I know there are a lot of ways to stuff an artichoke, but this is the way I like to do it. You COULD cut it in half. You COULD stuff a bunch of crap between the leaves, but that’s not how I stuff things into my vegetables.
Cut the heart out, fill it with beer cheese, enjoy. It’s like a metaphor.
A really bad metaphor, obviously. One that I’m not sure what it means, but if you say it confidently enough people will nod along as if they get it, and are inspired by how wise you are. That might also be because you’re holding the physical manifestation of the metaphor and they want to eat the metaphor. Basically, you can do whatever you want when you’re holding beer cheese dip and people will agree with you. It’s the perfect strategy for getting what you want.
Cut the top inch off the artichoke with a sharp knife. Cut the stem so that the artichoke sits flat with the leaves pointing up.
Cook in lightly salted boiling water until the leaves peel away easily, about 30 minutes. Remove from water, allow to cool.
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Starting at the center, pull the leaves apart to make the center more accessible. Using a melon baller or grapefruit spoon, remove the center leaves to reveal the “choke” and use a spoon or melon baller to remove the fuzz from the heart.
Add to a cast-iron skillet or baking dish, center hole facing up to make it easy to add the dip.
In a bowl stir together the cream cheese, beer, mozzarella, parmesan, lemon juice, hot sauce, garlic powder, Old Bay, and crab until well combined.
Divide the dip evenly between the four artichokes. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Bake until the dip is hot and melted, about 12 minutes. Serve warm.
I have to warn you about something. It’s Szechuan peppercorns. Maybe you’re well versed in these little buggers, but maybe you aren’t, and it saves me from worrying about you if you don’t already know that they numb your mouth. Did you know this? Is this common knowledge and I just assume it isn’t, like how I assume everyone just realized that caribou and reindeer are the same thing and I only imagined this to be more privileged knowledge? This is my long-winded way to tell you that Szechuan peppercorn gives you a little tingly numbness when you eat them, as revenge for being eaten. That last part I made up, but I think it’s accurate.
They aren’t hot, per se, but they do abuse your mouth the way capsaicin and hoppy beers do. And if you’re a person who likes food that fights back (I’m looking at you, triple IPA drinkers), I think you’ll like this as well.
Are you afraid of this? It’s ok, I will only judge you a little for being scared of mouth-numbing foods. You can substitute it with 1 teaspoon black pepper and 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander, but you’ll be missing out on all the fun.
Sriracha to tastethis will depend on how spicy your red chilies are
¼cupchopped peanuts
Instructions
Add the peppercorns to a dry pan, toss over high heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
Using a mortar and pestle, crush to powder (you can also add to a Ziploc bag and crush with a heavy pan or rolling pin), add to a mixing bowl.
Place the shrimp on a stack of paper towels to dry well.
Add to a bowl with 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons cornstarch, toss until well coated.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil to a pan until hot, add the shrimp, toss until the shrimp is curled, pink, and cooked through, remove from pan, add to a large bowl.
Chop the green onions, separating the green from the white and light green sections.
Heat the remaining oil to the pan, add the chopped white and very light green parts of the green onions (reserve the dark green for later), and the chopped red pepper, sauté until starting to soften.
In the peppercorn bowl, add the garlic powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, chopped garlic, grated ginger, dried chilies, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, beer, and honey, stir to combine.
Add the mixture to the pan over the bell peppers, simmer until thickened.
Pour the mixture over the shrimp, toss to coat. Add sriracha to taste.
Add to a serving bowl, sprinkle with chopped green onions, peanuts. Serve warm.
Notes
You can substitute the Szechuan peppercorns with 1 teaspoon black pepper and 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander, skip steps 1 and 2.
Beer Brined Balsamic Glazed Scallops over Avocado Caprese Salad
Send this to your date night person, we need to talk. I have something to tell them. Oh hey, Date Night Person! Glad you’re here, I have a recipe for you. It’s going to sound super fancy, but it’s really easy. SO easy that it will make you look like a rockstar and as if you can just throw together an impressive meal in no time. Your person will love it, even be really grateful that you so thoughtfully set up a date night for them that they will do the dishes (it’s only fair).
So circle a date on the calendar, add some stuff to your shopping list or delivery cart or whatever, and don’t forget to stop by a local brewery for some beer. You’ll want beer, not just for the recipe but also for the drinking. The drinking with the eating is important. And you now have something social distance approved to look forward to. Need a dessert? Yes, the answer is yes. Make these. Or this. Or both. Probably both, it’s safest.
