Beer and Chocolate. No Joke.

Mike the Gay Beer Guy weighs in on the wonders of chocolate and, yes, beer.

So who likes chocolate? Here’s a quick desert that takes about 20 minutes to make, 10 minutes to bake, and an evening to enjoy! We make this molten lava cake a few times a month ... very little “real” baking technique is required and the results are amazing. This recipe is from Epicurious, and can be doubled or halved as needed. For tonight I only made two, even though we have 4 ramekins. Did I mention it’s quick and easy?! And of course why would I pair this with anything other a chocolate beer!

Molten Lava Cake
Serves 2 (or 4...or 8)

Ingredients
3 ¼ oz bittersweet chocolate
1 ½ tablespoons butter
Pinch (or less) of salt
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoon sugar
1 large egg white

Method
Heat the oven to 425 degrees F and grease/flour (or maybe use cocoa powder?) your ramekins. Over a double boiler (or my makeshift stainless-bowl-over-a-small-pot-of-water) melt the chocolate, butter, and salt; there will be a noticeable texture change and that’s when you’re done. Set the bowl aside to cool for about 10 minutes.

In a new bowl, beat the egg yolks and 2 ½ tablespoons of the sugar together until smooth, about 2 minutes. Fold the cooled chocolate/butter mixture into the yolks and set aside. Using another bowl, whisk the egg white and remaining sugar until stiff, but not dry... the recipe from epicurious recommends using an electric beater, but for one egg, I just do it all by hand. Fold it gently into the chocolate mixture being careful not to deflate the egg white. Divide the mixture evenly into your ramekins, put them on a pan, and pop ‘em into the oven for 10 or 11 minutes.

When the cakes are done baking, let them cool for about a minute on a wire rack. Loosen the cake from the ramekin by sliding a knife around the edge and invert the cake onto a plate. Garnish with whipped cream and/or strawberries (seriously, I thought we had strawberries in the fridge... I’m kind of upset they weren’t there).

Bière au Chocolat
Our local big brewery, the Boulevard Brewing Company, just released a batch of its Chocolate Ale here in Kansas City. The beer attracted so much attention that my friends and I couldn’t even find a bar that wasn’t sold out by the time we got there, let alone buy a bottle or two to drink at home! So Dr E, my microbiologist friend, asked me to make a version... the end result is nothing like Boulevard’s, but it’s certainly something I’m happy with. The recipe is based on my Brown Porter recipe, but without the Brown malt and of course with chocolate. By the way, I told Dr E I would come up with the recipe but that HE would have to be the brewer... this is his first beer, with my assistance of course! Cheers!

OG: 1.060
FG: 1.018
IBU: 29
SBV: 5.5%

Ingredients
10 lbs 2-Row Malt
2 lbs Red Wheat Malt
1 lb Crystal 40
1 lb unsweetened baking cocoa powder
½ lb chocolate malt
½ lb biscuit malt
½ victory malt
1 ½ oz East Kent Golding Hops at 5% AA for 60 minutes
½ oz East Kent Golding Hops at 5% AA for 30 minutes
WLP 005 British Ale Yeast (or any English yeast will do!)

Method
Mash grains at 155*F for 60 minutes or so. Sparge as usual. Boil your wort adding the hops at the times indicated; add the cocoa powder during the last 2 minutes or so to sanitize. Ferment (chocolate sludge and all!) at the lower end of the spectrum to provide minimal esters, but still retaining the English character... I went with 65*F. I think this beer works best with minimal carbonation; just the slightest hint of bubbles is my preference... think about 1 to 1 ½ volumes of CO2.

Cheers!

- Mike TGBG

Fondue WHAT?

And now, ladies and gentlemen, for our monthly dose of wisdom from Mike the Gay Beer Guy. Be still our beating hearts...



Mike here.

We’ve all been there... you know, THAT couple that invites you over for a Fondue party. Cheese, oil, chocolate - it’s all the same. Little tiny forks sticking out of center bowl warned over a tiny burner. Well roll up your sleeves and get ready to impress your friends with this spiced up version! That’s right - HOT POT.

The Chinese version of dipped meats and vegis in a broth is loaded with all sorts of flavor; you can almost use anything you want. Be warned, though, it’s not for the light hearted... this is serious entertaining food that gets spicier and more intense as the evening goes on. To make it more of an event, instead of having a whole ton of food just for the two of us, T and I invited our friend (and fellow Hong Konger to T) over to partake in this Chinese winter staple (speaking of winter... as I write this it’s 65* outside in Kansas City... yeah, winter indeed).

The components: the chili oil, the broth, the sauce, and all the fixin’s... ready? Here we go!

Chili Oil:
Szechuan Peppercorns (found at the Asian Market)
Dried Chili Peppers
Canola Oil


This should be done a day in advance. There’s no set quantitative value to how much chilis or oil to use. Use your judgement! Start by toasting your chilis in a dry pan until they develop some color but don’t burn; once done, set aside in a bowl. Using the same pan, start toasting your Szechuan Peppercorns. The peppercrcorns will release an amazing aroma, which seems like it’s a combination of hot spice, pepper (like cracked black pepper), and a sour/vinegary flavor. When the peppercorns have developed a nice flavor, combine it back with the chilis and roughly crush with a mortar and pestle (we actually don’t own one... a stainless bowl and a mini-rolling pin work just as well!). In the pan, combine the peppers and the peppercorns with enough oil to cover, heat through, and then set in a heat proof bowl to rest overnight.


Broth:
Daikon Radish
Water
Chicken (or Pork) Broth
Seasonings
Chili Oil

The broth is simple... dice the radish into 1 inch pieces. Add the water and simmer... at some point taste the broth for flavor, adjust the seasoning. After you’ve sufficiently simmered the broth, add the chili oil to taste (we found that it was more pungent rather than spicy... but use your own judgement!). This is a great time to discuss the vessel you should use: a flat-bottomed pan a few inches deep to be able to simmer enough broth to cook the fixings of your choice. As you can see form the pictures, we have a mini butane fueled stove that sits in the middle of our table... it’s kinda similar to a camping stove, but safe for indoor use. Always be safe when making hot pot!!!! At some point before serving, you’ll want to add some of your fixings to the broth, not only to enhance flavor, but to give them a head start in the cooking process... but we’ll get into the details after the sauce.

OK, here we go... a quick warning. From here on, you might be dealing with raw and cooked-slightly-rare ingredients... At no point during this meal did I ever think I was going to get any form of food poisoning. We used fresh ingredients, which certainly helps to curve the nerves. But use your judgement! My thoughts are, especially being Mike TGBG, that if you drink enough alcohol you’ll either kill everything living in your system... or at least you’ll never remember being sick!

