Porter/Stout

Ridiculously Good Stout Vegan Brownies (with no weird ingredients)

 

Ridiculously Good Stout Vegan Brownies (with no weird ingredients), just some things you probably already have in your pantry. And these brownies are legit!

It’s not so much that flax-eggs are wierd. Or guar gum. Or agar agar. It’s not the “weirdness” of the ingredients I kept seeing in vegan brownie recipes, but rather the fact that I don’t own them. And outside of an online shopping trip, I have no idea where to procure such things in my neighborhood. I’m more of a vegan food enthusiast rather than an actual vegan.

What I really needed was a brownie recipe using just what I had in my pantry, because there is a good chance you’ll also have the same things in your pantry. They also needed to be actual brownies, not shiny-top cake squares (an issue with some recipes that don’t include eggs and butter).

I have a few rules and requirements when it comes to brownies: the absolute necessity of the crunchy top, they need to be chewy, and only psychopaths put nuts in a brownie. I like a fudgy, dense, chocolatey, chewy, crispy top brownie.

I tested the recipe over and over, making minor tweaks to fix the things I didn’t love, until it came out exactly the way I like my vegan food: shockingly vegan. As in, “serve it to meat eaters and astound them”. Or “Bring them to a dinner party and people ask for the recipe because they have no idea what it does not contain.”

It’s also a great recipe for those of us who always want to bake right before we realize that we are out of everything and don’t want to go to the store.

Want to check and see if your beer is vegan? Branivore can help.

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Ridiculously Good Stout Vegan Brownies (with no weird ingredients)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (200g) sugar
  • ¼ cup (56g) coconut oil (not melted)
  • 2 tablespoons (30mL) vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 cup (74g) stout beer
  • ½ cup (60g) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 ¼ cup (150g) bread flour
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons espresso powder

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F
  2. Add the sugar and coconut oil to a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium until well combined. Slowly add the oil and vanilla, beating on high until the mixture resembles frosting.
  3. Add the baking soda and vinegar, beat again until well combined.
  4. Stir in the beer.
  5. In a mixing bowl stir together the cocoa powder, flour, cornstarch, salt, and espresso powder.
  6. Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined, mixture will be thick.
  7. Add in an even layer to a greased 8x8 pan, press flat.
  8. Bake for 22 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
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Crock-Pot Express Crock Multi-Cooker Carnitas Sliders with Chipotle Sour Cream

 

This post was sponsored by Crock-Pot. Partnerships with The Beeroness and outside companies are rare and only occur when the company’s products are ones I use and enjoy myself. All ideas and opinions are my  own.

I’m still sort of in shock. If you’re a long time carnitas lover, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The best part of this delicious slow-cooked meat dish is the lovely caramelization you get on some of the end bits. It’s really not the same without that.

What shocks me is that I was able to get the perfect seared caramelization in a Crock-Pot! If you’d have told me that was possible, I might have fought you, bet you several pitchers of good beer that it wasn’t possible. And now here I am. I’d owe you quite a few beers, and I’d have gladly paid up, these carnitas were the best I’ve made and that sear is perfect! (Yes, it’s SUPER nerdy that I’m THIS excited about it. But I can’t even try to care, I’m so excited!)

 

The new Crock-Pot Express Crock Multi-Cooker is a game changer. It has eight different functions that encompass all the functions you would achieve from using multiple different kitchen appliances from slow cooking to pressure cooking and sautéing to searing. The Crock-Pot Express Crock Multi-Cooker is also available in NEW 4-Quart and 8-Quart Models.

I was a bit skeptical that the brown/sauté setting would work as well as a stovetop pot. It’s a good thing I didn’t have a bet going, it was perfect. Also, SO much easier. I didn’t have to use anything but the Multi-Cooker. I’m usually someone who digs the traditional Dutch ovens for such endeavors, but these carnitas came out so well, I’ll never go back.

So, if you want to win yourself a couple beers, just bet someone that you can’t make a Crock-Pot sear. Or pressure cook. You’ll never have to buy beer again.

 

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Crock-PotExpress Crock Carnitas Sliders with Chipotle Sour Cream

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 4.5 lbs pork shoulder, cut into cubes
  • 1 tablespoon salt, plus ½ teaspoon divided
  • 12 ounces stout beer
  • 6 ounces tomato paste
  • Juice from 1 large lime
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • ½ teaspoon cayenne powder
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 tablespoon chopped chipotle peppers in adobo
  • 24 slider buns
  • chopped cilantro
  • Sprinkle the pork on all sides with 1 tablespoon salt.

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl stir together the beer, tomato paste, lime juice, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cayenne, and smoked paprika.
  2. Add the pork and the sauce to a Crock-Pot Express Crock Multi-Cooker, add the lid (make sure the lid to the Multi-Cooker is locked but the steam value is open to “release” mode). Cook on high for 6 hours, or low for 8 hours.
  3. Remove the inner bowl of the Crock-Pot, pouring off the liquid (leave a small amount, about 2 tablespoons, the amount doesn’t need to be exact), place the bowl back in the Crockpot.
  4. Turn the multi-cooker to the “brown/sauté” setting on high. Shred the pork, in the cooker with two forks while the pot heats up in sauté mode. Press meat firmly down with a wooden spoon into a firm even layer.
  5. Cook for 5-8 minutes, stir and press again into a firm even layer.
  6. Once the remaining liquid is gone and there are pieces of meat that have been nicely caramelized, remove from the pot and add to a serving bowl, toss with the remaining ½ teaspoon salt.
  7. Stir together the sour cream and chipotle peppers.
  8. Add the carnitas to the slider buns, top with sour cream and sprinkle with cilantro.

Notes

*If you plan to make the meat in advance, save about ½ cup of the cooking liquid and add the storage container. It will help to keep the meat moist once you reheat.

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Sweet Potato Stout Shepard’s Pie (Meatless)

Sweet Potato Stout Shepard’s Pie (Meatless). Vegan, full of warm deliciousness, and freezer friendly. 

Some days just making it to dinner feels like an accomplishment. After rage-cleaning your house because you spent too much time reading the news. After seriously considering faking an illness to stay in bed. After realizing that the hint of gray that’s peeking through the windows at noon is all the sun you’re gonna get today, and maybe for quite a while longer.

Baking helps, I promise. You get to feel like you did something, made something, provided something. You get to lose yourself in the task of it and force those other rage-inducing thoughts to the back of the shelf for a bit.

