mushroom

Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits

 

Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits  

Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits_

 

I was once friends with a man who was 100 years old. We had a bit of an unlikely friendship, since he had reached retirement age long before I was even born. He was smart, funny, and seems to have no concept of the age gap.

Life was a constant opportunity to make people laugh, and he took full advantage of it.

When he moved to Los Angeles in the 1940’s to get his pneumonia stricken daughters out of the frigid East Coast winters, he was without money, without a job, and without an education. He walked in to a Taxi company headquarters and asked for a job. He had a fantastic driving record and a winning smile, in his book, that’s the only resume he needed. As soon as the hiring manager found out that he had only lived on the West Coast of a week, knew nothing about Los Angeles freeways, and had never driven a cab, he shut down the interview.

“If you don’t know how to get from LAX to the Roosevelt Hotel, how are you going to get the client there??”

Jack responded with this famous smile, “Well if you don’t give me the cab, it’s gonna take a whole lot longer!”

He got the job.

Jack worked as a cab driver, running tourist from the Airport to Hollywood for over 30 years. He was also the very first Employee of the Month for the cab company, and to date, the recipient of the  most complimentary letters ever sent to the cab company about any one of their employees.

As I sat with him only a few months before his 101’s birthday, eating biscuits that his nurse had made us, I asked him if he had any regrets.

“Not really. The secret to living 100 years old and not regretting anything is this: Do your best. Don’t hurt anyone. Make friends with anyone who will let you.”

 When my job moved me farther from his apartment in the valley, I wasn’t able to visit as often as I used to so I wrote letters, postmarked from my Santa Monica office. One day I got a return letter, addressed to me with flowery handwriting. It was from his 76 year old daughter:
“Jackie,
I’m not sure what it was that formed a friendship between you and my Dad, but I wanted you to know how much he valued you. Your visits brightened his day, even his week. If there was a highlight from his last decade of life, it was the time he spent with you. He spoke of you often, and although my sister and I were at first skeptical of a friendship between him and a girl in her 20’s, it quickly became clear that there was a special bond between you two. I’m so sorry to tell you that he passed away, just a week shy of his 101’s birthday. I do want you to know that we appreciate the time you spent with him in his last year. Thank you.”
I cried. And ate biscuits in his honor, his favorite breakfast. To this day, “Do your best. Don’t hurt anyone. Make friends with anyone who will let you” is some of best advice I’ve gotten.

Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits 3

 

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Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits

Ingredients

    For the Biscuits:
  • 3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 8 tbs unsalted cold butter, cut into cubes
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 2/3 cup Belgian ale (or wheat beer)
  • 2 tbs melted butter
  • ¼ tsp course sea salt
    • For the Chicken and Gravy:
  • 3 tbs butter
  • 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • ¼ cup chopped yellow onion
  • 8 wt oz chopped crimini mushrooms
  • ¼ cup flour
  • 1 cup beef stock
  • ¾ cup stout beer
  • ¼ cup heavy cream
  • 1 tbs honey
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400.
  2. In a processor add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.
  3. Pulse to combine. Add the cold butter, process until well combined. Add to a large bowl.
  4. Add the buttermilk and beer. Mix with a fork until just combined.
  5. Add to a well-floured flat surface, pat into a rectangle. Using a cold rolling pin (preferably marble) gently roll into a large rectangle, about 1 inch in thickness, using as few strokes as possible.
  6. Fold the dough into thirds as you would a letter about to go into an envelope. Roll lightly, once in each direction to about 1 inch thickness, fold in thirds again. Gently roll into about 1 1/2 inch thickness (this will give you the flakey layers).
  7. Using a biscuit cutter cut out 6 to 8 biscuits. Place in a baking pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
  8. Brush biscuits with melted butter, sprinkle salt.
  9. Bake at 425 for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
  10. While the biscuits bake, make the gravy.
  11. Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium high heat.
  12. Sprinkle the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Sear on each side until golden brown, remove from the pan, chop (they do not need to be cooked through).
  13. Add the onions, cook until softened, about five minutes. Add the mushrooms, cook until mushrooms are dark brown and soft.
  14. Sprinkle with flour, cook until the flour has turned brown, about 2 minutes.
  15. Add the beef stock and stout. Simmer until thickened. Add the chicken cubes back into the pan, simmer until cooked through.
  16. Add the cream, honey, stir until well combined.
  17. Salt and pepper to taste.
  18. Split the biscuits, fill with gravy.
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Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits 2

Stout Soaked Mushrooms and Herbed Goat Cheese Crostinis

LA to SEA

Photos from my Instagram account 

I made it.

