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Beer Styles

Pumpkin Beer Bread French Toast and The Problem with Pumpkin Beer

16.09.2015 11 Comments

Pumpkin Beer Bread French Toast -2

I’ll give you a quick and easy way to tell if your favorite pumpkin beer was made with fresh pumpkins or the canned version.

Release date.

It takes weeks to brew a beer, and pumpkins reach full maturity, ready to harvest and roast for brewing, sometimes around late August. Making those beers released in July nearly impossible to brew with fresh pumpkins.

Canned pumpkin isn’t even the issue. Several breweries successfully make very complex, well-balanced beer with canned pumpkin every year. The issue is more about the impact that the early release dates have on breweries that want to use fresh. The arc of pumpkin season starts so soon, due to the canned-pumpkin beers, that by the time the fresh-pumpkin-using-breweries releases their beer, the moment has passed when it really should just be starting. A fresh brewed pumpkin beer will arrive on store shelves, at earliest, in mid-September. A much more appropriate  time for a pumpkin flavored beer to be consumed. Unfortunately, at this point pumpkin beer coverage has been going on for months, making the release of fresh pumpkin beers seem like old news.

Pumpkin beer also ages well. For this I used a bottle of Rogue Pumpkin Patch ale from last year, made with pumpkins they grow on their farms, and it was even better this year than last. The flavors round out and have a deeper, more complex flavor. You can save this years pumpkin beers for next year, if you really jones for a mid-summer squash ales.

Maybe this doesn’t bother you, maybe you don’t mind a 100 degree, mid-July pumpkin porter. Or maybe you hate it. What can you do if this does, in fact, bother you? Make a bigger deal out of fresh brewed pumpkin beer, don’t buy any before middle September,  don’t post anything on social until fresh pumpkin beers have been released, and thank the hard working brewers that not only brewed you a pumpkin beer, they also grew, harvested and roasted those pumpkins.

pumpkin ale2

Pumpkin Beer Bread French Toast and The Problem with Pumpkin Beer

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

For the Pumpkin Beer Bread

  • 3 cups 360 all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp 4g baking powder
  • 2 tsp 12g baking soda
  • 1 cup 150g brown sugar
  • 2 ½ tsp 4g pumpkin pie spice (see note)
  • ¾ cup 225g pumpkin puree
  • 8 ounces 226g pumpkin ale (or brown ale)

For the French Toast:

  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 tsp vanilla extact
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • Butter
  • Maple syrup for serving
  • 1/2 cup pecan pieces optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and sugar. Add the pumpkin puree and beer, stir until just combined.
  • Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour that batter into the pan in an even layer.
  • Bake for 40 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven, allow to cool completely before slicing, chill if necessary (beer bread can be made a day ahead of time, cover and chill until ready to use).
  • Slice into 1-inch thick slices.
  • In a wide, shallow bowl whisk together the milk, eggs, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, brown sugar and salt.
  • Add the slices, a few at a time, allowing to soak for one to three minutes.
  • Preheat a skillet or griddle to medium high; melt a pat of butter to coat the surface (continue adding butter between batches when the pan looks dry).
  • Remove the slices from the batter and allow excess to drain off.
  • Cook in the hot pan until golden brown on each side, about 3 minutes per side.
  • Serve topped with maple syrup and pecan pieces.

Notes

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice: 2 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ½ teaspoon ground cloves, ½ teaspoon ground allspice, ½ teaspoon ground ginger

Pumpkin Beer Bread French Toast -3

BBQ Beer Brat Tailgate Pizza & How To Prep A Grilled Pizza For Tailgating

11.09.2015 8 Comments

BBQ Beer Brat Tailgate Pizza & How To Prep A Grilled Pizza For Tailgating -6

I grill pizza more often than I grill anything else. Unless you have a pizza oven in your backyard, it’s likely your best option when it comes to at home pizza cooking. Or, in this case, parking-lot-back-of-a-truck-with-a-portable-grill cooking. You get those lovely grilled char marks that you want when open flames are cooking your food, and it’s easy to modify to your guest eating persuasions.

Tailgate Pizza Tips:

Prep as much as you can ahead of time. If you’re making more than one pizza, write down the toppings you want for each, prep them all and store them in small containers to take with you. The dough can, and should, be made in advance. Just make sure to punch down the dough  every 12 hours (literally just punch the middle of it to deflate, you can also grab the sides and pull to deflate). Pizza dough is best if it’s able to cold ferment in the fridge for a few days.

BBQ Beer Brat Tailgate Pizza & How To Prep A Grilled Pizza For Tailgating

Don’t forget to bring a surface to roll out the dough. Some people like to use a rolling pin, while others think hand shaping the dough is the only way to go, it’s your call.

Brush the grates with olive oil to keep the dough from sticking. I sometimes oil the dough and flip it onto the grill like a giant pancake, but that’s just me.

You only want to grill the underside until it holds shape. It’s going back on the grill to heat the toppings and melt the cheese, undercooking it the first time will prevent overcooking it the second time.

Pizzas take about 8 minutes to cook, so they are easy to make as-needed. Plus they don’t take up too much room in the cooler, leaving you way more space for beer. Which, really, is the most important part.

grilled pizza

 

I used Stout & Sriracha BBQ Sauce

BBQ Beer Brat Tailgate Pizza & How To Prep A Grilled Pizza For Tailgating

Print Recipe
Servings 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients
  

For the Pizza Dough:

  • 3 cups 360g bread flour
  • 1 packet 2 ¼ tsp, or 21g rapid rise yeast
  • 2 tsp 8g sugar
  • 1 cup 226g wheat beer
  • 3 tbs 42g whole milk
  • 1 tbs 14g olive oil, plus 2 tbs (28g), divided
  • 1/2 2g tsp salt

Toppings:

  • 2 to 3 large beer brats raw
  • 24 ounces beer wheat, pale ale, or brown ale
  • Stout & Sriracha BBQ Sauce link above
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 roasted red bell pepper chopped (from a jar is OK)
  • 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
  • Oil for the grill

Instructions
 

Directions:

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the bread flour, yeast, and sugar, stir until well combined. In a microwave safe bowl, add the beer. Heat until 120F. Add the beer to the flour and stir until incorporated. Add the milk, salt and 1 tablespoon oil, stir with the dough hook until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Allow to rise in a warm room until doubles in size, about one hour. You can bake the dough at this point, but it’s best to punch down the dough, cover and allow it to rise again in the fridge from 12-18 hours.
  • Make the beer brats. In a pan with a lid add the brats and the beer, cover and simmer until the brats are cooked through, remove from pan.
  • Preheat the grill to medium high. Grill the brats until grill marks appear on all sides, about 3 minutes. Remove and slice.
  • Brush the grates with oil to prevent sticking . Place the dough on the grill (a pizza peel coated in flour or cornmeal will help) until grill marks start to appear. Flip the dough and very lightly grill on the underside, just until the dough holds shape. Remove from the grill, place on a work surface with the lightly grilled side down. Spread an even layer of BBQ sauce over the crust, top evenly with cheese, add sliced brats and red pepper.
  • Return to the grill, close the lid and cook until the cheese has melted, 3-5 minutes. Remove from grill, sprinkle with parsley (or cilantro), slice and serve.