Beer Brined Balsamic Glazed Scallops over Avocado Caprese Salad
Add the scallops to a bowl, sprinkle with salt, cover with beer and cold water. Refrigerate for one hour and up to 12. This will help flush out phosphates that will make scallops taste like soap and prevent a good sear.
Remove from brine, rinse well. Add to the top of a stack of paper towels, top with more paper towels. Allow to dry until very well dried.
Heat the butter in a skillet until very hot. Add the scallops, cooking on one flat side until seared, 1-3 minutes. Turnover and sear on the other side before removing.
Once the scallops are all cooked and set aside, lower heat to medium-low, stir in the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Stir and simmer until reduced and thickened. Add to a small container.
Add all the salad ingredients to a mixing bowl, toss to combine.
Divide evenly between 4 bowls. Top with scallops, drizzle with balsamic reduction.
This post is sponsored by Blue diamond but the content and opinions expressed here are my own. Partnerships with The Beeroness and outside companies only occur when the company’s products are ones I use and enjoy myself.
You guys, I finally found it. The snack with the perfect level of wasabi. I have always loved wasabi coated treats, but inevitable, they are just too much. Too much of that eye watering spike of heat that leaves me feeling like I’m in an abusive relationship with my snacks. Then I found these Blue Diamond Wasabi & Soy Sauce Flavored Almonds, and they are perfect. Just enough wasabi to get that taste with a hint of heat, but not so much that you hate yourself a little for eating them in the first place.
They also just so happen to pair perfectly with an IPA. They also sent over the Cheddar Nut-Thins, that go amazingly with a porter, and the Smokehouse Flavored Almonds that you should totally pair with a brown ale.
Obviously, I had to work the Wasabi & Soy Sauce Almonds and an IPA into a meal that I can’t stop eating. I’ve always used macadamia nuts in my poke, but these Wasabi & Soy Sauce Flavored almonds work even better. The flavors, the crunch, the saltiness all work together to elevate my favorite meal to something even better. You’ll also have enough beer and nuts left over the perfect snack.
Stir together with the avocado, onion, cilantro, green onions, sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, Blue Diamond Wasabi & Soy Sauce almonds and salt. Chill for 1 hour and up to 24 hours.
Stir together the coconut milk, beer, water, rice and salt in a pot over high heat. Bring to a boil, place a lid tightly on the pot, and reduce heat to low.
Cook for 18 minutes, remove from heat and allow to steam for 2 more minutes before removing the lid and stirring.
Grilled Beer Butter Lobster Tails with Thai Chimichurri
Just decide right now to make this. Just trust me, especially if you don’t have a lot of lobster-cooking experience. It’s not hard and you won’t screw it up, I promise. Lobster tails have had all the hard tasks already done for you. All the scary, stare-a-beast-in-the-face-while-you-kill-it, dirty work has already been completed by the time you step into the picture. You buy just the tail, and it’s all ready for you.
This leaves you with the easy part. Just cut it in half, brush it with some beer butter, and toss it on the grill. Well, don’t literally toss it, you’re not an animal, place it there. PLACE it on the grill and drink your beer and it’ll be almost done by the time you realize what you’re doing. YOU are making yourself something fancy because it’s important to make small occasions, like a Tuesday in the summer, feel important.
It’s also important to have something to look forward to, so just decide to make this and your whole week just got better.
Grilled Beer Butter Lobster Tails with Thai Chimichurri
Elote Pilsner Creamy Polenta with Grilled Tajin Lime Shrimp and Halloumi
Sometimes it feels as if my recipes are just a long string of predictive text that I figure out how to make into a meal. Or I keep trying to one-up myself until I can’t fit anything else in a bowl, but it’s how I like to cook. Layers of things on top of layers of other things. Lots of things crammed into a bowl.
Maybe I’m a bit too much for you, this wouldn’t be an odd thing to think and you wouldn’t be the first one. But I will tell you that you should try, at least once, to be too much. Because we all need to be just a little sick of censoring ourselves for the sake of other people. You should also make some food that is a bit much, just to try it on for size. Maybe you’re like me, and you’ll actually really like a big 'ole layered bowl of too much. It’s fun, you might just want to do it again.
Elote Pilsner Creamy Polenta with Grilled Tajin Lime Shrimp and Halloumi
Add the vegetable broth and beer to a saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer.
Add the grits and salt, simmer, stirring occasionally until the grits have softened.
Stir in the half and half, salt, and garlic powder.
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Brush the corn on all sides with oil, set aside.
