Porter/Stout

Mushroom Stuffed Hoisin Stout Glazed Chicken Thighs

31.05.2016 2 Comments

Mushroom Stuffed Hoisin Stout Glazed Chicken Thighs

It can be suffocating, really.

This urge that has had a hold of me for so many years to please the people. A strangling grip on my throat that kept any words of disappointment from slipping out. Why is this? Why is someone else happiness (especially strangers) prioritized so far above my own? And how do we pair the idea of standing up for ourselves with the idea that we are selfish?

I wondered this because it seems to be slipping away from me like the shedding of dead skin. Thank God. I’m still overly accommodating, I still can’t put my needs above others, but I’m more able to speak the words that I know will disappoint someone else.

Here’s my case in point. Food related, of course. I was recently at a Portland restaurant with a gorgeous companion enjoying what had been touted as the best steak in Oregon. The price was easily twice what I’d ever paid in the past. Which, I assumed was worth the cost. The dry-aged hunk of meat set before me with a huge smile from the server, she was almost gleeful that I’d ordered it.

And it was…fine. Definitely overcooked, the medium-rare that I wanted was closer to medium-well and it tasted under seasoned. When she came back to ask how my meal was and bask in the glow of my praise for the Best Steak Ever, I had a small urge to give her what she was looking for. This is my thing. I want to make people happy. And since I couldn’t make her a pizza and some cookies, I had the urge to just tell her what she wanted to hear.

"It was ok," I said instead.

Her face fell as if she’d cooked it herself. "……oh. I’ve never heard that."

"It was ok. It wasn’t bad, it was just a bit overcooked and definitely under seasoned. But I have a high bar, I eat a lot of really good steaks." She stood for a second, frozen. She wasn’t sure how to respond.

I resisted the urge to make it better, cover it up. I just made myself sit in that moment, letting her be disappointed. I wanted to tell her how much I liked the other dishes, or compliment her shoes, or tell her that the beer was great. But I didn’t.

And I survived. And so did she.

Maybe it’s a small step. But us people pleasers have to start somewhere. And just sitting in the moment of disappointing someone and learning that we will all survive is a good place to begin.

And then I consoled myself with doughnuts. So maybe I still have some more work to do.

Mushroom Stuffed Hoisin Stout Glazed Chicken Thighs

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Servings 4 -6 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon 12g olive oil
½ cup 80g chopped sweet white onion
3 cloves garlic minced
8 wt oz crimini mushrooms chopped (3 ½ cups)
1 teaspoon 3g salt
1 tsp 3g black pepper
1 tablespoon 8g flour
½ cup stout beer plus 1 tablespoons, divided
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
¼ cup 78g hoisin sauce

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the onions, cooking until starting to brown. Stir in the garlic, mushrooms, salt and pepper.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are dark and softened, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with flour, stirring for about 30 seconds.
Add ½ cup beer, cooking until the beer is gone, about 15 minutes.
Lay the chicken thighs on a flat surface. Trim away any excess fat. Cover with plastic wrap, pound to an even thickness with a meat mallet, rolling pin or heavy skillet.
Add one to two tablespoons of filling to the center of the chicken thighs, roll into a log.
Gently transfer chicken to a baking dish, seam side down.
In a small bowl stir together the hoisin sauce and remaining tablespoon beer.
Brush the chicken with sauce, bake for 15 minutes, re-brush with sauce and continue to bake until chicken is cooked through, about 10 additional minutes.

Coconut Porter Tres Leche Cake (dairy + egg free)

17.05.2016 10 Comments

Coconut Porter Tres Leche Cake (dairy + egg free)

I can’t stay.

I’m in a hotel in Copenhagen and I just found an open-air farmers market nearby and although it’s been about 22 hours since I’ve slept, I have to go see it. But I wanted to give this recipe to you first and tell you what I was doing 5-years ago today.

5-years ago today I was a social worker. It was good work, work I liked and, for the most part, was good at. Inexplicably, it also made me breathtakingly unhappy. My life, although I fought to pretend otherwise, made me miserable.

5-years ago I sat at a desk, thinking about how much I wanted to be a photographer, a writer. How much I wanted to have a job that involved being creative and also necessitated travel. I sat at a desk and thought "Who am I to want that?" I figured everyone wanted that, who was I?

Then one day, I stopped that shit. I stopped thinking "Who am I to want that?" and I started thinking, "Why not me?" If other people got to do it, why not me, too?