You also get to eat, and that’s always a win.

Today I decided to beer-ify a childhood favorite, that just seemed to be appropriate. I decided to make it vegan, because if I have beer, sweet potatoes, and caramelized leeks I don’t need much else. Also, it makes me feel healthy and that makes me less likely to want to stay in bed all day tomorrow.

This also freezes well, so that you can make a double batch and maybe bring it to someone who may need a little warm, beerified comfort. Because we’re all in this together.

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Sweet Potato Stout Shepard’s Pie (Meatless)

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

    For the topping:
  • 3 lbs sweet potatoes
  • ¼ cup almond milk (or sour cream of choice)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
    • For the filling:
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 large leeks, sliced (white and light green parts only
  • 1 large carrot, diced
  • 1 rib celery, diced
  • 1 lbs (16 oz) sliced mushrooms
  • 2 teaspoons sage leaf, minced
  • 1 teaspoon rosemary, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • ½ cup stout beer
  • 1 cup corn kernels
  • 1 cup vegetable broth

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  2. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into chunks, add to a large pot of salted boiling water. Cook until fork tender, drain and return to pot.
  3. Add the almond milk, salt, and garlic powder. Mash until well combined.
  4. Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Add the leeks, carrots and celery, cooking until softened.
  5. Add the mushrooms, cook until darkened and softened.
  6. Stir in the sage, rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder. Sprinkle with flour, stir until the flour has been moistened. Pour in the beer, scraping to deglaze the pan.
  7. Stir in the corn and vegetable broth. Simmer until thickened.
  8. Pour into am 8x8 pan. Spread the sweet potatoes over the top of the pan.
  9. Bake until filling is bubbly, about 15 minutes.
  10. Serve warm.
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Chocolate Stout Brownie Waffles

Chocolate Stout Brownie Waffles, beer for breakfast! 

This is a PSA. In the light of everything else that will fly at you from your computer this week, all the sad-terrible-no-good-very-bad-news that will be inflicted on you, I’ve got some good news. Waffles aren’t just for breakfast. Breakfast has just been hoarding them.

Breakfast can be a selfish jerk sometimes, claiming coffee, doughnuts, pancakes and pajamas as it’s own. That’s not true, don’t listen. Of course, we love breakfast, it’s our adorable little brother of meals. But it’s about time we stand up for dinner and put on some pajamas at 6 pm and make some waffles.

You can also drink a coffee stout instead of just regular coffee with those Brownie Waffles and taunt breakfast with it. You and dinner will be very happy this weekend.

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Chocolate Stout Brownie Waffles

Yield: 8 waffles

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 150ml (5 oz) stout beer
  • 360ml (12 0z) milk
  • ½ cup (114g) butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups (360g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup (40g) cocoa powder
  • 3 tablespoon (27g) cornstarch
  • 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (200g) sugar, plus 2 tablespoon for egg whites

Instructions

  1. Set out three mixing bowls.
  2. Add the egg whites to one bowl, yolks to another.
  3. Add the beer, milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the yolks, beat until well combined, light and fluffy.
  4. In the third bowl (make sure this is the largest bowl, all ingredients will end up in this bowl) stir together the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1 cup sugar.
  5. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, beat in the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
  6. Make a well in the dry ingredients, add the yolk mixture, stir until well combined.
  7. Gently fold in the egg whites. Cook in your waffle iron according to manufactures specifications (make sure to use cooking spray or melted butter if indicated).
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Salted Caramel Stout Apple Bars

Salted Caramel Stout Apple Bars

I’ve been chasing the light around my new house for the past three months. I haven’t found it, not in any real way. It’s an occupational hazard, really.

Every time I move, I have to find it. I have to find that place in my house where I can set up shop and shoot what I need to photograph. I’m not an artificial light girl, possibly because I can’t really wrap my brain around the nuances of that medium. So I chase the sunlight, hoping each new spot, new time of day, new month of the year, will be when I find it.

I’ve lived in 5 houses since I started this journey with the very strange objective of getting paid for cooking with beer and taking pictures of it. I’ve always found the spot—where the light is just right—in every house that has served as my work-from-home office. The kitchen, the garage, behind the couch in my living room, the bedroom. You never really know where it’ll be.

Every house I move into, I have an idea of where I WANT to shoot, where I want to set up and settle in and start photographing. But the light, just like the rest of this world, doesn’t really bend to your whims the way you want it to.

Today, on round three of testing this recipe, I settled into a new location. Maybe because I shot this photograph there and decided I loved it. Maybe because it was easier to sit down in this spot and polish off a few of these before I cleaned up. Either way, I might just stay a while and see if the light will cooperate if I keep baking things covered in salted caramel frosting.

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Salted Caramel Stout Apple Bars

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

    For the cake:
  • ½ cup (114g) butter, softened
  • 1 cup (220g) light brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • ¼ cup stout beer
  • 1 ½ (180g) cups AP flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 medium tart apple (i.e. Granny Smith), peeled and small diced (about 1 cup)
    • For the frosting:
  • ¼ cup (57g) softened butter
  • 1 cup (220g) packed light brown sugar
  • ¼ cup (60mL) heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cups (180g) confectioner's sugar
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt, plus ¼ teaspoon, divided

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Add the butter and brown sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on high until light and fluffy. Add the egg, oil and vanilla extract, beating until it resembles frosting.
  3. Stir in the beer (it will curdle).
  4. Sprinkle with flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and apples. Stir until just combined. Pour into an 8x8 baking dish that has been greased and floured.
  5. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top has puffed and springs back when lightly touched.
  6. Add the powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer (or a mixing bowl, and use an electric hand mixer).
  7. Melt the butter in a pot over high heat. Add the brown sugar, cream and vanilla, stir until just combined. Boil over high heat for two minutes.
  8. Pour the caramel over the powdered sugar, beat until well combined. Pour the frosting over the apple bars in an even layer, sprinkle with remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, allow to cool. Cut into squares.
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Chinese Stout BBQ Pork Recipe (Char Siu)

Chinese Stout BBQ Pork Recipe (Char Siu)

I really think the reason Chinese BBQ Pork is so appealing is because it’s shiny. This probably makes us all giant infants on some primitive level, but it’s true. It’s hard to resist something that catches the light the way this does. It’s like a gemstone.

