixture, and sweet and sour dipping sauce. There's no exact science to pairing, so experiment...that's half the fun!

I also tried pairing them with Victory Prima Pils

Ingredients:
6 ounces cream cheese
6 ounces crab
1/8 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ginger powder
2 tbsp chopped green onion
1 tbsp chopped red onion
1/8 tsp white pepper
salt to taste
wonton wrappers

sweet and sour sauce:
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ginger powder
4 tbsp pineapple juice ( you can use orange juice or even just water)
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp soy sauce

Combine the ingredients for the filling in a large bowl. Place a small amount of the mixture in each wonton wrapper. Fold in half and seal with water. Heat a large pan over high heat and fill with about half an inch of oil. When the oil is hot, add the wontons. Cook for a few minutes on each side until golden brown. Serve with sweet and sour sauce.

Hefeweizen Battered Fish Tacos With Pineapple Salsa

2010-08-09T18:42:00.003-04:00

So the goal of this blog is basically to show that beer can be used for much more than just a beer batter or beer can chicken. It's so versatile and can be used in any part of cooking to enhance flavor or texture. It seems people don't just think of one thing when cooking with wine and there is absolutely no reason that beer can not be used as diversely. I believe that craft beer is classy and can work in many gourmet foods just as well and many times better than wine. And with all the different styles, there are endless amounts of flavors beer can give to food. But I don't have to preach to you guys. You already know all of that (and if you don't, you need to take a look at the rest of my recipes). However, I must admit beer does make a great light and crispy batter so I figured it was time I gave it a try.

I made beer battered tilapia fish tacos with a pineapple salsa. Battering stuff with beer is pretty easy and I will probably be doing it a lot more often. For the batter all you need is flour, a beer, and some spices. I used a hefeweizen because I wanted something light and tasty and was hoping to get some of those spicy banana and clove flavors through into the final product. And Sierra Nevada Kellerweis is definitely one of my favorites. The result was perfect in my opinion. Here is the recipe :)

Ingredients:
1 pound tilapia
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup beer
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and ground black pepper
oil for frying
2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
flour tortillas

salsa:
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped pineapple
1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
salt and ground black pepper to taste

sauce:
3 tbsp mayonnaise
3 tbsp sour cream
1 tbsp lime juice
salt and ground black pepper to taste

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, beer, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I cut my fish into a few pieces and seasoned it with some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Coat the fish with flour and dip into the batter. Put a large pan over high heat and add about a half inch of oil. When the oil is hot add the fish in batches, cooking for about three or four minutes per side. To assemble the taco put some lettuce on the flour tortilla. Combine the ingredients for the sauce and pour on top of the lettuce. Add a few pieces of fried fish and top with the salsa.

Beer Chicken Pot Pie

2010-08-08T03:43:00.003-04:00

My boyfriend asked me to make him a chicken pot pie the other night, so I made a little individual portion. I used a beer to step up the flavors and give it that special tang. I chose a lager because I don't really cook with them that often and we thought the clean flavors and bready characteristics of Weihenstephaner Original might work with the dish.

I started out by cooking some onions, garlic, mushrooms, celery, and chicken with a bit of butter (everything cut into chunks). Then I poured in milk, evaporated milk, and some of the beer. To that I added chopped potatoes, carrots, and peas and seasoned everything with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chicken bouillon. I also included some fresh thyme. I let the vegetables finish cooking and used a little flour to thicken everything up. Then I just transferred the mixture into an oven safe bowl.

For the crust I actually used crescent rolls. I took three uncooked pieces and rolled them into a ball. I flattened out the ball of dough and covered the bowl with it, sticking it along the sides with egg wash. Worked perfectly. From there all you have to do is put it in the oven until the top is golden brown. The final result was interesting and flavorful and not at all dull. My boyfriend loved his chicken pot pie and the flavors the beer provided :)

Mokah Chocolate Soufflé

2010-08-02T17:28:00.006-04:00

Mmm chocolate soufflé. It's surprisingly simple to make. The basic idea is just whipping up some egg whites and folding that into a mixture of egg yolks and melted chocolate along with some sugar. The fluffy egg whites are what makes the soufflé puff up in the oven. Before baking, it's already basically chocolate mousse, which you could just eat as is. Baking it gives it a little crunchy exterior and a warm gooey mousse-like center. And what better beer to pair that with than a decadent chocolate and coffee imperial stout? Or better yet, why not add that beer INTO the soufflé? I incorporated Mokah from Southern Tier into the soufflé itself as well as the delicious chocolate topping. The final product of a Mokah chocolate soufflé paired with Mokah is perfect rich and delicious harmony.

I also wanted to mention that it's a whole different experience to eat cold. I had some leftovers that I ate after keeping in the fridge for a while and it is just as delicious with a bit of a different texture. And when the topping gets cold and a little more solid it is really good. So even though it deflates a little if you take a while to serve it (the last picture is actually after a few hours of being in the fridge) it will not stop being delicious, and that's what matters.