So then I fought, 80-hours a week doing both the social work thing that paid the bills and the photography-beer-cooking-writing thing that filled my soul and gave me hope. When I was told "no," I just heard, "Some day I’ll wish I’d said yes to you," and I kept going.

Two years later it was my full time gig.

So here I am, in a hotel in Denmark fresh off a red eye from the other side of the world, and I’m telling you the same thing about that dream you’ve always had: Why not you?

Coconut Porter Tres Leche Cake (dairy + egg free)

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Ingredients

2 cans 400mL each full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
2 cups 240g flour
1 cup 200g sugar
½ tsp 2g baking soda
1 tsp 4g baking powder
1 tsp 6g salt
¾ cup 175mL almond milk, plus one cup (240mL), divided
½ cup 4 wt oz coconut porter beer, plus ½ cup, divided
1 tsp 3g vanilla extract
¼ cup 56g coconut oil, melted
2 teaspoons 6g apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
Carefully remove the cans from the fridge without shaking. Open carefully and remove the top layer of fat that has collected at the top, taking care not to include any of the liquid that is at the bottom, placing the coconut fat in a small bowl and reserving the liquid in the cans.
Cover the bowl of coconut fat and chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.
in a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Stir in 3/4 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup coconut porter beer, vanilla extract, coconut oil and apple cider vinegar until just combined.
Grease and flour a 9x13 pan, pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes of until the top springs back when lightly touched.
Allow to cool completely.
Once cooled, poke the cake all over with a fork, skewer or the handle of a wooden spoon.
In a small bowl stir together the remaining one cup almond milk, 1/2 cup of coconut porter and 1 cup of the remaining liquid form the coconut milk cans. Pour over the cake (it will look like too much milk, but it will absorb into the cake).
Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, at least 3 hours.
Retrieve the chilled coconut fat, beat with a hand mixer until light, fluffy and well combined. Beat in the powdered sugar.
Top cake with coconut whipped cream. Chill until ready to serve, cake should be served cold.

Coconut whipped cream can only be made with full fat cans of coconut milk that have been chilled for at least 24 hours (store in the fridge for ease of use). For a tutorial, see: Coconut Whipped Cream, Gimmme Some Oven.

Trader Joe’s sells coconut cream that will work perfectly for the whipped cream as well.

Korean Porter Skirt Steak (grill or oven)

12.05.2016 3 Comments

Korean Porter Skirt Steak (grill or oven)

There is no substitution for this.

I go through phases when I just want to eat plants all the time. I’ll make these enchiladas, or I’ll eat avocado smashed on tortillas with grilled corn, cooked like a quesadilla, and I’ll feel like a genius. Like a healthy genius.

But then I realize that I want meat and no amount of processed patties or Jack fruit that swear to me it tastes like meat will do. Cheese is a bigger culprit. Dairy and I have a long history of not getting along. I’ve loathed the idea of a tall glass of milk since the first time I had a sippy cup full of juice, I’ll eat coconut milk ice cream all day long, and I drink almond milk creamer in my coffee, but cheese is in a league of its own. Cheese is one of one, there are no replacements. Just like a big medium-rare steak, It’s real cheese or nothing.

It’s also medium-rare or nothing. I’d rather have chicken than over-cooked steak. Undercooked, sure, bring it on. I’ll just pretend like it’s tartar and go after it. So, I could be a vegan. I could, as long as I have a cheat day where steak and cheese are acceptable. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve always been a rule breaker and boundary pusher and once I have imposed limitations all I can think about is breaking them.

Tell me I can’t eat meat and it’s what I want. Tell me I can’t quit my job as a social worker and work full-time writing about beer and food because it’s never been done before…well, we all know how that went. I just hear "it’s never been done before" as "It hasn’t been done YET." And here we are. Full-time beer-cooking-photo-taking-food-writing with my steak for lunch and I still haven’t taken a shower today. One thing at a time.

Korean Porter Skirt Steak (grill or oven)

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Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

1 lbs skirt steak or flank steak
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon mirin*
1 tablespoon sesame oil
½ cup porter or stout beer
3 cloves garlic grated with a microplane
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ tsp salt
sesame seeds
green onions chopped

Instructions

In a large bowl or Ziploc bag combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, mirin, sesame oil, beer, garlic, and black pepper.
Add the steak, cover (or seal the Ziploc bag) and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.
Remove from marinade, sprinkle with salt, allow to sit at room temperate for 15 minutes.

Grill (preferred method):

Preheat the grill to medium-high. Grill until seared well on both sides, about 4 minutes per side.
Remove, allow to rest for 5 minutes. Slice against the grain, sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions.

