Elote Pilsner Creamy Polenta with Grilled Tajin Lime Shrimp and Halloumi
Sometimes it feels as if my recipes are just a long string of predictive text that I figure out how to make into a meal. Or I keep trying to one-up myself until I can’t fit anything else in a bowl, but it’s how I like to cook. Layers of things on top of layers of other things. Lots of things crammed into a bowl.
Maybe I’m a bit too much for you, this wouldn’t be an odd thing to think and you wouldn’t be the first one. But I will tell you that you should try, at least once, to be too much. Because we all need to be just a little sick of censoring ourselves for the sake of other people. You should also make some food that is a bit much, just to try it on for size. Maybe you’re like me, and you’ll actually really like a big 'ole layered bowl of too much. It’s fun, you might just want to do it again.
Elote Pilsner Creamy Polenta with Grilled Tajin Lime Shrimp and Halloumi
Add the vegetable broth and beer to a saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer.
Add the grits and salt, simmer, stirring occasionally until the grits have softened.
Stir in the half and half, salt, and garlic powder.
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Brush the corn on all sides with oil, set aside.
Add the shrimp to a bowl, squeeze half of the lime over the shrimp, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon Tajin, toss to coat. Thread onto skewers.
Slice the Halloumi into ½ inch slices, sprinkle on all sides with the remaining Tajin.
Add the corn, shrimp, and Halloumi to the grill, grilling on all sides until shrimp is cooked through and grill marks appear on all.
Cut the kernels of the corn, add to a bowl along with the cilantro, and cotija, toss to combine.
Divide the polenta between 4 bowls, top with corn mixture, crema, tomatoes, shrimp skewers and Halloumi.
Notes
If you don't have Tajin, mix together 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoon chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon cumin.
Blueberry Beer Cream Cheese Cake with Basil Whipped Cream
This might be a giant blueberry muffin with an almost creamy texture, and it might be a cake that doesn’t actually need frosting. Maybe it’s a hybrid, the nexus of two similar foods, a "Cuffin", or a "Make." But don’t overthink it, it’s an easy one-bowl cake and that’s what you need right now. Easy cakes, or big muffins. Or easy big cuffin makes. This is my reality, people. This is what I think about all day!
I wish I could tell you that I’ve been easily quarantining, but instead I’m desperately missing places like this and pondering the union of cake muffins. It’s sad, but there are worse things. I’m healthy, my people are healthy, and I have big cakes in my kitchen, we focus on the good things and start drinking in the early evening (rather than just all day). It’s small wins these days.
Blueberry Beer Cream Cheese Cake with Basil Whipped Cream
Add the butter to a stand mixer, beat on high until fluffy. Add the cream cheese, beat until free of lumps and well combined with the butter.
Add the sugar, beat until well combined.
Beat in the sour cream and the vanilla.
One at a time, beat in the eggs and yolks, mixing well between additions. Stir in the beer.
Stop the mixer and remove the bowl. Sprinkle with flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add the blueberries to the top, making sure the blueberries are coated in flour (coating the blueberries in flour before they're mixed into the batter will prevent them from all sinking to the bottom of the cake while baking).
Using a rubber spatula, gently mix until well combined.
Grease and flour a 9-inch spring form pan.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 325°F for 1 hour and 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and springs back lightly when touched.
Allow to cool before removing from pan.
Add all the whipped cream ingredients to a mixing bowl, beat on high until soft peaks form. Serve the cake topped with whipped cream.
Burrata Burrito with Smoked Salmon and Creamy Beer Pesto
Let’s do something fun, something that doesn’t require a face mask and hand sanitizer. Find your quarantine person and somehow bring up that you want to do a cooking challenge, you against them. But, there are some rules of course.
Rule 1: The dish can’t take more than 15 minutes.
Rule 2: The dish can’t require any cooking.
Rule 3: You have to make at least one element of the dish from scratch.
Impossible! They will say. Ask them how scared they are to lose to you and if there should be some sort of wager involved. As in: the loser has to do all the {insert least favorite chore here} for the next week. This may get them to accept your challenge.
Then, let them go first. They will probably make a salad because it’s obvious and basic. You are NOT obvious or basic. But you’ll eat the salad and pretend as if this will be difficult to beat. But the following night, you will serve them this. This no-cooking-full-of-yum-and-happiness burrito. And they will lay the golden fiddle at your feet because they’ll know that they’ve been beat.