The Dipping Sauce & Fixin’s:
Egg
Chinese BBQ Paste
Soy Sauce

Now everyone get your individual bowl. Crack your egg into your bowl, add a dab of BBQ Paste and some soy sauce, and swirl it all around with your chop sticks (you know... chop sticks, right?!). You’re going to put your fixings into the simmering broth, let them cook to your liking, and plop them into your sauce. And then eat of course!!! When you get your broth into the middle of your table (on the flame) it’s probably a good time to add whatever long-cooking items... we had fish-balls, Chinese Meatballs, and mushrooms. Also on the table (and we had EVERYTHING there): beef, chicken, prawns, squid, muscles, noodles, cabbage, tofu, fermented tofu, more mushrooms... you name it. This can be as complicated or as simple as you want... just prep everything in advance and instant HOT POT!!!!


Imperial Mild

For this evening, I had on hand an Imperial Mild that I had brewed as a kit from Northern Brewer (http://www.northernbrewer.com). For those who don’t know, a Mild (as opposed to the hoppier “Bitter”) is an English Pub beer, usually about 3% or so ABV (it’s actually really hard to find one commercially... I know of no one in the US who makes one or imports one, and I’ve heard it’s very rare in Europe too!). This recipe calls for the same ingredients, just a little higher in alcohol, at about 5.5% ABV. Full of malty flavor and some caramel sweetness, this beer paired PERFECTLY with the hot and spicy Hot Pot. For my winter brewing, I plan most beers around extract recipes so I can brew indoors without having to stand in the outside cold for hours... here is the recipe just as I made it. Maybe over the summer I can plan a full-mash version!

OG: 1.062
ABV: 5.5%

Ingredients
6 lbs Munton’s Amber Dry Malt Extract
1 lb Corn Sugar
4 oz each English Dark Crystal, Extra-Dark Crystal, and Pale Chocolate Malts
2 oz Victory Malt
2 ½ oz Fuggles at 60 minutes
½ oz Fuggles at 15 min
WY1187 - Ringwood Ale Yeast

Method - Back to Basics... partial wort boil on the stove

Crush and steep your specialty malts (in a mesh bag) in about a gallon of 160* water for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, collect about 4 gallons in your kettle as you drain your bag of crushed grains (don’t squeeze out every last bit of liquid!!! Just simply drain the bag of grains over the kettle! When the bag doesn’t drip, throw it away). Off heat, add the extract to the water, stir to dissolve well, and bring the wort (solution of sugars) to a boil. When you achieve boil, add your 60 min hops (you can cover the kettle to help a boil come about, but then the lid should be off until you’re ready to cool the wort); boil for 45 min, add your 15 minute hops and corn sugar, and continue to boil for the remaining 15 minutes. When the hour boil is over, cool the kettle in an ice bath in the sink (or bath tub or whatever). While the kettle is cooling, prepare your fermentation vessel... sanitize, sanitize, SANITIZE!!! The wort in the kettle is essentially sterile (although there are spores and other potential contaminants still in solution, the nasty and potentially beer-hazardous stuff has been thoroughly killed off) and you want to give your yeast the optimum and clean environment to work! When the wort is cool to the touch (ideally around 60*-70*, but any temperature which won’t kill your yeast will work), pour it into your fermentation vessel; food-grade plastic buckets are easy, but those with carboys will need either a friend and a funnel or to siphon. Your fermenter should be able to hold 6 ½ gallons of liquid... when the wort is in the fermenter, top off with clean spring water or previously boiled and cooled tap water to about 5 ½ gallons; you will have about a gallon of open head space. From here, the easiest thing to do is just pitch your yeast and cover the vessel... plastic buckets can accommodate a sanitized airlock in the lid or use a sanitized piece of foil for your carboy (I only use stoppers and airlocks for any beer I’ll leave in the fermenter for longer than 2 weeks). My procedure is a little more controlled: I make sure my wort has cooled to 60*, pitch my yeast, and then raise the temperature to 65* (assuming the temperature inside the carboy will be around 67*-68*) through the use of a heat wrap and temperature controller. Ferment until the beer has visibly stopped moving and the majority of yeast has fallen out of suspension... and then wait another 3 or 4 days after that!! Keg or bottle and carbonate VERY low... I actually prefer this beer almost still. If you bottle and add priming sugar, use ⅓ to ½ of what you would normally add. For you keggers out there (my included), just put enough head pressure on the keg to serve!


Cheers
- Mike TGBG

Pork and, Yes, Beer

Clearly at least two of the writers of this blog have pig on the brain. First we get the Edna post (that almost made me become a moral vegetarian) and now we have a much lovelier post about roast pork, a favorite of mine back when red meat was on my personal menu. (I know pork is the "other" white meat but you get what I mean.) Anyway, without further ado, this month's post from Mike the Gay Beer Guy — Janet

Hi Janet, Hi Rachel -

Happy 2012!!! Can you believe it’s here? As I write this on Christmas Day, it’s hardly imaginable that the new year is upon us once again. Last night we made a roast pork shoulder based on a recipe from the TV show, America’s Test Kitchen. Of course, not knowing there as a copy of the recipe online, I set out putting this whole thing together by memory — and actually came pretty close! America’s Test Kitchen also suggests a peach sauce, but we made one with our Weizenbock from last month’s post...enjoy!

Roast Pork with Weizensauce

Based on America’s Test Kitchen Recipe - either from the TV show, or also found here:

pork ingredients
Bone-in Pork Shoulder (2-3 lbs for 2 people with leftovers)
Kosher Salt & Brown Sugar, equal parts
Ground Pepper

method
Mix the salt and sugar in a bowl making sure there aren’t too many big clumps of brown sugar. Take the pork, fat side up, and score the top; press the salt/sugar mixture into the pork on the top. Wrap the roast in plastic and put on a baking sheet in the refrigerator overnight... as you can read in the ATK link, the salt acts as a brine or curing agent, making sure the meat is flavorful throughout. When you’re ready to roast, take the pork out of the fridge and bring it to room temperature; for us, this took the better part of an hour, or maybe longer (I forgot!).

Heat your oven to 325*, unwrap the pork making sure to brush off all the excess salt and sugar, and season with fresh pepper. Place the pork on a greased up V-Rack set inside a roasting pan or high-rimmed baking sheet; add some water to the bottom of the roasting pan so that the juices from the pork don’t burn during roasting. As the pork is in the oven, make sure to replace the water as it evaporates... it’s ok if the sugars caramelize a little!