Add the shrimp to a bowl, squeeze half of the lime over the shrimp, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon Tajin, toss to coat. Thread onto skewers.
Slice the Halloumi into ½ inch slices, sprinkle on all sides with the remaining Tajin.
Add the corn, shrimp, and Halloumi to the grill, grilling on all sides until shrimp is cooked through and grill marks appear on all.
Cut the kernels of the corn, add to a bowl along with the cilantro, and cotija, toss to combine.
Divide the polenta between 4 bowls, top with corn mixture, crema, tomatoes, shrimp skewers and Halloumi.
Notes
If you don't have Tajin, mix together 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoon chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon cumin.
Burrata Burrito with Smoked Salmon and Creamy Beer Pesto
Let’s do something fun, something that doesn’t require a face mask and hand sanitizer. Find your quarantine person and somehow bring up that you want to do a cooking challenge, you against them. But, there are some rules of course.
Rule 1: The dish can’t take more than 15 minutes.
Rule 2: The dish can’t require any cooking.
Rule 3: You have to make at least one element of the dish from scratch.
Impossible! They will say. Ask them how scared they are to lose to you and if there should be some sort of wager involved. As in: the loser has to do all the {insert least favorite chore here} for the next week. This may get them to accept your challenge.
Then, let them go first. They will probably make a salad because it’s obvious and basic. You are NOT obvious or basic. But you’ll eat the salad and pretend as if this will be difficult to beat. But the following night, you will serve them this. This no-cooking-full-of-yum-and-happiness burrito. And they will lay the golden fiddle at your feet because they’ll know that they’ve been beat.
It’ll be fun. You should try it.
Burrata Burritos with Smoked Salmon and Creamy Beer Pesto
I have a confession. This was supposed to be for dinner but instead I ate it over the sink and called it "lunch" as if I hadn’t already eaten. This would drive you crazy if you had to put up with me on a daily basis, I have no ability to plan or follow through with plans, because sometimes I just want to eat prawns over the sink.
Hot Honey is a fairly new discovery for me. I started my hot honey journey the exact way you should: with a slice of pizza eaten over a paper plate on the street in Manhattan with my friend. Even if the pizza isn’t better with Hot Honey, this should be your first introduction, it’s just the way the world should work when everything is perfect. By the time I arrived here, Hot Honey was already a thing, which made me feel like I had nothing to offer. If I can’t feed you new and weird food, what good am I?!
But I will still feed you, even if you’ve already had hot honey somewhere else in the world. I will still hot-up some honey, beerify (this is a word, look away, autocorrect) the dish, and serve it to you on a silver platter. Or out of the skillet over the sink. Whatever.
1lbsprawns or large shrimpdeveined (peeled if desired)
¼cupchopped green onions
Instructions
In a bowl stir together the butter, honey, chili oil, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, ginger, salt, and beer, set aside.
Rub the inside of your cast iron skillet with olive oil (*you can skip this step if you know for sure your cast iron skillet is well seasoned, but it won’t hurt to do this either way. If your skillet isn’t well seasoned the honey may stick without the oil).
Heat the sesame seed oil in the skillet over high heat. Add the prawns.
Pour in the butter mixture, allow to boil, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened and the prawns are cooked through.
Remove from heat, top with green onions. Serve with rice, polenta, or crusty bread.
Notes
Asian chili oil, or hot chili oil, is sold in the Asian section of the market near the Sriracha. My favorite brands are Judy Fu's, Lao Gan Ma, and Din Tai Fung.
You can either remove the shells to cook, or cut them down the entire length of the prawn when you remove the vein and serve them as peel-and-eat, but either way, don't neglect the sauce, it's delicious!
This is something you need to be warned about. At least I did and I think we are alike, you and I. When I first started to dive into trying to figure out this food and cooking thing I didn’t know how important some things were, because not everything is important. Sometimes you can make swaps, skip steps, make it your own, and it’s still delicious. And then sometimes you ignore the "soften the butter" step and your chocolate frosting looks like ground beef and you have no idea what happened.
I’m going to ask you, no, BEG you to cook your flour for a long time and you’ll look at me like I’m a crazy person. It’s just flour! How important can that be?! I’ll just do it for like 3 minutes, it’ll be fine, right?!