It’ll be fun. You should try it.
Burrata Burritos with Smoked Salmon and Creamy Beer Pesto
Ok, I know, MURDER is a little aggressive. But it’s like "death by chocolate" just more intense. These aren’t a "passed away peacefully in their sleep" type of bars, these are much more in your face. Literally and figuratively. And if I’m going to be taken out by a baked good, this wouldn’t be a bad choice.
Sure, you can just call them "chocolate stout cheesecake bars" that would be totally fine and acceptable, I won’t be mad. But it did get your attention, so mission accomplished. These are also easy to make for something that looks so complicated. Maybe it’s a good thing that quarantine will limit the number of people you are forced to share these with, because there might be an actual murder if I had to share these with too many people. Just kidding, but these bars are as dark as my soul and sense of humor.
Add the graham crackers to a food processor, process until just crumbs. Add the melted butter, process until well combined.
Spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray. Press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of the pan until well compacted.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the cream cheese, beating until well-whipped.
Add both kinds of sugars, mixing until well combined.
Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the melted chocolate until well mixed. Add the egg yolks, mixing until well combined.
Stop the mixer, add the cocoa powder, espresso powder, cornstarch, and salt, mix until combined.
Add the beer, mix until just combined.
Add the filling over the crust.
Bake for 45 minutes or until the edges are set and the center is still slightly wobbly when the rack is shaken, it will set as it cools. Allow to cool to room temperature.
Add all the ganache ingredients to a bowl, microwave for 30, stir and repeat until melted and well combined.
Pour the ganache over the filling. Refrigerate until chilled, 4 hours or overnight. Bars are best served the day after they are made.
Huli Huli Beer Chicken, the best chicken marinade!
This is the front runner in my quest to grill all the things. Meaning, it is my current absolute-without-question-totally-serious favorite grilled thing. And I have grilled ALL THE THINGS, as in, I’ve grilled cake and garlic. Not at the same time, that would just be mean to the cake consumption person.
When I say this is the best grilled chicken recipe, I’m putting it up against a huge crowd of great chicken. I’m not saying it’s the prettiest girl in the room, I’m saying it’s the prettiest girl in the state. I could say WORLD, but I’m trying to be realistic, I haven’t actually had ALL the chicken in the world, just a lot of it.
Grilling is keeping me sane this month. It’s my favorite summer activity that’s not canceled, its how I trick myself into thinking the world is normal, even if just for a second. Try it, open a beer, grill some things, and for a few minutes, you’ll feel normal. Even if you don’t, you’ll still have beer and chicken so things could be way worse.
In a large mixing bowl stir together the soy sauce, brown sugar, beer, pineapple juice, tomato paste, vinegar, ginger, and garlic. Remove 1/3 cup of the mixture, cover, and set aside.
Sprinkle the chicken on all sides with salt.
Add the chicken to the mixing bowl with the marinade (or add it all to a large ziplock bag), cover, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 6.
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Add the chicken and pineapple.
Brush the chicken with the reserved 1/3 cup marinade and turn every few minutes until cooked through about 8 minutes.
Remove the chicken and pineapple from the grill, add to a serving platter.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re looking at this thinking, "Why you say crostata when this is clearly a galette?" No? You weren’t thinking that because you’re normal and not a huge nerd like me? Sorry. But now I have to address this issue. This is what happens when I create a problem that didn’t exist.
You see, it’s like crisps and chips. Or pants and trousers. Or The Rock and Dwayne Johnson. They are the same thing, it’s just different people call them different things. Specifically French people and Italian people. The French like to say galette ("guh-let", in case you wondered and googled it so you won’t sound like an idiot at the dinner party you brought what you thought was pronounced a "gal-lay" but it isn’t and then you’re super relieved you looked it up because you were already embarrassed for yourself. Just me again? Geesh). And the Italians like to say Crostata (which is pronounced exactly how you’d think because I looked it up too because I was scared to make the same mistake twice).
So why, you ask, did I choose crostata instead of galette? Because I liked the way it sounded with "ricotta" and if you don’t believe that is a 100% true story, you clearly don’t know me well enough. Come on! Ricotta Crostata is just way more fun that Ricotta Galette. You know this to be true.