The pork should be done when a thermometer inserted into the middle of the roast reads 190 degrees; for our 2-3 lb roast that was about 3 hours. Take the roast out, move it to a cutting board, and tent it loosely with foil.

Prepare the sauce from ATK or try our Weizensauce! Serve with your favorite festive sides... we had roasted acorn squash and zucchini (multi-task... as the roast is finishing, put your veggies in the oven!!).

Weizensauce

ingredients
Drippings from the Pork Roast
EVOO
1 shallot,minced
Weizenbock Beer, about 6-8 oz from a bottle or your keg
Thyme, we used 3 sprigs of fresh, but you can used dried too
Honey

method
Collect the drippings from roast pork; let it sit for 5-10 minutes so you can separate the fat from the juices. As the drippings are resting, prepare your shallot and saute in a small pot. When the shallots have caramelized a bit, stir in the beer, bring it to a boil so the alcohol burns off, and begin reducing. Add the pork drippings to the pot along with the thyme; check your seasoning, but the pork drippings should be salty enough. Reduce by at least half; when finished, remove from heat, remove the thyme and add the honey to taste. Serve and enjoy!




Beer of the Month - Sour Wit

Over my Christmas Break, I will be making an experimental beer based on something we had in Minneapolis at the Herkimer Pub and Brewery in Minneapolis, MN. I think everyone should try sour beers, especially if they aren’t beer drinkers; although sour and complex, most people actually enjoy this style (which is very broad) as opposed to the very bitter IPA, for example. Often you will find fruit lambics in the store, which have been soured with fruit and sweeteners added. My favorite non-fruit sour beer is from Rodenbach, which falls into the Flanders Red subcategory. This recipe will combine a Witbier (think Hoegaarden or Blue Moon) with a sharp sourness... it’s my goal that the sour will accentuate the citrus and coriander normally found in Witbiers. I am only making a half batch, just in case something goes wrong! Cheers

OG: 1.056

FG: 1.014 (apx)

IBUs: 24

ABV: 5.5% (apx)

(3 gallon batch, as opposed my usual 6 gallons!)

Ingredients

3.15 lbs Wheat Liquid Malt Extract

1 lb Flaked Oats (or 1 Minute Oats)

1 lb 2-Row Base Malt

2 oz Munich Malt

1 oz Hallertau Hops at 60 Minutes

½ t Coriander

Zest from 3 different citrus fruits (naval orange, blood orange, and lemon perhaps?)

Witbier Yeast (Wyeast 3944)

Lactobacillus (Wyeast 5335)

Method

Mini-mash the oats, 2-row, and Munich malts (hold anywhere from 149-158* F in about a gallon of water for about an hour. Make sure to use a grain bag, paint strainer bag, or other filter of your choice... if after an hour the liquid tastes sweet, you’ve done it right!!). After an hour and you have separated the liquid (wort) from the grain, dilute the liquid to about 4 gallons and add your wheat malt extract. Bring to a boil, add your hops, and continue to boil for an hour; add the coriander and zest with about a minute or 2 left in the boil. Cool using an ice bath or other method of your choice, move to a glass or stainless steal fermenter (plastic is not a good choice with this beer because of the bacteria involved) and ferment with Witbier yeast in the mid 60s* F. Once fermentation has started, add the Lacto culture; the Wit yeast will finish out and the bacteria will take over giving you a nice sourness. Taste every so often... when it feels right, keg and serve!

Good luck!

Walking with a Winter Weizenbock

Time for our monthly post from Mike the Gay Beer Guy...

Dear Friends: Happy Thanksgiving! I know by the time you read this, it’ll be slightly belated, but you get the idea. T and I have never been traditional in anything we do. To celebrate before going out for crazy-midwestern-Walmart-Black-Friday shopping, we of course make a special meal like most out there. Turkey? No. Braised Beef Short Ribs - well yes please!! This simple, yet fantastic, main dish goes with almost anything else you wish to prepare; we had a soup from roasted squash, roasted asparagus, and garlic new potatoes. To go along with the meal, I had planned a nice Weiznbock; well I got to it a little late and it’s still in the fermenter... c’est la vie. It smells good, though! Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year... see you in 2012.

Thanksgiving Braised Beef Short Ribs
(Feeds two with leftovers)
The less you have to do after cooking for a crowd at Thanksgiving, the better, right? Do this the night before a few hours before you go to bed. Turn the flame off, and just keep it on the stove overnight. The pan will last without having to go into the fridge, and you can skim off some of the fat the next day! Reheat right where the pan is as everything else you’re preparing cooks.

Ingredients
6 Beef Short Ribs
EVOO
Parnsips, Carrots, Celery, Beets, Onion — all rough chopped
Garlic, 3 or 4 cloves
Red Wine

Method
Wash/trim your short ribs and pat them dry with paper towels; season appropriately. Prepare a big pan (preferably not non-stick) on medium/high heat with enough EVOO to cover the bottom but not be overwhelming. Brown the short ribs on each side, without trying to move them around the pan. Once the ribs have developed color, move them to a plate. Add more oil if necessary, and brown the veggies and garlic with seasoning. The veggies should develop color without burning.

Once everything is nice and happy, add the wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the ribs to the pan, moving the veggies out of the way, and add any juices that have accumulated from the plate the ribs were on. Cover, bring the pan to a simmer. When the pan is at a simmer, reduce the flame to low and let it be for 2 or 3 hours. When you’re ready for bed, turn off the flame and let it sit until the next day. Skim the fat, reheat, and serve with your favorite traditional or non-traditional Thanksgiving goodness!



Winter Weizenbock

In my mind, this is another perfect fall or winter beer. Weizenbock, which as you can tell from the stereotypical German compound word, is the intermarriage between a wheat beer and a bock... flavor with a punch. Imagine a German-style wheat beer (not one of those watered down American versions) with bready, banana, and clove overtones, add some dark toasty character and caramel flavors, and then kick it up a notch.

I try and follow all Reinheitsgebot rules up until carbonation...for those who don’t know, this is the German Purity Law. Yes, the Germans have a law dating back to the 1500s. To oversimplify things, basically three things could go into beer: water, barley, and hops. The law had to be amended to accommodate the discovery of yeast as a microorganism essential to the process. The law dating from way-back-when has been repealed, and there is a current and updated version in its place. The recipe I use is right out of Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer’s book, Brewing Classic Styles. I switch out the yeast strain Jamil recommends for another which works well in my system; experiment and make this beer your own!