A slow cooked, juicy, flavorful, deep red meaty gemstone. This isn’t anything like the grocery store dish, that one tightly wrapped in clear plastic, red ringed and dry. Overly sweet but without much flavor beyond that. This version is sticky, shiny, juicy and full of flavor.

Maybe it’s the beer that gives it this extra boost, maybe it’s the long marinade time or even the pickling salt. Most likely, it’s the magical combination of all those elements.

Although it does take some time, the active time is really low. It’s the perfect way to end a lazy weekend.

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Chinese Stout BBQ Pork Recipe (Char Siu)

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs pork shoulder roast
  • 1 teaspoon (6g) pickling salt
  • ¼ cup (80g) hoisin sauce
  • 2 tablespoons (24g) brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tablespoon (15g) cooking sherry
  • ¼ cup (2oz) stout beer
  • 2 tablespoons (30g) soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon (2g) Chinese 5 spice powder
  • 2 large cloves garlic, grated with microplane

Instructions

  1. Cut the pork roast into strips that are the length of the roast and about 2 inches wide, sprinkle with pickling salt, put into a large Ziplock bag.
  2. In a small bowl stir together the remain ingredients, pour over the pork. Seal the bag removing as much air as possible.
  3. Marinate for 24 to 48 hours.
  4. Preheat the oven to 275°F.
  5. Remove the pork from the marinade, add the marinade to a pot over medium heat, boil until thickened.
  6. Add the pork to a wire rack over a baking sheet. Brush with the thickened marinade.
  7. Cook, turning and basting ever 45 minutes, until tender, 3-4 hours.
  8. Although the pork is ready to eat now, I finished this on a preheated grill. To do so, preheat a grill to about 500°F. Add the pork, cook on each side until slightly charred, about 3 mintues perside.
  9. Slice and serve.
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Chocolate Stout Cake with Cherries: Fudgy and Flourless!

 Chocolate Stout Cake with Cherries: Fudgy and Flourless!

Chocolate Stout Cake with Cherries: Fudgy & Flourless!

Chocolate stout cake is the perfect way to get back into your life after getting lost in writing a book. It’s like asking for forgiveness for your comprehensive neglect without actually apologizing for fear of reminding everyone how absent you’ve been as you waded through 30,000 words.

It’s also a reminder that flour is unnecessary in chocolate cake, it’s so much better without. So rich, dense and delicious it doesn’t even need frosting. As if the cake is above frosting, outgrown the need for it.

I would never dissuade you from a frosting related endeavor, live your truth. But if I WAS to frost this magical chocolatey beerified treat, it would be with something just as profanely mature, and wide-eye inducing.

I’ll give you some examples, just in case you are, in fact, contemplating topping this cake with something: salted caramel whipped cream, espresso ganache, bourbon mascarpone frosting.

Or, just get a pint of ice cream (salted caramel? espresso rum? horchata?) and make it a ridiculous sundae. Just make sure to serve it with a stout.

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Chocolate Stout Cake with Cherries: Fudgy and Flourless!

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

  • 6 oz dark chocolate (60%), chopped
  • 1/3 (3oz) cup stout
  • ½ cup (114g) butter, chopped
  • 1 ¼ (250g) cups granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 tablespoons (45g) vegetable oil
  • ¾ cup (88g) cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon (6g) salt
  • 2 tablespoons (16g) cornstarch
  • 1 cup (160g) pitted dark cherries

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. In the top of a double boiler over a simmering water add the chocolate, beer and the butter. Stir until the butter is almost melted, turn off heat and continue to stir until butter is melted, remove from heat.
  3. In a mixing bowl whisk together the sugar and eggs until well combined. Stir in the oil. Sprinkle with cocoa powder, salt and cornstarch, whisk until well combined.
  4. Stir in the chocolate and the cherries until combined.
  5. Place a round of parchment paper inside a 10-inch spring form pan, rub the inside of the pan and the parchment paper with butter.
  6. Pour the batter inside the prepared pan in an even layer.
  7. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top is puffed and no longer looks wet, don’t over bake of cake will be dry. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10-20 minutes. Transfer to a serving plate.
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Honey Stout Glazed Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps

Honey Stout Glazed Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps

This post was sponsored by PCC Community Markets and Oregon Country Beef. Partnerships with The Beeroness and outside companies are rare and only occur when the company’s products are ones I use and enjoy myself. All ideas and opinions are my  own.

Honey Stout Glazed Flank Steak Wraps

It took three planes and 30 hours to get me home from Brazil, and a few hours later I had the keys to my new Seattle house in my grubby little hands. I moved. I painted (ugh, red walls in ALL the rooms?!). I packed. I cleaned. I ignored my email. And my friends. I unpacked. WHEN WILL IT ALL BE OVER?!

It’s over, mostly. I didn’t want to do anything, go anywhere, buy anything. Not one thing. But just three days into living in my new house I broke down and bought the one thing I couldn’t live without.

Honey Stout Glazed Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps

My old, trusty, moved-it-up-from-LA, grill didn’t survive the move. I got itchy to cook over open flames in my new backyard and set out to fill the void in my yard, and in my ability to cook with flames.

Grilling isn’t just about the way the smoke and the char of the flames make your food taste, it’s about community. You don’t text a handful of your nearest and dearest with the phrase, “Come over, I’m going to fire up the oven!”

No. Nope. GRILL. That’s what people will drive across town for. What they’ll brave the Mariners traffic, and the accident on the 405 for: to sit in your backyard, drink beer from your well-curated beer tub and eat what you grilled for them.

Honey Stout Glazed Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps

As you may know, I curate my meat selection even more rigorously than my beer selection. The origins of your meat matters in profound ways, ways that have always mattered to me.

Finding and supporting organizations, like Oregon Country Beef, whose 80 family-owned ranchers treat their animals, employees, and land with respect and humanity, giving you top quality meat that’s free of antibiotics and added hormones, isn’t just a small way to make our world better –  it’s a BIG way.

Sprinkle the flank steak liberally with salt, place in a resalable gallon sized plastic bag, or in a large container with an air-tight lid. Stir together the Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey and ½ cup stout beer. Pour the mixture over the steak, seal (remove as much air as you can from the bag, if using), and refrigerate for 12-24 hours. In a small bowl stir together the remaining honey and stout beer, warm slightly if the mixture is having a difficult time coming together, set aside. Remove the steak from the marinade, pat dry. Preheat the grill to medium high. Cut the peppers into slices, making sure they are too large to fall between the grates in your grill (you can always slice them thinner after grilling). Brush the steak on all sides with honey glaze before adding to the grill. Grill for 3-5 minutes on each side before turning, re-brushing with glaze every time you flip the steak. Grill until the internal temperate of the steak reaches 135F, remove from grill and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Grill the peppers until softened, about 4 minutes. Serve steak and peppers along side butter lettuce leaves, green onions and sriracha sauce, allow guests to assemble as desired.