And your final question is OBVIOUSLY "what beer did you use" because you always have the best questions. The answer is Firestone Walkers Cherry Barrel Blossom, a super-rich and drinkable barrel-aged-cherry-bitters-infused beer. It’s also a great dessert beer. You can use which ever beer you want, pretty much any beer will work when you’re making beer ricotta, as long as you like it, the flavor will come through. I will advise against anything too hoppy because those hops don’t mess around once you boil them, but it’s your world. If you want a hoppy ricotta crostata, who am I to stop you?
3cups(24oz) whole milkpasteurized is fine but do not use Ultra-Pasteurized, it won’t work
½cup(4oz) heavy cream
½teaspoonsalt
¼cup(2oz) beer*Plus 2 tablespoons divided
3tablespoons(36g) lemon juice
1tablespoonsugar
½teaspoonvanilla extract
Cherries:
¾lbs(12oz) pitted fresh dark sweet cherries (such as Bing, Jubilee, Chinook)
1tablespoons(12g) lemon juice
3tablespoons(38g) granulated sugar
½teaspoonsalt
2tablespoonscornstarch
Instructions
Make the crust:
Add ¾ cup of flour (reserve the other 3/4 cup), salt and sugar to a food processor, pulse to combine. Add the butter, process until well combined.
Add the remaining flour and pulse 6-8 times or until all the flour has been combined.
Add the beer, pulse until just combined. Lay a long sheet of plastic wrap on a flat surface, add the dough to the center.
Form into a flat disk. Wrap disk tightly in plastic wrap. Chill until firm, about 3 hours, and up to three days.
Make the ricotta:
In a pot over medium-high heat (do not use an aluminum pan) add the milk, cream, salt, and 1/3 cup beer.
Clip a cooking thermometer onto the side of the pan.
Bring the liquid to 190°F degrees, stirring occasionally to prevent the bottom from scorching. Keep a close eye on it, the liquid reaches and passes 190 very quickly and you don’t want it rising above 200°F.
Remove from heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons beer and then the lemon juice, and stir gently once or twice. It should curdle immediately. Allow sit undisturbed for about 5 minutes.
Line a large strainer with 1 or 2 layers of cheesecloth; place the strainer in the sink over a large bowl.
Pour the ricotta into the strainer and allow to drain for 15 to 30 minutes and up to an hour (the longer it drains, the firmer the consistency).
Place in an air-tight container, Stir in the sugar and vanilla extract, and store in the fridge can be made up to 3 days in advance.
Prep the cherries:
Add the cherries, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and cornstarch to a large bowl, toss to coat.
Assemble to Crostata:
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
On a well-floured surface roll the crust out into a large circle. Add the crust to a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet. In the center add the ricotta, leaving about 3 inches on the edges bare. Top with cherries in a large pile. Fold the edges of the crust up over the filling.
Brush the edges with melted butter, sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving.
Notes
*Any beer will work for the ricotta, but the ricotta will take on the flavor of the beer. A more intense beer will bring a more intense flavor. If you want a more mellow beer flavor use a Hefeweizen, Pilsner, or pale lager. I used Firestone Walker's Cherry Barrel Blossom barrel-aged ale.
Grilled Stout Brined Sirloin and Corn Salad with Tahini Pale Ale Dressing
I want to tell you a story, one about myself, because it’s all I have to offer right now. Growing up, things were exactly easy. Here are the CliffsNotes: Dead dad, disjointed family, moved a lot, hardly enough money to feed us all. Because of this, I had this idea that racism wasn’t really a thing anymore and even if it was I discriminated against too, since I was poor. Then I moved to LA, and I became a social worker for gang kids, most of whom were on probation, and I realized how stupid I was. It happened slowly, realizations that came over the course of a few years, small incidents that amounted to a huge global shift in who I was and what I believed, something I’ll never stop being thankful for.
The first came as I sat on a folding chair in a rec room with a group of other social workers, I was the only white girl. One of them joked about how dangerous it was for a 20-year-old blond-haired, blue-eyed white girl to go running around Compton. Another social worker, a large black guy who had an M.A. in Psychology and had been a bit of a rowdy teenager, replied, “She’s safe. If a pretty white girl gets shot in the ghetto, everyone in the world will know about it by morning. Every kid and cop knows it. If I get shot, no one will give a shit. I’m a target for the cops and the kids. She’s safer than I am.” He was right and everyone in the room knew it. He had a gun pulled on him three times that year, twice by cops and once by a kid. I never had any problems, not one issue, not one gun.