OG - 1.081
FG - 1.020
ABV - 8%
IBUs - 23

10 lbs Wheat Malt (dark is prefered)
5 lbs Pilsner Malt
2 lbs Munich Malt
½ lb Special B
½ lb Crystal 40
¼ lb Pale Chocolate

1 ½ oz Hallertau Hops for 60 minutes

WLP 380 - Hefeweizen IV Yeast

Mash at 152*, sparge and lauter as usual. Make sure to increase your initial wort amount to accommodate for a 90 minute boil. Boil, adding your hops as indicated... there’s only one addition, you’ll be fine. Jamil says you should ferment at 62* for WLP 300 to reduce the banana flavors and encourage more clove and spicy flavors... for the WLP 380, I have found that 66* gives me a balance I look for in German wheat beers. This yeast also throws out a LOT of sulfur... don’t be discouraged, just let it be and the sulfur will dissipate.

Cheers - Since I won’t be in touch until AFTER January 1st, I want to wish everyone out there a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. If you’re interested in getting into homebrewing (or possibly encouraging a family member or significant other), please feel free to ask me any questions you might have... brewing kits make EXCELLENT gifts!

- Mike TGBG

Pizza and — What Else? — Beer

Hi Janet, Hi Rachel

Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, Christmas is just a stone’s throw beyond that. Nothing screams fall in New England more than pizza.

Ok, you got me... pizza screams nothing of fall in New England. But hey, this is a great recipe and I even remembered to take pictures!


Fresh Pizza Dough
This recipe is from a book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, given to me by my very good friend and second-mother, Julie “Miss Sunshine” Wallace. Her son and I were great friends in college, often finding ourselves at the Wallace house on the weekends to get away from the evil dorm food. Miss Sunshine always had homemade meals, fantastic cookies, and of course fresh bread! She still makes recipes from this book and I’m so glad she passed the good word onto me... this recipe is directly from the pages, even though I make a half batch rather than the full amount listed. Enjoy!

Ingredients
(this is the half-batch version)
1 ⅓ cups lukewarm Water
2 ¼ teaspoons Granulated Yeast (we buy one of those jars in the bread aisle
2 ¼ teaspoons Salt
1 ½ teaspoons Sugar
2 tablespoons EVOO
3 ¼ cup all purpose Flour

Method
Combine all the ingredients except for the flour; you can use a bowl or a plastic container with lid. Mix in the flour, one cup at a time... you can use a stand mixer, but a spoon in the plastic container works just as well (oh you may need to add more water or flour depending on how the dough feels in the moment). Cover your dough (but not air tight) and allow to rest for about 2 hours. You can certainly use the dough immediately after the rise, but it works better if you chill it down in the fridge.

When you’re ready to use the dough, preheat your oven to 525* F (You just keep your pizza stone in the oven ALL the time, right? I mean for REAL...you just might as well, because you should be using it all the time... RIGHT?!?!?!). Prepare all of your toppings... for our pizza we had green peppers, garlic, and chorizo sausage in addition to the “normal” marinara and cheese.

Pull off half of the dough and shape it into a ball by pulling on the top of the round and tucking it under to the bottom, turning the round 90 degrees after each pull and tuck (no this isn’t plastic surgery). Roll the dough onto a floured flat surface... in order to get the pizza onto the pizza stone, you’ll need to then get the dough to a pizza peel covered with corn meal (you can use the underside of a flat sheet pan as well). Move quickly so the dough doesn’t get stuck to the pizza peel... sauce, toppings, cheese, and GO! Shake the pizza onto the pizza stone in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Check and continue baking if required. Let the pizza cool for a bit and serve...preferably with a fantastic beer...like this one.


Brown Porter
The city where I work is right next to a military base, which serves as a teaching college for American officers, as well as for officers from our allied countries. We are very good friends with the British family, who traded some of my IIPA beers (from my last post) for some English bottles... I think I made out the best of the deal! The Fuller’s Porter, pictured, was among the bottles I received, which according to the officer and his wife, was special ordered from the UK. I may have shared my Brown Porter recipe before, but it’s something I make time and time again, and continually improve in every new brewing experience. This really does remind my of New England Fall, so I think it’s time for another round -

OG: 1.052
FG: 1.013
IBUs: between 25-30
ABV: 5%

9 ½ lbs base malt, preferably British Continental (Marris Otter, for example)
1 lb Brown Malt
1 lb Crystal 40
½ lb Chocolate Malt
East Kent Golding hops - 25 IBUs at 60 min, and then a little flavor around 5 or 10 min
I use WLP013 or WY1028, but any British yeast will do depending on your tastes

Mash at 154*, sparge and lauter per the norm, boil, cool, ferment at 67*, keg and condition. I’m a big fan of little to no additional carbonation for these types of beers... 1 to 1 ½ volumes of CO2 at most for my tastes!

Some variations ideas (because you shouldn’t just do my recipe... make it your own!!):
Play with the amount of Chocolate Malt; I like to taste the Brown malt, so I use less Choc! Maybe substitute Fuggles for the EKG hops. Try adding a bit of Cocoa Powder, making a Chocolate Porter. Or try adding Pumpkin Spice mix

If you sub a yeast strain (which I highly recommend trying), make sure to compensate the attenuation rate of the yeast with the mash temperature. For example, if your yeast doesn’t attenuate as much, you need to make a more fermentable wort (mash temp needs to be lower).

Cheers

Mike TGBG

Chili and Beer Nights

Hi Janet, Hi Rachel -

I’m a big fan of stews, soups and chili because no two batches ever turn out the same! I was recently out to dinner with a friend, and he had just started his life-long journey into the art of chili making, which he described to me in as much detail as the recipe he received. He started his adventure by asking his mother for a recipe. As we all know, mothers’ recipes are often not as precise as what we’d like to see in cookbooks. The conversation went something like this:

“What ingredients do you use?”
“Well, whatever I have on hand... but I try to include some meat, and some beans, and I guess some veggies”
“What kinds of spices do you use?”
“Whatever I feel like... chili powder, maybe some sugar, definitely cumin”
“Cumin - how much?”
“Maybe 2 or 4”
“Well is it 2 or 4? And 2 or 4 what?”
“I don’t know”
“Ok... well how long do you cook your chili for?”
“A while”

While I respect my friend for trying to recreate his mother’s recipe, I’m surprised by how many folks are afraid to work without a recipe. For me, the obvious allure of chili is the improvisation. Every batch I make is different, with a few of these important “truths”:

1.) I always include some sort of ground meat. Not growing up with pork, I generally use beef or turkey. If you use beef, don’t get anything that is too lean; you need the fat for flavor (there are exceptions of course!). Also consider lamb, bison or even venison.
2.) Although canned beans are easier, I try to use dried. A little planning is involved, but you just soak overnight and you’re good to go. Try two different types of beans instead of just kidney beans, for example!
3.) Spices should always include chili powder, garlic and cumin. Experiment with some cinnamon, maybe some sugar, and chipotle seasoning. Also try fresh chillies, dried chillies, and even canned peppers in Adobo sauce.
4.) Veggies can include onions, green peppers, tomatoes, maybe some corn (Trader Joe’s sells frozen sweet corn that is flavorful if you can’t get fresh ears.)
5.) Bacon. I don’t use it in every batch, but everything tastes better with bacon! Get some flavorful thick-cut bacon, cut it into smaller pieces, cook the bacon, render the fat and then use it. If you need ideas on what to use the bacon fat for, then maybe improvisation chili isn’t for you! (Just a hint, if you’re using bacon, maybe try lean beef... no need to have more grease in your dinner!)
6.) Try cooking in a slow cooker... and on the stove top... and even in the oven, if you have a casserole dish

And that’s where I’ll leave it! Chili is really such a versatile meal: It can be vegetarian, made in advance in the slow cooker for busy days, and is perfect for cooler evenings (and especially fall football). AND it can be relatively healthy, too (I am preparing for my second marathon, and it’s a staple in our house!)


Batch o’ the Moment Chili
Ingredients
¼ pound kidney beans
¼ pound black beans
¼ pound bacon (I like Applewood smoked) cut into 1-inch pieces
½ pound ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper or 2 jalapenos if you like
2 or 3 cloves garlic
Hard cider or non-fermented cider (I use my own!)
Chili powder, start with 1 tablespoon and go from there
Cumin, start with 1 tablespoon and go from there
Hot sauce to taste
Salt/pepper

Method
Soak beans in water for 6-8 hours. Drain the beans and rinse with cool water, drain again, and set aside until ready to use. Cook the bacon in a Dutch oven over medium heat until browned and the fat is rendered; remove bacon from pot and set aside.

Brown the beef in the bacon fat; remove with a slotted spoon when nicely cooked and set aside. In the remaining fat in the pan, saute your veggies, starting with the onion and then adding the pepper and finally the garlic. Season along the way. Deglaze the pan with some cider — this will enhance the flavor from the Applewood smoked bacon — and then add the meats and beans. Cover and cook slowly for at least an hour or until the beans are tender. Serve with shredded cheese, tortilla chips, and any other of the traditional accompaniments!

Hopburst IIPA
We’ve talked about this before... IPAs (and IIPAs, aka “Double IPAs” or “Imperial IPAs”) are a versatile style. I can go into my ingredient supply, grab some grain, grab some hops, and make an IPA almost any time. Building an IPA is much like building chili... a little of this, a little of that. In my mind, a pale ale is a baby version of the IPA while the IIPA is the grand-daddy version: more malt, more hops, and of course more alcohol. By sticking within a few vague guidelines, we can create a great beer experience depending on our moods, the seasons, and of course the ingredients on hand!

I currently have two versions of the following recipe on tap. I brewed this beer for a beer tasting we do at work as a fundraiser, and it was a great success. I employed a technique known as “hopbursting” where the majority of the hops are added later in the boil (rather than spaced throughout), resulting in smooth bitterness and tons of hoppy aroma and flavor! While the recipe is based on a kit by Northern Brewer (a huge brewing supply company out of St. Paul Minnesota), I have certainly put my own twists on these beers... And it’s my belief that IPAs and IIPAs do NOT get better with age, so drink these fresh (at least within the next 6 months!)

Ingredients
16 ½ lbs 2-Row Base Malt
2 lbs Corn Sugar (you can use Cane Sugar as well)
1 lb Crystal 60
2 oz Cluster Hops at 60 minutes
2 oz Cluster Hops at 30 minutes
12 oz total of Ahtanum, Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe & Warrior Hops blended in a bowl resulting in 3 oz added at 15, 10, & 5 minutes, and then flameout - version 1
12 oz total of Crystal, Cascade, East Kent Goldings & Summit Hops blended in a bowl resulting in 3 oz added at 15, 10, & 5 minutes, and then flameout - version 2
House American Yeast

Method
Mash at 155* and sparge as usual (I go with a relatively high mash temperature because of all the simple sugar added...There needs to be some long-chain dextrins in order to provide some body, which will counteract the dryness the sugar will impart). Plan to run out an extra ½ gallon of wort to compensate for what the hops will soak up. Boil and add your hops according to the schedule listed above. You can either add the sugar towards the end of the boil, or leave it out of the boil altogether; if you leave the sugar out of the boil, you should plan to add it when about ⅔ of the fermentation has completed (begin fermentation, when the airlock begins to slow, boil about ½ gallon of water with ½ cup of DME and the 2 lbs of sugar and pour it into your fermentation. The idea is that the yeast consume the maltose before turning to the easier-to-process glucose, resulting in complete fermentation and a drier beer. I used this technique in my first batch).

I ferment this beer with my house American yeast, which is the Pacman strain. Pacman is known for being highly attenuative (completes fermentation) and I easily ferment with it at 60-62*. You can use almost any American strain, such as California Ale from White Labs or American Ale from WYeast. I suggest nothing lower than 65* or you might get too dry a beer. Because hot alcohols are created during the first phase of fermentation (as the yeast are replicating), I make sure my beer is at fermentation temperature BEFORE pitching my yeast (I get the beer into the carboy, and then into the fridge which has already been set to 62*... from there it only takes a few hours to get to the right temperature. If your wort chiller is good enough to chill all the way to pitching temp, feel free to pitch right away of course!). Once you feel fermentation is about ⅔ finished, even after adding your corn sugar, raise the temp to 65-68* to ensure complete fermentation. Carbonate as you would any American beer, roughly 2 ½ volumes of CO2.