You vote with your dollars every day, and shopping at community-owned stores like PCC Community Markets(for those in the Seattle area!) helps me to continue to make a difference by supporting those who are putting fresh, organic and sustainable ingredients at the top of the list.

This was the first recipe on the new grill, and the first of many times I’ll be firing it up for friends and neighbors, throwing on some Oregon Country Beef and drinking some beer. It’s going to be a great summer.

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Honey Stout Glazed Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  • Honey Stout Glazed Flank Steak Lettuce Wraps
  • 2 lbs flank steak
  • 1 tablespoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • ¼ cup honey, divided
  • ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons stout beer, divided
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1 yellow bell pepper
  • ¼ cup chopped green onions
  • 1 head butter lettuce
  • Sriracha sauce for serving, if desired

Instructions

  1. Sprinkle the flank steak liberally with salt, place in a resalable gallon sized plastic bag, or in a large container with an air-tight lid.
  2. Stir together the Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey and ½ cup stout beer. Pour the mixture over the steak, seal (remove as much air as you can from the bag, if using), and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
  3. In a small bowl stir together the remaining honey and stout beer, warm slightly if the mixture is having a difficult time coming together, set aside.
  4. Remove the steak from the marinade, pat dry.
  5. Preheat the grill to medium high.
  6. Cut the peppers into slices, making sure they are too large to fall between the grates in your grill (you can always slice them thinner after grilling).
  7. Brush the steak on all sides with honey glaze before adding to the grill. Grill for 3-5 minutes on each side before turning, re-brushing with glaze every time you flip the steak. Grill until the internal temperate of the steak reaches 135F, remove from grill and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Grill the peppers until softened, about 4 minutes.
  8. Serve steak and peppers along side butter lettuce leaves, green onions and sriracha sauce, allow guests to assemble as desired.
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Grilled Mongolian Stout Beef Skewers

Grilled Mongolian Stout Beef Skewers

This post was sponsored by PCC Community Markets and Oregon Country Beef. Partnerships with The Beeroness and outside companies are rare and only occur when the company’s products are ones I use and enjoy myself. All ideas and opinions are my own. 

 

When I was just days away from turning into a middle schooler my parents decided to buy a farm in Eastern Washington and move us away from the small beach town in Central California to grow alfalfa, livestock and ride horses.  

During my time there, we raised pigs for our own consumption and it had the most profound effect on me. Learning how the sausage is made (literally) changes the way you see food, for better or for worse.  

 

It turned me into a vegetarian for years, pushed me deep into a love of produce and taught me that where your food comes from is important. Although I now eat meat, I eat meat like a vegetarian.

What does that even mean?! 

First off, I don’t eat meat because I need it, I eat it when I want it. Secondly, I really care about where it comes from. I want to know that the ranch it’s from is ethical and humane – not just to their animals but to their employees, too. 

I’ll bargain shop for almost anything, but meat isn’t one of those things. I decided years ago that I’d rather eat less, but better-quality meat, than more of something cheap, and I’m willing to spend a little more to support those who work harder and work better.  

 

When I stopped being a vegetarian, finding meat that matched these standards was hard. We just didn’t have time to research every brand that came our way, especially when we were just trying to get through the grocery shopping list.

To make it a little easier, I made myself a cheat-sheet of the brands that I knew I could trust and where I could get them.  

 That all changed when I moved to Seattle and found PCC Community Markets, where I discovered that they care as much as I do about supporting small family farms and local growers producing fresh and organic food—instantly doubling the size of my cheat sheet.

For those of you who don’t know, PCC is the nations largest community-owned food market committed to making the best meals from scratch using only real ingredients.

 

As for the meat? Oregon Country Beef was an easy addition to my cheat sheet. It’s the free range, no added hormones and antibiotic-free sort that I was searching for. I let their 80 family-owned ranches worry about the hard but important stuff – GAP certification and Non-GMO Project verification – and I just keep looking for their packages at PCC. 

 One less thing to worry about, and one more reason to fire up the grill!

 

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Grilled Mongolian Stout Beef Skewers

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 1.5 lb tri-tip or rib-eye steak, cut into cubes 
  • 2 teaspoons salt  
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch 
  • ½ teaspoon ginger, grated with a microplane 
  • 3 cloves garlic, grated with a microplane 
  • ¼ cup soy sauce 
  • 2/3 cup stout beer 
  • ½ cup dark brown sugar 
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil  
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper  
  • 2 tablespoons chopped green onions 
  •  

Instructions

  1. Sprinkle the beef liberally with salt, allow to sit at room temperature while you prepare the sauce.  
  2. Preheat a grill to medium-high.  
  3. In a saucepan whisk together the cornstarch, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, beer, brown sugar, sesame oil and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Allow to boil, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 5 minutes.  
  4. Thread the beef cubes onto grill skewers. Brush liberally with sauce.  
  5. Add the skewers to the grill. Turn every 2-3 minutes, brushing with glaze every time you turn.  
  6. Cook until steak has grill marks and is firm to the touch, about 6-8 minutes.  
  7. Add to a serving plate, sprinkle with green onions.  
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Drunk Diablo: Chocolate Stout Devils Food Cake with Mexican Hot Chocolate Frosting

Drunk Diablo: Chocolate Stout Devils Food Cake with Mexican Hot Chocolate Frosting

Drunk Diablo: Chocolate Stout Devils Food Cake with Mexican Hot Chocolate Frosting

When you have a weird job, there are two categories of projects you work on. The first types are the reasons you got into this in the first place. The love projects. The creative soul projects. The goosebumps and fevered excitement projects.

Those are the ones that keep you going. The second type, are the ones that pay the bills. The ones that you still like, the ones you’re grateful for, the ones that you still throw your heart and gypsy soul into, but in your heart of hearts, you know you’re only doing them because you like electricity and groceries and being able to pay those bills affords you such luxuries.