Oven:

Preheat the oven to 350.
Heat cooking oil in a cast iron skillet until very hot. Add the steak, cooking until well seared, about 2 minutes. Flip, cook for two minutes on the other side. Add to the oven and cook for 4 minutes for medium rare.

Notes

*Mirin is a sweet Japanese cooking wine that is often found in the Asian section of the market. If you can’t find it, dissolve ¼ teaspoon sugar in 2 tablespoon white wine or sherry.

Honey Stout Glazed Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

22.04.2016 2 Comments

Honey Stout Glazed Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Sometimes, I wonder how long it’ll last.

I sat at dinner a few weeks ago, with someone who’s quickly become a great friend, and talked about the rough years we’ve had, similar in ways, and how we keep that hurtful past close to the vest. How those years help us evolve and pushed us to be better people, and somehow wound us down rabbit holes that landed us in our dream jobs.

I wasn’t that kid. I was the girl in the hand-me-down dress, with a sad smile. I wasn’t the fighter that I should have been, and I wasn’t ever lucky enough to end up in the right place at the right time. But now, here I am. If you’d asked me 5-years ago what my dream job was I’d have told you something not nearly as incredible as what I’m doing now.

So I wonder, how long can it last? Can I stay here for a while longer? Traveling, being seen worthy of costly shipments or hard to find beer, being paid to be here and here? I wonder how much I can do to give back and pay it forward in order to karmically cement my place in a job that I’m not even sure how I created.

People email me to ask how I did it. Can I pick your brain? How can I do what you do? The answer is: I have no idea. I’m not sure how I got here and the truth is, if I had to start over I’m not even sure that I cold recreate this.

So here I am, incredibly grateful and a little confused. Because my life seems to be a bit bacon wrapped and beer glazed. Good on top of good. Let’s hope it sticks for a while longer. I really like it here.

Honey Stout Glazed Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

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Ingredients

½ cup stout beer
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
3 tbs honey
½ tsp chili powder
1 lbs large stalk asparagus trimmed
2 lbs sliced bacon not thick slices

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425.
Take the bacon out of the fridge 30-minutes prior to baking to come to room tempurature*.
Place a wire rack over a baking sheet (for easy clean up, line the baking sheet with tin foil before adding the wire rack) set aside.
Add the stout, balsamic, honey and chili powder to a pot over high heat. Boil, stirring occasionally until thickened and reduced, about 8 minutes.
Wrap each asparagus with bacon, place on the wire rack.
Bake for 8 minutes, then brush with glaze, bake for 8 additional minutes, brush with glaze once more and bake until bacon is crispy, about 5 more minutes.
Serve immediately.

Notes

*Dish works best with thin strips of bacon that are at room temperature and thick stalks of asparagus that are ice cold but not frozen (right from a cold fridge), this will help the bacon crisp before the asparagus becomes over cooked.

Inspired by the gorgeous and talented Bakeaholic Mama, Bacon Wrapped Asparagus with Balsamic Glaze

Beer S’Mores: Stout Chocolate Bar and Belgian Ale Marshmallows

15.04.2016 8 Comments

Beer S’Mores: Stout Chocolate Bar and Belgian Ale Marshmallows

There are foods I only like for nostalgic reasons. Fritos and bean dip, Jello-cake with whipped cream frosting, Taco Bell. It reminds me of growing up, in a house with ten people, and meal time was more of a defrost-and-feed triage. S’mores has one foot in that circle. It’s a partial reminder of those early days. You knew the day was special when it ended with S’mores. It was an afternoon-on-the-lake, camping-with-friends, backyard-grill-outs, kind of day that ended with a bunch of kids pulling puffy marshmallows out of a large plastic bag, skewering them with a wire coat hanger, and trying not to fall into the open fire pit. I was the burn-it-black kind of marshmallow maker. I was the charred-outside, melty-inside kinda girl. Now, I like to brulé homemade marshmallows to the perfect golden brown, serve them over homemade stout flavored chocolate bars along side a great beer. But I’ll still eat my weight in bean dip scooped up with Fritos because some things never change.

Intimidated of marshmallow making? Check out my step-by-step tutorial (with photos). Just replace the water in the tutorial with beer.