Notes

Pre-prep (tailgating tips):
• Make the dough the night before, let it do a second rise in the fridge. You’ll have to have a space to roll it out when you get to the venue, so bring a large cutting board if needed. It’ll be best if you let it come to room temp before trying to roll out. 10 minutes in a car with the heater on should be fine.
• Boil the brats ahead of time, pack them in the cooler, grill and slice them on site.
• Have all your ingredients prepped and stored in small containers, ready to go when you need them, it’ll help make the process much easier.

BBQ Beer Brat Tailgate Pizza & How To Prep A Grilled Pizza For Tailgating -6

One Bowl Chocolate Stout Loaf Cake with Blackberry Frosting

09.09.2015 10 Comments

One Bowl Chocolate Stout Loaf Cake with Blackberry FrostingChocolate Stout Loaf Cake with Raspberry Icing -1

The first time I was paid to write a story it was about gang members. Gang members who are also bakers.

It was a story I’d pitched to a start up emagazine that asked for submissions and received thousands. I wanted to talk about Homeboy Industries, a non profit that helps get people out of gangs via a bakery they started to employe the unemployable. Maybe it was my guilt I carried with me about leaving the job I had working with gang kids in order to pursue my dream of food writing. Maybe it was just so incredibly impressive that this program actually worked, and worked really well. Or maybe it was the fact that baking could save someones life. I got the assignment.

My first draft read so starry-eyed-in-love with the company that I needed more, I need the reality of it all, the grittiness that sometimes gets lost when mainstream media try to glam up the truth for mass consumption. So I went back to Homeboy Cafe, to talk to Sarah. A woman who had run a very successful chopshop, ran around with gangs since she was 13, sold drugs, and ended up in solitary confinement with bullet holes in her body. It was driving around East Los Angeles with her in my passenger seat, stopped outside the urban garden she was running, that made the biggest impact on me. At least a decade older than me, and several lifetimes more experienced, she seemed so shy, "I brought this for you…" She pulled a crumpled page out of her pocket, "they did a story about me." She showed me the internal newsletter the company prints out for employees, Sarah was the lead story. "It’s nice…you know…people talking about you for something good." We sat there for a second, worlds apart in the same car, and I told her she should be so proud. The silence for the next few seconds was about as warm as I’ve ever felt.

I think about Homeboy sometimes when I bake, how transformative it can be just to do something right and to have people talk about you for something good.

You can read the article about Homeboy, and Sarah, in my Portfolio (scroll down, past the black). To this day, it’s one the my favorite articles I’ve ever written. 

Chocolate Stout Loaf Cake with Raspberry Icing -5

 

One Bowl Chocolate Stout Loaf Cake with Blackberry Frosting

Print Recipe
Servings 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
  • 1 1/2 cup 335g granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon 7g vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup 170g stout beer
  • ¼ cup 55gvegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 cups 225 g all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup cocoa 60 g powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon 3 g baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon 4 g salt
  • ½ cup 130 g blackberries
  • 2 cups 1/2 lbs powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon 5g fresh lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon 3g vanilla extract

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 325.
  • Add the butter and sugar to a bowl. Using a stand mixer, beat until well creamed. Add the egg and vanilla, beat until combined. Stir in the beer, and olive oil.
  • Sprinkle the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir until just combined.
  • Pour batter into a loaf pan that’s been greased and floured.
  • Bake for 60-65 minutes or until or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the loaf comes out with just a few crumbs.
  • Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
  • In a blender add the blackberries, powdered sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract, blend until smooth.
  • Pour over the top of the cake, chill until set.
  • Remove from loaf pan and slice prior to serving.

Chocolate Stout Loaf Cake with Raspberry Icing -6

Slow Cooker Honey Chili Pulled Beer Chicken Sliders

04.09.2015 7 Comments

Slow Cooker Honey Chili Pulled Beer Chicken Sliders

Slow Cooker Honey Chili Pulled Beer Chicken Sliders-2

This is a sign.

It’s fall. I realize that the calendar technically disagrees with me, but the calendar is wrong. Often. Calendars will frequently tell you that the week starts on Sunday, and that Summer starts the end of June. But according to our guts, the week begins on Monday, and Summer starts the first time it gets over 80 degrees in May. Fall, along these lines, starts with September and football season.

This slider is sign that we really don’t care what the calendar tells us, it’s fall. Sigh for a second, leave your sandals out for one more week, but summer is behind us. Let’s look at the good side of this, not the silver lining. Silver linings imply that there is only a thin layer of good on an entire crap cloud. This isn’t the case, fall is an incredible season. Pomegranates are back in season, football is back on, football food is back in consumption range, you can again wear boots and scarves without getting the side-eye from some Lululemon chick at Starbucks, and you can make sliders in your slow cooker.

Stouts are also back in season. Fall kicks off the releases of my favorite beer, the dark and roasty beast that I wait all year for. Even though I’ll still drink them in August, wearing boots and a scarf, no matter who side-eyes me.

Slow Cooker Honey Chili Pulled Beer Chicken Sliders-4

Slow Cooker Honey Chili Pulled Beer Chicken Sliders

Print Recipe
Servings 6 servings

Ingredients
  

  • ¼ cup honey
  • 2 tbs apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tsp red chili sauce
  • 1 tbs chili powder
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 lbs chicken thighs boneless, skinless
  • ¾ cup beer porter, stout, brown ale, or wheat beer
  • 1 tbs cornstarch
  • 12 slider buns

Instructions
 

  • In a small bowl stir together the honey, vinegar, red chili sauce, chili powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and salt.
  • Add the chicken to a slow cooker, pour the mixture over the chicken.
  • Pour the beer into the slow cooker.
  • Cook on low for 6 hours, or high for 3 hours. Remove the chicken, shread with two forks, set aside.
  • Add the sauce and cornstarch to a pot over medium high heat, bring to a boil. Boil, stirring frequently until thickened, about 8 minutes.
  • Add the chicken to the sauce, stir to coat (you can add to a slow cooker on a warm setting until ready to serve, if needed).
  • Add to slider buns before serving.

I use this slow cooker (affiliate link).

Slow Cooker Honey Chili Pulled Beer Chicken Sliders-5

Gochujang Beer Cheese Dip and Is Gochujang The New Sriracha?

02.09.2015 8 Comments

Gochujang Beer Cheese Dip and Is Gochujang The New Sriracha?

Gochujang Beer Cheese Dip -5

There are similarities, I’ll be honest.

Spicy red sauces, with fermented ingredients, originally from the Far East. Americans "discovered" these sauces, that have been around for generations in other countries, and decide they are the hot "new" thing. Clearly, Sriracha and Gochujang have a lot in common. Although the latter doesn’t have its own documentary and two best-selling cookbooks, but there’s still time.