I know, I hear you, it doesn’t seem that important. BUT IT IS. Have you ever seen a sad, anemic looking gumbo with a light brown sauce? Back away, don’t eat it. It’s not very good. And it’s because the person who made it skipped that step. It’s ok, they were probably having a bad day, we forgive them. But not your gumbo, your gumbo is dark and gorgeous and delicious. Because you didn’t skip that step. You opened your beer early, drank it and just enjoyed a little moment to yourself. I promise you, it’s worth it.
Especially if the beer you opened was this one:
I spend some of my childhood years in San Luis Obispo, California. If you’ve never driven Highway 1 south from San Franciso, ending in San Luis Obispo to stay the night at The Madonna Inn, you now have a new item to add to your travel checklist. I’ve been all over the world and I promise you, it’s one of the best road trips that exist in the Universe. Once you do, you must reward yourself with a beer at Firestone Walker. The beer doesn’t just have a place in my heart because of where it’s grown, it’s absolutely some of the most amazing and consistent beer there is.
Craft beer can be squirrely, and making batch after batch of the same beer, making sure each batch taste the same as the last, is nearly impossible. But I have yet to try any Firestone Walker beer that isn’t exactly what I want it to be. It’s consistent, and consistently incredible.
Coconut Merlin is a beer you should try, it’s fantastic. If you can’t get it where you live, then I guess you just have to do that road trip I suggested. Don’t worry, there is beer at the end. And it’s really good.
½cupshredded cheddar cheeseuse smoked cheddar for a more intense smoke flavor
Instructions
Make the gumbo:
Add the bacon to a large stockpot or braiser over medium heat. When the bacon starts to render add the onions and peppers, cooking until the onions have softened and the bacon has rendered all of it’s fat.
With a slotted spoon remove the bacon and vegetables, setting aside. You want about 1/3 cup of bacon fat still in the pan (no need to meticulously measure, just eyeball it), if there is significantly more than 1/3 cup discard excess, if there is less add the olive oil to the bacon fat. Sprinkle with flour.
Cook the flour, stirring frequently over medium heat, until the roux is dark brown. This will take at least 20 minutes and up to 40 minutes, it’s the backbone of the dishes’ flavor so don’t skip it.
Once the roux is a dark brown add the beer, scraping to deglaze the bottom of the pan.
Add the broth, tomatoes, okra, bacon and vegetables, Cajun seasoning, cayenne, file, and sausage. Simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
Add the shrimp and clams, stir slightly and then cover immediately. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Lift the lid, discard any clams that did not open. Sprinkle with parsley before serving.
Make the grits:
Add the broth and half and half to a saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer.
Add the grits, salt, and smoked paprika, cover with a lid. Simmer, stirring occasionally until the grits have softened, about 25 minutes. Stir in the cheese.
Serve the polenta topped with gumbo.
Notes
If you want to make this in advance, stop right before adding the shrimp and clams. The dish without the seafood can simmer over low heat for hours without issue, but it will make the seafood tough. Add the seafood, cooking right before serving. You can also make and refrigerate it without the seafood and then add it back to the pot, bring to a simmer and then cook the seafood before serving. Don't store live clams in water or in airtight packaging. Store them in an open container between wet paper towels. Ideally, buy them right before using.
This is one of those ways that I hide. I pretend like I have it all together (I super don’t), but I can crank out a meal in less than 15 minutes so that makes me feel like I’m an actual grown-up. We all have our things. I do, however, have this urge to stop pretending like I have mastered adulting, but you know what I do instead? I hide. We all do, right? Tell me it’s not just me. There is just an inherent vulnerability to exposing yourself as an adulting fraud.
This should be our solidarity hashtag #AdultingFraud. Because the truth is, while my life is great, I also: haven’t done laundry in a week, just ran out of dog food, my kid hasn’t bathed in two days, and I spent more time on social media today than I did doing actual work. #adultingfraud.
There is always tomorrow to get just a little bit closer. And there is always great beer to remind you two things: one, beers with friends always make you feel better, and that someone, somewhere, put everything they have into a small craft brewery and the results are this amazing Chaos Emeralds DIPA. An IPA that just won a pretty damn big award. Which means that if they can be grown-ups with beer, so can you. Maybe you can’t make a beer this good, but you certainly can drink it and supporting small independent businesses is a great use of your time.
I might not be good at adulting, but I have mastered enabling. We all have our thing.
1teaspoon(1.5g) fresh ginger, grated with a microplane
1teaspooncrushed red chili flakes
1tablespoonlow sodium soy sauce
1tablespooncornstarch
2 tablespoonsolive oil
4salmon fillets
1teaspoonsalt
Chopped cilantro and sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
Preheat the oven broiler.