Beer S’Mores: Stout Chocolate Bar and Belgian Ale Marshmallows

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Ingredients

For the marshmallows:

Powdered sugar
3 ½ envelopes unflavored gelatin such as Knox
1 cup beer flat and cold*
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
2 large egg whites
½ tsp salt
3 tsp vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Bars:

10 wt oz dark chocolate (62% cacao)
1/3 cup stout beer

For the s’mores:

18 graham crackers

Instructions

Make the marshmallows:

Grease a 9x13 baking pan, sprinkle with powdered sugar until well coated, set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add ½ cup cold flat beer. Sprinkle with gelatin. Allow to stand while the sugar is being prepared.
In a large saucepan (mixture will bubble up considerably) over medium heat, add the remaining ½ cup beer, sugar and corn syrup. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Raise heat to high and allow to boil until the mixture reads 240F on a candy thermometer (about 6-8 minutes).
Once the temperature has been reached, turn off heat.
Turn the mixer on low and slowly pour the hot sugar mixture into the gelatin. Once all the sugar has been added turn the mixer on high until light and fluffy and tripled in volume, about 6 minutes.
While the mixer is running, prepare the egg whites. Add the egg whites to a bowl with the salt. Beat on high with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg whites and vanilla extract into the stand mixer ingredients until just combined.
Pour the marshmallows into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Allow to set at room temperature until set, about 2 hours. Remove from pan, cut into squares.

Make the chocolate bars:

In the top of a double boiler add the chocolate and beer. Stir until the chocolate has melted and combined with the beer. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Pour the chocolate into the prepared pan in an even layer. Chill until set, about 20 minutes. Cut into 9 squares. Can be made four days ahead of time.

Make the s’mores:

Brulé the marshmallows, sandwich one square of chocolate and one bruléed marshmallow between two graham crackers.

Stout French Onion Soup Beef Sandwiches

13.04.2016 6 Comments

Stout French Onion Soup Beef Sandwiches

I stick my finger in a hole in the side of the plane the size and shape of a bullet hole.

The fact that it’s on the inside wall of the plane, from my seat somewhere in the middle of the tiny South American airliner, that causes the worry. Although it isn’t even close to what worries me the most right now. I’ve been stuck on the airplane for more than an hour, locked inside the metal tube on the tarmac, and the air conditioner isn’t working. It’s over 110F degrees and I’m starting to panic. The baby in the front of the plane has stopped crying, which also worries me. The sun starts to peak out from behind the clouds that have served as a barrier between the metal trap and the sun. The temperature noticeably rises and I wonder how hot it can get before people start to pass out.

A voice comes over the intercom. Even if I did speak Spanish, I still can’t make out a word. A man behind me translates, "Lunch break?! Air traffic control took a lunch break and THAT’S why we can’t leave?!" Awesome.

Ten minutes later the plane starts to move, a few laps around the tiny airport and we are finally airborne. Twenty minutes after that the high altitude finally cools the plane to a more comfortable 80F degrees. Less than an hour later we land in a small island town off the coast of Panama.

We’ve made it. I’m both relieved for the arrival and embarrassed for all the "what if’s" that I allowed to run rampant in my brain. Three days later, after an absolutely incredible weekend, I’m back at the airport. Back at an airport so tiny the "baggage claim" is just two guys who line the bags up on the sidewalk, let a drug-sniffing dog check them out, and then hand the bags out to passengers one by one. 36 hours, three cities and five airports later, I’m back in Seattle. And it’s cold. I want comfort food. Mostly to console myself because I’m no longer here. So I made these, and they did the trick. Even if I had the urge to serve them with a side of plantain chips.

Stout French Onion Soup Beef Sandwiches

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Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

For the beef:

2 tsp 12g kosher salt
1 tsp 2g black pepper
1 tsp 5g garlic powder
½ tsp 2g onion powder
½ tsp 1g smoked paprika
3.5 lbs beef chuck roast
1 tbs 13g olive oil
12 ounces stout or porter beer

For the onions:

2 lbs 3 large sweet white onions, sliced thinly
3 tbs 42g unsalted butter
1 cup 8 oz porter or stout beer
½ cup 4 oz beef broth

For the sandwiches:

6 French rolls or 12 slider rolls
12 slices provolone cheese

Instructions

In a small bowl stir together the salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and smoked paprika. Rub the roast on all sides with the spice mixture.
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Heat the olive oil in a large, oven safe, Dutch oven or pot. Sear the meat on all sided. Add 12 ounces of beer, cover and transfer to the oven.
Roast until fork tender, turning the meat over once or twice during cooking, about three hours. Once the meat is cooked, shred in the pot, allowing the meat to sit in the braising liquid for at least 10 minutes.
While the meat cooks, make the onions. Add the sliced onions and butter to a pot over medium/low heat. Cook until the onions have softened and started to brown, about 20 minutes (do not cook over too-high heat or the onions will burn before they caramelize).
Add the beer and the broth, allowing to cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is almost gone and the onions are a dark brown, about 1 hour.
Once the meat and onions are done, preheat the broiler.
Lay the rolls on a baking sheet. Fill with meat, top with onions and then add a slice or two of cheese. Place under the broiler until cheese has melted, serve warm.