From LA to Seattle, up Highway 1. Past fat lazy seals, miles of winding coastlines, epic Redwoods, and into an unusually sunny Seattle. Although the sun has now given way to the typical rain, it’s somehow comforting.

Although figuring out how to wield a camera in low light has been a bit challenging.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64181306@N05/12866603485/

But the food isn’t. This part of the word has gorgeous produce, fantastic seafood, incredible beer. I’m starting to get familiar with the Northwest breweries and the beautiful beer that I’m now so close to. If you know of a local brewery I should go to, please, I’m all ears.

Stout Soaked Mushroom & Herbed Goat Cheese Crostini4

As I unpack the boxes, rely heavily on my navigation to get around, figure out what local stations to set my car radio to,  and try to amend my ill-equipped wardrobe (warm socks?? I need new socks?), I’m excited to be here. My Gypsy Soul gets to wander a new city.

Stout Soaked Mushroom & Herbed Goat Cheese Crostini3

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Stout Soaked Mushrooms and Herbed Goat Cheese Crostinis

Ingredients

  • 1 wt oz (1 ½ cups) assorted dried mushrooms (I used Porcini, Shiitake & Chanterelle)
  • 12 ounces stout beer
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tbs unsalted butter
  • ¼ cup chopped shallots
  • ½ tsp kosher or sea salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 1 baguette (sourdough or French)
  • 4 ounces chevre goat cheese, softened
  • 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
  • 1 tsp chopped fresh sage
  • 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

Directions

  1. Put the mushrooms in a small bowl or jar. Cover with the stout beer. Leave at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours or until the mushrooms are soft and have reconstituted.
  2. Drain the mushrooms and rinse well to remove any residual grit.
  3. Slice the mushrooms into thin slices (unless mushrooms were pre sliced).
  4. In a pan over medium high heat melt the butter with the olive oil.
  5. Add the shallots and cook until softened and starting to brown, about 5 minutes.
  6. Add the mushrooms to the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cook until most of the oil and butter has been absorbed, about 5 minutes.
  7. Preheat the boiler on the oven.
  8. Slice the baguette into 18-24 slices.
  9. Place the slices on a baking sheet. Place until the broiler until golden brown, about 2 minutes, flip over and place under the broiler until golden brown the opposite side.
  10. In a small bowl stir together the goat cheese, thyme, sage and rosemary.
  11. Spread each slice with goat cheese, top with mushrooms.
  12. Serve immediately.
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Mushroom, Stout and Goat Cheese Pot Pie

A bunch of years ago I was in Dublin, Ireland for the St. Patricks day celebrations. I had flown over from LA, with only two nights booked at the Brewery Hostel at the base of the Guinness brewery.  The night of the festival I was without a room, all at once ecstatic to be in Dublin for the Merriment and panicked to be without a place to stay.

Mushroom Stout and Goat Cheese Pot Pie4

I had three options.

1. Through a friend of a friend twice removed, I was connected with an Irish man willing to take me in for the night.

2. I had met some lovely Australians who were working on renovating a flat in town, but it was completely empty of any furniture and the electricity and water were both shut off, but it was walls and a roof.

3. Wander the streets for the evening, falling in and out of pubs, until I pass out on the street with some of the more rowdy locals.

Mushroom Stout and Goat Cheese Pot Pie5

I hesitantly opted for option one. If you have ever been a young girl with a backpack and a guidebook in a foreign city, I don’t need to underscore the concerns I had with this set up. Lucky for me, this man was Irish to the core: friendly, hospitable and a perfect gentleman.

I spent most of the evening running around Dublin, from pub to pub, drinking the local beer (Guinness), probably offending the bartenders by tipping them (not a custom in Ireland, “Would you tip your doctor?!”) and watching the locals swell with patriotic pride as fireworks burst over the River Liffey in the heart of Dublin.

All of this, the people who welcomed me in, the beer that warmed my soul, and the celebration that swirled around me, will always give me a deep love for Ireland and Her people.

Kiss the Irish, they deserve it.