In a saucepan stir together the vinegar, beer, honey, garlic, ginger, chili flakes, soy sauce, and cornstarch. Add the pan to a burner over high heat, boiling until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Cover a sheet pan with aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, add the salmon, skin side down. Sprinkle the salmon liberally with salt.
Brush the salmon with the sauce.
Place about 4-6 inches under the broiler, keeping a close eye.
After 5 minutes, remove from oven and re-brush with the sauce. Return to the broiler until starting to brown.
Plate the salmon, sprinkle with sesame seeds and cilantro.
Grilled Beer Butter Scallops with Cherry Salsa, with a grill or a grill pan!
Let’s talk scallops for a second. I know, I’ve given you this lecture before but it’s been a while. And I can’t just go around assuming you remember everything I say, I forget half of what I say on a daily basis.
I know the reason your home-cooked scallops don’t taste as good as the ones you buy at a restaurant, and it’s a really easy fix. There are two ways to buy scallops: “wet” and “dry.” A wet scallop with be soaked in a phosphate solution to preserve it. This makes it taste soapy and gives it a bit of a rubbery texture. Unfortunately, the vast majority of scallops sold in US markets are wet. Dry scallops are more expensive, harder to come by, but infinitely tastier.
If you can’t find dry scallops, the best way to treat a wet scallops is a quick brine. If you aren’t sure if your scallops are wet or dry (or your fish guy gives you a vacant stare when you ask) they’re probably wet. Just assume they’re wet unless you know for sure they aren’t.
Have you ever been cooking scallops, just minding your own business, and they start weeping out a milky liquid like they hate you? That’s the phosphate solution we need to get rid of, the extra step is well worth it.
You don’t even have to tell anyone that you know the secret. You can just cook the best scallops they’ve ever had and just pretend like it’s your magic shellfish touch. I won’t tell.
In a large bowl add the scallops. Fill with water, drain. Repeat until the water is no longer milky. Drain the water off, leave the scallops in the bowl.
Sprinkle with salt and cover with beer. Refrigerate for 2 to 12 hours. Rinse and drain. Add to a stack of paper towels to fully dry the scallops.
Combine all the salsa ingredients in a bowl, chill until ready to use.
Preheat a grill (or grill pan) to medium high.
Stir together the butter and the beer. Brush the scallops liberally.
Place on the grill (or grill pan), brush again with butter. Flip when grill marks appear, cook on the other side until grill marks appear.
I need this, it’s rather necessary. Since I spend my life contractually obligated to drink beer and eat foods like this and this, I need recipes like this Salmon with Mango Avocado Salsa. For the sake of my liver and my skinny jeans, it’s important. But I can also act like a spoiled child when it comes to food and really need something that tastes fun and indulgent.
So I make these recipes that I get really excited about and hope that I don’t notice that it’s also rather healthy, much in the same way you smuggle cauliflower into your toddler’s mashed potatoes and hope they don’t notice. I do this with myself, I’m really good it. I don’t even notice that I’ve made a healthy meal because I got so excited to make it in the first place.
I know, it’s ridiculous. But I have to do what I can before my liver figures out how to call the cops on me for widespread abuse.
Add the honey, beer, salt, and pepper to a wide, shallow bowl. Stir to combine (heat slightly if the honey is resisting combining with the beer. Make sure to cool before adding salmon to prevent the marinate cooking the salmon).
Add the salmon, turn over a few times to fully coat the fish. Cover and chill for 1 to 24 hours.
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
Add the salsa ingredients to a large bowl, toss to combine.
Place the salmon on the grill, skin side down. Close the cover, cooking until the salmon is cooked through (no need to flip over, the salmon will cook with the grill cover closed).
Remove from grill, add to a serving plate. Top with salsa before serving.
This post was sponsored by Fizzics. Partnerships with The Beeroness and outside companies only occur when the company’s products are ones I use and enjoy myself. All ideas, words, and opinions are my own
Beer is communal. It’s more than a beverage, it’s the center of a gathering. Whenever I travel I always bring back beer, not just to remember what the trip tasted like, but to share it with friends. It’s the best way to experience travel stories, over the beer that you were drinking while those stories were unfolding.
I recently tried out this Fizzics Draft Pour system and I was really impressed. It’s small, super easy to use, and it fits any beer in my beer fridge. The pours that come off of it have a sort of CO2/nitro hybrid taste and mouthfeel without the need for any additional chemicals or gasses. It uses sound. Crazy, right? It works beautifully and unlike that table-top soda machine I had that one time, you don’t need to constantly refill any gas cartridges because it doesn’t use any. All you need is 2 AA batteries, or you can just plug it in.