Drunk Diablo: Chocolate Stout Devils Food Cake with Mexican Hot Chocolate Frosting

If you’re lucky, there is a huge Venn diagram overlap between the two. Most of what you do is —to one degree or another— both. I very rarely do projects that are just to pay the bills, but I very frequently find myself immersed in a passion project that will probably never result in any type of bill-paying.

I’m ok with this, it’s how I know I’ve chased my career down the right rabbit holes.

Right now I’m trying to turn my number one passion project into something that’s more in the center of that diagram. It’s a website I started about a year ago, a project I’ve been trying to move forward and I’m really in love with it.

It’s  Craft Beer Photography, it’s stock photos, it’s prints, it’s “please hire me to photograph your brewery because that sounds really fun and I want to do it.”

It’s also one of my favorite parts of this weird job I’m trying to invent for myself. Because no one has ever really done this and I’m still trying to figure out what it looks like.

For now, let’s eat some cake and drink some beer and figure the rest out later.


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Drunk Diablo: Chocolate Stout Devils Food Cake with Mexican Hot Chocolate Frosting

Yield: 10-12 servings

Ingredients

    For cake:
  • 3 ounces bitter sweet chocolate
  • ½ cups (4oz) hot brewed coffee
  • 1 cup (8oz) stout beer
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 ½ cups (375g) sugar
  • ¾ cup (180mL) vegetable oil
  • 1 ½ cups (360mL) sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 ½ cups (300g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 ¾ cups (168g) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons (10g) baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
  • 1 teaspoons (6g) salt
    • For the frosting:
  • 1 ½ cup (342g) butter, softened
  • 2 cups (386g) vegetable shortening*
  • ¼ cup (24g) cocoa powder
  • 3 cups (390g) powdered sugar (plus additional to taste)
  • ¼ teaspoon (0.5g) cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon (4g) cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • For the ganache:
  • 10 wt oz dark chocolate (60% cacao)
  • ¾ cup (180mL)heavy cream
  • ¼ cup (60mL) stout beer

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
  2. Add the chocolate, coffee and beer to a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 30 seconds, stir and repeat until melted (this can also be done in a double boiler).
  3. Add the eggs and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, beat on high until light in color and well combined. Add the vegetable oil, sour cream and vanilla, beat until well combined. Mix in the chocolate mixture.
  4. In a separate bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
  5. Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients, stir until just combined.
  6. Divide evenly between three 9-inch cake pans that have been greased and floured.
  7. Bake for 35 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched.
  8. Add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer, beat on high until light and fluffy. Add the shortening, beat until well combined. Add the remaining frosting ingredients, beating until well combined. Frost the cake, with frosting between all the layers. Refrigerate while you prepare the ganache.
  9. Add all the ganache ingredients to the top of a double boiler set over simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is almost all melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
  10. Pour the ganache over the cake, spread in an even layer, or allow to drip down the sides.

Notes

*Just use the shortening. It’s a texture thing, and it’s totally worth getting over the fact that shortening skeeves you out. It makes the most amazing frosting, trust me, just do it!

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Sweet and Sticky Garlic Stout Beef

Sweet and Sticky Garlic Stout Beef, 20 minutes and it’s so good!

Sweet and Sticky Garlic Stout Beef, 20 minutes and it's so good!

I’m on an airplane, somewhere over South America, between Panama and Huston, Texas. I’m trying to remember waking up this morning, but sleeping the night before I leave a trip is always impossible.

My brain is processing what I’m leaving, the sunburn I’m bringing home from Costa Rica, the days I spent teaching a new menu to a group of South American cooks, the rum bar that has become my favorite in the world, the cocktails, the people who had to endure my hideous Spanish skills, and even the small moments that have embedded themselves into my soul.

Sweet and Sticky Garlic Stout Beef, 20 minutes and it's so good!

I spent two weeks in Panama City, Panama creating menus for two brands, two brands that I love and was incredibly grateful to get to work with.  La Rana Dorada, the hands-down best beer in Central America, has one of the most beautiful pubs in Casco Viejo, Panama.

At the end of the week, after sweaty hours and dozens of dishes, the head chef learned enough English to say to me, “You cook like magic. Thank you for making my cooking better. Thank you for making my kitchen better.” That exchange is my favorite souvenir I’ve brought home from a trip.

I also worked on The Pub, an Irish pub in Bogota, Colombia. A place so perfectly crafted, you feel like you’ve stumbled into Dublin.

A week of perfecting Fish ‘N Chips, modernizing Bangers and Mash, and creating Colombian takes on Irish dishes, I’m proud of what we did. The cook who flew down from Bogota to learn the menu asked me on the last day, “Why food? You photograph and write, you could do that with anything. Why food?”

Why food? Because it’s the same in every language. Everyone, throughout the history of time, has sat down to a meal with the ones they love.

Everyone shares food as a way to bond. Everyone wants to eat dinner with the people closest to them, or the people they want to be close to. Nothing levels the playing field like food.

Sweet and Sticky Garlic Stout Beef, 20 minutes and it's so good!

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Sweet and Sticky Garlic Stout Beef

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 lb flank steak
  • 1 teaspoon (6g) salt
  • ½ teaspoon ginger, grated with a microplane
  • 1 teaspoon hot Chinese mustard
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 2 large cloves garlic, grated with a microplane
  • ¼ cup (85g) honey
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons (45mL) soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons (45mL) stout beer
  • ¼ cup cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
  • 2 tablespoons chopped green onions
  • rice for serving

Instructions

  1. Place the steak in the freezer for 15 minutes (this will make it easier to cut).
  2. In a small bowl stir together the ginger, mustard, red pepper flakes, garlic, honey, black pepper, and 1 tablespoon soy sauce.
  3. Remove the steak from the freezer, thinly slice against the grain then sprinkle on all sides with salt.
  4. Place the cornstarch in a small bowl.
  5. Stir together the beer and remaining soy sauce in a separate bowl.
  6. Heat the sesame oil in a wok or skillet over medium high heat.
  7. A few at a time, add the beef strips to the cornstarch, then add to the soy/beer mixture, then add to the skillet. Repeat for all beef.
  8. Once the beef has started to brown, add the honey mixture as well as any of the beer mixture that may remain from the steak dredge, to the skillet.
  9. Lower heat to medium, cooking until sauce has thickened.
  10. Add to a serving platter, sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions. Serve with rice.
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Stouts and Scouts: No Churn Thin Mint Beer Ice Cream

Stouts and Scouts: No-Churn Thin Mint Beer Ice Cream.  Ten-minute prep! 

