Beer Styles

Bacon Beer Shrimp with Beer Cheese Grits

03.03.2016 2 Comments

Bacon Beer Shrimp with Beer Cheese Grits

Every few months I find myself here.

In a brewery, doing my best to learn how to turn what some see as an ugly industrial space with bad lighting into beautiful photos. Mostly, I’m a self-taught photographer. I took classes, read books, watched a decades worth of YouTube videos, sat in online workshops, and even joined an online photo mentorship group. But I always feel behind, always feel like I’m not quite there.

I’ve often wondered if I’ll ever be where I want, if "arriving" in a creative sense even exists. I’ve worried that I’ll never be able to give people the images I want to shoot. But I’ve never once thought about giving up. Not once.

It’s easy to get pulled into the undertow of comparison. It’s easy to see more clearly how far we have to go rather than the long road we’ve already traveled. In those moments I tell myself, "Keep your head down and keep going." It works. It moves me forward. I get closer all the time to the place I want to be.

At the end of the day, that’s all we have. We have the ability to move forward, to drive closer to the life we want and the people we want to be. Perfection is a dangerous myth that robs us of contentment. Let’s just be able to sit here, in the gratitude that we are moving forward.

Let’s take a few minutes each week, grab a beer, grab some food, and just be content. Harder than it sounds, but we can do. Even if we need a few beers first.

Bacon Beer Shrimp with Beer Cheese Grits

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

For the grits:

12 ounces wheat beer
2 cups water plus additional
1 cup yellow grits not instant
1 ½ cups grated sharp cheddar
2 tbs unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

For the shrimp:

4 strips thick cut bacon chopped
2 tbs unsalted butter
1 lbs raw shrimp peeled and deveined
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp chili powder
¼ cup wheat beer
2 tbs chopped chives

Instructions

In a large pot over medium heat add the beer and 2 cups of warm water. Bring to a simmer and slowly add the grits. Cook over a low simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick and tender. Add water ¼ cup at a time when the grits begin to dry out.
Once the grits are cooked stir in the cheddar, butter, cream, salt and pepper.
Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat (don’t turn the heat too high, medium heat will render more fat than high heat) until the bacon is crispy. Remove the bacon, set aside. Pour off all the bacon fat except about 1 tablespoon. Return pan to heat, melt the butter in the skillet.
Add the shrimp and spices, toss to coat. Pour in the beer, cooking until shrimp are cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Add the grits to serving bowls, top with shrimp, bacon and chives.

Coconut Pale Ale Curry Cod

26.02.2016 9 Comments

This, in one form or another, is my go-to dinner. It’s a pantry recipe and one of the main reasons I always have coconut milk on hand. I’ve made it with every imaginable protein, and even mushrooms when I’m the mood to only consume plants. I’ve replaced the chard with spinach, arugula, basil and even cilantro and it holds up. It’s reliable and filling. It’s a way to make dinner when I don’t have the energy to think. I can double the shallots or the curry paste and it still gives me what I want. I can add tomatoes or jalapeños and I still love it. I can make a triple batch and have it for next three days and It’s still a favorite.

Sometimes, in the midst of trying to give you a recipe that will be clink-inducing-share-worthy I forget that you also need the solid standby recipes that won’t let you down. The culinary equivalent of the faded Levis that you’ve been wearing since high school and that friend that always drives you to the airport even if it’s 5 am. So here it is, my faded-Levis-airport-guy recipe.

I hope you love it as much as I do.

Coconut Pale Ale Curry Cod

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Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

1 tbs olive oil
1 shallot chopped (1/4 cup)
2 cloves garlic minced
3/4 cup pale ale
1 15 wt oz can coconut milk (full fat)
1 tsp red curry paste
1 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 Thai green chile chopped (optional)
1 to 2 lbs black cod cut into 4 fillets
1 cups Swiss chard rough chopped
rice for serving

Instructions

In a large, deep skillet with a lid heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the shallots,
cooking until softened and slightly browned, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds, stir in the beer.
Add coconut milk, curry paste, fish sauce, salt, pepper, and chile (if using) simmer until slightly reduced, about 10 minutes.
Add the Cod fillets into the pan, reduce heat to low, cover tightly with a lid and simmer until
cooked through and fish flakes easily with a fork, about 10 minutes. Stir in the chard until wilted, about 1 minute.
Serve in bowls over rice.

Simple Make Ahead Chocolate Stout Pot de Crème

25.02.2016 4 Comments

Simple Make Ahead Chocolate Stout Pot de Crème

It’s seems small, just a forgotten "5" that didn’t survive the mobile cut-and-paste before I hastily searched the subway app for the route to take me uptown. The minor detail landed me on the wrong train and 10 blocks from my destination, in heels, and a darkened city.

I’m early, of course, a chronic condition for me, so I decide to walk. Through the rush hour of New Yorkers leaving their jobs, rushing home, insular behind their glassy eyes and resolve to ignore everyone else on the street. Past the bodegas, questionably-obtained-handbag stores, Chinese restaurants with glowing neon OPEN signs, and even through the bowels of the loading docks of the NYC USPS. I walk, enjoying the night that’s warmer than a February should allow. This is my favorite activity. Strange as it is, wandering a City alone is to me what going to the movies is to normal people. It’s fascinating, beautiful, dirty, and euphoric. It calms me and reminds me that there is so much life in the world, so much left to be seen and discovered. And for one walk, no matter how short, I get to see a glimpse. Small and simple, just a walk that wasn’t supposed to happen, reminds me of how perfect small and simple can be. Like a half pint of chocolate, and a small scoop of whipped cream, it can be perfect and last only a handful of minutes.

Simple Make Ahead Chocolate Stout Pot de Crème

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Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

For the Pot De Crème

5 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups heavy cream
2/3 cup stout beer*
5 wt oz dark chocolate chopped

For the Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325.
In a medium sized bowl whisk together the yolks, sugar, and salt. Set aside
Stir together the cream and beer in a sauce pan over medium high heat. Heat until warmed and bubbles just start to form around the edges (do not boil or simmer), remove from heat.
Add the chocolate, stir until chocolate has melted and is well combined.
While whisking the yolks continually slowly add the chocolate until completely combined.
Add small (6 ounce) ramekins to a baking pan, divide the mixture evenly between the ramekins.
Slowly pour warm water in the baking pan around the ramekins until about half way up the sides. Cover the baking pan with aluminum foil. Gently transfer to the oven.
Bake until the chocolate has set but the center is still slightly wobbly, about 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven, carefully remove from water bath and allow to cool to room temperature before transferring to the refrigerator. Chill until set, at least 3 hours and up to 3 days.
Just prior to serving, make the whipped cream. Add all the whipped cream ingredients to a bowl. Using a hand mixer to beat until soft peaks form. Top each Pot De Crème with whipped cream.

Notes

A barrel age stout will give you a stronger beer flavor, a mild stout like an oatmeal or milk stout will give you a milder flavor.

Buttermilk and Beer Beignets

19.02.2016 9 Comments

Buttermilk and Beer Beignets

I have this detrimental habit of undercutting my price, or doing work for free, in exchange for a plane ticket and a hotel reservation. Last year I nearly committed to writing an entire menu just for the opportunity to go to Uganda for the weekend. The timing ended up being too last minute and (fortunately or unfortunately, I can’t decide which) I had to back out.