As many of you remember, I made my Life Told in Recipes debut with my beer dinner last December. I will not be ready to host another dinner until March, but I’m beginning my planning now! The beers are pretty much set, but I’m open to suggestions for my food pairings... any ideas? I have decided to follow a course of the Abbey Ales: Single (also called Belgian Blond Ale... this would have been the Monks’ table beer, like Leffe Blond), Dubbel (similar to Chimay Red or Westmalle Dubbel), Tripel (Chimay White or La fin du Monde), and Quad (also called Belgian Strong Dark, Rochefort 10 Blue or Chimay Blue). I would also include as a bonus beer the Quad fermented on sour cherries, which is a traditional Belgian fruit. My Belgian yeast strain is rather spicy/peppery, so that needs to be taken into consideration when pairing with food... so thoughts? Any help us greatly appreciated!

Cheers

- Mike TGBG

Beery Friday

Time for Mike the Gay Beer Guy's monthly post on — duh! — beer...

Hi Janet, Hi Rachel -

OK... I know this is a food blog. I’ve been pretty good so far with writing about food and adding comments about beer, don’t you think? Well, this month, I’m going to stray away from food and only talk about beer!

As you know, in my professional life, I am a musician. For the past seven summers, I have participated in the International Musical Arts Institute, a summer chamber music festival based in Fryeburg, ME. While I enjoy the musical experience greatly (I mean, seriously ... what could be better than playing string quartets with your friends), our festival is about 20 minutes away from a Belgian-style pub that has slowly become a regular staple in our repertoire of restaurants we visit.

Ebenezer’s Pub and Restaurant in Lovell, Maine is a diamond in the rough; as you drive through the seemingly endless woods and wilderness, Ebenezer’s emerges in all its greatness. So what exactly makes this deceivingly innocent watering hole so amazing? Thirty-five Belgian beers on tap and a cellar of over 700 bottles that have been given the right amount of TLC over the years. And I should clarify ... yes there are some American examples or Belgian-inspired beers on tap, but I have yet to find a better selection of real Belgian beers ANYWHERE!! (Can you tell how excited I am?!)

Do you remember my friend Tim, who I talked about so affectionately in my very first post? Well, he and I (and a few others) went out one evening on the rare night we did not have a concert.


We started with the Ichtegem Gran Cru from the Strubbe Brewery in Ichtegem, Belgium. This was clearly the favorite of the evening, with two regrets: 1) it was the first beer of the evening, and 2) we wish we had ordered another glass! Simply complex and amazing. The bouquet has raisiny and figgy scents, layered among the obvious malty and sour cherries. I would call it a Flemish Sour Ale; this area of Belgium is known for open and wild fermentation and you taste all the years behind the creation of this beer as you sip!

Next up was a Saxo Blonde Ale from the Caracole Brewery in Falmignoul, Belgium (the lighter beer picture at top). Nothing was wrong with this beer — I actually enjoyed it very much — but there just wasn’t anything special about it. The recipe is probably very simple: a combination of malted barley, sugar, noble hops, water, and yeast. The yeast profile was clearly something Belgian (anyone who has had any American Ale knows the direct opposite extreme), but nothing to write home about.

Third was Pannepot Wild. Although not the favorite of the evening, it was certainly the most complex. According to the quick research I’ve done, the brewers from De Struise in Oostvleteren, Belgium took their standard Pannepot, fermented it with a few strains of wild yeast and then aged it in some French red oak wine barrels. Talk about a collage of flavors! Everything you could expect: tasty dark malts with figs, raisins, cherries ... a little sour, some Brettanmyces flavors (the books like to describe the Brett. as like a horse blanket, but I prefer earthy), but also some bright citrusy flavors as well...very cool!

And last but not least — the Cuvee de Jacobins from Bockor N.V. in Bellegem-Kortrijk, Belgium. To come full circle, we finished the evening with another Flemish Sour Ale. While the first beer was very balanced, this was almost vinegary. To get technical, the more oxygen involved in the fermentation process, the more vinegar flavors you get. There’s nothing wrong with that; I’m just noting the differences between this and the Ichtegem.

I wish everyone could experience Ebenezer’s. But in the meantime if you can’t get to Maine, I encourage everyone out there to find something new and try it. Quite often, there are many Belgian beers at decent beer, wine, and liquor stores...Try something!

Cheers

— Mike TGBG

Thinking Ahead to Fall....And Beer

Mike the Gay Beer Guy is obviously more forward-thinking than we are. He's thinking ahead to fall and what would be best served with an IPA or a bourbon barrel porter, while we're wondering what we'll make for dinner ... tonight. Anyway, it's good to have people like Mike on this Earth. Thanks to him, everyone is better prepared. :)

Here are Mike's thoughts.


Hi Janet, Hi Rachel -

My tastes in the beer I drink change according to the seasons, which means that now is the time for a big, flavorful IPA or a fantastic Belgian Saison, Tripel, or Witbier. As a brewer, I often forcing myself to think a month, two months, or ever 4-5 months into the future. Thus, this month’s posting is dedicated to the food and beer of the colder winter months. Why would I talk about stewing meat (and heating up my entire kitchen) in July when it’s more than 90 outside? Well, that’s simple ... so I can brew my Bourbon Barrel Porter, of course. And what goes well with my Bourbon Barrel Porter? Beef Stew...

Beef Stew feeds 6-8 people, or 2 people for a few days of lunches and dinners. Stew is my boyfriend’s specialty. We were at the farmers’ market the other day and bought all sorts of fresh ingredients. That’s the beauty of stews: You can almost toss anything in! Stews are best, in our opinions, are best cooked one night and eaten the next, or even later in the week. As you’ll see, we cook the stew and leave it on the stove overnight to cool.

We also like using thick-cut beef chuck steaks rather than the stew meat available at most supermarket butcher counters. The fat content is higher (which means more flavor), it’s more cost effective, and the meat looks so rustic as it falls apart after cooking for a few hours. Enjoy!

Ingredients
EVOO
Salt/Pepper to taste
3 ½ pounds thick-cut beef chuck
½ bottle of red wine (we used merlot because it was open)
2 medium onions (or 1 large onion)
1 pound carrots
1 pound celery
1 fennel bulb
5 cloves garlic
Water (or beef stock)
2 bay leaves
Small palmful of dried thyme
Roux (to thicken the stew... if you want)

Method
Start by cutting your veggies into chunks. Leave the garlic cloves relatively whole (there’s nothing left to do if you crush them with your knife to get the paper off) and leave the beef in its steak form.