So what is Gochujang? It’s a spicy, slightly sweet sauce with a nice acidic backbone. It’s also so popular that it’s now found at Target. It’s a way to branch out, to try something new, to expand the pantry of flavors that you go to when you want to add some heat, or some big flavors. It’s best added to something else – it’s pretty intense on it’s own – not unlike Sriracha, a little goes a long way. It’s a great way to add some spice to your favorite homemade BBQ sauce, or transform a standard chicken recipe. It’s absolutely a sauce you should seek out and figure out how to use. But until Rogue Ales makes a beer with it, it’ll always take second place to the Rooster Sauce.

Gochujang Beer Cheese Dip -7

Gochujang Beer Cheese Dip and Is Gochujang The New Sriracha?

Print Recipe
Servings 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 16 wt oz cream cheese
  • 6 wt oz shredded mozzarella about 1 ¾ cups
  • 3.5 wt oz shredded white cheddar about 1 cup
  • ¼ cup Gochujang Korean hot sauce*
  • 2 tbs cornstarch
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • 1 cup IPA or Pale Ale Beer

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400.
  • Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor, process until smooth.
  • Add to an oven safe dish.
  • Bake for 20 minutes or until warmed through.

Notes

-Dip can be made a day or two ahead, the flavors continue to deepen as the dip chills. Refrigerate until ready to serve, bake just prior to serving.
-Look for Gochujang in the Asian section of your local market, or buy online.
Gochujang Beer Cheese Dip -1

Beer Brined Faux-tisserie Roast Chicken

26.08.2015 7 Comments

Beer Brined Faux-tisserie Roast Chicken -1

Fill your glass. Fill your stomach. Fill your heart.

Roast chicken, accompanied by an opened bottled of hard to find beer, is the way to communicate comfort from the kitchen. It’s a dish that’s been made billions of times, with just as many variations, a dish that can grace the silk covered tables of the finest dinning establishments, as well as the wobbly legged formica tables of the humblest of houses. It’s beautiful, perfect in its simplicity, comforting, and elegant without being pretentious. It’s a last meal, a lazy Sunday supper, and a first date dish. It’s a meal I’ll make over and over until I’m hardly able to lift myself into a kitchen to cook anything, well into my 90’s. I do, after all, plan to live to be 100, cooking the entire time.

Roast chicken is a classic dish that every home cook should master. It’s a recipe to make in a traditional fashion, and then after you’ve master the preparation, find your own variation. Maybe the first recipe you invent all on your own. The recipe that you’ll become known for, the one you’ll pass on, as you make your way towards living to be 100.

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Beer Brined Faux-tisserie Roast Chicken

Print Recipe
Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp whole cloves
  • 1 tbs whole peppercorns
  • 1/3 cup kosher salt
  • 2 cups ice
  • 22 oz wheat beer or brown ale
  • 1 5 lb whole chicken, inside cavity cleared
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp baking powder this will help crisp the skin
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp dried thyme
  • ½ tsp salt plus additional for potatoes
  • ½ tsp black pepper plus additional for potatoes
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • ½ tsp brown sugar
  • 1 lbs red potatoes quartered
  • 1/2 lbs Brussels sprouts cut in half
  • 1 tbs olive oil

Instructions
 

  • Add the water, cloves, peppercorns, and salt to a large stock pot or Dutch oven (this will eventually be the brining vessel for your chicken, make sure it’s large enough to accommodate). Bring to a simmer, stirring just until the salt has dissolved, remove from heat. Stir in the ice, and ale. Allow to cool to room temperate.
  • Add the chicken to the pot (make sure the liquid has cooled first), cover and refrigerate for 12 hours and up to 3 days (to save time, this step can be done as soon as you return from the market with the chicken, and the chicken can be stored in the brine until ready to use, up to three days).
  • Remove the chicken from the brine, rinse well, inside and out, pat dry. Allow to sit at room temperate for 20 minuets, to drain and dry.
  • Preheat oven to 300.
  • In a small bowl stir together the paprika, baking powder, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, ½ teaspoon salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper and brown sugar, set aside.
  • Add the potatoes and Brussels sprouts in an even layer in the bottom of a 10-inch cast iron skillet, cut side down. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • Add the chicken to the skillet on top of the vegetables. Rub chicken well with the spice mixture on all sides, coating the skin.
  • Cook the chicken at 300 for 40 minutes (this low heat will help render fat and crisp the skin).
  • Turn heat to 425, cook for 20-30 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and the internal temperate of the chicken reaches 165. Remove from oven, allow to rest for five minutes before carving.

Notes

The vegetables act as a rack in this recipe, as well as a nice side dish. If you are going to skip them, cook the chicken on a wire rack over a baking sheet, or in a roasting rack in a roasting pan. This will keep the bottom of the skin from getting soggy.

Beer Brined Faux-tisserie Roast Chicken -4

Belgian Ale Brined Lamb Rib Rack with Goat Cheese Polenta with Crispy Sage

21.08.2015 3 Comments

Belgian Ale Brined Lamb Rib Rack with Goat Cheese Polenta. We’re getting fancy because I believe in you.  
Belgian Ale Brined Lamb Rib Rack with Goat Cheese Polenta -3

I made this because I believe in you.

I used to skim recipes, across cookbooks, websites, and magazines, looking for a few things. Of course, my eyes always went right for the recipes with the photos, because I had a hard time imagining the final product, and if I’d want it in my face, without that visual. I’d look for words I recognized, ingredients I was familiar with, techniques I’d preformed with previous success.

And then something happened. A bit slowly, a bit all at once, mostly just a rebellion from what I was used to. I started to seek out the recipes most distant from what I was used to. Ingredients I’d never used, equipment I had to buy, recipes that I didn’t even know how to pronounce. I’d drive to three stores looking for an ingredient only to discover I was just looking for in the wrong section of the grocery store.

A few things happened.

First, I realized that I had no business skipping steps or deleting ingredients. Second, I found that most of these recipes, even the fancy sounding one and sometimes especially the fancy sounding ones, were really quite simple. Like creme brûlée, and duck confit. I’d found recipes that I’d fallen in love with, that made me so excited about cooking I couldn’t stop talking about them like a love-sick teenager.

If you haven’t done this fall-in-love-with-food thing yet, it sometimes has less to do with the food and more about your own ability to produce it. Stepping back, so amazed at what you were able to do you feel the need to announce the dish and introduce it to the table.

Do this. Find a recipe, or a couple, and fall in love with them.