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
2 egg yolks
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp Mokah
1 tsp vanilla
butter

for topping:
3 tbsp Mokah
2/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sugar

Directions: Prepare the serving glasses or ramekins (make sure they are oven safe) for your soufflé by rubbing the inside of them with butter and then coating that with sugar. Next, melt the chocolate chips. I just do it in the microwave being very careful to mix it every 30 seconds so they will not burn. Beat the egg yolks along with half of the sugar until frothy. Combine the melted chocolate with the egg yolks and add in the vanilla and beer. Beat the egg whites with the rest of the sugar until soft peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and then pour into serving containers. Place them in the oven at 350 degrees and bake until they puff up and look a bit dry on the top.

While they are baking prepare the topping by melting the butter in a saucepan. Add the milk and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add in the chocolate, stirring until combined. Then add the sugar and beer.

When the soufflés are ready, remove them and dust with powdered sugar. Pour the topping on top or make a hole in your soufflé and pour it in.

Brian's Birthday Dinner

2010-07-31T04:00:00.001-04:00

I made a little four course meal for my boyfriend's birthday. For the first course I made crab cakes since he loves those. For some reason I got the idea to make crab stuffed mushrooms too so I separated half of the crab cake mixture before adding the egg, spices, and mayo. I added butter and cheese instead and stuffed the mushrooms. The crab cakes paired so wonderfully with the Brooklyn Sorachi Ace we were having. Really, you have to try it.

For the second course I just went with lobster tail cooked with some butter, lemon, coconut milk, and salt. My gosh lobster is reallyyy yummy with butter ♥

The main course was some delicious lamb. I seasoned the lamb chops with mint, thyme, pepper and plenty of salt. I pan seared them and then deglazed the pan with some Allagash Dubbel and made a little sauce with that. I paired the lamb with some tasty thyme and butter potatoes. I really wish I had bought more lamb. We were licking the bones clean. Eek.. poor lamb. So yummy though.

For dessert I made a Mokah chocolate souffle. Mokah is a beer from Southern Tier that pretty much tastes like a dessert. Very chocolatey with a little bit of coffee. The souffle turned out great and I will definitely be posting the recipe soon. Brian said it's the best chocolate dessert he's ever had :) And of course pairing it with Mokah was just a perfect flow of chocolatey flavors.

And that was it. Hope you enjoyed your dinner Brian. (Well, I know he did.. he had his eyes closed saying "mmmm" throughout most of it) Thanks for letting me cook for you and happy birthday!! Hope this is the start of an amazing year for you! ♥ ♥

Suspiro Limeño

2010-07-30T03:55:00.003-04:00

July 28th was Peru's independence day (Fiestas Patrias) so I made a Peruvian dessert called Suspiro Limeño. It's really yummy and not tough to make. The bottom is kind of like dulce de leche (we call it manjar blanco in Peru). To make that, you take a can of condensed milk and a can of evaporated milk and cook it over low heat for a little over half an hour. It will become thick and the color will darken. Then you add 3 egg yolks to that and a little bit of vanilla extract. The top is just egg whites, port wine and sugar. Cover about a cup of sugar with the wine and cook it until syrupy, and then add it into three beaten egg whites. And I didn't have any wine so I actually did end up using beer in this even though I hadn't planned on it :) As for beer pairing purposes, it might be interesting with a stout so the roastiness could balance the sweetness. I might have to make this again so I can try it with a beer. Anyway, "suspiro" means "sigh" in spanish and I think this dessert will definitely make you sigh with contentment ;)

Rauchbier Marinated Sirloin Steak with Mushroom Mashed Potatoes

2010-07-20T16:13:00.004-04:00

Okay, so I marinated some steak in Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen. Can't really say I know how to pronounce that, but anyway smoked beers are pretty interesting and I've been meaning to make something with one for a while. They smell like a campfire and taste like smoked meat or bacon. So the other night when I wanted to make steak for dinner I remembered the smoked beer I had left in my fridge. I marinated the meat in the beer along with some Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and some other flavors. I was actually really surprised at how much of the smokey flavor came through. The mashed potatoes I made with mushrooms were also a pretty big hit. Pretty enjoyable meal I'd say.

Ingredients:
1 pound top sirloin fillets
1/2 cup smoked beer
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp soy sauce
garlic powder
salt
black pepper
thyme
parsley
1/4 of a red onion
Canola oil

mashed potatoes:
3 potatoes
6 medium size white mushrooms
3/4 cup evaporated milk
3 tbsp butter
1/4 red onion
garlic powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp minced parsley

Combine the balsamic vinegar, garlic, beer, soy sauce, and Dijon mustard in a large bowl. Season the meat with the thyme, parsley, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. Place in the bowl and turn over to make sure it gets covered in the beer mixture. Cover and leave to marinate for a few hours. In the mean time make the mashed potatoes. Make holes in all the potatoes and microwave them for 5 minutes on each side. Peel off the skin and mash into a bowl with a fork. Add in the butter, milk, parsley, garlic powder, and salt. Chop the onion and the mushrooms and cook in a little bit of butter on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Mix the mushrooms into the mashed potatoes. Heat some oil on a large pan and place the steak and onion in it. Brown on both sides and cook on medium heat until desired doneness. Slice the meat and serve with mashed potatoes.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi With a Beer Butter Sauce

2010-07-09T20:56:00.007-04:00

I used Ommegang Abbey Ale for the gnocchi's sauce. The slightly sweet flavors in it complement the sweet potato and make for an interesting sauce. The combination of the cheese, butter, and beer in the sauce smelled so good as it was cooking. I find that sweet potato gnocchi is a little harder to make than gnocchi with regular potatoes because the sweet potatoes are a lot more moist so it's harder to roll out without adding a lot more flour. Just resist the urge to add too much or it will not turn out right. I also added a russet potato to help out a little bit.