I also have a habit of obsessively bookmarking restaurants across the world if they sound interesting, just in case I’m ever in that area and looking for a place to eat. Most of which will go unvisited, but the few times I’ve found myself within walking distance of bookmarked business, I’m more thrilled than is appropriate.

The majority of my pre-trip plans include figuring out where I want to eat once I get there. Last year in Panama it was ceviche in the fish market. In Bogota it was Abasto. When I finally make it to New Orleans it’ll be beignets at Cafe Du Monde.

This recipe is the closest I’ve come to the real thing. Light, airy, slightly chewy and completely addictive. The beer gives it a beautiful lightness that I haven’t found in the classic recipes that call for evaporated milk.

These were so good, in fact, that they now replaced my beer doughnut holes as my go-to recipe for bring-a-dish gatherings.

Buttermilk and Beer Beignets

Yield: 20-24 Beignets

5 from 2 votes

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Ingredients

1 envelop 2 ¼ tsp/7g rapid rise yeast
¼ cup 54g sugar
4 cups 480g bread flour
½ tsp 2g baking soda
¾ cup 180g wheat beer
1 ½ cups 360 g buttermilk
½ tsp 3g salt
oil for frying canola, peanut, or grapeseed oil
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer stir together the yeast, sugar, bread flour, and baking soda.
In a microwave-safe bowl combine the beer and butter. Heat until the mixture reaches between 120-130F on a cooking thermometer (mixture may curdle, this is normal).
Add the liquid to the dry ingredients, mix on medium speed until all the flour has been moistened.
Add the salt, turn the mixer on high and beat until the dough forms a soft sticky ball that gathers around the blade, about 8 minutes.
The dough will be very soft and loose, but if it’s too loose to hold together add a few pinches of flour.
Transfer to a large, lightly oiled bowl. Loosely cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Allow to rise in a warm room until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Add dough to a well-floured surface, dust with flour. Pat into a large rectangle about ½ inch thick. Avoid using a rolling pin in order to preserve the air bubbles in the dough.
Add 3 to 4 inches of oil to a pot over medium-high heat. Clip a cooking thermometer onto the side making sure the tip doesn’t hit the bottom of the pot. Heat oil to 350F to 375F, adjust heat to stay in that temperate range.
Using a bench knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into 2-inch squares. A few at a time (don’t crowd the pot) fry the beignets on both sides until golden brown and cooked through, about 2 minutes.
Remove and allow to drain on a stack of paper towels or a wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving.

Adapted from Epicurious

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken + A Case for Proper Glassware

17.02.2016 12 Comments

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken

I’m in a back room of a brewery a few minutes after delivering the keynote address at a beer conference and I settle in to listen to a presentation about glassware. I’m bracing for the typical arguments, still vaguely uncertain that a "proper" glass has anything more than a minimal impact on my experience. Is it possible that it’s a placebo effect? The visual excitement of the glass convinces me that it does, in fact, taste better?

I’m given a Spiegelau stout glass, filled with, well, a stout. I’m also given a shaker pint, filled also with a stout. "Taste the shaker pint," we’re all instructed and we comply. It’s good. It’s a great stout and I like it. "Now, taste the beer in the stout glass." It’s bigger. The flavors are more pronounced and the carbonation is more even, it has a better head that has survived the trip from the tap-room far better than the first beer. These aren’t the same beer, I can tell. The second is a much better beer with bolder flavors. Then comes the bombshell that has firmly convinced me that glassware matters as much as beer storage, "It’s the same beer. It’s a Shakespeare Stout, you can try the experiment again in the tap-room if you don’t believe me." He’s right. It’s such a pronounced difference that it tastes like a different beer.

Proper glassware has a few key impacts on that brew you love so much. First, it protects the carbonation helping it to survive longer, it does the same with the head. The head of a beer acts like a net for oils, fermentation byproducts, yeast and other aroma producing compounds altering the experience you have when you drink it. This is a key reason that flat beer tastes different: there has been a lot that has left the beer. A proper glass helps hold the aroma producing compounds in the glass where your nose will be able to partake, which has an impact on the perception of taste.

Think about it: have you ever drank wine from a coffee mug? Would you? Try this experiment yourself, even if you don’t have proper glassware. Pour half of a stout into a regular glass or mug, pour the other half into a large bowl wine glass or a whiskey snifter. Try them side by side and they will taste different. This doesn’t mean that you need to invest in hundreds of special glasses for each beer you might want, just have a few at your disposal for when you want to open a bomber of the good stuff. If I could only have one beer glass it would be a tulip pint. Start there, spend some time drinking out of a glass that helps your beer stay at it’s best and expand your collection.

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken

Print Recipe

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

6 chicken thighs bone in skin on
salt and pepper
3 tbs all purpose flour
4 oz salt pork or thick bacon chopped
2 tbs chopped fresh thyme
½ lbs mushrooms chopped (crimini and white button)
1 white onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 ribs celery chopped
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp kosher or sea salt
2 tbs tomato paste
12 ounces stout beer
1 cup chicken stock or low sodium chicken broth

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 (unless preparing in advance).
Sprinkle the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then with flour. Rub the flour in until well coated. Set aside and allow to rest while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Add the salt pork or bacon to a large skillet over medium heat (medium heat will render more fat than high heat). Cook, stirring frequently until most of the fat has rendered and the pork is crispy, 8 to 10 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and add to the bottom of a large Dutch oven.
Place the chicken in the skillet, skin side down, allowing to cook until the skin has browned and most of the fat has rendered, about 8 minutes. Turn over, cook until just browned. Transfer the chicken to the Dutch oven.
Add the mushrooms and the thyme to the skillet, cooking until the mushrooms have turned a darker browned and softened, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer the mushrooms to the Dutch oven.
Add the onion, carrots, celery, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper, cooking until all the vegetables have softened and started to brown, about 6 minutes.
Add the beer to the pan, scraping to deglaze the bottom. Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste, then sprinkle with flour, whisking until sauce has thickened.
Add a strainer over the Dutch oven, pour the sauce into the strainer, straining out the onions, carrots and celery. Pour the chicken broth into the strainer to make the process easier. Using a spoon, press the vegetables to make sure all the sauce and broth gets into the Dutch oven. Discard the vegetables.
If possible, cover and refrigerate for up to three days. This is will give you a deeper, richer flavor but the dish is ready to cook immediate.
When ready to cook,cover and transfer to a 325F oven, baking until the chicken is cooked through, about 30-45 minutes (if the chicken is cold from the refrigerator, the baking will take longer).
Remove the chicken from the pot and add the pot to a burner over high heat, simmer until thickened. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Place the chicken back into the pot.
Serve hot over rice or noodles.

Stout Steak with Sriracha Beer Butter For Two

11.02.2016 7 Comments

Stout Steak with Sriracha Beer Butter For Two

I’m not going to tell you what to do.

If I did, and you listened to me, you’d end up with a really weird life. Chances are you don’t want to teach anger management to gang members or almost die in Morocco so it’s a good thing I don’t make your decisions for you. But if I did, I’d tell you that if you insist on celebrating mid-February-obligatory-fifty-shades-of-eff-off-red-velvet-forced-romance my advice is to stay home. Going out is for suckers. Romance doesn’t swirl around a crowded entryway to an overpriced restaurant. Stay in, draw the shades, pull out the biggest barrel aged stout you can find, wear your sexiest shoes, take your time with the night. Don’t be rushed out of a restaurant so the server can turn a table. Don’t worry about traffic and reservations. Stay in.