Part of my job was to work with the older kids to help them find employment. I wrote their resumes, taught them how to fill out job applications, dressed them from a donation closet of interview clothes, and taught them how to answer interview questions. I had applications for 6 nearby businesses, mostly fast food joints, none of the business knew about the program, all they saw was a local kid interviewing for a job. Over three years I could plot on a timeline how long it would take each kid to get a job based on their skin color. At first, I figured it was a fluke, but it was such a lasting trend, not one kid was an exception. I worked with three white kids, each of them scared me, the probation sentence they had were earned several times over and they all had sociopathic tendencies. None of them had a work history. They all got jobs in the first two weeks. I wouldn’t have trusted any of them to wash my car, and they were handed over the ability to work a cash register in just one meeting. The lighter-skinned-non-white kids took about a month, and the darkest skinned kids took the longest. They all had the same clothes, the same answers on their applications (I helped fill them all out) and they all answered the questions at the interviews exactly the same. The only difference was their appearance. My favorite kid was smart, he had a solid work history, a calming spirit, and he was so kind. He was living proof that some souls are old, he just saw things in a bigger way than most people did. He also had incredibly dark skin. It took me 8 months to get him a job.
There were more, lots of constant reminders that although my life wasn’t easy, it was not made harder by the color of my skin. And even the most privileged black person would have an easier life in this country if they had been born with white skin. This is not ok, it’s not right, but it’s the truth. I had to open myself up to the idea that it was arrogant of me to ever think that just because I personally hadn’t seen or experienced racism that it didn’t exist. I had to accept that I did not know what it was like to live in this world as a black person, no matter how much I thought I knew, or what my experiences where.
The two major changes that came from that seem small, but were actually huge. First, I realized that I do have bias, racist thoughts, and prejudgments. Everyone does, it’s how our brains work, we categorize things and form instant thoughts about everything the moment we see them. We see a dog, we know it’s a dog. We see a chair, we know it’s a chair. Have you ever been surprised to touch something and realize it was much colder than it looked? Because you had already formed an opinion about it. This is normal. BUT I decided that when I had a judgmental thought, I would acknowledge it and correct it. I wanted to have a mind that didn’t prejudge people any more than it had to.
Second, I encouraged people around me to correct me if I said something that was offensive or prejudged someone, and I learned the phrase: “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. Thank you for saying something.” I decided that even if I didn’t know WHY it was offensive, it was enough for me to know THAT it was offensive, and I needed to change the way I thought or talked, even if that change was small.
I still have work to do, we all do, but the choice you have is this: do you want to make the world a little bit better, or do you want to fight to keep it harder for anyone who isn’t you. It’s not a hard choice, even if it can be a hard process.
So, here is a salad that has absolutely nothing to do with this story. Other than the fact that we all have to eat, food is a great equalizer. Let’s sit down, eat some food, and just listen to each other for a second.
Grilled Stout Brined Sirloin and Corn Salad with Tahini Pale Ale Dressing
Add the steak to a bowl or a bag, sprinkle on all sides with salt, cover with beer. Cover the bowl (or seal the bag) and refrigerate for 12 hours and up to 24. Remove from marinade, dry well, and allow to come to room temperate (about 30 minutes).
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Drizzle the bell pepper and corn with oil.
Add the pepper and the corn to the grill, turning and grilling until grill marks appear.
Add the steak to the grill, cooking on both sides until medium-rare, 4-6 minutes per side.
Remove from grill, slice the pepper, and cut the kernels off the corn.
Allow the steak to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
Add all of the dressing ingredients to a small blender, blend until smooth. Add additional beer or water to thin to desired consistency.
Add all of the remaining salad ingredients to a bowl (along with the sliced pepper and corn kernels), toss to combine. Drizzle with desired amount of dressing, top with steak.
Do you have a favorite meal? Is it breakfast? Say it’s breakfast so that we can be the same. I like it when we agree. My love for breakfast really doesn’t have as much to do with the food as it does with the Breakfast People.
These are always your favorite people, the ones you’ve made breakfast for. These are the ride-or-die-friends, the 5-am-airport-pick-up-friends, the help-them-move-a-couch -or-bury-a-body-friends. Because you can have lunch with anyone, but breakfast is special.