Ingredients:
3 medium sweet potatoes
1 russet potato
2 cups flour
1 egg
2 tbsp finely grated parmesan cheese
pinch of nutmeg
salt to taste

sauce:
3 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp finely grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp flour
1/3 12 ounce beer
splash of half and half
salt to taste

Directions:
Make holes in the potatoes with a knife and microwave for 5 minutes on each side. Peel and smash the potatoes with fork. Add in the egg, nutmeg, salt, and parmesan cheese. Add half of the flour and knead with your hands on a flat floured surface. Add the rest of the flour and add a little more if needed until the dough holds together. It will still be slightly sticky. Section the dough into a few pieces and roll each one out into a rope. Cut into gnocchi sized pieces with a knife. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop the gnocchi into the pot in batches. When they float to the top they are ready to take out. For the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and add the rest of the ingredients, cooking until thickened.

Salmon with Witbier Sauce and Strawberry Cucumber Salad

2010-07-08T04:55:00.011-04:00

Last night I made salmon for myself and sweet potato gnocchi for my family. (Well they had some of the salmon too.) I used beer in the sauces for both dishes and both came out delicious. And I actually took note of what I did so I have recipes! Well for now let's talk about the salmon dish. I think salmon is delicious but even if you don't, you might enjoy it with a tasty beer sauce. My mom, boyfriend, sister, and my sister's boyfriend are not big fans of cooked salmon but they could not stop eating it. I used Allagash White because witbiers are perfect to pair with fish. The yeast flavors and hints of citrus tie in with my salmon and my cucumber strawberry salad. Not only does it pair well, it also adds a lot of flavor to the sauce. Delicious.

Ingredients:
1 pound salmon
fresh parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp butter
1/2 12 ounce bottle of witbier
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper

salad:
1/2 cucumber
4 strawberries
2 tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp honey
salt

Serves 3. Season the salmon with salt, pepper, and fresh parsley. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter on a pan and add the onion and minced garlic. Then add the salmon and cook on medium heat on both sides until cooked through. Remove the salmon and add the beer into the same pan. Reduce the heat and add the milk, garlic powder, and the rest of the butter. Season with a little salt and cook for about 5 minutes. Serve with rice.

For the salad chop the cucumber and strawberries, and combine with the chopped onion and honey. Add salt to taste.

Chicken Liver Pâté

2010-07-02T18:11:00.005-04:00

Pâté can sound pretty fancy, but it is really easy and cheap to make a tasty one. I got my chicken livers at Publix at a little over a dollar for 3/4th of a pound. I cooked some shallots in a bunch of butter and then added in the livers. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, parsley, basil, and garlic. Pâtés usually involve some sort of alcohol. People cook the livers with wine or add some type of brandy before blending. Of course, I decided to try it with beer. I thought a dubbel or a tripel might work best since they are more similar to the higher alcohol content and fruit like characteristics of the calvados and cognacs that are often used in pâtés. I ended up going with Weyerbacher Merry Monks. I added some to the pot and cooked them until they were just a bit pink on the inside. Then I just took the whole mixture and pureed it in the blender with a splash of half and half. And that's all there is to it. Just let it sit in the fridge for a few hours and you're ready to impress everyone with your fancy pâté ;)

Framboise Sorbet

2010-07-02T17:32:00.007-04:00

My boyfriend got me an ice cream maker for my birthday! He also got me a gift card to The Cheese Course so I could buy a bunch of yummy cheese, and two seats at a Publix Aprons cooking class so we could go together. And a game for my Nintendo DS: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. :) But I'll focus on the ice cream maker for now. This is the first thing I made with it. I just used some peaches, strawberries, Floris Framboise, and simple syrup. It was so refreshing. Ice cream makers are a lot of fun. I'm excited to turn everything I think of into a ice cream now :) I'll be experimenting a lot with this and I guess abandoning my old way of making ice cream for a while. Although I still think it's great if you don't have an ice cream maker.

Thank you Brian! ♥

Big Sound Braised Beef Brisket

2010-06-25T19:08:00.007-04:00

This was my entree for the beer dinner we had last week and it turned out amazing. It's beef brisket braised for four hours with Big Sound Scotch Ale from Cigar City. I don't know if it was the Big Sound or what but it was just so rich and tasty. Once again, I did not remember to write down the amounts of everything I put in it. I suck at doing that. I guess it is a bit of a shame because I think it was as perfect as it could be. (Oh well, I try to encourage people to use recipes more as suggestions anyway.) But just add a bit of all these ingredients and it will definitely turn out great.