I used Rogue Ales Sriracha Stout for this. One bottle will be enough to: sample one of the most talked about beers in last few years, marinate a steak, and make some compound butter. This beer is divisive. You’ll either love it or hate it, but either way, it’ll give you something to talk about and a nice slow burn in your mouth. Sounds like a good Valentines Day to me.

Stout Steak with Sriracha Beer Butter For Two

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Butter:

8 tbs 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 tbs stout
1 tsp sriracha
½ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp salt

For the Steak

1 ½ cups stout
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
10-12 ounces Prime of Choice cut New York Strip steak two pieces or one
1 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the Asparagus:

1 tbs olive oil
½ lbs asparagus
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper

Instructions

Add the softened butter, stout, sriracha, garlic powder and salt to a food processor, process until smooth and well combined (about 5 minutes).
Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface, scoop the butter in a long line onto the plastic wrap. Fold the plastic warp over the butter and form into a tight log. Tightly wrap the log with the plastic wrap. Refrigerate until set, about thirty minutes (can be made several days in advance).
Stir together the stout, onion powder, salt and Worcestershire sauce, add to a shallow bowl, baking dish, loaf pan or Ziploc bog. Add the steak, cover and refrigerate for 6 hours and up to 12.
30 minutes prior to cooking remove the steak from marinade, pat dry. Allow to sit at room temperate for the remainder of the 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet or other oven safe skillet. Sprinkle the steak liberally with salt and pepper on both sides.
Once the oil is hot but not quite smoking add the steak, cook for two minutes. Flip and cook on the other side for two minutes. Transfer pan to the oven and cook for 5 minutes for medium rare (for a 1 ½ inch thick steak). Transfer to a cutting board, allow to rest for five minutes.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the asparagus, Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until just starting to soften, rolling the asparagus back and forth in the pan, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat before the asparagus is limp, keeping the firmness and bite.
Divide the asparagus between two plates, top with steak, top each steak with a pat of butter.

Drunk Pasta Carbonara with Pomegranates

05.02.2016 3 Comments

Drunk Pasta Carbonara

In the guts of Sam Adams I sat in the back of a room filled with beer people. Julia Herz stood at the front, addressing the crowd of beer writers, just thirty minutes before the bottles of Utopias were to be popped by Jim Koch, and we could think of little else. "Raise your hand if you drink beer," Julia said with the perfect touch of sarcasm. Every hand was enthusiastically raised as a small giggle spread across the room. "Keep ’em up. Raise the other hand if you also drink wine." Nearly every hand raised. "Good, me too. Now cross your arms over if you also, at least occasionally, drink liquor." I look towards her as a sea of beer drinking limbs form X’s in front of me.

We drink beer. We drink wine. We drink liquor. Of course we do.

Outsiders always draw parallels between beer and wine, assuming a rivalry that has yet to be realized. Wine is wine, beer is beer. Both are consumable alcoholic beverages, both take skill, dedication, fermentation, and yeast to produce, but for us, there isn’t a conflict. Do you ask Italian chefs if they eat Japanese food? Do you ask if there is a threat to pasta because of sushi? Of course not.

Cooking with wine is a long-respected practice and beer is just starting to enter into the scene in a legitimate way. Wine and food pairings seem natural, while there still seems to be a need to explain the importance and value of pairing beer and food. Beer has a spectrum of flavors that wine can’t even imagine, the application for cooking with beer far exceed those for wine, and reminding the masses that craft beer is not at all the same substance as that stuff they beer ponged with in college is a fight still being won.

We know the value of beer, and we see where we need to go, but beer is in no way "the new wine." As we expand the knowledge base for craft beer, showcase the flavors and ingredients being presented, we created a bigger space for it rather than devour the space that wine is already in. We won’t stop drinking wine, we don’t need to. There is space at the table for well-made beverages of all sorts, we’re just looking to join the party on an equal footing and we’re getting there.

Just a few months ago Beer Pairing: The Essential Guide To Pairing From The Pros by Julia Herz and Gwen Conley was released. Essential is the right word to describe it, it’s a book that clearly illustrates the value and possibilities that exist when it comes to the relationship between beer and food. It’s a manifesto on the celebration of the flavors of beer, the importance of glassware and how to bring beer and food to it’s full potential. I took the majority of the photos in the book, with the exception of a few portrait shots, and was able to experience first hand the staggering knowledge these two women possess as well as the full impact of well-paired food and beer. It’s a book that I’ve reached for in the past few months more so than any other beer resource I own. I highly recommend it.

Drunk Pasta Carbonara with Pomegranates

Print Recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Total Time 20

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

12 oz wheat beer*
1 ½ cups chicken broth
12 wt oz linguini
4 wt oz diced pancetta
3 egg yolks
3 wt oz shaved parmesan
½ tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 cup baby arugula leaves
½ cup pomegranate seeds

Instructions

Add the beer and broth to a pot over medium high heat, bring to a simmer. Add the pasta and cook until just before al dente. Drain pasta, reserving about ¼ cup cooking liquid, add noodles to a serving bowl.
In a pan over medium high heat add the pancetta, cooking until crispy.
In a mixing bowl whisk together the egg yolks, parmesan, salt pepper and the reserved cooking liquid, pour mixture over the pasta, toss to coat. Sprinkle with pancetta, arugula and pomegranate seeds.

Notes

*For a more assertive beer flavor, replace the chicken broth with beer. Be careful to use a low IBU beer or the end flavor will be overly bitter and intense.

I do not make any money from the sales of Beer Pairings, I was not compensated in any way for this post. All opinions are my own.

Pale Ale Crumb Cake + Loving Craft Beer People

03.02.2016 16 Comments

Pale Ale Crumb Cake

Walking in the bay doors, they all seem to look the same. There are always the mingling smells of hops, malt and fickle high-maintenance yeast hard at work. There’s a brewer in rubber boots nearby, working out a problem behind a furrowed brow. There is inevitably a tank being cleaned, water from a thick hose being sprayer to cleanse the vessel to ready it for the next batch.

Music played from unseen speakers. Drums and bass melting into the sounds of the equipment, mostly being ignored. I’m always greeted warmly, always welcomed in and offered a beer. In the past year most of my visits to breweries have been to write a story, or take photos. You can make the argument that there are more beautiful subjects than fermenters and bright tanks. You can tell me how shitty the yellow fluorescent light is in a brewery. You could, but I’d tell you how much I want to show you the beauty in what is there.

Have you seen fresh hops right from the bine? Have you seen the look on a brewers face when sampling wort? Have you seen how gorgeous the color of beer can be? Maybe I’m starry-eyed over the craft beer community, maybe I focus more on what’s right than what’s wrong, but I won’t stop. Maybe it was the years of teaching anger management to gang members in South Central Los Angeles but I’ve learned that people tend to repeat the behavior you focus on. Let the others tear down people, behaviors, and semantics, I’m here as much for the people as I am for the beer. Of course there are changes that can and need to be made, we are, after all, a bunch of humans who drink too much. But let’s do it together. And let’s talk more about what we’re doing right. Because, craft beer, I love you. Flaws and all.