Notes

These are best made a day ahead of time. Make the meat and onions, store in separate containers in the fridge, and assemble and broil to serve.
To save uneaten sandwiches, wrap in parchment paper, then place in a ziplock bag. Refrigerate for up to three days. Unwrap the sandwiches, place on a baking sheet and place in a 300F oven for 10-15 minutes or until warmed through.

Grilled Beer and Brown Sugar Wings

29.03.2016 9 Comments

Grilled Beer and Brown Sugar Wings

Food people mark the seasons in a different way.

Sure, plant people mark it by what to plant when, and what to prune, what to seed. Fashion people pin the crap out of new wardrobes. The acting crowd doesn’t have weather seasons, they have "pilot season," "award season," "I-hope-my-show-doesn’t-get-canceled season." We all have our things.

Beer and food follow similar patterns. For beer people, we have: "session ale season," "wet hop beer season", "barrel aged beer season," and "fruit beer season."

Food seasons, although weather dependent in most ways, hinge on what we can cook. Sure, you can grill in 10-degree weather, knee deep in snow, but the first time you can do it in flip-flops and a tank top is moment-marker in the year. The first tomatoes of the year that’s grown in the ground remind you of how incredible they really taste when not grown in a greenhouse in New Jersey. The blood oranges leave the store just the peaches start to peek their heads out. It’s thrilling.

Maybe it’s because there are so few connections we have to the many, many generations before us. Sure, our survival is no longer dependent on an early spring, but the feeling of excitement when the first flowers bloom and fruit starts to ripen on wild trees is something that won’t ever see an end.

Grilled Beer and Brown Sugar Wings

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Servings 4 -6 servings

Ingredients

2 lbs chicken wings
2 tbs 36g kosher salt
24 ounces stout beer
1 cup 148g golden brown sugar, packed
¼ cup 68g Dijon mustard
¼ cup 64g stout beer
1 tbs 12g sriracha chili sauce

Instructions

Lay the wings in an even layer in a baking dish. Sprinkle on all sides with salt. Pour the beer over the chicken until submerged (if chicken isn’t submerged add additional beer, cold water or chicken broth until just submerged). Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 6 hours.
Remove chicken from brine, rinse well, lay on a stack of paper towels covered by additional paper towels to dry. Allow chicken to dry for 15 minutes.
Preheat the grill to medium high.
Stir together the remaining ingredients.
Brush the chicken with the glaze until well coated.
Grill the wings on all sides until cooked through, brushing with the glaze while the chicken cooks.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Stout Brownies

23.03.2016 21 Comments

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Stout Brownies

I was on a train, somewhere near midnight, traveling south trough Italy. I was 20-years-old, traveling with another girl my age who was hardly bigger than a middle schooler. We found a sleeping car, closed the door and latched it shut. These are the things you do when you’re a small girl, traveling by train in the recesses of a foreign country, you lock all doors with all available locks.

While boarding we’d seen the guys who loudly claimed the car next to ours and seemed to be throwing an Italian frat party inches from the beds we’d claimed for the night. We hear them quiet down, chatter in hushed Italian, laugh, whisper again. Then they start to bang on the adjoining wall. Their shouts get louder. We hear the door open, two of them start to bang on our flimsy door secured with an equally flimsy lock. We tell them to go away, we don’t want to party, but this somehow is perceived as encouragement. They don’t understand English, and their reply is just as unintelligible to us. They retreat.

Throughout the night, and the various stops along the route between Venice and Bari, we hear them attempt to make contact again. We hardly sleep, scared that the lock will give out and we will finally find out what a pack of mid-20’s Italian men want with the two American girls. Somewhere near dawn, we pull into a small train station in a remote part of Southern Italy and we hear them file out of the door and into the small train hallway, clearly they’ve reached their destination. Just before the car next to us is finally quiet we hear a loud, aggressive knock on the pocket door that’s served as our bouncer and safeguard for the night. We both sit bolt upright.