Here's what you'll need:

beef brisket
mustard
brown sugar
garlic powder
Worcestershire sauce
soy sauce
salt
pepper
onion
tomatoes
mushrooms
Big Sound Scotch Ale (or other beer)
beef bouillon
carrots
flour

Rub the brisket with soy sauce, mustard, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Heat some oil in a large pot and brown the brisket on both sides on high heat. Chop the onion, tomatoes, and mushrooms into a few pieces. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot, including some more soy sauce. Use the first half of the beer at the beginning and then add more a few hours in. Cook for about four hours until very tender. You can add the mushrooms a few hours into it if you don't want them to be all mushy. Taste it as you go along and adjust it until it's just right. At the end I took out the brisket and added flour to the broth in the pot to make it a little thicker. That way you can pour it on top of your brisket and get the most out of all those flavors. Serve with mashed potatoes or veggies.

Here is a terribly blurry picture from the beer dinner. (The one at the top of the page was from when I practiced before the dinner.)

Butternut Squash Soup / Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse

2010-06-25T18:33:00.007-04:00

Okay, this is the soup that I used as the appetizer at the beer dinner. Honestly, it's been a week and I didn't write down exactly what I did so I'm going to give you some estimates. You really can't go too wrong with this soup. You can go the sweeter route and use a lot of brown sugar and cinnamon, or you can keep it saltier with more garlic and butter. Just taste and test until you're happy. Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse is a nice complement to the sweet squash and cinnamon flavors. Such a cozy pairing! Not that I really need cozy in Florida in the summer, but this is nice any time of year. Also, the first time that I made this I cooked some shallots in butter and then added everything to that. For the beer dinner I didn't do that, but I think it actually tasted better with the shallots.

Ingredients:
1 medium sized butternut squash (about 2 pounds)
1 apple
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cube chicken bouillon
2 tbsp brown sugar
salt to taste

First is the most annoying thing. Peeling and chopping the butternut squash can be a bit of a pain. Cut it in half and then cut those pieces in half. Scoop out the seeds, then peel each piece and cut them into chunks. Peel and chop the apple as well. Put the squash and apples in a pot filled with water and bring it to a boil. Cook them until they are tender. Transfer to a blender and puree. You may have to do this in batches. Return to the pot and to medium heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and adjust to your taste.

Beer Dinner

2010-06-20T21:33:00.022-04:00

Helloo.. I just wanted to write about the beer dinner some friends and I had on Friday. We had one over a year ago at our friend Tyler's house and we had been meaning to do another one for a while. We finally got around to it this week. I cooked the five courses and Brian was in charge of beers. I spent a lot of the day cooking and I was a little nervous I wouldn't be able to pull it all off but I was very happy with how the dinner turned out. All the pairings were wonderful and the portions were just right. I'll tell you a little about each course.

1. The first course was a butternut squash soup. We paired it with Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse. The soup had apples and cinnamon and nice cozy warm flavors. We wanted to pair it with something that had some interesting spice flavors but that wouldn't overpower the subtlety of the soup. The hints of clove and spice from the Bavarian yeast strain in the beer complemented the soup pretty nicely. I'll try to post the recipe for the soup later this week.

2. The second course I already have a recipe for on here: http://thebeercook.blogspot.com/2010/03/shrimp-and-scallops-with-creamy-coconut.html

It's creamy shrimp and scallops cooked in coconut milk and beer, served with a mango and papaya salad. I cooked the shrimp and scallops with Hitachino Nest White Ale and it turned out delicious. Definitely one of my favorites. We also paired it with the the same beer. All the components worked so well together. The sour dough bread with the tartness and wheat flavors of the beer.. and the subtle coconut milk flavor in the seafood.. and the mango and papaya.. mm good stuff.

3. The third course: Ceviche with Stone Cali-Belgique. Ceviche recipe here:
http://thebeercook.blogspot.com/2010/03/ceviche-bells-two-hearted.html

I've read around to see what people pair ceviche with and it's often a sour beer to go with the sour flavors in the ceviche. We didn't want to take that route and since I had already had success in pairing it with an IPA, we decided to try that again. I'm glad we chose this beer. The brightness of both the beer and the dish worked really well together.And of course I have to serve my ceviche with some buttery and sugary sweet potato. Yum.

4. On to the fourth course. The main course, and I think the highlight of the dinner. Big Sound braised beef brisket and mashed potatoes paired with Cigar City's Big Sound Scotch Ale. This pairing was just perfect harmony. I braised the brisket for four and a half hours in the Big Sound along with brown sugar, soy sauce, veggies, and a bunch of other flavors that I will talk about when I post the recipe. It was so tender and delicious. The rich flavors of the brisket just flowed wonderfully with that delicious scotch ale.

Here is a picture from when I practiced with Old Chub from Oskar Blues:

5. At this point everyone was on their way to getting full but we still had two desserts to go. While my apple pastry was in the oven, we had a dessert that Anavictoria made: cheesecake cupcakes with Ghirardelli chocolate and a sugar cookie crust. We paired that with Mokah, a delicious chocolate and coffee imperial stout from Southern Tier. It was a great complement to the cheesecake. The roasty flavors of the beer balanced the sweetness of the dessert.