Have some cake, drink a beer, and let’s talk this out. I won’t stop loving craft beer, and I won’t stop focusing on how much I love the people here and what they are doing right.

Pale Ale Crumb Cake

Print Recipe

Servings 9 squares

Ingredients

For the Crumb Topping:

1/3 cup 73g sugar
1/3 cup 73g brown sugar
1 tsp 3g ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp 3g salt
8 tbs 113g unsalted butter melted
1 ½ 180g cups flour
2 tbs 20g cornstarch

For the Cake:

1 cups 120g all purpose flour
2 tbs 20g cornstarch
½ cup 117g sugar
½ tsp 2g baking soda
½ 3g teaspoon table salt
6 tbs 83g unsalted butter, cut in cubes, softened
1 large egg plus 1 yolk
1/3 74g cup pale ale
2 tbs 26g olive oil
1 tsp 4g vanilla extract
powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

In a small bowl stir together the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and butter. Add the flour and cornstarch, stir to make a soft dough, set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking soda and salt. While the mixer is running add the butter mixing until the butter is cut in and the mixture resembles coarse meal with no uncombined lumps of butter.
Add the eggs, yolk, beer, olive oil and vanilla, beat until light and fluffy and well combined.
Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper with the paper hanging over the sides. Pour batter into prepared pan in an even layer.
Crumble the topping and gently sprinkle it over the batter in an even layer. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool for ten minutes, remove from pan using the parchment overhang. Cut into squares, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean and Beer Chicken Soup

29.01.2016 8 Comments

Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean and Beer Chicken Soup

"You’re not reactionary, you’re rebellious but intentional. You think before you jump off the bridge."

Someone I know well said this to me once. I was the kid your parents warned you about, the one who jumps off the bridge and your parents ask if you’re going to follow me into the cold waters of Lake Washington. "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" My mom never asked me that questions because she knew I was always the first to jump. But the fact is, I only jump if I know with reasonable certainty that it’s safe. When I was homeless in Hollywood at 19, I had a cell phone, a savings account, and a craigslist ad to house sit for free, as long as it was a nice neighborhood.

When I decided to quit my job as a social worker to pursue my dream of being a writer and photographer, I first spent a year doing both. 80 hours a week doing both my day job and my dream job. Then a year part-time at my day job (which, to be fair I still loved), and full-time hustling to work in writing. I jumped, and it seemed brave, but I had a backup plan.

Maybe it comes from a non-traditional upbringing that required several backup plans, but I’m not afraid to jump. I just need to know what my options are. I can be stranded in a coastal Spanish town at 3 am, or lost in the center of a Moroccan city, my mind will start to formulate a plan, "You’ll be fine, you can figure this out," will be my first thought. I’ve jumped before and it hasn’t gone well. I’ve lost, I’ve failed, I’ve done things I shouldn’t have. But I more regret the things I didn’t do than the things I did.

You’ll never hit the ball if you don’t swing the bat. So, as this year hurdles forward, that’s what you should do. Swing the bat. Jump off the bridge. Maybe you need a backup plan for failure first, but you can do it. It’s better to fail at doing what you want than succeed at doing what you don’t. Grab a beer, make a plan, and swing the bat. Best thing I ever did.

Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean and Beer Chicken Soup

Print Recipe

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

16 ounces dried Great Northern beans
6 cups chicken broth
12 ounces pale ale
2 carrots diced
2 stalks celery diced
½ cup diced white onion
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbs tomato paste
3 cups Tuscan kale Lacinato kale, sliced into ribbons

Instructions

Add the beans, broth, beer, carrots, celery, onion, chicken, salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, and oregano to a slow cooker, stir to combine.
Cook on low for 8 hours.
Remove the large pieces of chicken, shread with two forks, return to slow cooker.
Add the tomato paste to a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of very hot water, stir to combine. Add to the slow cooker, stir to combine.
Stir in the kale, allow to cook for about ten more minutes on low. Ladle into bowls.

Porter Caramelized Onion and Brie Dip

27.01.2016 14 Comments

Porter Caramelized Onion and Brie Dip

I have what people now refer to as a "creative brain" and what used to just be called "a behavior problem." It’s done well over the years to lead me down some fascinating rabbit holes and land me in a job that makes me more grateful than I have words for. But there is a downside that’s a bit obscure.

Creative brains weave creative dreams. Actual, at night, in bed, dreams that shake me up and stay with me through the day, and sometimes even years later. The other night I woke up in a cold sweat, terrified after my brain decided to concoct this story in the early morning hours:

I’m in Pakistan as a documentary film maker. I’m following a group of men and women who—during the week—have typical jobs, work in offices, go home to their families. But on the weekend they leave the comforts of home to fight as a small militia to bring down ISIS. I’ve decided to call the film Weekend Warriors.

The first week of filming I meet an old man, short and wide, with white eyebrows and chocolate brown eyes that remind me of my Mom’s golden retriever. He’s sweet, quiet and always wears the same tan buttoned down shirt. He’s asking me to help him find his 22-year-old daughter. She’s been captured by ISIS and is being used to smuggle documents back into the country.

They’ve sewn a plastic bag full of papers into her belly like a drug mule. "If they find her first, they will cut her open like cattle, take the papers and leave her for dead. You must find her first." My pulse starts to race, I know I need to help. I call in favors, talk to contacts, chase down tips. It all leads me to a large apartment complex at 1 am.

The corridors are silent and dimly lit. I can hear only my foot steps on the pavement as I walk past rows of doors looking for the person said to know where the girl is. Thin, bony arms garb me from behind, One hand on my mouth, another arm around my throat, I’m pulled backward into a dark apartment.

"Shut up," an older woman is in my face, hot breath pushing out a raspy whisper, "He. Will. Kill. You." She spins me around and pushes my face towards the now closed door. I can see through the peep-hole, her hand is still aggressively covering my mouth.

I see her! The daughter I’ve been looking for is walking around the complex moving closer to the apartment I’m in. I try to wriggle free to explain my excitement to my captor, her grip tightens. Behind her is a shadow moving closer, a man moving steadily towards.

He’s so silent she doesn’t know. As his face moves into the yellow light of a nearby street lamp I see that it’s her father. As I start to relax from the relief, my captor tenses. He reaches for her, still moving quickly, his outstretched hand grabs the back of her hair right at the scalp. I’m confused for a second, what is he doing? She lets out a small, sharp yelp of pain as he pulls her head closer to his face. She’s a few inches taller than he is, her knees bend to accommodate and she struggles to stay upright.

"Who owns this world?" He breathes into her ear as he puts a gun to her temple. "I DO! I own this world!" He pulls the trigger and I watch her crumple at his feet. I collapse behind the closed door.

I wake up terrified. What the hell, brain? Where did that come from? Can’t I just have those flying dreams I hear about? or even the ones where I go back to high school naked? I’d like to say dreams like this are a one-off, but this is pretty standard.

I remember my dreams every morning and more often than not they’re obscure, but not always as terrifying. I’d like to say that I dream about beer and food, but that’s just when I’m awake.