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Belgian Ale Brined Lamb Rib Rack with Goat Cheese Polenta with Crispy Sage

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

For the lamb:

  • 2 lamb ribs racks 1.5 to 2 lbs total
  • 1 tbs kosher or sea salt
  • 12 ounces Belgian ale
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tbs fresh sage cut into thin strips

For the polenta

  • 3 tbs unsalted butter
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 1 cup Saison beer or wheat beer, can sub with chicken broth
  • 1 cup dry polenta
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp oinion powder
  • 3 ounces crumbled goat cheese

Instructions
 

  • Sprinkle the lamb with salt on all sides, add to a large Ziplock bag or small baking dish. Pour beer over the lamb, seal bag (or cover bowl). Refrigerate for 6 hours and up to 24.
  • Remove from beer, rinse and pat dry. Allow to sit at room temperate for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with pepper.
  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet until hot but not smoking. Add the sage, cook until slightly crispy and dry looking, about 2 minutes. Remove from oil, allow to drain on paper towels.
  • Add the lamb, searing on all sides until browned, about 3 minutes.
  • Transfer the pan to oven, allowing lamb to cook until it reaches an internal temperate of 120 to 125 (use a meat thermometer), about 10 minutes.
  • Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
  • In a pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add milk, bring to a simmer.
  • Whisk in the polenta, once the pot starts to look dry and the milk is mostly obsorbed, add the beer. Simmer until polenta is tender and thickened, whisking occasionally, about 18 minutes.
  • Stir in salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
  • Plate the polenta, sprinkle with goat cheese.
  • Cut the lamb between the bones, plate over polenta, sprinkle with crispy sage.

Oh hey! My new cookbooks is available now, and it’s the #1 new release in appetizer cookbooks!

Check it out: The Craft Beer Bites Cookbook

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Chocolate Belgian Ale Pull-Apart Breakfast Loaf

19.08.2015 15 Comments

 

Chocolate Belgian Ale Brioche Pull Apart Breakfast Loaf -1

I made you something.

It took me a year.

Beer Bites Cover photo-3

Right after I made the big move from Los Angeles to Seattle, I spent the better part of last year holed up in my tiny wooden house writing my second cookbook,The Craft Beer Bites Cookbook. It’s the follow-up to my first book, The Craft Beer Cookbook (affiliate link), 

This new cookbook is a book dedicated to the community that craft beer creates.

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Craft Beer Bites is 100 recipes for appetizers and party food all made with craft beer. It’s a book made for gatherings, for sharing great food and hard to find bottles. For bringing people together and reminding us what made us all a community in the first place.

Craft beer is built in community, in pubs and bottle shops, small packs of people just as excited to be together as they are to explore the beer at the center of the table. We need food for these get-togethers. And that’s what this book is about.

I hope you love it as much as I do.

Chocolate Belgian Ale Brioche Pull Apart Breakfast Loaf -4

Chocolate Belgian Ale Pull-Apart Breakfast Loaf

A delicious breakfast loaf that can be made ahead, and the perfect dish for brunch get togethers.
Print Recipe
Servings 6 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 2 ½ cups 320g all purpose flour
  • ¼ cup plus 1 tbs granulated sugar divided
  • 1 packet rapid rise yeast 2 ¼ tsp
  • ¾ cup wheat beer
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 large egg yolk room temperature
  • ¼ cup heavy cream room temperature
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 tbs softened butter
  • 3.5 wt oz chocolate chopped
  • Powdered sugar optional

Instructions
 

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook add the flour, ¼ cup granulated sugar and yeast.
  • Add the beer to a microwave safe bowl, microwave on high for 20 seconds, test temperate and repeat until beer reaches between 120F and 130F degrees.
  • Add the beer to the stand mixer, mix until most of the flour has been moistened.
  • Add the vanilla then the yolks, one at a time. Add the cream and salt.
  • Building up speed, beat on high until the dough comes together and gathers around the blade. The dough will be very soft.
  • Add dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
  • Add dough to a lightly floured surface, roll into an 18 x 24 inch rectangle.
  • In a small bowl stir together the softened butter and the remaining 1 tablespoons sugar.
  • Spread the dough with the butter.
  • Cut the dough into strips about 3 inches wide. Cut each of the strips into 4 to 5 rectangles, each should be about the size of a deck of cards. You should have between 12 and 15 pieces. Sprinkle the pieces with the chopped chocolate, then stack up each one on top of another in a tower. Lay the stack into a loaf pan, like placing books on a shelf.
  • If making the loaf the night before, cover and allow to rise in the fridge for 12 hours. Reheat the oven to 350F, allow the loaf to come to room temperate while the oven is pre-heating. Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.
  • If making the day of, preheat oven to 350F, allow to sit at room temperate until doubled in size, about 20 minutes .Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.
  • Remove from loaf pan, sprinkle with powdered sugar prior to serving.

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Lemon Beer Pound Cake

14.08.2015 5 Comments

Lemon Beer Pound Cake

Lemon Beer Pound Cake

I’ve always been an adventurous eater.

I ate ants in Colombia, snake meat in Greece, mint tea made with a brown liquid I couldn’t identify in Morocco. If it’s new to me, I want to try it. I want to eat all the things, even if I know I’ll hate them. Even the few things I can’t stand, like pears, bananas, and raw celery, if you make them in a way that’s new and exciting, I’ll dive right in. Even if I know with every ounce of certainty that I’ll hate it. Curiosity rules my decision making at time. Even in the midst of my eat-all-the-things ambition, I have a true love for simple food done well.

It took years for me to figure out how to make the perfect steak, and how to cook ribs at home that taste like a southern BBQ, and how to make mac n cheese that’s creamy out of the oven. Sometimes, simple is the most beautiful.

Lemon pound cake is a simple but beautiful food. It’s perfect early in the morning with coffee, or late at night with a beer or a classic rye Old Fashioned. My main goal was the perfect icing. I wanted that thick layer that sits on top like a crown, not dripping down that side. I wanted coffee shop style icing. I figured out that a thick paste, spread on while the cake was still in the pan, then chilled for an hour gave me that gorgeous look. Although I do think this version is better for late-night-with-booze consumption than those cakes served in the morning. But it’s your call.

Lemon Beer Pound Cake -2

 

Lemon Beer Pound Cake

Print Recipe
Servings 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tbs lemon zest
  • 1 ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tbs butter softened
  • 3 eggs room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup wheat beer
  • 3 tbs olive oil
  • 1 ¾ cups flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Glaze:
  • 2 cups 1/2 lbs powdered sugar
  • pinch salt
  • 2 tsp lemon juice*
  • ½ tsp water

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 325.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer add the lemon zest and sugar. Beat for about 2 minutes on high to release the lemon oils into the sugar.
  • Add the butter, beat until well combined.
  • Add the eggs and vanilla, one at a time, beating well between additions.
  • Add the lemon juice, beer and olive oil , beating until well combined, scraping the bottom of the mixer to insure all ingredients are well incorporated.
  • Stop the mixer and sprinkle with flour baking powder, baking soda and salt, sitr until just combined.
  • Pour into a large loaf pan that has been greased.
  • Bake at 325 for 55 o 60 minutes or until cake is golden brown and tooth pick inserted in the center comes back with just a few crumbs attached. Allow to cool completely.
  • Stir together the powdered sugar lemon juice and salt to make a thick paste. Spread over the top of the cake, chill until set about 3 hours. Cake is best made a day ahead of time.
  • Substitute all of some of the beer to increase the beer flavor.

Notes

Substitute all of some of the lemon juice in the glaze to increase the beer flavor.