6. Lastly we had my Aventinus apple pastry with blue cheese and toasted walnuts.

http://thebeercook.blogspot.com/2010/03/apple-pastry-schneider-aventinus.html

I love the blue cheese in this dessert. It makes it so much more interesting and it's a nice balance to the sweetness of the apples. If you haven't tried blue cheese with desserts or fruits, you're missing out. It's magical :) The apples were cooked in Aventinus with brown sugar and cinammon. Aventinus is perfect for this because of its dark fruit flavors. The filling is really tasty, and I had a lot of it left over so we've been eating it with ice cream and cooking it into crescent rolls. Good stuff :)

And that was the end of it. So thanks to the Landis family for hosting the dinner and thanks to everyone who came. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves. I can't wait for the next one! ^.^

Spinach and Five Cheese Tomatoes

2010-06-08T03:27:00.005-04:00

Here's a little snack I made. Yay for more stuffed veggies! (Well, I guess technically fruit but whatever..) I don't remember exactly how much I used for everything in this so I'll just tell you what I did.

I cut a few plum tomatoes in half, scooped out the seeds, salted them, and arranged them on a baking sheet. Then I melted butter on a pan and sauteed some chopped onions. To that I added goat cheese, ricotta cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese. (I used more goat cheese than the rest because I really wanted that flavor to come through.) I suppose I could have added some blue cheese since I had that on hand but five is enough right? Anyway, I seasoned that with garlic powder and salt and let it melt along with some milk. Once it was nice and melty, I combined it with the spinach and stuffed the tomatoes with the mixture. I put that in the oven for about 15 minutes and that was it!

Pranqster Beer Cheese Soup

2010-06-03T02:57:00.012-04:00

Everyone loves beer cheese soup at restaurants, and it's super easy to make at home with your favorite beer. I was craving some of that tangy beer and cheese flavor and happened to have all the ingredients to create it at home. Well, my soup got eaten up so quickly that I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the final product. So you get a picture of when the cheese was being added :) Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:
1/3 cup minced onion
1/3 cup minced celery
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp butter
1 and 1/2 cups evaporated milk
1/2 cup regular milk
12 ounces beer
1/2 cube chicken stock
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup flour
pinch of cayenne pepper
salt to taste

Melt the butter in a pot. Add the onion, celery, and garlic and cook until tender. Add the flour and half a cup of the evaporated milk, stirring until it starts to thicken. Add half the beer, the rest of the milk, and the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the cheese slowly, stirring as it melts. Add the rest of the beer and season with cayenne pepper and salt.

Ten Fidy Ice Cream

2010-05-21T16:35:00.005-04:00

So I've decided to make ice cream with different beers on a regular basis. Ten Fidy ice cream. Pretty good and not bad with some chocolate fudge. The only thing I did different with this recipe and the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie ice cream was that I used half the amount of beer. If you have any suggestions for a beer I should make ice cream out of, let me know ;)
P.S. The picture sucks because there was only enough for one scoop of ice cream since I brought most of it to social beer night at the Coffee District to share with friends :)

Chocolate Mousse with Floris Framboise

2010-05-18T20:53:00.018-04:00

Chocolate mousse and beer are a great match. I made this once and paired it with Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout and it was amazing. This time around I decided to use a beer in the actual recipe. And since chocolate and raspberries are perfect together, I went with a framboise. I decided to try Floris instead of Lindemans since I've never had it before and wanted to try something different. I also didn't know how the recipe would turn out, so I went with something a little less expensive. It ended up working very well. The raspberry is subtle in the mousse but you can definitely taste it. It's also great if you pair it with the beer.

Okay, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 12 ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 eggs
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp ground coffee
2 tbsp framboise

Directions:
Separate egg yolks and whites. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Melt chocolate chips in microwave, stopping every 30 seconds to mix it. Combine the yolks with the sugar and mix into the melted chocolate. Add framboise and coffee to the chocolate mixture. Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites. Pour into glasses and put them in the fridge for an hour. The end.

French Toast with Strawberry Syrup / Okocim Porter

2010-05-12T15:10:00.009-04:00

I made french toast for my mommy on mother's day. It was really yummy so I decided to make some again the next day and try it with a beer. Who needs coffee with breakfast when you can have beer? Baltic porters are said to go well with many desserts and sweets. I think it works especially well with the strawberries. The roasted malt and coffee flavors cut through the sweetness and tartness of the syrup. And the chocolate flavors are delicious with the strawberries as well as the bread. The carbonation also helps to cut through the flavors and not make it all one big sweet mess. The sweetness of the beer and of the french toast complement each other nicely instead of competing or overpowering one another.

French Toast:
1 cup milk or half and half
3 eggs
pinch of cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp honey
8 slices of white bread
pinch of salt
butter
powdered sugar

Syrup:
1 cup of frozen or fresh strawberries
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp honey

Whisk together all the ingredients for the french toast in a bowl except the butter and powdered sugar. Dip each slice of bread into the mixture, making sure both sides are soaked through. Melt some butter on a pan and toast each slice until golden brown on both sides. Dust each serving with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

For the syrup, combine all ingredients in a blender. Pour into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for about 10 minutes.