In a large Dutch oven (or the large stainless pan Theo used the night we cooked), heat a few tablespoons of EVOO over medium/high heat. While the EVOO is heating up, wash and dry your steaks and season them liberally with salt and pepper. (It is very important that the steaks are dry. A dry steak will sear nicely, creating all sorts of fond on the bottom of your pan, which means more flavor... if the steaks are wet, the meat will steam and not sear... not so much flavor)

Once the pan is hot and the EVOO is smoking, sear the steaks one at a time if you have a pan that won’t fit them all. Each steak should be a nice shade of brown, not burnt but not too brown ... and of course, we’re not worried if the steak cooks all the way through, since it will be cooking for a few hours!

When the steaks are seared and resting, it’s time to build the base of the stew. Deglaze the Dutch oven with the wine... almost any wine will do, as long as it’s not too sweet. Return the Dutch oven to the heat (you remembered, of course, that when deglazing with alcohol to do it off the flame) and scrape up the fond from the bottom. Return the steaks to the Dutch oven, adding the juices that have accumulated and add the veggies and garlic. Cover this with water (when we made it, I guess technically it was a braise, since water only came up half-way to the meat and veggies) or beef stock and bring to a boil; when the stew comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover with the lid, and add the bay leaves and thyme. Adjust your seasoning (we’ve found that a healthy punch of salt and 4-5 grinds from the pepper mill work well). Simmer the stew for about two hours, or until the steaks fall apart. When time is up, turn off the flame and let the stew rest overnight on the stove (keep it covered).

The next day, fish out your bay leaves ... we do it first, so that we don’t forget! Next, take out the beef steaks and cut them into pieces resembling your veggies ... the meat should be tender, so if it just falls apart. Return the stew to a simmer and enjoy. If you like, use a roux to thicken, but it’s not necessary (we covered a roux on one of my previous posts ... but if you’ve forgotten, here’s a quick recap: equal parts fat and flour ... heat the fat, stir in the flour, cook stirring often until the mixture is about the shade of light peanut butter and then go for an extra minute, mix this into the stew ... start with 4 tablespoons each butter or EVOO and 4 tablespoons flour, add 1 tablespoons of the roux to the stew at a time until it’s to your desired thickness). Enjoy the stew with the Bourbon Barrel Porter. (I actually drank an Oaked Arrogant Bastard from Stone Brewery when we ate the stew; this certainly got me in the mood!)

Bourbon Barrel Porter
On to the main event ... there’s a lot of waiting involved in this recipe, so I suggest leaving yourself a good five months to get all the tastes in order! This recipe is based on celebrated homebrewer Denny Conn’s Imperial Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Porter, which also sounds just as good!! Cheers!

OG - 1.075 (before adding the bourbon)
FG - 1.017
IBU - 35
ABV - about 7.5% before Bourbon

13 lbs American Two Row Malt
2 ½ lbs Munich Malt
1 ½ lbs Brown Malt
¾ lbs Crystal 120
¾ lbs Crystal 40
¾ lbs Chocolate Malt

Mash at 152* and Sparge as usual (I plan my recipes for 6 gallons at the end of the boil)

Denny uses an addition of Magnum hops, but I prefer East Kent Goldings in my Porters... I usually go for a 60 min addition, and a 20 or 10 minute addition. It works out to be 1 ½ to 2 oz at 60 minutes, and ½ oz at 20 or 10 minutes, depending on how much hop flavor you like in your beer.

Denny usually ferments with his own proprietary strain (buy it commercially from Wyeast as WY1450), but I prefer my house strain, Pacman. You could also use WLP001/WY1056/US-05 which is essentially the same Chico strain (Sierra Nevada), but a nice English strain, such as WLP013/WY1028, both named London Ale, could be nice as well. I ferment Pacman pretty low... like 60-63. I suggest Chico around 65-68, and I would ferment any English strain with restraint, since you want to restrict the ester profiles somewhat ... just my suggestion, do what you want!

When you pitch the yeast, soak 1-2 oz of American Oak Chips in about 2 cups of Bourbon. As the beer ferments, the oak flavors will be released into the bourbon; it will smell fantastic! Let the beer finish fermenting completely, and then let it sit another week. When you’re ready to keg, add half of the bourbon (leave the oak behind!) and store the rest in a clean bottle; it wouldn’t be a bad idea to sanitize the bottle, but there’s probably enough alcohol in the bourbon. Let the beer age for a few months and taste every now and then. If you think it needs some more bourbon, of course add more! I carbonate this beer lightly, so as not to drive off the subtle flavors.

Risotto, Beer and a Brain Fart

First our apologies. Mike the Gay Beer Guy did his part: He got his post about beer and risotto in plenty of time for his monthly post ... and then we blew it. We meant to post it on Friday, we really did, but then M got sick and Rachel forgot and Janet didn't check in because she was too busy and, well, here we are on Monday putting up Friday's post.

But we know you know how that is so we're hopeful to have your forgiveness.

At any rate, here are Mike's pearls of wisdom. Enjoy!

Hi Janet, Hi Rachel. As both of you know, moving is a pain. I moved a few weeks ago, and my new kitchen is simply a chaotic mess ... pots and pans everywhere, random ingredients strewn about, AND, in the middle of all this confusion, someone ordered the wrong stove and fridge, so we were stuck with only a microwave for a few days! Although the process of moving is a pain, a benefit is finding all of your kitchen items at the old place that were stuck behind things (I know I know, “things” is a very ambiguous word, but seriously ... it’s all just THINGS). On cleaning, I stumbled upon Arborio rice that I had once bought to make risotto. PERFECT COMFORT FOOD. Here is my quick and easy risotto recipe, with chicken stock almost from scratch (I fudged a few things since I don’t have my kitchen completely set up yet.)

Stock
Making chicken stock (or beef or whatever) from scratch is something people shy away from. There aren’t any huge secrets, so it’s seriously no big deal! You can make it as simple or as complex as you want or have the time for. In this example, I’ve cut a few corners.

For the most robust flavor, I suggest roast chicken parts, or even a whole chicken, rather than just putting raw meat and bones into a pot of water. I didn’t have the time to roast a chicken, so I bought a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. Either way, prepare your chicken, eat the meat, and keep the bones. In addition, I saw a chef on a cooking show brown an onion in a dry pan until some parts were blackened so I added this to my stock. Add carrots, celery, leeks, bay leaves, thyme — whatever else you like (don’t forget to season!). Cover with water, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer; keep like this for a few hours, at least until the onion has cooked and the veggies have softened. I simmered for about 2 hours and had to leave to teach ... I just left the pot covered on the stove to cool until I came back. Strain out the bay leaves and the chicken carcass, keeping the little pieces of meat and all or none of the veggies, and put the stock in a container in the fridge to cool overnight. In the morning, skim off about 80 percent of the schmaltz (ok for you non-Jews, it’s the fat), and keep in the freezer for 3 months until you’re ready to use!