Lemon Beer Pound Cake -4

Sugar Beer Doughnut Holes

12.08.2015 5 Comments

Sugar Beer Doughnut Holes-2

Sugar Beer Doughnut Holes

Sugar Beer Doughnut Holes-1

This is my go-to.

It’s been my summer backyard party staple. It’s what I’ve been making for months when I get the invite to "come over, we’re making food, just bring whatever." It’s all the things I look for in bring-to-a-party food.

It transports well, it sits at room temperature for a long time without concern, and it’s impressive. I know that last part makes me a bit of an over-foodie asshole, but I can’t change now.

If you’ve never made doughnuts, it’s really pretty simple, and there is only one major concern: temperature. Twice, you have to concern yourself with temperate in order for these to turn out perfect, but other than that, it’s pretty simple.

Sugar Beer Doughnut Holes-4

First is yeast temperate. For rapid rise yeast, the liquid (in this case beer) needs to be between 120F and 130F, too low and it won’t get a good rise, too high and you’ll kill the yeast. If you aren’t sure what temperate to use, always (always) use the temperate listed on the package of yeast, not the temperate listed in the recipe. Always.

Second, you’ll have to worry about the deep fry oil. I own a small deep fryer, because of course I own a deep fryer, and it maintains the temperate all on its own. But before I did, I just used the Dutch oven filled with a few inches of canola oil.

Clip a deep-fry thermometer onto the side, make sure the tip doesn’t touch the bottom (not even for a second, just to see how it feels), and adjust the oil temperate to keep it between 350F and 375F.

Those are the big battles, and really, it’s not that bad. And at the end of it all, you get to show up with 36 homemade doughnut holes, and that’s worth all that temperate worry. You deserve a beer.

Sugar Beer Doughnut Holes-2

 

Sugar Beer Doughnut Holes

Print Recipe
Servings 36 doughnut holes

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups 360g all purpose flour
  • ¼ cup plus 1 cup, granulated sugar, divided
  • 1 packet rapid rise yeast 2 ¼ tsp
  • ¾ cup wheat beer
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 large egg yolk room temperature
  • ¼ cup heavy cream room temperature
  • 1 tsp salt
  • oil for frying

Instructions
 

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook add the flour, ¼ cup sugar and yeast.
  • Add the beer to a microwave safe bowl, microwave on high for 20 seconds, test temperate and repeat until beer reaches between 120 and 130 degrees F.
  • Add the beer to the stand mixer, mix until most of the flour has been moistened.
  • Add the vanilla then the yolks, one at a time. Add the cream and salt.
  • Building up speed, beat on high until the dough comes together and gathers around the blade.
  • The dough will be very soft.
  • Add dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
  • Punch down the dough and knead lightly to remove any air bubbles. Place dough in the fridge and allow to rest for 1 hour.
  • Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1-inch thickness. Cut doughnuts into circles using a 2-inch round biscuit cutter.
  • Place doughnuts on a baking sheet that has been covered with parchment paper. Loosly cover with a towel.
  • Allow to rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
  • Fill a large heavy bottomed saucepan with canola oil until about 4 inches deep. Add a deep fry thermometer and bring oil to about 360 degrees, adjusting heat to maintain temperature.
  • Working in batches, fry the doughnuts on each side until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes per side. Remove from oil and allow to cool on a wire rack.
  • Place remaining 1 cup sugar in a small bowl. One at a time roll the cooled doughnuts in the sugar, add to a serving tray. Serve immediately.

 

Sriracha Honey Beer Brussels Sprouts

05.08.2015 8 Comments

Sriracha Honey Beer Brussels Sprouts -3

Beer Is For Everyone: A Party Theme

Summer is rapidly hurling towards Fall, and your barefoot in the backyard days are numbered, it’s time to actually host a party instead of just saying, "we should" until the moment passes. It’s that moment. The one that you usually let get away from you, and then wonder why.

Here’s how you do it, step by step:

1. Invite people. This is the first step because it forces you to take the rest, you’re locked in. Plus it only takes a second (unless you’re like me and you prefer to hand-make invites. Which would make you a crazy person, and you’re not. Be grateful.) Choose a mix of people, and don’t let the "doesn’t drink beer" designation deter you from inviting anyone. They will like something, and it will surprise them.

2. Beer selection. You want a huge variety of beer, not just the beer you like. Go to a large bottle shop, the bigger the better, the selection will be the best and the knowledge of the sales people will likely be the most broad. Hit several major categories, and a few out of the box beers, like this: a wet hopped IPA, a double IPA, a balanced pale ale, a cream ale, a saison, a wheat beer, a brown ale, a porter, Belgian dubbel, sour beer, a fruit beer (like one brewed with peaches—perfect for summer), a spicy beer, a smoked beer and a craft cider. Sounds like a lot, but a bomber of each beer will give everyone a taste, just enough to know if they want more. Try to get 2 bombers (22 ounce, large bottle)of  beers per person. Err on the side of more, you can always keep what you don’t open.

3. Glassware. There are often things we do that are just to wallow in our own craft-beer-geek-infatuations, this isn’t one of them. Glassware makes a huge difference. Have you ever drank wine out of a coffee mug? That’s the difference between proper glassware and a shaker pint. For a beer tasting, get half pint glasses, perfect for sampling. I use these ones.

4. Food. It’s important. It’s a way to balance the flavors and explore pairings. More importantly, eating is essential when drinking as a way to stay on the controlled end of the drunk/sober spectrum. You want to serve a few things that pair well with a variety of beers and that can sit at room temperate for a while. A few to consider: Porter Caramelized Onion Flatbreads with Smoked Gouda and Roasted Tomatoes, Goat Cheese Crostini with Beer Pickled Jalapenos and Mangos, Beer Braised Pulled Pork Sliders with Chipotle Beer Cheese Sauce, Grilled BBQ Beer Chicken and Apricot Flatbreads, Beer and Bacon Dip.

5. Judge away. Save all those judgmental thoughts that you want to pour inappropriately onto your Facebook friends and strangers at the market, for beer. It’s ok to judge beer, just reserve your feelings until after you’ve tasted it. Here are beer-judge rules for people new to beer: before tasting you can only state facts not opinions (it’s dark, it smells like fruit, it’s more carbonated that the other beers), once you’ve tasted it state three observations, decide if it makes you want more even if you don’t know why. Let your guests decide what they like best, and what they like least, even if they can’t explain why.

Now you’re ready to throw a craft beer party, and prove that beer really is for everyone.

Sriracha Honey Beer Brussels Sprouts -2

Sriracha Honey Beer Brussels Sprouts

Print Recipe
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 4 side dish portions

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tbs honey
  • 1 tbs sririacha
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 lbs Brussels sprouts trimmed and cut in half
  • 1/3 cup wheat beer

Instructions
 

  • In a small bowl stir together the honey, sriracha, salt, and pepper, set aside.
  • Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet, add the Brussels sprouts, cut side down. Cook until just starting to brown.
  • Lower heat to medium low, drizzle with sriracha mixture, then pour the beer over. Simmer until sprouts are fork tender and beer has cooked off, about 8 minutes.