Serve with a Baltic porter, or try it with a stout! :)

Spinach Dip

2010-05-11T15:45:00.004-04:00

I made this the other night. No beer used but I figured I'd share it anyway. You could always bring it to a tasting ;)

Ingredients:
1 package frozen spinach
1 can water chestnuts
2 tbsp sour cream
3 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp cream cheese
1/4 cup milk or half and half
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
salt to taste

Put the spinach in a pot with water and bring to a boil. Cook until no longer frozen. Make sure to drain all the water out of the spinach. Finely chop the water chesnuts. Mix the spinach and chestnuts with the rest of the ingredients in an oven safe bowl. Add some extra cheese on top. Bake until cheese melts. :)

Stuffed Zucchini / Victory Prima Pils

2010-05-08T15:25:00.011-04:00

I think I make too many stuffed vegetables--Stuffed zucchini, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed peppers, stuffed tomatoes. It's just a really easy and fun thing to do. You make up a tasty mixture and then stuff and bake. You can't go wrong as long as it's stuff you like. So, usually when I've seen people make stuffed zucchini, they cut them lengthwise. I do it like this because they are bite-sized and I can arrange them on a plate with my other stuffed veggies.

I thought about pairing them with something malty to go with the ground beef but decided to go for something crisper and hoppier since the zucchini makes it a light and bright dish. I tried them with Lagunitas New Dogtown Pale Ale and with Victory Prima Pils. The pale ale was a bit too hoppy for it, but Prima Pils complemented it just right.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
3 zucchini
2 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4th cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg
olive oil
salt to taste

Cut the zucchini into 1 inch pieces. Scoop out the top of each cylinder to make it into a little bowl. Heat some oil on a pan and cook the onions and ground beef with some salt and pepper. Combine the ground beef with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Arrange the zucchini onto a baking sheet. Drizzle with some olive oil and salt. Stuff each one with the ground beef mixture. Add some extra mozzarella cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes until the zucchini is tender.

Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Southern Tier Raspberry Wheat Ale Vinaigrette

2010-04-30T12:05:00.004-04:00

Mmmmm goat cheese <3 .. So last summer I went to a Dogfish Head beer dinner and one of my favorite courses was the appetizer. They had a goat cheese salad with peaches and a raspberry vinaigrette and paired it with Festina Peche. The warm goat cheese with the peach and the sour beer. So good. I love goat cheese with fruits so when I saw the cheese and the raspberry ale in my fridge, I decided to use the beer as the fruit in my salad. I heated the beer in a pot with some sugar and honey to get a more concentrated flavor of raspberry. Then I mixed in some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Breaded and cooked the goat cheese. Threw in some toasted walnuts. Delicious.

Ingredients:
1 cup beer
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp honey
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
salt

goat cheese
flour
butter
bread crumbs
1 egg
romaine lettuce (it's what i had on hand.. use different greens if you'd like)
walnuts
dried cranberries

Cut the goat cheese into slices. Press into the shape you want. Beat the egg with a little water. Coat the goat cheese in the flour, then the egg wash, and then the bread crumbs. Place them in the refrigerator while you make the vinaigrette. For the vinaigrette, bring the beer, sugar, and honey to a boil in a pot. Turn the heat to medium and cook for about 5 minutes. Pour into a bowl and mix in the oil, vinegar, and salt. Heat some butter on a pan and cook the goat cheese on both sides until browned. Toast some walnuts on the pan. Now just put all the ingredients together on your salad.

Arroz Con Pollo with Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel

2010-04-28T03:07:00.010-04:00

Arroz con Pollo is an example of a dish that is traditionally made with beer as an ingredient. Usually people will just use whatever macro beer they find, so I decided to do my take on it and use Weihenstephaner Dunkelweisse. I figured a tasty spicy wheat beer with some malts might work well. Beer is an important component to this dish and this one definitely enhances the flavors. It also added a certain nuttiness to the final product.

There are many different versions of arroz con pollo. I did a Peruvian style of the dish so I used aji amarillo paste again, which is used in a lot Peruvian dishes. So if you're curious to try it in your cooking, this is what it looks like. You can find it at Latin food markets.

Ingredients:
2 cups rice
2 cups water
2 cups beer
3/4 cup red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup peas
2 tsp aji amarillo paste
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4th cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cube chicken stock
1.5 pound of chicken (i used thighs but you can use whatever you prefer)
yellow coloring powder (optional)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
vegetable oil

Heat some oil in a large pot. Cook the chicken in the oil on both sides until almost cooked through. Take the chicken out of the pot. In the same oil, saute the onion, pepper, cilantro, and minced garlic. Add 1 cup of beer. Add the peas and the aji amarillo. Add the water, 2nd cup of beer, and chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Add in the 2 cups of rice and chicken and let cook on low for 20 minutes. I shredded the chicken at the end so that the number of servings would not be predetermined but you can leave the chicken pieces whole.

Salmon Spread with Sourdough Bread / Hennepin

2010-04-27T10:59:00.012-04:00

Here is a nice pairing for the summer. Light flaky delicious salmon, a refreshing fruity and spicy beer, and sourdough bread which complements the beer's tart flavors. Very pleasant :)

Ingredients:
1/2 lb salmon
1 tbsp capers
1/3rd cup chopped red onion
1/3rd cup chopped tomato
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp olive oil
sourdough bread
salt and pepper to taste

Season salmon with some salt and pepper and wrap it in aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes per inch of thickness, until it is opaque. Once the fish is finished cooking, use a fork to flake it apart into a bowl. Mix in the rest of the ingredients, and serve with some toasted bread.