As the train pulls out of the station and resumes it’s course we bravely peek our heads out. On the ground is a small brown box and a note written in Italian on lined notebook paper. We open the box, it’s six small artisan chocolate candies. We both smile, somehow relieved by what we’ve found, no matter what the note actually says. Later we ask a conductor to translate the note for us, "We wanted to give you some chocolate. We are culinary students and wanted to share. Hope we didn’t disturb you too much. Safe travels."

Maybe someone else would have felt guilty for shunning what ended up being decent people, maybe I should have. I was touched by the gesture, even though the safeguard of an appropriate red flag in that situation kept me from enjoying what may have been some pleasant company. The chocolate was great, as chocolate at dawn always is. Perfect with espresso and laughing about what happened, what could have happened, and how glad we were that the trip ended the way it did.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Stout Brownies

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Servings 9 squares

Ingredients

Brownies:

½ cup melted butter
1 ¼ cup sugar
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp espresso powder
½ tsp salt
2 large eggs
½ cup stout beer
¾ cup all purpose flour

Topping:

1 ½ cups fresh strawberries chopped
¾ cup dark chocolate melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325.
Add melted butter, sugar, cocoa power, espresso powder and salt to bowl. Stir to combine.
Add the eggs and beer, stir until well combined.
Sprinkle with flour, stir until just combined.
Pour into an 8X8 baking dish that has been greased.
Bake at 325 for 32-35 minutes or until the top is slightly firm to the touch. Allow to cool completely.
Add strawberries in an even layer. Drizzle with melted chocolate, allow chocolate to harden before cutting and serving.

Espresso Stout Chocolate Soufflé Cake

17.03.2016 11 Comments

Espresso Stout Chocolate Soufflé Cake

I spent the weekend driving a loop around the Pacific Northwest. From Portland, to Hood River, up the middle of Washington, through Leavenworth and Suncadia, over to the coast with a long drive down the 101. It was fantastic. Maybe it was the company, maybe it was how gorgeous Washington and Oregon really are, even in the midst of shitty weather.

Everyone should do this. Not just once in a lifetime, but once a year. Jump in the car with your favorite grown-up human, drive, stop at a brewery along the way. It’s pure magic. It wasn’t just the stout I devoured at pFriem Brewing or the dive bar in Leavenworth that I spent hours in, giggling and consuming beer.

It wasn’t the magic of the mountains and the misty fog coming over the river. It’s finding the pause in your life. It’s finding the gorgeous heart of what "local" really means. It’s falling in love with the place you’ve made your home. It’s the small towns you’ll never have any reason to visit. It’s the people tending their farms at sunset, who don’t even know you’ve made the end of their day a memory in your heart.

I came home and wanted to make something that felt the same. So familiar and brand new. Falling in love again with the love you already have. A winding road through a state you’ve known, but that seems excitingly unfamiliar.

It’s cake, it’s a brownie, it’s decedent and it’s amazing. It also goes well with all those stouts I had this weekend.

Espresso Stout Chocolate Soufflé Cake

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Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

12 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate not unsweetened, chopped
½ cup unsalted butter cut into cubes
½ cup stout beer espresso stout or chocolate stout
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup sugar plus ¼ cup, divided
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp instant espresso powder
3 large eggs plus 2 yolks, separated and room temperature
½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter a 9-inch spring form pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper, set aside.
In the top of a double boiler set over gently simmering water add the chocolate, butter and beer. Stir until just melted, remove from heat, allow to cool for 20 minutes (to prevent the yolks from turning into scrambled eggs).
Add just the yolks, one at a time (set the whites aside in a separate, clean bowl), to the chocolate stirring until combined.
Stir in vanilla extract and ½ cup sugar.
Sprinkle with flour and espresso powder, stir until just combined.
Add the salt to the egg whites, beat with a hand mixer until light, fluffy and tripled in size. Add the sugar, beat until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold in about ¼ of the egg whites into the chocolate, stir until combined. Stir in about half the remaining egg whites, then the last of the egg whites, stir until just combined.
Pour in the prepared pan in an even layer.
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached. Allow to cool for 20 minutes. Run a knife along the edges, gently remove from pan.
Can be made a day ahead of time, allow to sit at room temperature, loosely covered.