It makes the bottles I brought back from California taste like a draft pour, and it couldn’t be easier. It also looks great in my bar. It’s small, light and has a nice modern look that fits into my bar area.
I already have plans to give a few Fizzics out as gifts to my most hard-core beer friends, it’s perfect and unexpected. I’ll be giving this with a few bombers of hard to find beer and my beer nerd friends will flip (and Father’s Day is coming up!!).
If you have any questions about my experience with it, please reach out!
I also have a recipe for you, an appetizer that is perfect with that beer you brought back from your trip. I’ve long had an issue with wrapping scallops in bacon, the bacon takes much longer to fully cook than the scallops (I need crispy bacon) and using prosciutto solves my issues. Not only does it not technically need to be cooked, but it also crisps much faster.
Did you know most store-bought scallops are almost always soaked in a milky phosphate liquid to help extend their shelf life? A brine is necessary for washing the phosphates out of most store-bought scallops. If you don’t brine, the milky solution will weep out of your scallops while they cook, preventing a good sear and giving the scallops a soapy taste and rubbery texture.
Prosciutto Wrapped Beer Brined Scallops with Chimichurri Butter
4ozthinly sliced prosciuttoone slice for each scallop
2tablespoons(28g) butter
For the IPA Chimichurri Butter:
1tablespoon(10g) finely chopped shallots
¼cup(3g) fresh parsley, minced
2tablespoons(1g) fresh oregano leaves, minced
1teaspoon(3g) red pepper flakes
1teaspoons(6g) lemon juice
1clovegarlicgrated with a microplane
¼teaspoon(1.5g) salt
¼teaspoon(0.5g) black pepper
4tablespoons(57g) melted butter
Instructions
In a large bowl add the scallops (if buying scallops at a grocery store rather than a high-end seafood purveyor, frozen is often better. Scallops are usually frozen on site and avoid the chemicals used to extend their shelf life).
Sprinkle with salt and cover with beer. Refrigerate for 2 to 12 hours. Rinse and drain. Add to a stack of paper towels to fully dry the scallops.
Add a slice of prosciutto to a flat surface, fold to the width of the scallop. Tightly wrap the scallop. Repeat for all scallops.
Heat the butter in a pan over medium high heat until very hot.
Add the scallops, flat side down, searing until browned before flipping to sear on the other side (if scallops stick to the pan, don’t panic and try to pry them off. They will release from the pan once they sear). Ideally, you want the scallops to be seared on the outside with a slight translucent hint in the center.
Stir together the chimichurri ingredients, making sure the butter is warm and the ingredients are all well combined.
Serve the scallops along side the chimichurri butter.
Salmon in Italian Beer Cream Sauce is a simple, one pot, crazy delicious way to make dinner in under 20 minutes.
It’s fitting, don’t you think? A dish that’s both easy and transitional, an echo of the month in a way. September is the most transitional of all months, far more than January and closely followed by June. It’s changing of the weather, a realization that not only is the year mostly over but we’re nearing the holidays, it’s back to school, back from vacation, back into sweaters.
I wanted to make a dish using those last gasps of summer produce, but nodded at the chill filling the air. Something quick (because we have enough to so this month amiright?), but something you could serve to guests. Or just something that felt special even for an average Tuesday.
So I did this, and I hope you like it. I LOVED it, and I’ll make it again soon. If you make it, let me know. Getting Instagram notifications that you’ve made, loved and posted one of my recipes makes my day. For real.
¾cup6oz brown ale or Belgian ale (look for a malty beer with a low hop profile)
1cup240mL heavy cream
½cup55g fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1teaspoongarlic powder
3cups70g baby spinach leaves
1large tomatochopped
1tablespoonfresh basilchopped
Instructions
Sprinkle 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper on the salmon.
Heat the oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the salmon, skin side down, cooking until the skin is crispy, about 5 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side until fish is cooked to desired doneness. Remove from pan, set aside.
Melt the butter in the pan, scraping the brown bits from the bottom.
Stir in the onions, cooking until starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic, cooking for about 30 seconds.
Sprinkle with cornstarch, stir to combine.
Pour in the beer, scraping to deglaze the pan. Allow to simmer until reduced by about half.
Stir in the cream.
A handful at a time, stir in the cheese. Stir until completely melted before adding more cheese.
Stir in the garlic powder and remaining 1 teaspoon salt and pepper.