Cigar City Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale Ice Cream

2010-04-16T12:50:00.008-04:00

I went to Cigar City in Tampa last weekend with some friends. My boyfriend and I brought back a few beers from the trip, including a growler of their Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale. With a taste that is just as the name suggests, I felt like I had to make a dessert with it. I considered cookies but decided ice cream would be a great way to show the flavor. This is an easy way to make ice cream and you don't need an ice cream maker. It turned out very yummy and the beer's flavors come out strong in the final product.

Ingredients:

1 can evaporated milk

1 can condensed milk
1 tsp flavorless gelatin powder
1 cup ORC or whatever beer you are trying to make ice cream with

1 tsp cinammon

Place the evaporated milk in the freezer a few hours before starting. Once it's frozen through, use a mixer and beat on high until it triples in volume. Add the condensed milk as you keep mixing. Dissolve the gelatin in a little bit of hot water, just enough to dissolve it. Add the gelatin, beer and cinammon to the mixer. Pour into tupperware and put back in the freezer overnight. Easy peasy! =]

Brooklyn Brown Ale Chicken and Mashed Potatoes

2010-04-03T16:21:00.000-04:00

As I opened the bottle of Brooklyn Brown Ale and smelled it, all I could think was that this is an ingredient. I don't know how it couldn't be. People that aren't using beer as an ingredient are missing out. Brown ales are a great choice for cooking. I decided to make chicken baked with the brown ale, brown sugar, honey, and some vegetables. The nutty, roasty malt flavors from the beer work perfectly in this recipe.

Ingredients:

6 chicken thighs
1 Brookyln Brown Ale (12 ounces) or brown ale of your choice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 red onion
2 plum tomatoes
salt
pepper
rosemary
garlic powder

Mashed Potatoes:
5 potatoes
4 tbsp butter
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup regular milk
salt to taste
1/8 tsp garlic powder

Season the chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and rosemary. Arrange the chicken onto a baking pan. Add the honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, and beer, rubbing everything onto the chicken. Reserve some of the beer to add about 45 minutes into cooking it. Chop the onion and tomatoes into a big chunks and add them into the pan. Cook at 370 degrees for an hour.
For the mashed potatoes, make holes into each potato with a knife. Microwave the potatoes on each side for 5 minutes. Peel the potatoes and mash them up in a large bowl. Mix in the butter, milk, salt, and garlic. Mmm so good ^.^

Crab Cakes / Victory's HopDevil

2010-03-31T14:52:00.000-04:00

Crab cakes and IPAs are a great combination. As I said in my last post, IPAs and spicy foods pair well because the hops in the beer can stand up to the spiciness of the dish. And the citrusy hops also work well with seafood. My crab cakes are made with curry powder, which is perfect for hoppy beers. I also tried them with Raging Bitch from Flying Dog and both that and the HopDevil worked pretty well. I've made them with Stone IPA before and that was a perfect combination too, so test out your favorite IPA. You can use canned crab meat or even imitation crab if you want; they will still taste good. Oh and a salad with avocado is a good choice because we realized the beer really enhances the avocado flavor.

Ingredients:
1 pound crab meat
1/2 cup minced celery
1/3 cup minced red bell pepper
1/3 cup minced red onion
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp mayonaisse
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tsp curry powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Saute the celery, garlic, red bell pepper, and onion over medium heat. Once that is cooked combine them with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Form into patties and coat each one with bread crumbs. Fry the patties in vegetable oil on medium heat.

For my sauce I used sour cream, mayo, capers, lemon juice, cilantro, pepper, and basil but I use a different one every time so make whatever you like.

Ceviche / Bell's Two Hearted

2010-03-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

My mom made ceviche for lunch today! If you don't know what that is, it's a dish where the fish is basically cooked by lemon or lime juice and salt. This is a typical Peruvian dish, where I happen to be from. So I decided to try it with the last IPA in my fridge: Bell's Two Hearted. In Peru, ceviche is actually traditionally accompanied by beer. I read an article where someone was complaining about how drinking wine with ceviche is blasphemy because it completely overpowers the flavor of the wine, so you might as well just use a beer with it since beer isn't that great anyway ...Don't get me started. Anyway this highlights exactly why beer is so good to pair with foods. There are so many different styles, you're guaranteed to have something that will go well with your meal. And your IPAs will not lose their flavor if paired with a strong dish ;) Well my mom agreed that the Two Hearted tasted great with it. Plus it has a fish on the label so hey. If you want to make this you need to get aji amarillo (Peruvian hot yellow pepper) paste, which you can find at a Latin market. No replacement for that.

Okay well here is the recipe for Peruvian Ceviche:

1 and a 1/2 pounds Tilapia cut into small pieces
The juice of 8 limes
1 tsp aji amarillo paste
salt
pepper
garlic powder
cilantro
1/3 red onion

Cut the fish into small bite sized pieces. Place the fish, lime juice, and aji amarillo in a bowl. Cover with salt. Add some pepper, garlic powder, and cilantro. Cover with sliced red onion. Leave in the refrigerator for at least an hour to allow it to cook through. Serve with sweet potato and corn.