Sriracha Honey Beer Brussels Sprouts -4

20 minute Chicken in Roasted Tomato Brown Ale Herb Sauce

29.07.2015 1 Comment

20 minute Chicken in Roasted Tomato Brown Ale Herb Sauce -4

We are in transition.

As much as we want to burry our summer heads in the warm beach sand and ignore the impending fall, we’re only a few weeks away for the hectic pace that September thrust onto our slightly sun seared bodies. Take a breath, take a moment, plan your last few weekends, breath in the warm air floating into your car windows as you wind down the road. Make a plan right this minute to take a trip to the brewery you’ve been neglecting, the one with the killer patio and perfect beer flight.

Once the summer starts to slip away, we’ll have brown ales to ease the transitions. Brown ales never get enough credit. They will never be as sexy as a sour, or as hip as a triple IPA, or as seductive as a barrel aged stout, but they might just be the perfect food pairing beer. The roasty flavors, the malty notes, the kiss of hops, it all plays so well with a spectrum of culinary offerings.

Don’t underestimate the humble brown ale, don’t overlook it for the sas of a Belgian dubbel. Give a brown a try with some food, smoked gouda, or barbecued pork ribs, carnitas tacos, jambalaya, roasted chicken, and pretty much anything that includes caramelized onions, brown ales will knock that pairing out of the park. Brown ales might just be what will get us through the transition out of summer.

20 minute Chicken in Roasted Tomato Brown Ale Herb Sauce -3

 

20 minute Chicken in Roasted Tomato Brown Ale Herb Sauce

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 3 tbs olive oil divided
  • ¼ cup chopped shallots
  • 1 lbs cherry tomatoes
  • 2 clove garlic minced
  • 3 tbs tomato paste
  • 2/3 cup brown ale
  • 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
  • 2 tsp chopped fresh basil
  • 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
  • ½ tsp salt plus additional for chicken
  • ½ tsp pepper plus additional for chicken
  • 1 lbs boneless skinless chicken (breast of thighs)
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • Rice or pasta for serving

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 425.
  • In a cast iron skillet heat 2 tablespoon olive oil. Add the shallots and tomatoes, cook until they start to brown, about 5 minutes.
  • Stir in the garlic, then the tomato paste, brown ale, rosemary, oregano, basil, salt and pepper.
  • Transfer to the oven, cooking until the tomatoes have broken down, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir in the balsamic vinegar.
  • While the tomatoes cook, make the chicken.
  • Season chicken on all sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
  • Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken, cook on each side until browned and cooked through. Remove from skillet, slice.
  • Plate chicken with tomato sauce for serving. Serve over rice or pasta if desired.

Notes

If using chicken breast, filet the chicken pieces to make them thinner. Cut lengthwise so that no piece of chicken is thicker than ½ inch.

 

 

20 minute Chicken in Roasted Tomato Brown Ale Herb Sauce -1

 

 

 

Hot Beer Fried Chicken and Pepper Biscuits

24.07.2015 5 Comments

Hot Beer Fried Chicken and Pepper Biscuits -2

It’s a hectic Wednesday morning and I’m trying to get it all straight in my head. I have emails to answer, deliverables to finishes, calls to make. It makes me want to shut down. I’m not organized, that side of this slightly insane job that I’ve chosen for myself makes me want to crawl under a pile of coats, shut my eyes and pretend like it doesn’t exist. So I do what I do when I’m stressed out, I bake. Fortunately for my skinny jeans, I’m not a stress eater, I’m just a stress baker. I just want to make it, the process calms me down. It’s a small win for me when other things in my life have weighted me down, this tips the boat back upright, even if just for a few minutes.

Chicken and biscuits do it every time. Nothing soothes like an emotional salve  the way the comfort food miracle cure of fried chicken does. Of course biscuits have been my go-to for years, just about 8 minutes and the smell of homemade biscuits starts to solve minor emotional problems. You can keep the lavender bath salts and the vanilla scented candles, I’ll take the smell of fried chicken, hot biscuits and a hoppy beer. Someone needs to make bath salts that smell like that. It’s way better than pumpkin spice.

Hot Beer Fried Chicken and Pepper Biscuits

Hot Beer Fried Chicken and Pepper Biscuits

Print Recipe
Servings 8 biscuits

Ingredients
  

For the biscuits:

  • 3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 8 tbs unsalted cold butter cut into cubes
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 2/3 cup wheat beer
  • 2 tbs melted butter
  • ¼ tsp course sea salt

For the chicken

  • 1 cup pale ale
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 1 tbs hot pepper sauce I used Chipotle Tabasco
  • 1 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cut into 2 inch strips
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp salt
  • Honey optional

Instructions
 

Make the biscuits:

  • Preheat oven to 425F.
  • In a processor add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper and sugar.
  • Pulse to combine. Add the cold butter, process until well combined. Add to a large bowl.
  • Add the buttermilk and beer. Mix with a fork until just combined.
  • Add to a well-floured flat surface, pat into a rectangle. Using a cold rolling pin (preferably marble) gently roll into a large rectangle, about 1 inch in thickness, using as few strokes as possible.
  • Fold the dough into thirds as you would a letter about to go into an envelope. Roll lightly, once in each direction to about 1 inch thickness, fold in thirds again. Gently roll into about 1 1/2 inch thickness (this will give you flakey layers).
  • Using a biscuit cutter cut out 6 to 8 biscuits. Place in a baking pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
  • Brush biscuits with melted butter, sprinkle salt.
  • Bake at 425 for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Make the chicken:

  • Add the pale ale, milk and Tabasco to a bowl. Add the chicken, cover with plastic wrap, place in the refrigerator and allow to chill for at least one hour and up to over night.
  • Add 3 to 4 inches of vegetable oil to a pot, clip a deep fry thermometer onto the side, heat oil to 375. Adjust heat to maintain that temperature.
  • In a medium sized bowl stir together the flour, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder and salt.
  • One at a time remove the chicken from the marinade. Add to the flour bowl, tossing to coat, place it back into the milk bowl until covered with milk, then back into the flour bowl until well coated with flour.
  • Add chicken to a wire rack that has been placed over a baking sheet. Repeat for the rest of the chicken pieces. Then add to the fryer. Fryer until golden brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes.Return to the wire rack (this will kip it cripsy on all sides, Placing on a paper towel will make the under side soggy. Place in a 175F oven for up to 2 hours to make ahead.)
  • Split the biscuits adding one chicken per biscuit, drizzle chicken with honey (if desired) before adding top biscuit. .

Hot Beer Fried Chicken and Pepper Biscuits -3

Grilled Chili Lime Beer Shrimp

22.07.2015 4 Comments

Chili Lime Beer Shrimp -1

I was at a brewery in Southern California early last year and a brewer handed me a small cup of warm wort to sample from a batch he was in the middle of brewing. "What is it?" I asked. He shrugged.

"It was a bunch of leftover bits from bags and batches. I just decided to brew something with it. Maybe a Hoppy Brown Porter? or…an India Chocolate Ale..with… Never mind. I have no idea."