I don’t even think you can list someone as a favorite until you’ve had breakfast with them, I will file a formal decree on this because that’s how strongly I feel about it. All of my favorite people are ones with whom I’ve shared a pre-noon meal. And most of those are ones I would actually wake up early to cook for, and I am not a "wake up early" sort of person. But I’ll do it for my Breakfast People. I might even make breakfast for you, but you’ll have to tell me why you want me to help you bury a body. I’m not saying no, I’m just saying I need some details.
In a bowl of a stand mixer fitter with a dough hook, stir together half the flour, sugar, rosemary, garlic powder, and yeast.
Heat the beer to 120°F to 125°F degrees (check the temperature guidelines on your yeast, always default to that).
Add the beer to the stand mixer, turn the mixer to medium, mix until combined.
Add the remaining flour, ¼ cup olive oil, and 1 teaspoon salt.
Turn the mixer to medium-high, beat for 5 to 6 minutes.
Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and allow to rise in a warm room until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Lightly oil a 9x13 pan. Transfer the dough to the pan, pulling to cover the entire pan. Press your fingers into the dough making holes across the entire loaf (if the dough is sticky, oil your hands or get them wet).
Oil the bottom 6 small oven-safe round prep bowls or ramekins (you can also use balls of aluminum foil just larger than golf balls), press them into the dough to form wells (this will be where the eggs go).
Cover and allow to rise for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Bake until light brown, about 11-15 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Remove the bowls (the dough will not be cooked through, this is OK) add the eggs to the wells left by the bowls.
Sprinkle with cheese, bacon, salt, and pepper.
Put back in the oven and bake until the egg whites have set but the yolks are still soft, about another 15 minutes (if bread browns too quickly and eggs need more time, cover with foil and cook until whites are done to your likeness).
Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly before slicing and serving. Sprinkle with chives before serving (optional).
I know I told you that it would be DAYS before I posted this recipe, and in reality, it’s been like 30 hours, but that’s the nature of our existance right now, right? 30 quarantine hours seem like days. Quarantine days are like dog years, each one is equal to seven regular days, I think this is a scientific fact.
But this is a recipe that doesn’t need an overnight proof like the Sourdough Beer Waffles (but those waffles are SO worth the wait), so you don’t have to wait days to get these biscuits into your face, just minutes. And we also need to normalize biscuits at every meal because dinner needs them and breakfast shouldn’t have all the fun. It’s my pandemic mission.
Grilled Beer Chicken Legs with Caramelized Yakitori Glaze
I served this with homemade biscuits, is that weird? Yes, the answer is yes. I suppose that you should serve it with something vegetal, or salad-adjacent, but I needed a big 'ole plate o’carbs. Because biscuits are just better with dinner than with breakfast, there I said it and I’m not taking it back.
Oh, you want to know what biscuit recipe I used? Of course you do, but I’m not telling. Not yet, because they were amazing and I’m bringing them to a face near you later in the week. Stay tuned, the recipe will be up in a matter of days.
Normal people will go ahead and serve this beer chicken with something more conventional, like grilled corn, and this would be a good idea. But I can be a go-against-the-grain (pun intended, corn is a grain, GET IT?!) type of person for better or for worse.
But maybe you’re both and you will serve this with corn AND biscuits and then you will win. I’ll pour you a beer and give you a crown, it’ll be fun.
Grilled Beer Chicken Legs with Caramelized Yakitori Glaze
1teaspoon(4g) fresh ginger, grated with a Microplane
Chopped chivesor green onions
Instructions
Sprinkle the chicken legs on all sides with salt, add to a large bowl or Ziploc bag. Stir together the soy sauce, vinegar, beer, cornstarch, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger until well combined.
Pour over the chicken. Cover (or seal) and refrigerate for 3 to 24 hours.
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, place the chicken on the prepared sheet pan.
Pour the marinade into a pot, boil until thickened, about 9 minutes.
Add the chicken to the grill. Once the chicken is on the grill, remove and discard the aluminum foil leaving the sheet pan to be a clean place to put your chicken once it’s cooked. Do not put cooked chicken back on a plate or pan that once held raw chicken or you will risk bacteria contamination.
Brush the chicken with glaze every time you turn the chicken. Allow the chicken to cook until the juices run clear and chicken is cooked through. If the chicken starts to burn before cooked through, lower grill temp or move chicken to the upper rack of the grill.