This is my exception. Really, the only one. I have an aversion to mint that started in a cave in Middle Atlas the day before I almost died in Morocco.

But the thing is, if you are ever in a cave in Middle Atlas and a very nice cave dweller offers to make you tea, YOU DRINK IT! Even if the water is so dirty it looks like mud. Even if the glasses are a little cracked and leaky. Even if you’re fairly certain you’ll end up with dysentery.

Even if your guide through Middle Atlas turns out to be a drug dealer. That last part really had nothing to do with the tea other than it magnified an already strange experience.

After that day, mint was never the same. I wouldn’t take it back if you paid me, it was an amazing (although slightly terrifying at times) experience that happened to change the way I respond to the flavor of mint.

Thin Mints are the exception. Maybe it’s because they taste nothing like the mint leaves that had been muddled into my glass that day.

Or maybe it’s because they remind me of being a kid. Or maybe it’s because I’m such a sucker for those little cracker dealers outside the grocery stores that I can’t help but buy them every time. And since the appropriate place to store your crack, I mean Thin Mints, is in the freezer, making ice cream just made sense.

And if there is a better cookie and beer pairing than Thin Mints and an Imperial Stout I can’t think of it at the moment.

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Stouts and Scouts: No Churn Thin Mint Beer Ice Cream

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes

Yield: 6-8 servings

No churn, ten minutes prep!

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups heavy cream
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 8 thin mint cookies, crushed
  • ¼ cup stout beer (Imperial stout preferred)

Instructions

  1. Add the cream, powdered sugar, and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on high until soft peaks form.
  2. Add in the cocoa powder, salt, and crushed cookies, stir to combine.
  3. While the mixer is running, slowly add the beer until it is well combined.
  4. Add to a freezer safe bowl, freeze until set, about 3 hours.
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Mushroom Stout Not-Bolognese AKA Best Vegetarian Pasta Sauce Ever

Mushroom Stout Not-Bolognese AKA Best Vegetarian Pasta Sauce Ever

This isn’t a bolognese, I know that because my proper bolognese with tons of pork and beef is the stuff of dreams. There really isn’t a word for this sauce, it’s vegetable based but as meaty as you can get without the meat.

I’m knee deep in writing my third cookbook, a love letter to produce (sans meat) and as much as I adore meat, I’m exploring my infatuation with plants right now.

I want to write you a book so full of beautiful dishes that you won’t even notice that I left out meat, it’s not just for vegetarians, it’s for anyone who loves food and beer.

There is no tofu or tempeh, nothing that feels like a glaring reminder that this isn’t a meat dish. Because when you have the entire spectrum of plants to play with, the food has no reason not to be amazing.

This is a remake of my favorite pasta sauce, Sout Bolognese, but without the meat. I’ve made it in a very similar fashion (don’t forget the milk, it’s an essential part of flavor development) with a little more spice, and with mushrooms to make it hearty and unforgettable.

It’s even better the next day.

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Mushroom Stout Not-Bolognese AKA Best Vegetarian Pasta Sauce Ever

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoon (20g) olive oil
  • 2 ribs (100g) celery, chopped
  • ½ of one large white onion, chopped
  • 1 large (120g) carrot, chopped
  • 2 lbs crimini mushrooms, finely chopped
  • 2 teaspoon (16g) salt
  • 1 cup (268g) whole milk
  • 12 ounces (340g) stout
  • ¼ cup (50g) chopped Mama Lil’s (pickled Hungarian goat horn peppers)
  • 2 teaspoon (8g) black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon (6g) garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon (6g) onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon (6g) cumin
  • 1 teaspoon (8g) red pepper flakes
  • *Parmesan rind (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon (6g) red peppers
  • 1.5 lbs (680g) crushed tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon (16g) tomato puree
  • 2 tablespoons (30mL) balsamic vinegar
  • 1 cup (80g) fresh shaved or shredded parmesan
  • ¼ cup chopped parsley
  • 6 servings pasta

Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the celery, onions, and carrot. Cook until the vegetables have softened and the onions have started to caramelize, at least 15 minutes and up to 45 (the longer you allow the onions to caramelize, the better the overall flavor).
  2. Add the mushrooms, sprinkle with salt, cook until dark and softened.
  3. Add the milk and allow to cook until the milk looks as though it is mostly cooked off, the pan looks dry and the mushrooms are starting to stick to the pan, about 30 minutes.
  4. Add half of the stout, cooking until the beer is mostly gone, about 15 minutes.
  5. Stir in the peppers, spices, tomatoes, tomato puree, remaining beer and balsamic (plus Parmesan rind, if using) cook over medium/low heat (very low simmer), for three to four hours (you can transfer the sauce to a slow cooker instead, cook on low for 8 hours).
  6. Stir in the Parmesan in the last ten minutes of cooking.
  7. Serve over pasta, sprinkle with parsley and additional Parmesan if desired.
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Individual Stout Mousse Cakes with Flambé Bourbon Beer Cherries

Individual Stout Mousse Cakes with Flambé Bourbon Beer Cherries

Individual Stout Mousse Cakes with Flambé Bourbon Beer Cherries2

This is for you. Or really, it’s for us. Because I decided a long time ago to redefine Valentine’s day to be about more than just romantic love (although I pretty much covered romantic love that time I wrote about blowjobs).

Valentines is about the people you love, all of them. Even the ones who never see you naked. Especially the ones who never see you naked (this leads me to the “how much inappropriateness can I shove into one paragraph?” line of thought).

You’re single? Who cares, you love tons of people! Your mom, your neighbor, your bartender. You have plenty of people to love all over and share a beer with. That’s what’s important. The people we get to love and make a cake for.

I love you, for instance. Mostly because you make it possible for me to do my weird job. Where would I be if you didn’t care that I make food with beer instead of just drinking it like a normal person? I know where I’d be, I’d still be doing this.

Which would be fine, but my weird job is amazing. It’s more than I think I even deserve. So to thank you, I made you a cake. Feel free to share it with your mom, or your neighbor or your bartender.

Or, you know, that person who gets to see you naked. As if seeing you naked wasn’t present enough!