Unlike wine, which is often labeled for the grapes that produced it, beer is hard to name. Sure, there are certain designations that make it easy to classify some brews, but there is plenty of beer that doesn’t fit any category. This isn’t a problem as much as it’s an opportunity. It’s evidence that beer is evolving at a pace so rapid, categories have a hard time keeping up.

Chili Lime Beer Shrimp -4

In 1987 the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) had just 12 categories in which to award medals. In 2015, there was 92, many with subcategories. It’s a spectacular example of the evolution of beer.

For this recipe, I used a beer with a designation that’s only been recognized for the past handful of years: the Black IPA. Also called a Cascading Dark Ale or American Black Ale, it’s a hybrid of different styles. It has the looks of a porter with the spirit of an IPA. It has a bit of the roasty characters of a darker beer, but tastes light and hoppy like an IPA. Should you try it? Absolutely. Will you love it? Who knows, but at least you’ll have tried it. That’s part of the adventure of beer.

A few to try:

Bear Republic // Black Racer

Deschutes // Hop in the Dark

21st Amendment // Back in Black 

Southern Tier // Iniquity

Founders Inspired  // Artist Black IPA

Chili Lime Beer Shrimp -3

 

 

Grilled Chili Lime Beer Shrimp

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp honey
  • ½ tsp fresh garlic grated with a microplane
  • 2 tbs fresh lime juice
  • ½ cup beer black IPA, or hoppy red ale will work great
  • 1 lbs raw shrimp
  • ¼ cup chopped cilantro

Instructions
 

  • In small bowl add the cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, chili, garlic powder, honey, garlic, lime juice and beer.
  • Add the shrimp to a large re-sealable plastic bag, pour the marinade over the shrimp. Chill and allow to marinate for 1 hour and up to 24.
  • Preheat the grill to medium high.
  • Skewer the shrimp on metal or pre-soaked wooden skewers.
  • Grill until cooked through, about 2 minutes per side, don’t over cook.
  • Sprinkle with cilantro.

 

 

Blackberry Beer Cheesecake Tart

17.07.2015 14 Comments

Blackberry Beer Cheesecake Tart--4

Blackberry Beer Cheesecake Tart

I’m sitting at a bar in Bogota, Colombia, communicating the best I can through broken Spanish. Laughing with several kitchen’s worth of chef’s, trying to convince them that, even though I nearly passed out from the altitude, and I’m in fact, not pregnant. They motion with their hands to create invisible fake bellies, then laugh. They point at my beer, "No, no! No good for baby!" we all laugh.

I’d spent most of the week with them, redoing the menus at the Bogota Brewing Company's pubs. A trip that I can’t wait to tell you more about, a trip that was nothing short of life changing. I’m sitting at the bar, finishing a Champinero Porter, one of the best porters I’ve had in a long time and I think about the choices I’ve made that lead me down this rabbit hole. I must have done something right. I’ve made strange choices in my life, some terrible, some mediocre, some harmful, but I must have done something right. Grateful isn’t a strong enough word. I can’t find the right way to express how I’m feeling, not in English, certainly not in Spanish. So I finish my beer, laugh at the implication that I’m pregnant, hug them all and thank them. It’s been an incredible trip, an unforgettable country, and outstanding people.

Blackberry Beer Cheesecake Tart--4

 

Blackberry Beer Cheesecake Tart

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

For the cheesecake tart:

  • 1 sheet puff pastry thawed
  • 24 ounces cream cheese
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbs flour
  • 2 tbs corn starch
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ cup saison beer or wheat beer

For the blackberry layer:

  • 3 cups 12 wt oz blackberries
  • 1 cup saison or wheat beer
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tbs cornstarch
  • 1 tsp salt

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 300.
  • Add the blackberries, saison, powdered sugar, cornstarch and salt to a pot over medium high heat. Bring to a low boil, stirring frequently until thickened, about ten minutes. Set aside.
  • Roll out puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Line a 9-inch spring form pan, letting the less hang over the sides. .
  • Beat the cream cheese in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla, beating until well combined. Add the flour, cornstarch, salt and beer, stir on low speed until well combined.
  • Add to the spring form pan in an even layer.
  • Pour the blackberry sauce evenly over the cheesecake layer. Fold the excess puff pastry over the top of the tart.
  • Bake at 300 for 1 hour or until the puff pastry is golden brown. Allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours and up to over night.

Pork Ribs with Chipotle Peach Beer Barbecue Sauce

10.07.2015 3 Comments

Pork Ribs with Chipotle Peach Beer Barbecue Sauce

Pork Ribs with Chipotle Peach Beer Barbecue Sauce

Maybe it’s because I’m writing this from 30,000 feet above Houston, Texas, en route to South America, that I feel compelled to tell you that American Barbecue has nothing to do with your backyard grill.

Sure there are similarities, the flames, the metal grates, the brave souls with large metal cooking implements poking at the meat from a safe distance. But it’s the difference that makes the biggest impact on your final results.

Barbecue gives us the gorgeous smoky flavors, the fall off the bone meat, the get-your-shirt-messy eating experience because of a cooking method that’s long, slow and low. Grilling is quick, hot and high. Real, true barbecue is a process that takes hours, even days to complete.

Pork Ribs with Chipotle Peach Beer Barbecue Sauce-3

The low temperature renders the fat, infusing the meat, injecting it with flavor and giving you that tender fall-apart texture. Your oven can do this slow and low cooking as well, it just takes time.

It’s the best way to cook ribs at home, no other method can compare to the tender texture, caramelized sauce, and flavors that taste as close to true smoky barbecue as you can get in your own house.

It takes time, as true barbecue should. The meat melts off the bone, the sauce is caramelized and just a little sticky. You’ll need plenty of napkins and a couple beers to make this a meal. And it’s worth every second you spent cooking it.

Pork Ribs with Chipotle Peach Beer Barbecue Sauce-2

 

 

Pork Ribs with Chipotle Peach Beer Barbecue Sauce

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

For the sauce:

  • 1 pound fresh yellow peaches
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
  • ¼ cup chopped shallots
  • ¼ cup cider vinegar
  • ½ cup stout beer
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 2 teaspoons molasses not blackstrap
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 chipotle chilies chopped
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard

For the ribs:

  • 3 lbs pork ribs
  • salt

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 450.
  • Slice the peaches in half, remove the pit. Place cut side down on a baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
  • Roast until skin starts to pull away from the peach, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven, gently peel away and discard skin.
  • Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium high heat, add the shallots, cooking until slightly browned, about 5 minutes.
  • Stir in the vinegar, beer, honey, molasses, brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, chipotles, smoked paprika, and mustard powder, bring to a simmer.
  • Add the peaches, stirring occasionally, until peaches have broken down, about ten minutes. Remove from heat.
  • Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth (alternately, you can allow the sauce to cool slightly and blend in an upright blender.) Sauce can be made several days in advance.
  • Lower oven temperature to 250.
  • Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the ribs on the baking sheet, sprinkle on all sides with salt.
  • Brush liberally with sauce on all sides.
  • Cook for 30 minutes, remove from oven, brush on all sides with sauce and return to oven. Repeat this step for 4 hours, brushing with sauce every 30 minutes, until meat easily pulls away from the bone and sauce has caramelized

No-Yeast 20-Minute Beer Flatbread

08.07.2015 13 Comments

No yeast 20-minute Beer Flat Bread

No Yeast 20-minute Beer Flatbread

No yeast 20-minute Beer Flat Bread

I was trapped in the back of a rug factory in Morocco when I realized how relative things are.