Mushroom Stout and Goat Cheese Pot Pie

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Mushroom, Stout and Goat Cheese Pot Pie

Ingredients

  • 2 tbs olive oil (plus additional as needed)
  • 4 large carrots, chopped
  • 2 large leek, chopped (white and very light green potion only)
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 ½ lb assorted mushrooms (i.e. portobello, crimini, shiitake)
  • 1 cup peas
  • 1 cup broth (vegetable or beef)
  • 12 ounces stout
  • ¼ cup AP flour
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 3 ounces goat cheese
  • 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
  • 2 tbs melted butter

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the carrots, leeks and celery, sauté until the carrots start to soften.
  3. Add the mushrooms and cook until softened and darkened, about 5 minutes (add additional olive oil if the pan starts to dry).
  4. Add the peas, broth and stout. Bring to a simmer. Sprinkle with flour, stir to combine. Stir in the oregano, pepper and salt. Cook until thickened, about 2 minutes, remove from heat.
  5. Divide evenly between 6 oven safe (12 to 14 ounce) serving bowls, sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese.
  6. Roll out puff pastry on a lightly floured surface, cut into 6 equal squares.
  7. Top each bowl with one square, press into shape.
  8. Brush with melted butter, slice 3 to 4 small slits in the top of each bowl.
  9. Bake at 375 until puff pastry is golden brown.
http://thebeeroness.com/2013/03/01/mushroom-stout-and-goat-cheese-pot-pie/

 

Mushroom Stout and Goat Cheese Pot Pie2

 

Chicken in Creamy Mushroom Beer Sauce

 

 

Today is November 6th, Election Day.

As Americans spend the day thinking of little else, wedged firmly between Barack and a hard place, I wanted to give you a little motivation to get through this day.

We will soon find ourselves at the end of this exhausting Election Season, our feelings of separatism from those who disagree with us will fade. We will find Facebook to be a friendlier place, and those Someecards of a political nature will ebb.

Regardless of the outcome, you have a reason to grab your favorite beer. Either in celebration of your guy winning the mad race to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, or as a way to console yourself over the fact that the other guy came out ahead.

Given that you may be too distracted to spend all that much time in the kitchen tonight, this meal only takes about 20 minutes.

And, I’m pretty certain it has bipartisan support.

For this recipes, I like a brown ale, a blonde, a pale or a wheat beer. Be aware that using an IPA will kick up the beer flavor considerably and may be too bitter in the end.

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Chicken in Creamy Mushroom Beer Sauce

Ingredients

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken thigh fillets
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 3 tbs butter
  • 1/4 cup onions, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 5 oz wild mushrooms, such as Shiitake (not dried)
  • 1/2 cup beer
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup shredded parmesan
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. In a pan over medium high heat, melt the butter. Sprinkle chicken thighs on all sides with salt and pepper. Add chicken to the pan and cook on both sides until browned, about 4 minutes per side. Remove chicken from pan.
  2. Add onions and saute until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes.
  3. Add garlic and mushrooms, cook until mushrooms are soft and have darkened, about 5 minutes.
  4. Add the beer, scraping the bottom to deglaze the pan.
  5. Reduce heat to medium, add the cream and stir.
  6. Add half of the cheese, stir until melted. Add the remaining half, stir until combined.
  7. Add the chicken and allow to cook until sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, serve over rice or pasta.
http://thebeeroness.com/2012/11/06/chicken-in-creamy-mushroom-beer-sauce/

 

 

Steak With Stout Beer Mushroom Sauce

Let’s start by talking a little bit about steak, and how to cook it at home. Before you even start your meal, you need to know how to buy steak and what those stickers on the package mean.

If you are lucky enough to be cozy with your local butcher, you can disregard this next bit of trivia. If you buy your steaks at the grocery store, you’ll need to know this in order to get an amazing steak on to your dinner plate.

While I’m the first in line to let everyone know that cheap cuts of meat can turn in to fantastic meals, this is not a dish that will give you memorable results with low quality beef. You must spend on steak.

That being said, the most expensive cuts of meat aren’t always worth the price but knowing how to decipher the labeling will help you balance price vs quality.

Prime, Choice, and Select.

Prime is the best meat for that cut and will, most likely, taste the best once cooked, but it almost always cost the most.