Adapted from Fallen Souffle Cake

Simple Make Ahead Chocolate Stout Pot de Crème

25.02.2016 4 Comments

Simple Make Ahead Chocolate Stout Pot de Crème

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

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

Simple Make Ahead Chocolate Stout Pot de Crème

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

For the Pot De Crème

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

For the Whipped Cream

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

Instructions

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

Notes

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

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

17.02.2016 12 Comments

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken

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

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

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

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

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken

Print Recipe

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

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

Instructions

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

Stout Steak with Sriracha Beer Butter For Two

11.02.2016 7 Comments

Stout Steak with Sriracha Beer Butter For Two

I’m not going to tell you what to do.

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

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

Stout Steak with Sriracha Beer Butter For Two

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Butter:

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

For the Steak

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

For the Asparagus:

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

Instructions

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

Porter Caramelized Onion and Brie Dip

27.01.2016 14 Comments

Porter Caramelized Onion and Brie Dip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Porter Caramelized Onion and Brie Dip

Print Recipe

Ingredients

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

Instructions

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

Notes

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

Chocolate Stout Truffle Mousse Bars with Pretzel Crust

20.01.2016 13 Comments

Chocolate Stout Truffle Mousse Bars with Pretzel Crust

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

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

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

Chocolate Stout Truffle Mousse Bars with Pretzel Crust

Print Recipe

Servings 9 bars

Ingredients

Crust:

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

Middle layer:

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

Top Layer

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

Instructions

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

Mushroom Stout Skillet Chicken Pot Pie (with Vegan Option)

06.01.2016 10 Comments

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

What I Learned Last Year

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

Mushroom Stout Skillet Chicken Pot Pie (with Vegan Option)

One pot, twenty minutes, both chicken and vegan options

Print Recipe

Total Time 30

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

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

Instructions

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

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

17.12.2015 4 Comments

Porter Caramelized Onion, Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Bites

Best Beer Trends of 2015

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

Porter Caramelized Onion, Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Bites

Print Recipe

Servings 48 bites

Ingredients

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

Instructions

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

Notes

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

Slow Cooker Gojuchang Stout Black Bean Soup

11.11.2015 10 Comments

A few weeks ago I stopped a radio interview, mid-conversation, to correct the interviewer.

I don’t ever do this. I love talking to people who don’t know beer, who want to ask questions. People who have genuine interest in learning about a subject they have only scratched the surface of. Sometimes I get someone who just pretends to know about beer. It makes things awkward. I’ll let a few things slide, like the radio guy I adore who keeps referring to all beer as "lagers" even when he’s actually talking about ales. We’ll just move forward, no need to correct. But then sometimes it’s just too much and I have to shut things down for a 30 second beer-geek rant. It started a bit like this:

Interviewer: "So this is a big season for beer people, right?! I mean harvest beer! I love harvest beer, you know, because I can’t get enough pumpkin. I love anything that tastes like pumpkins!"

So we stopped to talk about harvest beers. The fact that "harvest" actually refers to hop harvest and beers made with freshly harvested hops. Hops are only harvested once a year making the beer made that special time of year—that small window of time when you can use freshly harvested hops—incredibly rare and sought after. But only if your brewery is within driving distance of the farm, hops start to go bad fairly quickly. The rest of the year you can only use dried hops in one form or another. Harvest is a big deal for us. No matter where we are, it’s the first beer we want to try if we see it on tap. After all, it’s only a matter of time before all the wet hopped kegs are dry and the moment has passed.

The good news is that I got to talk about hop harvest and what a huge deal it is, especially in the Pacific Northwest where 80% of the hops in the USA are grown. I also got to talk about how beer people will push a case of pumpkin beer down the stairs just to get to a fresh hop beer. I was nice, because we’ve all been there. We’ve all been in a situation when we though we knew what we were talking about, but really had no idea. I thanked the interviewer for letting me talk about fresh hop beers, they are my favorite right now. And I hope fresh hop beer sales went up just a tick in that broadcast network. Even if it meant that pumpkin beer sales went down.

Slow Cooker Gojuchang Stout Black Bean Soup

Print Recipe

Servings 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

1 lbs dried black beans
½ sweet white onion diced
1 large carrot chopped
1 large red bell pepper chopped
2 tbs tomato paste
12 ounces smoked stout or porter
4 cups broth vegetable or beef
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbs Gochujang Korean hot sauce*
1 large avocado diced
½ cup cilantro chopped

Instructions

Add the beans, onions, carrots, bell pepper, tomato paste, beer, broth, salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, smoked paprika and hot sauce to a slow cooker, stir to combine.
Cook on low for 10 hours or high for 6 hours, stir occasionally if possible.
Ladle into bowls, top with avocado and cilantro before serving.