Stuffed Mushrooms/ Ayinger Celebrator

2010-03-28T03:48:00.001-04:00

Yayy, stuffed mushrooms! This is pretty much my go to recipe to bring to parties or barbecues. They are really easy to make, always good, and I usually have most of the ingredients lying around. I remember this was the first recipe I made up. I had always loved food but for some reason I never really cooked much. One day I was craving stuffed mushrooms and couldn't go anywhere so I just decided to make them myself. I found some white mushrooms in the fridge and came up with this recipe. I was very pleasantly surprised with how good they turned out using just what I had in the house. That's when I realized how easy cooking is and that you can really make anything you want ^.^

So no beer in this recipe, just a pairing. About a year ago, a few of us decided to make our own beer dinner. A friend and I were in charge of making the five courses while Brian was in charge of beer selection. Since I loved this recipe so much, I used it as my appetizer. Brian got the idea to use this beer from Garrett Oliver's book, The Brewmaster's Table. In the book he mentions mushrooms going well with Ayinger Celebrator. We tried it out and they really complemented each other. The dark and sweet malts from the dopplebock go wonderfully with the earthiness of the mushrooms. So this weekend I decided to redo the pairing :)

And I finally took the time to measure the ingredients since I always just did it by taste so here you go:

24 medium size white mushrooms
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese and some for topping
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp parmesan cheese

Take the stems out of the mushrooms and set them aside. Chop the onion and mushroom stems using a food processor. Combine the stems, onions, and the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Fill the mushroom caps with stuffing and place on a baking sheet drizzled with olive oil. Top each mushroom with grated mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

La Fin Du Monde Crab Chowder

2010-03-24T15:09:00.000-04:00

Okie dokie, well beer in soup is just awesome. We've all had beer cheese soup (and if you haven't, you should). It gives it this unique yummy flavor. I made this with Duvel a while back because I had a few of them and wanted to try one for cooking. I guess it's the first thing I made with beer. I was searching for ideas of what Duvel would be good for and I came across the idea of a crab soup. This time I decided to try with La Fin Du Monde from Unibroue and it also turned out great. Belgian strong pale ales and tripels work well but you can experiment with anything you like (after all, that's half the fun). Taste it as you go along and change whatever you like. It's all about what feels and tastes right to you :D

Ingredients:
4 and 1/2 cups milk
1 cube chicken or fish bouillon
3 tbsp butter
2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 plum tomato

1 tsp minced garlic
2 cans of crab meat
1/4 tsp white pepper
6 ounces beer
2 tbsp flour

Chop the onion, garlic, celery, and tomato very finely. Start cooking them in a pot with some butter on medium heat until the onion becomes transparent. Add 4 cups of milk and the rest of the ingredients, except the flour. Dissolve the flour in half a cup of milk and add slowly to the hot pot stirring as you go. Keep cooking and stirring until it becomes a creamy consistency. Adjust anything to your taste. Tada! Enjoy!

Well, I think my next few posts might be about recipes to pair with beer. I'm thinking stuffed mushrooms will be next. Then maybe crabcakes, sweet potato gnocchi, or some kind of sandwich. We'll see :)

Oh and if you have any ideas for any dishes let me know and I'll see what I can come up with.

Schneider Aventinus Apple Pastry

2010-03-22T03:53:00.001-04:00

This is a puff pastry filled with apples that were cooked in Aventinus and brown sugar. I really like sweet with salty in my desserts so I added some blue cheese, which goes great with apples. I had made something like this with wine before and Brian suggested that Aventinus might work. The dark fruits from the beer really worked well with it and you could also drink one to pair with it. :)

Ingredients:
2 apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
12 ounces Schneider Aventinus
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
walnuts
crumbled blue cheese for topping
puff pastries
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg

Makes 6 pastries.
Peel the apples and cut them into chunks. Place the beer, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and apples in a pot and cook on high heat. Cook until the beer and sugar become syrupy. Cut the puff pastry into squares and place some of the apples in the middle of a square. Beat the egg with a little bit of water and brush it on the corners of the square. Place another square of puff pastry on top and seal the corners. Brush the top with some egg wash as well. Repeat this with the rest of the apples, reserving some of the syrup for the top. Place the pastries in a 400 degree oven for about 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Toast some walnuts on a pan with butter (or oil) and some cinnamon and salt. Add the crumbled blue cheese, walnuts, and syrup to the pastry. All done! :)

Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Shrimp and Scallops with Creamy Coconut Sauce and Papaya Salsa

2010-03-20T21:09:00.001-04:00

So I've decided to start posting recipes of things I cook with beer. Or foods I pair with beer. I usually just throw things in as I see fit so the amounts are estimates. I'll try to get better at actually recording things. I'm no professional chef but I don't think you need real training to make tasty food :)

Well, that's my disclaimer and here is my first recipe:

Ingredients:
1/2 pound bay scallops
1/2 pound peeled white shrimp
1 tbsp butter
shallots (or onion)
minced garlic
garlic powder
salt
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup Sierra Nevada Kellerweis (or hefeweizen of your choice)

Salsa:
1/2 papaya
1/2 mango
1/4 red bell pepper
1/4 of a red onion
cilantro
1 tbsp lime juice

Serves 2. Melt butter on a pan and add shallots and minced garlic. Saute shrimp and scallops for a few minutes and add coconut milk and beer, cooking until creamy. Season with garlic powder and salt.

For the salsa, chop the papaya, mango, red bell pepper, and onion. Combine with chopped cilantro and lemon juice. Serve with sour dough bread and a beer ^_^