Don’t even bother with Select, it’s the lowest quality of meat. Unless you are a “well-done” steak person, then it doesn’t really matter, an overcooked piece of meat taste the same regardless of quality.

Choice is a great option and a middle ground between price and quality if you are on a budget. It’s far better than Select, but not as expensive as Prime.

Don’t fall for the “Inspected by USDA” sticker, all meat is inspected by the USDA and that sticker just means that quality was so poor, it didn’t even qualify for a “Select” sticker. If there is no indication if the meat is Prime, Choice or Select, the odds are that the meat didn’t meet standards for any of those categories. In other words: don’t buy an unmarked steak.

Another important step in pan searing a steak at home is removing excess moisture from the outside of the steak. I know that it seems counter-intuitive to remove moisture when the goal is a juicy steak, but this is the only way to get a good sear and avoid gray meat. Pat the steak dry with paper towels before seasoning it.

Salt is another essential component in making steak, regardless of the cooking method. Salt the outside of your meat generously. This will tenderize the steak, brighten and enhance the natural flavors. Without it, your meat will be slightly tougher and have much more of a “flat” taste to it.

A hot pan and a 350°F degree oven is the combination that you need to achieve a crust on the outside and the perfect amount of pink on the inside of the steak.

For the mushrooms sauce, I used Steelhead Extra Stout by Mad River Brewing. A smooth, creamy stout with a surprisingly light finish. A stout lovers dream, a great beer to drink with dinner or dessert.

Pan Seared Steak with Stout Beer Mushroom Sauce

Doneness is a hard thing to explain, but there are several ways to know if your steak is where you want it to be without the dreaded slice through the middle that will compromise your overall results.

First, there is the temperature check, but this does require a stab to your meat which will allow some juices to flow out, but far less than cutting it open. Get out an oven-safe thermometer and push it halfway through the middle of your steak. Keep in mind that your meat will continue to cook an additional 5 degrees once remove from the oven so keep that in mind when your test the temperature, removing the meat about 5 degrees before it reaches the level you want it.

126°F Rare
131°F Medium Rare
145°F Medium
154°F Medium Well

The second way is the feel test. This is what I use, and if you cook enough steak, you will be familiar with how your steaks feel once they are done. Here is an old line cook secret to understanding how a steak should feel once it’s done:

Put your thumb and forefinger together. With your other hand, feel the fleshy part of your palm, just below your thumb. That is what a rare steak will feel like. Then put your thumb and middle finger together. The fleshy part of your palm will now feel medium rare. Thumb and ring finger: medium well. This is a way to get the doneness you want without having the unsightly cut marks in your beautiful steak.

Here is a great article about the feel test, with pictures of what I’m talking about.

Allow your steak to rest for five minutes while you finish the sauce.

Top each steak with mushroom sauce, serve with stout beer.

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Steak With Stout Beer Mushroom Sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

    For The Steak:
  • 1 tbs unsalted butter
  • 4, 6 oz Steaks
  • Salt and pepper for seasoning
    • For the Mushroom Sauce:
  • 3 tbs butter
  • 1/4 cup shallots, chopped
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 4 cups Crimini mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 tbs olive oil  (if necessary)
  • 12 ounces Stout Beer
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tbs balsamic vinegar

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. In a pan over medium heat, melt 3 tbs butter. Add the shallots and cook until transparent, about 3 minutes.  Add the garlic and stir. Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are soft and dark brown, about 5 minutes. Add the olive oil if the pan starts to get dry. If you add the beer before the mushrooms are cooked through, they will absorb too much of the beer flavor.
  3. Reduce heat to medium and add the beer and allow to cook until reduce by more than half, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. You can cook the steaks while the sauce is reducing (see below).
  4. Once the sauce has reduced, add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
  5. Pat the steaks dry with a paper towel, and season all sides generously with salt. Sprinkle liberally with pepper.
  6. In a sperate pan, heat 1 tbs butter until melted and the pan is very hot but not smoking. Add the steaks and cook on each side until a brown seared crust has formed, about 2 minutes per side. Don't crowd the pan or the the cooking temperature will fall below what the steaks need for a good sear. Cook in two batches if necessary. Move steaks to a sheet pan or baking dish.
  7. Cook in the oven for 5-7 minutes, or until desired level of doneness. Allow to rest for at least 5 minutes.
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