Notes

--Gojuchang is a Korean hot sauce that is easy to find in the Asian section of most major super markets, even Target. It's sweet, spicy and smokey.
--You don't need to pre soak the beans, the beer does a great job of breaking them down and making them creamy inside.
-- If you have time, sautéing the onions, carrots and bell peppers for 10 minutes before adding to the slow cooker will improve the final flavor.

I use this slow cooker (affiliate link).

Pecan Pie Smoked Porter Brownies

06.11.2015 10 Comments

Pecan Pie Smoked Porter Brownies

I have these moments. These "how have I lived this long without this?" moments that seem to reveal an incompleteness prior to the revelation that I was unaware of.

Beer was a big one. Realizing in the dawn of my beer drinking days that "imported" didn’t mean better, it meant, arguably, worse. The only thing I knew for sure about the "imported" beer was that it wasn’t fresh, and was most likely stale and destroyed from months of shipping in warm containers.

Cocoa powder is another. There is a vast difference in taste between cheap brands, and craft brands. Rich, dark, silken texture gives you an elevated result. Your chocolate desserts taste Nordstrom instead of Walmart. It’s like a secret ingredient that’s hidden in plain sight. Why you can make the same brownie recipe as your neighbor, but yours just taste better, and no one can figure out how you do it.

There there was salt. Salt, in general, is grossly underused by most home cooks, but that’s not the only revelation. Good salt. Great salt. Every time my passport has been stamped as I return to the USA, It has always been with a pouch of salt in my bag.

Honey and salt will always return with me from any destination. Smoked salt is my favorite, it’s transformative. Step far, far away from the iodized salt and immediately replace it with Kosher. Buy some French Gray, and some Himalayan Pink and a ton of Smoked Maldon and you’ll be off to a good start.

Coconut was another. Ever since the most loathsome of all Trick-or-Treat offerings, Neapolitan Sundaes, Almond Joys and Mounds bars, started taking up valuable real estate in my orange plastic pumpkin during childhood Halloweens, my Trow Away pile of post-Halloween candy sorting convinced me that coconut was to blame. Assaulting me with its odd texture that wasn’t quite crunchy and wasn’t quite chewy and definitely wasn’t delicious. Then came chicken Panang and I realized that I love, LOVE coconut, I just hated crappy candy. Now, I stockpile coconut milk, full fat, of course.

Then there are smoked things. I went through a phase of not liking anything smoked, mostly because of a run in with meat that had recently vacated a 1940’s gym locker that had been transformed into a meat smoked. But still smelled like sweat socks. I got over it, with the help of bacon. Now, I love all the smoked things. I even own a stovetop smoker.

So, beer, coconut, salt, smoked things. This is why I give everyone, and most food products, a second chance. Or maybe a third. But don’t push it.

Pecan Pie Smoked Porter Brownies

Print Recipe

Servings 12 brownies

Ingredients

For the Brownies:

18 standard sized 280g graham crackers (two standard sleeves)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup 90g plus ½ cup (90g) melted butter, divided
2 cups 420g white sugar
1 ½ cups 135g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp 8g salt
¾ cup 164g smoked porter beer*
1 tsp 6g vanilla extract
2 large eggs plus 2 yolks
2/3 cup 95g flour
¼ tsp .5g smoked paprika

For the Pecan Layer:

2 tbs porter
1 cup 234g packed brown sugar
½ cup 171g light corn syrup
2 eggs
1 tbs 12g vanilla extract
¼ cup 55g butter, melted
¼ cup 57g heavy cream
2 cups 227g chopped pecans
1 tsp sea salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
Add the graham crackers and brown sugar to a food processor, process until just crumbs remain. While the mixer is running add ½ cup melted butter, process until well combined.
Press into the bottom of a 9X13 pan in an even layer.
Add the remaining ½ cup melted butter, sugar, cocoa power, salt, beer and vanilla to bowl. Stir to combine.
Add the eggs, stir until well combined.
Sprinkle with flour and smoked paprika, stir until just combined.
Pour over the crust. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
Reduce oven heat to 325.
In a large bowl stir together the 2 tablespoons beer, brown sugar, corn syrup, eggs, butter, cream and pecans.
Pour over brownie layer, sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake at 325 for 35 minutes or until the center is a little wobbly, but not sloshy.
Allow to cool to room temp. Cover and chill until set, at least two hours and up to two days.

Notes

*I used Alaskan Brewing Smoked porter. You can also use a coffee stout, or a barrel aged stout.