I am here to normalize beer for breakfast. Although I’m fairly certain the pandemic has already done that. The hours, days, weeks just sort of run together like a watercolor painting. The upside is beer for breakfast so let us focus on that for now.
You’re probably thinking "why did you use a mango beer in a recipe that doesn’t have mango?" You weren’t thinking that, but you are now, amirite?
There is a reason for that, I promise. Although a recipe with mango wouldn’t be a bad pairing for this beer, it wouldn’t be ideal. You’d lose all the mango flavors in the beer to the flavors of mango in the dish. BUT if you drink the beer with a lovely little breakfast tart that has berries, mint, and nice little cream cheese spread those flavors will bring out the mango in the beer. See? I’ve learned a thing or two over the past I-can’t-even-count-the-number of years of cooking with beer.
I used Mango Tree Shaker from Odell because I love those guys and I need them to remain open during "these uncertain times" until I can actually visit them in person. Which may be a while, but it must happen at some point.
Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface a few times in each direction.
Cut the puff pastry into 12 equal squares.
Score each square with a ½ inch broader (do not cut all the way through, just add a lightly scored line) then prick the center of each pastry with a fork a few times.
Transfer to a baking sheet (or two) that has been covered with parchment paper.
In a small bowl stir together the egg and beer with a fork until well combined.
In another bowl add the cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla, salt, and half of the beer-egg mixture (about ¼ cup or 54g) reserving the remaining beer mixture. Beat with a hand mixer until well combined.
Drop 1 to 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each pastry. Top with berries.
Brush the edges of the pastry with the remaining beer-egg mixture.
Bake for 12-16 minutes or until the puff pastry edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.
Sourdough Beer Doughnuts with Nutella Mousse Filling
Doughnuts are my thing. My last meal thing, my birthday treat thing. Cake is great, but it’s not as good as doughnuts. It’s sort of becoming a thing on my birthday, finding nearby doughnuts wherever I happen to find myself. Even when I was here, I was able to find some which was quite the birthday miracle in such a remote location.
There is one thing I always look for when it comes to doughnut perfection. Ok, that’s not true, there are several things. But first and foremost, when a doughnut is yeasted (or raised) it needs to have that tan line in the center. That’s probably not the correct term, but that’s what I call it, the doughnut tan line. That white belt around the doughnut means the dough was light enough to sit on top of the oil, if it’s missing it means the dough was too dense and the thing sank, that’s sub-optimal.
I also believe that raised and filled doughnuts are the apex of doughnuts. Cake doughnuts are just fried muffins with the exception of Old-Fashioned. You can fight me on this but I will win. Afterwards, we can share a beer with some proper raised and filled doughnuts and all will be well again.
Sourdough Beer Doughnuts with Nutella Mousse Filling
Bring the beer and heavy cream to just above room temperature (not too hot or it will kill your starter), add to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.
Stir in the starter until completely dissolved in the liquid.
Add the flour, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla, mix on high until well combined then add the softened butter and salt.
Beat on high until the dough gathers around the blade, about 5 full minutes. The dough will be soft and slightly sticky.
Add to a well-oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until tripled in size, between 12 and 18 hours.
Cut off small portions a little smaller than a golf ball (between 50g and 60g). Roll into tight balls and add to a lightly floured baking sheet. Cover tightly with plastic wrap to avoid the dough balls forming a dry crust.
Allow to rest until doubled in size, between 4 and 8 hours.
Remove the plastic wrap to allow the balls to dry just a bit to make handling them a little easier. Heat oil in a deep fryer or pot with a deep-fry thermometer clipped on the side until the oil reaches 350°F (adjust heat to maintain temp).
One or two at a time gently drop the dough balls into the hot oil (make sure to handle carefully to avoid disrupting the air bubbles inside) until golden brown on the underside. Turn over gently (I use a chopstick) and cook until the other side is golden brown and the doughnuts are cooked through.
Allow to cool on a stack of paper towels. Roll in sugar once cooled.
To make the filling:
Add the heavy cream and powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until the mixture starts to thicken. One tablespoon at a time drop the Nutella into the mixer, mixing until well combined.
Add filling to a large piping bag with a metal tip and a pea-sized opening.
One at a time makes a small hole in the side of the doughnuts with a small knife or a chopstick.
Press the metal tip into the hole in the side of the doughnuts, pipe the filling into each doughnut adding about 2 tablespoons of cream to the center of each doughnut.