Porter Caramelized Onion and Brie Dip

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 large sweet onion Maui, Walla Walla Sweet, or Vidalias
1 tbs 28g unsalted butter
1 tbs 12g olive oil
2 tsp 6g packed brown sugar
½ cup 113g porter or stout beer, divided
1 tsp 2g minced fresh thyme
1 tsp 1g chopped fresh chives
8 wt oz 227g double cream brie, room temperature
8 wt oz 227g mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1 tbs 8g cornstarch
Baguette for serving

Instructions

Thinly slice the onion and add to a pot over medium heat with the butter, olive oil, and brown sugar. Cook until the onions start to soften, then add ¼ cup beer.
Cook, stirring occasionally over medium heat until onions have turned dark brown and the beer has evaporated, about 45 minutes. Add the additional beer and cook until the pan is mostly dry with only about a tablespoon of liquid left (can be made 2 days in advance, store in the fridge in an air tight container).
Trim the rind off the brie, cut into small cubes. In a small bowl stir together the thyme, chives, brie, mascarpone and cornstarch.
Add the onions in an even layer to the bottom of an oven safe baking dish, top with cheese in an even layer.
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly, stir to combine. Serve warm with baguette slices.

Notes

This dip can be a bit oily, don't be concerned. Think of this like the oil served alongside bread at an Italian restaurant, it's part of the flavor of the dip.

Chocolate Stout Truffle Mousse Bars with Pretzel Crust

20.01.2016 13 Comments

Chocolate Stout Truffle Mousse Bars with Pretzel Crust

At a beer event in a crowded bar in Portland, Oregon last week I talked to a talented brewer about his participation in an upcoming brewing competition. "Really, I’m just going so that I can drink some more of their Yodo!" He laughs and talks about how much he loves the beer that Michael Kiser of Good Beer Hunting, organizers of the Uppers and Downers festival, helped brew for the event.

He’ll tell you how much he’s thought about the beer he’s decided to brew. He’ll tell you all day long about how much he admires the other brewers that are participating. He won’t, however, say anything negative about any of the other participants. The more you hang out with brewers the more you’ll notice a shocking absence of shit talk. Brewers want to collaborate, root for each other, learn from and teach each other. They want to share a beer and share secrets: that’s beer. Competition is friendly and often collaborative, making these festivals all the better for the spirit that fuels the conversations.

The Uppers and Downers Festival of Coffee Beer on February 20th in Chicago will be witness to the spirit of collaboration between talented brewers and coffee roasters. It’ll showcase the staggering creativity and innovation that have been the result of the bar being raised in craft beer over the past half decade. There is no doubt that if you were to listen in on brewers talking about the other guys beer, you’d hear overwhelming admiration and praise. Reminding us that the heart and soul of craft beer is just as impressive as the beer that’s being shared.

Chocolate Stout Truffle Mousse Bars with Pretzel Crust

Print Recipe

Servings 9 bars

Ingredients

Crust:

3 cups 3 wt oz mini pretzel twists
2 tbs 25g brown sugar
6 tbs 85g melted butter

Middle layer:

10 wt oz dark chocolate 62% cocoa content
1/3 cup 74g chocolate stout
¼ cup 40mL heavy cream
1 tbs 14g unsalted butter

Top Layer

1 cup 226g heavy cream, chilled
¼ cup 26g unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ cup 72g powdered sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp 6gvanilla extract
2 tbs 34g stout beer

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350.
Add the pretzels and brown sugar to a food processor, process until the pretzels have turned to crumbs. While the processor is running add the butter in a slow stream. Allow to process until well combined.
Spray an 8X8 pan with cooking spray, add the crust to the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Using your hands or a heavy bottomed mug press the crust until well compacted.
Bake at 350 until lightly browned, about 12 minutes.
Remove from oven, allow to cool.
Add the chocolate, 1/3 cup stout, heavy cream and butter to the top of a double boiler over medium heat. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and is well combined, remove from heat, pour into an even layer on top of the crust.
Allow to chill in the fridge while you prepare the next layer.
Add the heavy cream, cocoa powder, powdered sugar and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on high until soft to medium peaks form.
Slowly add the vanilla and beer, mixing until peaks return.
Add to the pan in an even layer, chill until set, at least two hours, and up to two days.

Southwest Beer Cheese Dip + The Definitive Beer to Pair with The Super Bowl

15.01.2016 4 Comments

Southwest Beer Cheese Dip

We talk a lot of pairing beer and food. About the sensory experiences of flavors, textures, and ingredients that compliment each other. We’ve known since the accidental and unfortunate childhood pairing of toothpaste and orange juice that some flavors are a combative train wreck once they comingle in our mouth. We know that espresso and chocolate cake are magical in partnership, and that greasy cheese pizza is made that much better with a highly carbonated pale ale.

What we don’t talk enough about is pairing beer and experiences. Because if you and I are in a deep fireside chat, late in the evening, warming our bones near the fire of a ski lodge, I’d want to share a barrel aged beer with you, the boozier the better. But if we’re hiking through the woods on a hot August afternoon, tank tops sticking to our backs and dust from the trials clinging to our legs, a crisp Kolsch would be awesome (but the boozy bourbony beer would not).

We are right around the corner from a shared experience that most of us will take part in one way or another. Football lover, casual fan, or just along for the commercials and the food table, you’ll likely find yourself in a room with sports fans screaming at the TV on Super Bowl Sunday. I have just the beer for you, sports fan, wagering enthusiast or just-there-for-lack-of-anything-better-to-do guy.

This is a day filled with intense emotions, highs, and lows, and the beer should match. You’ll also need to take into consideration the food as to avoid the aforementioned combative train wreck possibility. Food at these gatherings tends to be intense as well: hot wings, buffalo beer cheese dip, jalapeno nachos; that sort of primitive bar food that you love more than you’d probably ever admit to. Another consideration: time. You’ll be drinking all day, several hours and several beers, and when you’re done it won’t even be night yet.

In summation, these are the considerations when pairing The Super Bowl with a beer: intense flavor, pairs well with spicy and greasy food, can be consumed for long hours. The conclusion we come to is a session IPA. (Quick Beer 101 lesson: “session” means lower ABV, usually 5% or lower). You’ll get the intense flavor to match both the food and the emotions, you’ll get the nice carbonation for the greasy cheese and meat, and since the ABV is lower you’ll avoid becoming a cautionary tale.

Here are some Session IPA’s that will pair well with the Super Bowl. These are a few that I’m personally excited about, let me know what your favorite is.

Rogue // 4 Hop 4.4% ABV
Drakes // Alpha Sessions 3.8% ABV
Great Lakes // Steady Rollin 4.8% ABV
Green Flash // Segal Ranch Session 4.5% ABV
Black Raven // Nothing But Flowers 4.9% ABV
Widmer // Replay IPA 4.5% ABV
21st Amendment // Down to Earth 4.4% ABV

Southwest Beer Cheese Dip

Print Recipe

Total Time 20

Servings 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

8 wt oz cream cheese
2 cups 226g cheddar cheese, grated (packed)
1 cup 113g mozzarella (packed)
¾ cup 170g IPA beer
1 tbs 8g cornstarch
½ tsp 2g smoked paprika
½ tsp 2g garlic powder
½ tsp 3g salt
½ tsp 2g pepper
1 cup 172g cooked black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 cup 135 corn kernels
1 cup 140g diced bell pepper
1 small jalapeno diced (seeds and internal membrane removed for lower heat)
1 avocado diced
¼ cup 28g cilantro, chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
Add the cream cheese, cheddar, mozzarella, beer, cornstarch, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper to a blender. Blend until smooth.
Add to a large oven safe bowl, stir in the black beans, corn, bell pepper, and jalapeno.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until warmed through.
Remove from oven, top with avocado and cilantro, serve warm.