 

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Individual Stout Mousse Cakes with Flambé Bourbon Beer Cherries

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

    For the cherries:
  • ¼ cup Bourbon
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup barrel aged stout
  • 1 cup Bing cherries, pitted (thawed if frozen)
  • ¼ cup Cointreau
    • For the cake:
  • 4 tablespoons (57g) butter (plus more for ramekins)
  • 6 oz bittersweet chocolate (62% cocoa content)
  • ¼ cup (60mL) stout
  • 3 eggs separated
  • ¼ tsp cream tartar
  • ¼ cup (50g) sugar
  • 1 tablespoon (7g) cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon (8g) flour

Instructions

  1. Add the bourbon, sugar, and stout to a saucepan. Simmer until sugar has dissolved.
  2. Add the cherries to a re-sealable jar, pour bourbon/beer mixture over the cherries. Allow to sit at room temperature for one hour. Seal and refrigerate until ready to use, can be made several weeks in advance.
  3. Heat the oven to 375°F.
  4. Place butter, stout and chocolate in the top of a double boiler (or a metal bowl set over a pot of water) over gently simmering water. Stir frequently until melted, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
  5. In the bowl of a stand mixer add the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar, building up speed, beat on high until soft peaks form. While the mixer is running add the sugar a bit at a time, beat until stiff peaks form.
  6. In a large bowl stir together the egg yolks, cornstarch, and flour. Beat on high until light and slightly fluffy.
  7. Slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture, beating until completely combined, scraping the bottom to make sure the mixture is well incorporated.
  8. About 1/3 at a time, gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture using a spatula. Stir until egg whites are well combined with the chocolate mixture.
  9. Grease two large (10oz) ramekins or oven safe bowls with butter until well coated.
  10. Add the batter evenly between the two ramekins.
  11. Bake for thirty minutes or until the top has puffed and looks dry. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before removing from ramekins.
  12. Add the cherries to a small pot or skillet. Pour the Cointreau over the cherries. Using a kitchen torch or long match, light the liquid on fire. Swirl until to distribute the flame. Allow to flambé for about 2 minutes, then add a lid to extinguish the flame. Pour the liquid and the cherries evenly over the cakes. Serve immediately.
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Chipotle Pale Ale Polenta with Stout Braised Mushrooms

Chipotle Pale Ale Polenta with Stout Braised Mushrooms

Chipotle Pale Ale Polenta with Stout Braised Mushrooms

I have something to tell you. I’m writing another book, a cookbook, obviously. It’s a book I’ve wanted to write for a while, a book that I’m excited to create. It’ll focus on cooking with not only beer, but with in-season produce.

It’ll break down the seasons, what fruits and vegetables are grown (in the ground!) that time of year, and the recipes will highlight those amazing ingredients. Beer is seasonal, too and that will be incorporated in the recipes. Each season will bring you dishes that will make you want to grab a beer and raid your local farmers market.

I thought about this a lot, about how to truly make the produce the star of the show. How to focus on what’s amazing about each fruit or vegetable and make it shine. I decided that in order to do this, I needed to leave meat out of it.

It really needs to be produce focused. This (even as a meat eater), makes me the most excited. I love being able to bring out the best in these amazing ingredients, create dishes that don’t feel “without” just because the protein isn’t meat. I love veg food, and this book will be my love letter to it.

I’ll give you more details as I get closer to the release date. I can’t wait to share it with you.

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Chipotle Pale Ale Polenta with Stout Braised Mushrooms

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

    For the Polenta:
  • 2 ½ cups vegetable broth
  • 1 cup pale ale
  • 1 cup corn grits (polenta)
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • ¼ cup half and half (or almond milk for vegan)
  • 1 large chipotle peppers in adobo, minced (seeds removed, if possible)
  • 1 teaspoon adobo sauce
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
    • For the Mushrooms:
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup chopped white onions
  • 6 cups chopped assorted mushrooms (crimini, oyster, shiitake)
  • 1/4 cup stout beer
  • 3 gloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 large leaves of fresh sage, minced
  • 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Instructions

  1. Add the vegetable broth and beer to a saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer.
  2. Add the grits and salt, simmer, stirring occasionally until the grits have softened. Stir in the half and half (or almond milk), chipotle peppers and adobo, garlic powder and smoked paprika.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add the onions, sauté until onions have softened and started to brown.
  4. Add the mushrooms, cooking until the mushrooms have softened, about 15 minutes (keep the heat relatively low to get the most flavor out of the mushrooms without burning).
  5. Add the beer, garlic, salt, pepper and sage. Cook until the beer is gone and the pan is mostly dry.
  6. Plate the polenta, top with mushrooms, sprinkle with cilantro, serve immediately.
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Stout Cranberry Mascarpone Chocolate Truffles

Stout Cranberry Mascarpone Chocolate Truffles

Stout Cranberry Mascarpone Chocoalte Truffles305

I do this thing every year, and I think you should do it, too. It’s about resolutions. I make one every year, but they aren’t about denying myself things in a way that I will spend the year torturing myself with goals that revolve around fitness or money.

They’re about ways I want to add to my life, things I want to do, things other people call “bucket list” (I hate that term, if you want to do, just do it! Don’t add it to a list!) items.

Find something you’ve always wanted to do and make it your goal. Want to go to Panama? Figure out how. Of course you can, don’t look at me like that. What do you need to do? Take a second job? Save all your money until next November when you’ll go on a Central American holiday?

Stout Cranberry Mascarpone Chocoalte Truffles

Whatever it takes, it can be done. Make a goal to do something you’ve always wanted to do, stop making resolutions to hate yourself for a few months then hate yourself for giving up.

A handful of years ago my New Years goal was to get published, 6 months later I had a book deal. The next year it was to get paid to write for magazines, that year I wrote about Homeboy Industries for a magazine and it’s still my favorite thing I’ve ever written.

This year my New Years goal is get work as a travel writer. Sure, I’ve done a few things. I’ve written this, and this, but I want more. I want something big. I’ll let you know how it goes, but for now, I’m hopeful.

Set your goal, tell me what it is, and we can check in on each other through the year. You’ve got this.