Serve immediately, doughnuts are best eaten the day they are made.
Notes
If the doughnuts do not have a white line around the center once cooked, they are too dense and need to be allowed to rise a little longer.
Thai Chili Beer Chicken in Spicy Peanut Satay Sauce
This is 100% because I’m clumsy. You’d think that an actual grown-up human person would be able to eat chicken off stabby things, I mean SKEWERS, without actually stabbing themselves. But you would be wrong. I have several stabby thing related injuries and I’m trying not to add to this list while in the midst of a global pandemic.
Normal people would just avoid eating things off tiny swords, but I have instead modified dishes that involve swords like utensils to remove them from the equation. Because I need to not joust with my face right now.
If you don’t have the issues with inept fine motor skills that I do, I hope you still like this dish. It’s all the good stuff about chicken satay without the risk of injury, however low that might be in your house. it’s low-risk chicken and I really just need that right now.
Thai Chili Beer Chicken in Spicy Peanut Satay Sauce
1tablespoon(14g) sriracha (plus additional to taste)
2large cloves garlicgrated with a Microplane
2tablespoonsbeerpale ale, IPA, pilsner
3tablespoonlime juice
1red chilithinly sliced
¼cupcilantrochopped
Rice for serving
Instructions
Add beer, chili powder, soy sauce, and curry paste to a large Ziploc bag or a resealable container.
Sprinkle the chicken on all sides with salt, add them to the marinade. Seal and refrigerate for one hour and up to 12.
Remove from the marinade, pat dry.
Heat the oil in a large cast-iron skillet until thin and shimmery, add the chicken, searing on both sides until cooked through.
While the chicken cooks, make the sauce.
Add the coconut milk, peanut butter, fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, curry paste, vinegar, sriracha, garlic, and beer to a pot over medium-high heat. Cook until slightly thickened, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the lime juice.
Pour the sauce over the chicken, allow to simmer for about a minute, then remove from heat.
What are you doing to feel normal? To forget that we use phrases like "the virus" and "pre-pandemic" and "social distancing" more often than ever thought possible? For some people, it’s routine that brings comfort, and for others, it’s the lack of it. I have never been a schedule keeper, so that was never really an option for me. Cooking makes me feel normal, it just makes everything feel ok.
One-pot meals feel like normalcy, it makes me feel like I have better things to do than the dishes, even if I don’t. Because really, I don’t. This particular one-pot meal reminds me of traveling, of Spain and even of Brazil for some reason. It reminds me to trust that I will someday get on a plane again, and that the world is out there waiting for us to visit once it’s safe.
For now, this is as close as I can get to leaving town. It’s as close as I can get to travel, and it will just have to do for now. For now, we just sit back and appreciate the healthy people in our lives, and a job if you have one, and know that the rest is out there to enjoy later. For now, it’s one-pot chicken, beer, and Netflix. There are far worse fates.
8bone-in and skin-on pieces of chickenlegs, thighs
2bell pepperschopped
½of one large white onionchopped
1cup(180g) uncooked white rice
¾cups(6oz) low sodium chicken broth
1cup(8oz) pale ale beer
1(14oz)can fire-roasted tomatoes
1(4oz) link Spanish chorizo* chopped
¼cup(45g) chopped Spanish olives
¼cup(6g) chopped parsley
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a small bowl combine the paprika, garlic, salt, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, and salt.
Sprinkle the chicken on all sides with the spice mixture, reserve any remaining spice mixture.
Add the chicken, skin side down to a large, shallow pan with a lid (off heat). Add to medium heat, add the lid at a vent or add a splatter guard. Cook until the chicken skin has browned and a significant amount of fat has rendered (cooking chicken at a lower temperature for a longer time helps to render more fat and crisp the skin much more effectively than searing in a hot pan).
Once the chicken skin has crisped, remove from pan (the chicken does not need to be cooked through). Pour off all but about 1 tablespoon of the fat.
Add the chorizo, bell peppers and onion to the pan over medium-high heat
Once the vegetables have softened and started to brown, add the beer, stirring and scraping to deglaze the pan.
Add the broth, and tomatoes bring to a low simmer, stir in the rice.
Add the chicken back into the pot in an even layer.
Cover and add to the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the rice is softened and cooked and the chicken is cooked through.
Top with Spanish olives and parsley. Serve warm.