One Bowl Cinnamon Sugar Beer Muffins

13.01.2016 9 Comments

One Bowl Cinnamon Sugar Beer Muffins

There is a feeling in the depths of winter that the quiet will swallow you whole if you don’t keep moving. As if you’d just be that misplaced bracelet that never gets found, disappearing behind furniture and then just ceasing to exist.

I’m not used to this. Born and grown in California, the winter was hardly different from the summer other than a lower flow of tourist, grabbing a sweater for Cinespia, and the absence of Vin Scully’s voice. You’d have to stop and think, just for a second, when you wanted to reference what season you were in. Like being on a vacation where the actual days of the week lose meaning and you have to stop to figure out if it’s Tuesday or Wednesday. Winter just meant a different set of activities, not an entirely different wardrobe and lifestyle.

Winters up North are different. There is a beauty in those clear crisp days when it feels like your voice and the sound of your footsteps on wet pavement will travel forever. The perpetually dewy trees, the misty morning fog, the light and unobtrusive snow fall, even the rain. It’s all majestic in a way that feels intensely calming. What they don’t tell you, when you plan to move a thousand miles North, is that it’s dark. Really dark. The cloud cover mid-day that blocks the sunlight from ever hitting the grass out front, and the sun finally calling it quits around 4PM.

Baking has become a winter activity. It fits in the culture of this newly acquired season in a way that makes me appreciate it so much more than the sun filled, warm day baking I used to do. Just the smell and the warmth from the oven seems like a missing piece of furniture finally being put back into place . Spring is on it’s way, and I’ve a few trips planned between now and then, but for the next few months I’ll be warming the days with baked goods.

One Bowl Cinnamon Sugar Beer Muffins

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the muffins:

2 cups 248g all-purpose flour
1 tsp 4g baking powder
1 tsp 4g baking soda
3/4 cup 150g granulated sugar
½ tsp 3g salt
½ tsp 2g cinnamon
1 tsp 4g vanilla extract
2/3 cup 150g wheat beer
1/3 cup 75g whole milk
2 large eggs

For the topping:

2 tbs 15g cinnamon
¼ cup 50g granulated sugar
3 tbs 42g butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt and cinnamon.
Make a well in the center, add the vanilla, wheat beer, milk, and eggs. Stir until just combined.
Line muffin tin with muffin papers, spray lightly with cooking spray.
Place the muffins in the oven, lower temperature to 325. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool.
Stir together the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.
Dip the muffin tops in melted butter, then roll gently in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bacon Beer Cheese Stromboli + Our Real Issue with Buyouts

08.01.2016 15 Comments

Bacon Beer Cheese Stromboli, just 30 minutes to make the best football food ever.

I’m sitting in my kitchen on a phone interview with a reporter from Bloomberg answering questions about the buyouts. You know the ones, the ABI, Miller-Coors, Constellation, Big Bad Macro Beer comin' in and buying up OUR beer. The ones that ignite twitter with angry, witty, outraged messages that amount to a digital foot stomping tantrum.

I’m trying to put my finger on what it is, why this sets off a shockwave of indignation. Because the truth is, other than the normal issues that come with scaling up a recipe (which happens with or without buyouts), the recipes don’t change. The beer is, as far as our experience with the bottles that come across our bottle shops, the same as it always was. Even if we had an absolute guarantee that the beer would never, ever, ever change, we would still take issue with the buyouts.

But it threatens the smaller beer brands! Maybe, but what if it didn’t? What if it actually increased demand for the small guys, we’d still take issue with it. So that isn’t it either.

What is it? We are afraid beer will lose its soul. We drink craft beer for the flavor but we are in love with it for the people. For the soul of it. I saw the same thing when I ran around LA with rock stars. I was very well acquainted with the analog recording console from Sound City music studio, the one Dave Grohl was so attached to that he not only bought this machine that recorded music onto dat tapes he made a documentary about it and recorded an album on it. Could you tell by listening to it that it sounded different? Probably not. Maybe that wasn’t the point. As the music world shifted from analog to digital, there were holdouts that feared music would lose its soul. That was what we felt when the mixing boards were replaced with lap tops, auto tune and pro tools. Of course older music sounds different, but not because of the tapes. But because Led Zeppelin decided to record it all in one take, errors and all, in a grain silo. The issues was never really the sound, which is arguably better with digital methods. We were all afraid music would lose its soul. Arguments can be made for or against that actually being the case, but the reality is that more people are able to make music. Due in part to the digital revolution A&R guys no longer hold the keys to the kingdom and more small independent musicians can make a living off their art, sans recording contract.

Beer is in the same metamorphosis. We can’t stop buyouts any more than the drummer from Nirvana could stop music from being recorded digitally and we are scared of what that will mean. We are afraid the people will be removed in favor of shiny new machines and the heart and guts of the industry we love will change. The photos of bearded men in old brewery shirts mashing in, picking hops, cleaning fermenters, will be replaced by an industrial process that takes no more than a switch flip to initiate. We don’t want a brightly lit cafeteria of a taproom. We want a brewery that’s a little bit dingy, with miss matched brew kettles and slightly dented bay doors. We don’t want uniforms and sterility and soulless masses. That’s the real fear.

So what now? As craft beer lovers and consumers we don’t get to make the decisions about the who has what stake and how much in our favorite breweries. We aren’t the ones trying to make ends meet with a high grain bill and a low profit margin. We aren’t the ones with a billion dollar check in our faces. The truth is that we can’t stop it, the buyouts will continue, more in 2016 than ever before and it will become increasing more accepted, thats how these things always go. What can we do? We are the soul. We can keep that. We can make it known that even with the paperwork shuffle and the distribution deals and the administrative headaches that go one outside our reach, we want our beer to stay our beer. This is what we are attached to, and we can make it known that we have our eye on you, newly acquired brewery, do well by us. We brought you here, and we don’t want to walk away now.

This is not a defense of buyouts in any way. It’s just to say that our issues with big beer buying craft beer isn’t as much about small breweries as we’d like to think. Even if we had a guarantee that it’s actually GOOD for small beer, we’d still hate it. We’d hate it because we don’t want corporate beer. Sterile, emotionless beer. We want the community that we’ve build and we don’t want that taken away from us. We want to be punk rock, not boy bands. That’s also how we will survive this. Big beer has distribution and dollars, but that can’t replace the community and the soul we’ve built. That’s ours, that won’t change.