Stir in the spinach, cooking until wilted. Remove from heat, stir in the tomatoes and basil.
This is because I don’t care. I don’t care that "blogging is dead," so says everyone who spikes higher on SEO than I do. I don’t care that this is not a very googleable recipe, therefore it won’t earn me much incoming search engine traffic.
Your capacity to care about all the things is limited (also known as: how many fucks you have to give), so I really have to limit what I care about to the things that matter most, and let the rest lie like Chowder Jones in the sunlit patch of my living room.
I do, however, care about you. I care that you like what I’m doing, probably far more than I’d ever let on. I care that you make my recipe, post them on Instagram and tag me.
Honestly, it makes my day (unless your setting are set to private and I can’t see it). I care that you drink beer that you like, and I care a LOT when that beer does heart-melty things like give a portion of the profits from ALL of their beer to nonprofit organizations like The Chicago Women’s Health Center.
Middle Brow, a brewery out of Chicago does this. The remarkable thing, if you don’t know much about beer, is how hard this is.
Craft beer has a remarkably low-profit margin, some newer craft breweries hardly break even. It’s hard enough when you just have to worry about your own bills, but then to factor in giving some of that small margin away; it’s truly philanthropic. They’ve been doing it for years, so clearly they have somethings figured out.
When making these tarts—and freeing myself from all the things I don’t care about—it was easy to focus on the things I do. I did, after all, spend my first few years post-college as a social worker for gang kids.
Once you’re immersed in the world of non-profit-helping-people-organizations, it’s stick with you. And so does this beer. Chicago, you’re lucky to call this place a local spot.
2tablespoonsminced green onionsplus additional for garnish
½teaspoonsalt
½teaspoonpepper
For the sauce:
¼cupminced shallots
¼cupwhite wine vinegar
¼cuppilsner or wheat beer
2tablespoonschopped fresh tarragon
3large egg yolks
½teaspoonsalt
½teaspoonblack pepper
½cupunsalted butter
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Roll the puff pastry out on a lightly floured surface. Cut into 12 circles, each about 3 inches across.
Add to a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Brush with olive oil, pierce all over with a fork.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven. While still warm, use the back of a small, round, spoon (like a tablespoon) to press the center in to create a hole.
In a bowl stir together the crab, bell pepper, corn kernels, lemon juice, green onions, salt and pepper.
Plate the tart crusts, fill with the crab mixture.
In a small pot stir together the shallots, vinegar, beer, and tarragon. Bring to a boil, cooking until reduced by half, about 8 minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
In small food processor or blender, add the yolks, salt, and pepper. While the processor is running, slowly add the vinegar reduction and melted butter, process until thickened (if you’re having a hard time getting the sauce to thicken, add to a sauce pan, heat slightly until thickened).
Drizzle the tarts with Bearnaise sauce, sprinkle with green onions, serve.
Notes
*To make ahead: make the tart crust, store in an airtight container. Make filing, store in a separate container. Make the sauce, store in an airtight container. To serve: reheat the sauce in the top of a double boiler, add 1 tablespoon beer, whisk until warmed. Plate the tarts, fill with crab mixture, top with sauce and serve!
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of BC Ale Trail and Tourism New West, Discover Surrey and Tourism Delta. All opinions and text are mine.
TO COME
Day two began how all days should begin: with fried chicken. River Market in New West is a destination all on it’s own. Fresh bread, craft coffee, homemade soap, produce, and restaurants. It’s a lovely place to get lost in. I impatiently waited outside the doors of Freebird Chicken Shack to get my hands on some of the fried chicken I’d been hearing so much about, and it didn’t disappoint.
My suggestions: Turmeric Fried Chicken, and Hot & Sour Fried Chicken Skin
Of course, after that I need a beer. I traveled a few miles to Central City Brewery, one of the most well distributed craft breweries in Canada. With award winning beer and spirits, it’s not hard to see why.
My suggestions: Sour No. 2 Sour Kriek
The afternoon was spent in one of the more unexpected locations: Crescent Beach, a charming little beach town that felt equal parts far away destination and small town quaint. I lingered over oysters, fish & chips, and beer at Hooked Fish Bar, then spent a few hours paddling around the inlet on a stand up paddleboard. An afternoon that went by too quickly and left a beautiful sun soaked memory.
The trip ended in the perfect way, a pot of garlic beer mussels and one of my favorite beers from Four Winds Brewing at Hawthorne Beer Market, a place I could have stayed for hours. The beer list was extensive, the food was fantastic, and the service was outstanding. It’s already bookmarked for my next trip up there. And there will definitely be a next trip.