Notes
*Spanish chorizo is very different from Mexican chorizo. If you can’t find Spanish chorizo, a good substitute is linguica, or Andouille sausage.
Brioche French Toast with Beer Caramelized Peaches
Breakfast is my favorite meal. Mostly because I get to make and eat it in my pajamas without judgment, but also because most of it is basically dessert we eat as an entree. We should do this with more meals, dinner cake should be a thing. Lunch brownies, too.
French toast has always been my favorite, and it should always be made with brioche. It’s really the best bread for French toasting and all other breads are vastly inferior. This is a fact. Challah will also work but don’t, even for a second, think you can make this with presliced bread and get away with it, I’ll know and I’ll be sad.
Just get yourself a loaf of brioche and slice it yourself, you’ll be glad you did. Because I certainly won’t judge you for drinking beer at breakfast but I won’t make the same promise if you break out the sandwich bread to make French Toast. Just trust me.
Brioche French Toast with Beer Caramelized Peaches
3tablespoonsbeerBelgian, wheat beer, pilsner, pale lager
For the French toast:
1large loaf Brioche(or Challah)
2eggs
½cup(120g) heavy cream
¾cup(180g) beerBelgian, wheat beer, pilsner, pale lager
1teaspoonvanilla
1/3 cup(66g) granulated sugar
½teaspoonsalt
3tablespoonsbutter
Whipped cream for serving
Instructions
Add the peaches, lemon juice, brown sugar, and salt to a bowl, toss to combine.
Add the butter to a large skillet over medium-high heat until melted, add the peaches and lower the heat to medium-low.
Pour in the beer and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the peaches have started to brown and caramelize, about 15 minutes.
Slice the bread into thick slices about 1 to 2 inches in width.
In a bowl whisk together the eggs, cream, beer, vanilla, sugar, and salt until well combined.
Add the bread slices, a few at a time, allowing to soak for about a minute or until the bread is fully saturated.
Heat a skillet or griddle to medium-high, add the butter, allowing to melt and coat the surface. Add the slices of bread a few at a time, cooking on both sides until golden brown.
Add a few slices to a serving plate, top with peaches, and whipped cream.
Black Bean and Grilled Poblano Elote Enchiladas with Chipotle Stout Red Sauce
Ok, so I didn’t exactly grill the enchiladas, but I did think about grilling the enchiladas. I only grilled a few ingredients in the enchiladas instead of the entire dish, but I wanted to throw the entire thing on the grates. Next time maybe, it’s an experiment for another day.
If you want to throw in some chicken, or some pulled pork, or maybe grilled portobello mushrooms, you should totally do that, it’s your world. I really just kept it to things I already had to avoid the general public during a pandemic, but other than the sauce the rest is fully optional.
If you want to shove a bunch of cheese or leftover rotisserie chicken in these puppies, go for it. This is a big pan of spicy customizable goodness. To be honest, I sorta want you to mix it up and see how it goes, just report back. I love the elote topping, so if you can do that, you should. But adding stuff to the filling is a great idea, do your worst.
Black Bean and Grilled Poblano Elote Enchiladas with Chipotle Stout Red Sauce
Add the torn pieces of the guajillo peppers to a pan over medium heat. Cook until softened and fragrant, about 4 minutes, add to a small blender.
Add the remainder of the sauce ingredients to the blender, blend on high until well combined.
Add to a shallow bowl.
Preheat a grill to medium-high.
Drizzle the corn and poblanos with olive oil. Add to the grill, cooking until the pepper has blackened and the corn has grill marks on all sides, remove from the grill (this can be done a few days in advance if needed, just store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use).
Rub the skin off the pepper, remove the seeds and then chop the remaining meat of the pepper.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Cut the kernels off the corn and to a bowl along with the cilantro, cotija, crema, lime juice, paprika, chili powder, and salt, stir to combine.
One at a time dip the tortillas in the enchilada sauce and add to an 8x8 pan, fill with beans, chopped poblano, and elote corn mixture, roll up and press into one side of the pan. Repeat until the pan is filled with tightly packed rolled tortillas. If any sauce remains, drizzle it on top of the pan.
Reserve the remaining elote mixture for a garnish.
Top the pan with mozzarella cheese, bake for 15 minutes or until the enchiladas are warmed through and the cheese has melted.
Top with remaining elote mixture, chopped avocado, and drizzle with crema.