I was sitting on a stool made out of a block of wood, walls made of thick adobe all around me, the large wooden door had been slammed shut and locked with a steel bar. Mid-day sunlight fell through the window at the very top of the wall behind me. Two men threw rugs on the ground in front of me and my sister, yelling obscene prices at us in strong ascents. "Only seven thousand! This one, good deal, it’s only three thousand five hundred. This one, it’s for you, just six thousand!"

I’m in shock. It took me six months to save for the trip, there was no way I could afford a rug that cost about a third the retail value of my car. They stop the rapid rug toss to pressure me about buying one.

"Listen, I can’t afford this. I just started paying off my student loans, I have rent, car payment, I don’t have the money to spend seven grand on a rug. Plus shipping."

They laugh. "You’re saying you’re poor? You’re American! You are RICH," they pick up an empty leather pouf,  "You buy this, stuff it with dollar bills!"

I was as scared as I was offended. There were two men and a steel bar between me and freedom. "I’m not rich! Do you know how much rent is in the US? Groceries? Gas? I’m not rich,"

No yeast 20-minute Beer Flat Bread

They laugh even harder, "You have a place to live? Yes? With more than one room and a bathroom, too? You have a car? And you have a refrigerator full of food? You buy new clothes every month, and you have lots of shoes? Am I correct? Look at me," He pauses for dramatic effect, "Little girl, you are rich. Walk out that door, look around, and then you tell me you are not rich." He was right.

I was still scared but no longer offended. I realized how relative everything is, one person’s broke is another person’s rich. I ended the day in a beautiful restaurant, a thing only the richest people in the Medina of Fez, Morocco have ever done. There was chicken in a creamy red sauce, saffron rice, vegetables, small metal bowls of sauces, and soft, homemade bread. There was a beautiful comfort in warm homemade bread. This recipe only takes about 20 minutes, perfect for the next time you need a little gluten comfort.

No yeast 20-minute Beer Flat Bread

No Yeast 20-Minute Beer Flatbread

Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Servings 8 flatbreads

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • ¾ cup plain Greek yogurt not non-fat
  • ¾ cup wheat beer room temperate

Instructions
 

  • In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
  • Make a well in the center, add the oil, yogurt and beer.
  • Stir until the dough comes together. Transfer to a lightly floured surface, knead for about 6 minutes.
  • Cut into 8 sections, form into balls. Cover and allow to rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
  • Lightly oil a cast iron skillet, heat to medium high.
  • Press the balls into 6 inch disks.
  • Cook the disks in the skillet until lightly browned on each side and cooked through, about 3 minutes per side.
  • Serve warm.

 

Beer Bread Grilled Beer Cheese Sandwich with Bacon

22.06.2015 7 Comments

Beer Bread Grilled Beer Cheese Sandwich with Bacon

Beer Bread Grilled Beer Cheese Sandwich with Bacon

Grilled Cheese & Gratitude

I was standing in the kitchen of a group home, talking to a 15-year-old foster kid when I learned what gratitude really  was. (Before I became a full-time food and beer writer, I worked with foster and probation kids in South Central LA, you can read more about that here and here)

He was skinny, his Hanes t-shirt nearly swallowing him up as it hung down past his waist over his dark sweat pants that pooled around the China Town slippers on his feet. "How lucky are we?!" He peels a few slices off the block of government issue cheese, a long, unnaturally orange-colored rectangle housed in a cardboard tube. I was as amused as I was confused.

He could tell I wanted more, "Well, the last place I lived we didn’t ever really have bread. It was always moldy. And the place before that, we NEVER had cheese, that was like, a luxurious thing and all, and then before that the stove aint never worked…" He smeared both sides of the bread with the contents of an oversized tub of margarine, filled the two slices of bread with at least five pieces of cheese, and gently set it in a hot pan that screamed a victorious sizzle in response. "See!" the sound thrilled him, "We got, like…MAD cheese up in here, they don’t even care when I use like a grip of slices. And look at all this butter! This thing HUGE! and we got bread for days!" he claps his hands, thrilled at the bounty that the group home kitchen provided.

I’d read his file at the office before I headed over to meet him. Absent biological father, mother was abusive and her whereabouts are now unknown. He was placed in a state run group home after several reports of abuse by his previous foster parents. I look at him, a genuine smile on his face, and I think about the night before.  I’d been in Hollywood, chasing a sullen fashion model around The Grafton, trying to keep her out of trouble. She was the girlfriend of a musician friend of mine, and I was trying to avoid press nightmare if she’d been able to follow through with the crazy that her anger was begging her to perform. I’d pushed her into a alcove by the ice machine and commanded  her to talk to me about why she was so upset. Tears streaming down her gorgeous face, onto her three thousand dollar dress, "I can’t go to London with him because I have this stupid print ad to shoot tomorrow. My condo is being renovated so I have to stay at a hotel…And I forgot my Prada jacket! I hate everything…."

I think about this, about the conversation I’d had the night before as I watch him finish up his grilled cheese. I realize that gratitude and happiness have nothing to do with circumstances. You can decide to focus on every great thing in your life, no matter how small, or you can decide to focus on what’s broken. It’s your choice.

Choose wisely.

 

Beer Bread Grilled Beer Cheese Sandwich with Bacon-4

 

I used Fort George Omegatex in the filling, and to wash it all down with. 

Beer Bread Grilled Beer Cheese Sandwich with Bacon

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 12 ounces beer summer ale, wheat beer, saison, pilsner
  • ¼ cup melted butter
  • 8 wt oz cream cheese
  • 1 cup 2.5 wt oz shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1/3 cup IPA beer
  • ½ tsp sriracha
  • 1 tbs cornstarch
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ cup softened butter
  • 4 strips bacon cooked

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar. Add the beer, stir until just combined.
  • Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour that batter into the pan in an even layer. Pour the melted butter over the loaf.
  • Bake for 40 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven, allow to cool completely before slicing, chill if necessary.
  • In a food processor add the cream cheese, cheddar, IPA, sriracha, cornstarch and salt, blend until smooth.
  • Slice the bread into 8 slices.
  • Butter one side of each slice.
  • Heat a non-stick pan over medium high heat.
  • Working in batches, place one slice of bread, buttered side down in the pan. Spread with about ¼ cup of the cheese mixture, then a slice of bacon, then another slice of bread, buttered side up.
  • Cook until the bottom bread is slightly browned, then gently flip. Cook on the other side until the bread is golden brown. Serve warm.

 

Beer Bread Grilled Beer Cheese Sandwich with Bacon-7