Coming home I had to recreate the recipe, full of garlic, heat and beer, it was impossible to stop thinking about.
In a large pot or deep skillet add the butter and cook until melted.
Stir in the garlic, salt, paprika, sriracha, beer and chicken broth, stir to combine, bring to a low simmer.
Add the mussels, cover and allow to cook until mussels have opened, about 5 minutes.
Discard any that didn't open. Sprinkle the parsley over the pan.
Serve with crusty bread.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of BC Ale Trail and Tourism New West, Discover Surrey and Tourism Delta. As always, all opinions, photos and text are mine.
I needed a code word, a signal that it was too much. It was devised as a way to tell me that I needed to knock it down a few pegs. When I drink, I get a little less reserved and a little (a lot) more inappropriate.
The people in my life needed a code word to let me know that I needed to pull it back. The code is: "Mississippi." Which spawned the term "Mississippied" as in: "Jackie, you got Mississippied four times last night!"
I tell you this because although I seem a bit reserved on this platform, it’s not because I don’t want to spill my guts to you. I do, but it should only take place in an arena where it’s just between us, where it won’t be immortalized in digital print.
A venue where you can Mississippi me if it gets to be too much.
Last week was a reminder to me that I can do that, if we ever do meet for pints at a pub. After a post that was uncharacteristically vulnerable, I had so many of you reach out, ask if I was OK, tell me that you’d felt the same way from time to time.
So thank you. Thank you for reading what I write, responding to it, and reaching out when you have feelings too.
As a thank you, I made you some grilled lobster, it’s one of my favorite dishes to make for friends.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, salt, and beer. Turn off heat and allow to steep for ten minutes.
Cut the lobster tails in half, lengthwise. Clean out any vein that may still be there.
Place the lobster tails in the pot of butter for ten minutes, allowing to soak in the butter.
Remove from butter (reserve butter).
Place lobster tails on the grill, cut side down, close the lid. Cook until the tails turn bright red and the flesh has turned white, about five minutes. Turn the tails over, baste with the butter mixture.
The patio is always full of people who don’t just know the beer, they know the story. They know the owners, the jobs they held before the lure of the frustration of brewing on a tiny system in the middle of an ocean pulled them into an uncommon life. The beer is always brewed on a system that looks to be just a tick bigger than a home brew system, and it’s running around the clock.
This weekend, on a small island, I stumbled upon Island beer. True to form, the patio was full of the people who run the line between patron and family. The system was on display behind the counter, in a stage between cleaning and brewing, and the beer was beautiful. Earlier this year I was on a tiny Island in the caribbean and found the same sort of beer-island-family that welcomes you in, serves you beer and wants to know your story.
Island beer is different. It doesn’t want to take over the world. It doesn’t seek a buy-out. It doesn’t concern itself with mass distribution. It’s a bit like life on the island. There is always a story of hard it was the get even that small system onto the island, a bigger one is just a far reaching fantasy. Island beer wants to be there for the locals, a backdrop to the stories they tell and the life they lead. It’s consistent, and memorable. It’s worth seeking out, pulling up a seat in the tap room and asking the owners to tell you about how they got started. You might find yourself being treated like part of the family before the end of the night.
Next time you’re on an island, look for the beer. Then find out the story.
oil for fryingcanola, safflower, or peanut work well
1cup240g sour cream
1tablespoon15g sriracha red chili sauce
1long French baguettecut into 3 inch slices, split to resemble buns
2cupsbaby arugula
2large tomatoessliced
Instructions
Cut the fish into 1-inch strips, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt.
In a medium bowl stir together the buttermilk and beer. Add the fish to the bowl, making sure all fish is submerged. Allow to sit for ten minutes while you prep the dredge.
In a separate bowl stir together the cornmeal, flour, creole seasoning, and remaining ½ teaspoon salt.
Add 3 to 4 inches of oil in a pot. Clip a deep fry thermometer onto the side. Heat the oil to 350F, adjusting heat to maintain that temperature.
A few at a time, remove the fish strips from the buttermilk, allowing the excess to drip off. Add fish to the cornmeal dredge, tossing until well coated. Add to the oil, frying until golden, about 4 minutes. Remove from oil and allow to drain on a wire rack.
In a small bowl stir together the sour cream, and sriracha.
Spread the sour cream on the insides of the sliced baguette. Fill with a few pieces of fish, arugula and sliced tomato. Serve immediately.