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Stout Cranberry Mascarpone Chocolate Truffles

Serving Size: 18-24 truffles

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup fresh cranberries
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup stout beer
  • 8 oz mascarpone cheese
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 10 oz dark chocolate (60% cocoa content)

Instructions

  1. Add the cranberries, granulated sugar and beer to a pot over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, add to a small dish and refrigerate until chilled (can be done several days in advance, cover if chilling longer than an hour).
  2. In a mixing bowl add the mascarpone, powdered sugar, and salt, beat on high until well combined. Chill for at least 30 minutes and up to three days (cover if chilling longer than an hour).
  3. Using a melon baller or small spoon, make half a ball of mascarpone, add one or two stout soaked cranberries, then add more mascarpone to make a ball about the size or a large marble. Add to a plate covered with wax paper. Continue until all the mascarpone is used. Add the plate of mascarpone balls to the freezer, freeze for 30 minutes.
  4. Add about 8 oz of the chocolate to the top of a double boiler set over gently simmering water, making sure the water does not boil, keep the heat low. Stir until the chocolate is mostly melted. Remove from heat, add the remaining chocolate and stir until all the chocolate is melted.
  5. One at a time add the balls of mascarpone to the melted chocolate with a fork, cover completely with chocolate, then return to the plate. Allow to dry until set, about 10 minutes. Chill until ready to serve.
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Prosciutto Mushroom Pasta in a Porter Cream Sauce

Prosciutto Mushroom Pasta in a Porter Cream Sauce

I’ve figured something out. I have a reverse sense of fear. Is this a thing? I think so, even if it’s a term I just made up. I’m terrified of things that shouldn’t scare me, like mall Santas, commitment, and going on a cruise.

But things that should scare me like almost dying in Morocco and jumping out of airplanes, those things sound fun and exciting. The thought of having the same job for 30 years sounds frightening, but quitting my job to write about beer wasn’t (even without any certainty of income).

This all points to the same issue: I must be miswired on some fundamental level.

I’m OK with this, to be honest I prefer it. There is a long list of things I’d change about myself if given the chance, but this isn’t one of them. Maybe my life would be a bit easier if I was more typical, but clearly “easy” isn’t something I’ve ever strived for.

For now I’ll continue to do things that don’t make sense like putting beer in all the things and taking a perfectly lovely vegetarian pasta and covering it in pork. And I hope you’re OK with that, since I like you.

And I want you to stick around. Especially because of all the lovely things you said when I posted this. You’re the best.

 

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Prosciutto Mushroom Pasta in a Porter Cream Sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 oz prosciutto
  • 1 shallot, chopped (about ¼ cup)
  • 5 cups mixed mushrooms, rough chopped (chanterelles, crimini, oyster, Shittake)
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
  • 1/3 cup porter beer
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 12 ounces pappardelle pasta
  • ¼ cup fresh grated parmesan

Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the slices of prosciutto, cooking until crispy. Remove from heat and allow to drain and cool.
  2. Add the shallots, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add the mushrooms and thyme, cooking until the mushrooms have browned, about 10 minutes.
  4. Add the beer, scraping to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Stir in the chicken broth, lower heat to simmer until the sauce has slightly thickened. Stir in the cream, and remaining spices.
  5. Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water until just before al dente.
  6. Drain the pasta and add to the pan. Toss to coat.
  7. Transfer pasta to a serving bowl. Crumble prosciutto and sprinkle on the top. Sprinkle with parmesan, salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Notes

Adapted from Bon Appetite 

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Adapted from Bon Appetite

 

Stout Osso Buco Recipe

Stout Osso Buco  Recipe

It’s been eye-opening.

The way the past few months have unfolded has shaken me awake. I’ve had to face the things about myself that I kept hidden like jewels in a wall safe. What I do for attention and what I do to push people away, the masks I wear and the image I project.

There are times in your life when you come face to face to what you’ve been avoiding, like realizing you’ve inadvertently chained yourself to a rabid tiger, and you have a choice to make: it’s kill or be killed.

I’m learning to kill the tigers in my life, I’m trying to face them all regardless of what it stirs up from the dredges of an otherwise calm lake.

I’ve made a decision to put more focus and value on what I’m good at, what I want people to like me for in my head, rather than what my heart that’s still a damaged teenager wants. I want to write another book, another project I can throw myself into and hone the abilities I’ve curated in myself that remind me of that value of what I am, what I want people to see.

The first book revealed who I was, and what I was avoiding in myself. The night before it was due was one of the hardest of my life when I came face to face with a tiger who’d eaten throw his cage.

The second book was a life raft keeping me afloat as I dealt with the fall out from putting that tiger down. This book, the next one, won’t spring from trauma but growth, moving forward and becoming better.

In honor of this decision, I’m giving you the Osso Buco Recipe from my first book: The Craft Beer Cookbook. And I’m reminding you to slay some tigers this year, face it, kill it and become better. We can do it together.

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Stout Osso Buco

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

    For the Osso Bucco:
  • 4 slices thick cut bacon
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • ¼ cup flour
  • 2.5 lbs beef shanks (4 to 5)
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 ½ cups carrots, peeled and sliced (about 2 large)
  • 2 ribs celery, chopped
  • 1 cup white onions, chopped
  • 1 cup porter or stout beer
  • 3 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 3 cups broth (chicken, vegetable, or beef will work)
    • For the Gremolata:
  • ¼ cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • ½ teaspoon lemon zest
  • ½ teaspoon orange zest
  • 1 large clove garlic, grated with a zester or microplane
  • polenta, rice or mashed potatoes for serving

Instructions

  1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, cook the bacon over medium heat until most of
  2. the fat has rendered and the bacon starts to crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted
  3. spoon, set aside, reserve pan and bacon fat.
  4. Salt and pepper the beef shanks liberally.
  5. Add flour to a bowl. One at a time dredge shanks in the flour until well coated.
  6. Return the Dutch oven to heat, allow the bacon fat to get hot but not smoking.
  7. Sear the shanks in bacon fat until browned on both sides. Remove shanks from pot.
  8. Add olive oil to pot along with carrots, celery and onion. Cook until softened,
  9. about 8 minutes.
  10. Add the beer, scraping to deglaze the bottom. Stir in the tomato paste.
  11. Return shanks and bacon to the pot. Pour in broth until shanks are ¾ of the way
  12. covered.
  13. Allow liquid to simmer but not boil for 3 to 3 ½ hours or until meat is tender
  14. and falling off the bone. While shanks are cooking, turn over every 30 to 45 minutes. Add additional broth to maintain a liquid level that is about ¾ of the way up the side of the shanks.
  15. Combine all gremolata ingredients in a small bowl.
  16. Serve with pan sauce, topped with gremolata, over polenta, rice or mashed potatoes.
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This recipe is dedicated to Kel Shively, you will always be missed.