Bacon Beer Cheese Stromboli

Print Recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

8 wt oz cream cheese
1 ½ cups 168g mozzarella
½ cup 56g parmesan
1 tbs cornstarch
½ cup 115g pale ale
½ tsp 2g garlic powder
1 tsp 3g salt
1 lbs pizza dough raw
10 strips 155g bacon, cooked and chopped
1 tbs melted butter

Instructions

Add the cream cheese, mozzarella, parmesan, cornstarch, beer, garlic powder, and salt to a blender, blend until smooth.
Roll the pizza dough out on a lightly floured surface to form a rectangle.
Place dough onto a sheet of parchment paper about the size of a baking sheet.
Add the beer cheese to the center of the dough, sprinkle with chopped bacon, reserving about 2 tablespoons of bacon.
Fold both long sides in towards the center to form a tight log, fold the short side over about two inches towards the center.
Roll the log over so the seam sides are down, transfer the parchment paper onto a baking sheet.
Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with remaining bacon.
Bake at 425 for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown.

For homemade pizza dough, try this pale ale pizza dough recipe.

Mushroom Stout Skillet Chicken Pot Pie (with Vegan Option)

06.01.2016 10 Comments

Mushroom Stout Skillet Chicken Pot Pie (with vegan option). One pot, thirty minutes, lick-the-pan-good.

What I Learned Last Year

If you lower your rates to accommodate someones budget they won’t appreciate you, they will devalue you. You’ll automatically be a bargain item, you’ll be on sale and worth less to them.
I learned how to brew on a commercial brewing system. My main life lesson takeaways were: listen to the guy who went before you, trust your gut, take great notes.
If someone tells you they are an asshole, believe them the first time. They will inevitably prove it to you and you’ll be on the losing end of that lesson. If you’re a person who dates the bad boy or the bitchy girl, figure out how to break that. It’s worth it.
Broken down cardboard boxes make better drop cloths than those thin plastic sheets from Home Depot. Also, painting sucks and I hate it. But I’ll do it again, probably within the next six months.
There are "have stuff" people and there are "do stuff" people. You’ll inevitably prioritize one over the other, general budgeting requires it. I’m a "do stuff person," the new couch can wait when there is a passport that needs stamping.
Immersion blenders fix broken sauces. I’ve known this about cheese sauce, but I’ve also found that when you’re trying to bourbon up a chocolate sauce and it seizes, the stick blender can turn it back into velvet.
I love Galaxy and Mosaic hops the most. Especially with fresh hop beers. Don’t get mad, hops aren’t children, you’re allowed to have favorites.
If you’re not happy now, you never will be. Circumstance doesn’t make you happy, it’s a choice. Feed the right wolf, the wrong one will eat you alive.
Making bread from scratch is worth it, making sausage from scratch isn’t. Just buy the sausage, it’s an art that takes years to perfect. Make bread from scratch at least once a month, the smell alone is worth it.
Michael Pollan was right: plant food is the best food. "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." —Michael Pollan. Although I’ll always eat meat and dairy, I find myself eating more and more vegan food and loving it. I seek it out, and eat plants with more frequency than ever before. Plants are amazing.

Mushroom Stout Skillet Chicken Pot Pie (with Vegan Option)

One pot, twenty minutes, both chicken and vegan options

Print Recipe

Total Time 30

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

2 tbs 26golive oil
½ cup 63g sweet white onion, diced
2 ribs celery 52g, chopped
1 large carrot 63g, peeled and chopped
8 wt oz crimini mushrooms sliced
½ cup 70g corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into cubes (for vegan, see note)
½ tsp .5g rosemary, minced
4 sage leaves minced
1 tsp 6g salt
1 tsp 3g black pepper
¼ cup 32g flour
½ cup 118mL stout
½ cup 118mL chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegan)
1 sheet puff pastry thawed
egg wash 1 large egg, 1 tablespoon water, beaten (for vegan, see note)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425.
Heat the olive oil in a 9-inch cast iron skillet. Add the onions, celery, and carrots, cooking until vegetables are softened and the onions have started to brown, about ten minutes.
Add the mushrooms, cooking until dark and softened.
Stir in the corn, cook until warmed.
Move the vegetables to the side, add the chicken (or potatoes for vegan). Sprinkle with rosemary, sage, salt and pepper, cooking until chicken is mostly cooked through (or potatoes are fork tender.
Sprinkle with flour. Add the stout, scraping the bottom to de-glaze the pan. Add in the chicken broth, allow to simmer until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.
Roll the puff pastry out on a lightly floured surface, transfer to the skillet, making sure the entire top is covered and the pastry is hanging over the sides.
Brush with egg wash. Slit a few holes in the top with a sharp knife. Bake until puff pastry is golden brown, about 12 minutes. Serve warm.

Porter Caramelized Onion, Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Bites + Best Beer Trends of 2015

17.12.2015 4 Comments

Porter Caramelized Onion, Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Bites

Best Beer Trends of 2015

Grapefruit: Grapefruit became the new bacon in 2015 making its way into nearly all styles of beer from IPA’s to sours. The tart-sour-slightly-sweet ingredient pairs perfectly with hops making it no surprise that brewers became fascinated with the citrusy addition. I expect this to continue into 2016 but probably not to the fervor that we felt in 2015.
Randalls: Imagine a clear cylinder that sits between the keg and the tap on the draft lines. Now imagine it’s filled with something, it could be chai tea, or fresh hops, or chilies, or even Sour Patch Kids candy. Now imagine your beer passes through the cylinder of tasty ingredients before it gets poured into your glass, infusing the brew with a new and exciting flavor. This is a Randall. It’s becoming more and more common to see one, two or even three of these in use in hard core tap rooms and beer bars. If you see a beer on Randall, order it. It’s always fun to see what combinations talented beer pairing pros come up with. In Seattle Fremont Brewing and Reuben’s Brews have fantastic Randalls. I expect this trend not only to continue into 2016 but to grow even more mainstream.
Glassware: Even on my journey to South America I saw proper glassware being used in beer bars serious about what they are serving. With the emergence of the Teku glass (regarded by some to be the best beer glass on the market) people who respect their beer are putting aside the horrid use of mason jars in favor of glassware that showcase the beer their brewers have devoted so much time and effort to creating. If beer wishes to compete in the same space with wine, this is a non-negotiable. Wine bars don’t serve merlot in a champagne flute let alone a coffee mug, good beer shouldn’t be served in a device intended to store Grandma’s jam. Beer is important and should be served in a way that respects it. I pray to baby Jesus this trends growth is exponential in 2016.
Balanced sours: Sours are the cool kid at the craft beer table right now. Several breweries just brew sours, spending all their yeast wrangling powers focused on wild fermentation. This is even more difficult than it sounds and often the end result isn’t what the original intent was. Brewers are incredibly talented and the past year has given us sours that are the best the world has ever seen. The 2015 sours have richer more balanced flavors without sacrificing the funk we love. I expect this to continue into 2016 but, as things always go, the pendulum will swing and a new beer style will be the new cool kid soon enough.
Fresh hop: Fresh hop is in no way new. Hop harvest comes once a year giving brewers that live within driving distance of a brewery one shot to brew a beer made with fresh-from-the-bine hops (hops are typically dried for storage and used to brew the rest of the year as dried hops or hop pellets). This past year saw a huge rise in the use of fresh hops in more than just IPA’s, and breweries that live outside the Hop Harvest Bubble spent countless dollars overnight shipping hops to their southern state breweries. This is one of my favorite beer seasons of the entire year, and I hope that it grows even more common in 2016.

Porter Caramelized Onion, Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Bites

Print Recipe

Servings 48 bites

Ingredients

1.5 lbs 2 large or three small sweet onions (Maui, Walla Walla Sweet, or Vidalias)
2 tbs 28g unsalted butter
1 tbs 12g olive oil
1 tbs 12g packed brown sugar
1 cup 226g porter or stout beer
2 sheet Puff pastry thawed
24 cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half
2 oz goat cheese
6 basil leaves thinly chiffonade
fresh cracked black pepper

Instructions

Thinly slice the onions.
In a saucepan over medium heat add the onions, butter, olive oil and sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally until dark golden brown. This will take about 45 minutes. Keep the heat low to medium to prevent the onions from burning.
Add the beer allow to simmer, stiring occasionally, until the beer is mostly gone, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Can be made three days in advance, store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 400.
One at a time roll the puff pastry out on a lightly floured surface.
Using a two-inch biscuit cutter, cut out 48 circles (if you don’t have a 2 inch biscuit cutter, try a metal measuring cup or a small glass with a thin edge).
Press the circles into the wells of a mini-muffin tin, poke a fork into the bottom of each.
Fill with a small amount of caramelized onions, top with one half a grape tomato, sprinkle with goat cheese.**
Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Add to a serving platter, sprinkle with basil and black pepper.

Notes

**To make these ahead, complete every step until baking. Cover the unbaked mini muffin tins and store in the fridge until ready to serve. Bake just prior to serving. (can be made two days in advance)

Beer Brined Lemon Garlic Skillet Chicken

09.12.2015 7 Comments

Beer Brined Lemon Garlic Skillet Chicken. 30 minutes, one pot, so good!

They always seem to need to explain themselves to me.

When someone, new to beer or not, tells me they don’t like IPA’s it always comes with a disclaimer at the end. As if the mere fact they don’t respond well to one of the hundreds of beer styles knocks the "beer lover" card out of their hands. IPA’s aren’t the litmus test by which a beer lover is judged, nor are sours, or barrel aged beers or even the enjoyment of an occasional pale lager.

After all, we got into this craft beer drinking game because we enjoy the flavor, not because we were jonesing to drink something we didn’t like. We could do that much cheaper with a macro beer.

You don’t have to like them all, they aren’t your children, it’s OK to have favorites. And least favorites. So what do you do when you’ve tried to like a beer style and can’t? Or if you’ve tried to like beer in general and can’t?

First, realize that you don’t have to. Like what you like because you like it, and leave it at that. But if you do want to, want to like beer, want to like a certain style? Push forward. Be honest at the beer bar about what you are trying to like and ask for tasters. Be willing to try anything, but don’t commit to a pint, you’ll probably end up resenting the tall glass of beer and vow never to do it again. Maybe you don’t hate IPA’s, maybe you just don’t like Amarillo hops. Or you don’t like a cook hop flavor but wet hopped beers are your jam. Maybe you don’t actually hate sours, you just hate that one you had at a beer bar in San Francisco. Be willing to try a few dozen more to see if there might be something there.

A beer lover isn’t build with an unabashed love for every beer ever brewed. There were over 200 categories and subcategories at the Great American Beer Festival this year, no one loves them all. Of course you have favorites, and least favorites. You aren’t a bad beer person for not liking a few. But you are a bit of an asshole for making someone else feel inferior for admitting they don’t like IPA’s.

Beer Brined Lemon Garlic Skillet Chicken

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs bone-in, skin-on
1 tbs kosher salt
1 cup beer plus ½ cup, divided (pale ale, pilsner)
¼ cup diced shallots or white onions
4 large cloves garlic grated with a microplane
1 ½ tbs flour
juice from one lemon about 3 tbs
1 cup chicken broth
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
rice for serving

Instructions

Add the chicken thighs to a shallow bowl, sprinkle with salt, cover with 1 cup beer.
Allow chicken to sit at room temperate for 20 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Rinse the chicken well with cold water, pat dry.
Add the chicken to a cast iron skill, off heat, skin side down. Add the pan to medium high heat, allow to cook until skin is golden brown (starting to cook chicken in a cold skillet will render more fat than if you start it in a hot skillet. You do not need any oil, the fat will render quickly making oil unnecessary)
Turn the chicken over and cook until browned on the under side, remove from skillet (chicken will not be cooked through).
Add the shallots, cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, cooking for about 20 seconds.
Whisk in the flour, cooking until all the flour has been dampened.
Add the remaining ½ cup beer, scraping to deglaze the pan.
Stir in the lemon juice, chicken broth, pepper, and salt.
Add the chicken back into the pan, simmer until the sauce has thickened and the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes (if the skin has turned soggy, place skillet under broiler for about 1 minute to crisp up the skin).
Sprinkle with parsley prior to serving.
Serve over rice

No Yeast Vanilla Brown Sugar Beer Cinnamon Rolls

04.12.2015 10 Comments

No Yeast Vanilla Brown Sugar Beer Cinnamon Rolls

Every Christmas I make cinnamon rolls. Yeasty, gorgeous, giant rolls with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting. A recipe that took years to prefect into the soft, tender, sweet and cinnamony treat with the thick ribbon of sugary butter center and tangy frosting. I make it the night before allowing the second rise to take place overnight in the fridge. It’s the first recipe in my first cookbook, The Craft Beer Cookbook (affiliate link).

But I also understand that taking two days to make breakfast might not be ideal for most people. And there may even be some of you that found your way to this post because yeast terrifies and baffles you the way some people think it takes a wizard to make velvety cheese sauce that doesn’t separate. I’m afraid of mall Santas, we all have our thing.

These rolls were awesome. Soft, tender, a bit more on the cakey side than the yeast rolls I’m so in love with, but still a fantastic way to throw together a dessert or a holiday breakfast. The yeast in the yogurt and the beer reacts with the leavening powers of the baking powder and basking soda to do a fabulous job of mimicking yeast dough. The way I try to do a fabulous job of mimicking a normal person when I see a middle aged man in a red suit and fake beard lurking near a Hollister.

No Yeast Vanilla Brown Sugar Beer Cinnamon Rolls

Print Recipe

Servings 8 -10 rolls

Ingredients

Dough:

3 cups 360g all purpose flour
1 tsp 4g baking soda
½ tsp 3g baking powder
pinch of salt
½ cup 107g brown sugar
2 tbs 18 olive oil
2 tsp 8g vanilla extract
½ cup 150g vanilla Greek yogurt (not non-fat)
¾ cup 190g wheat beer, room temperate

Filling:

½ cup 113g unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup 142g brown sugar
2 tsp 4g cinnamon
¼ tsp 0.5g nutmeg
pinch salt

Frosting:

8 wt oz cream cheese softened
1 cup 113g powdered sugar
½ cup 119g heavy cream
1 tsp 4g vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350.
In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and brown sugar making sure to break up any brown sugar lumps.
Make a well in the center, add the oil, vanilla extract, yogurt and beer, stir until combined.
Add to a lightly floured surface, knead lightly until the dough comes together and is much less sticky (it will still be slightly sticky). Cover loosely and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes
Roll into a large rectangle about ¼ inch thick.
In a small bowl stir together the softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Spread the filling evenly over the dough. Starting at the long edge, roll the dough into a long log.
Slice into 2 inch rings, place in a baking dish with the swirl side up.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Using a hand mixer beat together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, heavy cream, vanilla and salt until well combined, light and fluffy.
Spread the cinnamon rolls with the frosting before serving.