Risotto
Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 side portions

method
This is a VERY basic recipe... feel free to explore other possibilities, such as adding asparagus, lobster, grilled squash, or whatever else you like. The key here is to add the stock slowly, letting the rice completely absorb each addition before adding more. Making risotto isn’t difficult, but it does require careful attention to details and the love your Italian grandmother would give (everyone has an Italian grandmother, right?)

Ingredients
Chicken Stock, on a back burner of the stove heating to medium-low
1-2 T EVOO
1 small shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup Arborio rice
a few splashes of white Wine (I’ll say what I used later on)
Peas, or other veggies (we’re using frozen)
1-2 tablespoon butter
Parmesan cheese (not from the can please!!)
Fresh rosemary
Salt/Pepper/Love

Method
Start with “mise en place. For those not familiar, this little French saying means that everything is in place, i.e. all ingredients are prepared and ready to go before you begin to cook. In this case, warm your chicken stock (there is no specific amount, just a medium pot on the back burner will do ... it’s better to have more than you need rather than not enough); mince the shallot and garlic (keep separate such that you can add each individually), uncork the wine, pour a glass for yourself, prepare the peas (we’re using frozen, so we just have the bag open on the counter ready to go ... remember cutting corners?), and have your salt and pepper handy (we have a little stainless prep bowl with a lid for our salt and a pepper grinder). As some steps in the recipe will go quickly, it is necessary to have everything in order. When I make risotto, the timing from batch to batch is always different, so it’s also handy to have all of your ingredients within reach! Also, make sure you have a ladle for the stock and a wooden spoon to stir the risotto.

Heat a skillet or large pot with shallow sides over medium heat; add enough EVOO to cover the bottom of the pan if you were to swirl, but not enough so that it doesn’t create a big layer of oil (1-2 T feels like the right amount, but you may need more or less). I keep the skillet on medium heat; the last thing you want to do is burn the shallot or the garlic. Speaking of that, when the skillet is hot enough, add the shallot and cook until half-way cooked through. Add the garlic, saute until almost cooked through and season lightly with salt and pepper (keep in mind, the stock you are adding has seasoning in it). At this point, you want to add the rice when you have just over a minute of cooking time left for the shallot and garlic ... for me, the rice addition is shortly after I add the garlic.

When the shallots and garlic have cooked through and the rice is reasonably toasted, add the liquid additions. Add enough wine so that it almost fills up the pan but not too much that you make a soup. The alcohol will quickly burn off, and then adjust the heat if you need to. There shouldn’t be large simmering bubbled, but you need to have some heat activity going on; in addition, you need to watch that the rice doesn’t cook too quickly. When the wine is absorbed by the rice, add a similar amount of stock to your pan. This is also important: resist the urge to add more stock! Only add more stock when the previous addition has been absorbed by the rice. The whole process takes about a half hour, but has also been as long as 45 minutes for me.

To finish, use your judgement. Try tasting the risotto; the texture should be creamy, yet with some bite to the rice. Add your peas, or whatever you’re using, butter, and cheese off heat, and stir until incorporated (adjust your seasoning too if you haven't yet). Still off heat, place the lid on your pan and let the risotto rest for 2 minutes (this is necessary for flavors to meld and for the creamy texture to further develop). Finish with some more fresh cheese and garnish with some rosemary.

Serve as soon as you can!


Beer (and Wine) Pairing
Rather than give a beer recipe this month (seriously, who has had the time to brew!?!?!?!), I thought I’d share some pairings I’ve put together; this goes back to my very first posting with LTIR, when I staged my own beer tasting dinner! I think this risotto recipe would be a great first course to any dinner... it can be as light or heavy as you want, and can be paired with something equally as delicate or robust!

As I mentioned earlier, we used a nice white wine to not only cook with, but to sample while cooking. Today I used a bottle from Umberto Fiore, 2009 Muscato d’Asti (Asti is a sub-region in Italy). To describe it (keep in mind, I’m the gay BEER guy, not the gay WINE, guy ... personally, I think there are too many of the latter in the world!!!), I feel it is very aromatic, pretty dry (although there is some sweetness), and very light without being too acidic and tart. Another interesting aspect is that this wine has tiny, tiny bubbles ... not quite the carbonation of a true sparkling wine but certainly something interesting in the mouth-feel. AND, it’s just around $10 (we bought it at Costco). Use it to cook, use it to drink ... be happy, enjoy the comfort food love.
For beer, I suggest a nice Saison. Saison Dupont is the classic example, but many breweries foreign and domestic have something similar. Our local big brewery in Kansas City, Boulevard, make a Saison as part of its “Smokestack” series (small batch and limited release). Once or twice, they’ve released a batch of the Saison infected with Brettanomyces, a wild yeast strain popular in Belgian-style ales, and I’ve been cellaring a few bottles; this might be a dish to pair Boulevard’s “Saison Brett.” Speaking of Brett, you might also want to pair this with a well-cellared bottle Orval, one of the Trappist Breweries. The longer it ages, the more Brett character comes through. My light Belgian ale from my beer pairing dinner is based on a recipe designed to be similar to Orval, which would also work in this situation (for the recipe, check out LTIR December 23, 2010), as would Victory’s Wilddevil (I’m also cellaring a bottle of this ... I can’t get it here in the Midwest!!!). Cheers and enjoy!!

Mike the Gay Beer Guy

Soup and Beer

It's the first Friday of the month. You know what that means: Mike the Gay Beer guy is back to post, this time about veggies and IPAs....

As Janet and Rachel can attest, I grew up in the mountains of Connecticut (actually to be quite honest, our house was just around the corner from their house). Surrounded by the woods, bugs and small town New England, every other home seemed to have its personal garden for summertime, home cooked, veggie goodness! My next-door neighbors were the sweetest people; I forget what the husband did, but the wife was the retired home economics teacher for the town’s high school. They maintained a garden (to me, it was a small farm... but they referred to it as a garden), and always had fresh fruits and veggies throughout the spring summer and fall!

I have two food memories from them...well, three: Every Halloween they would hand out fresh apples from their trees, our family was invited over every summer for the freshest strawberry shortcakes EVER, and their mini-farm/garden ALWAYS included rows and rows and ROWS of corn! There was always an abundance, so my sister and I would go over a few times a week and pick the sweetest and freshest corn I think I’ve ever ha, certainly fresher than the supermarkets, and it possibly could rival the road-side farm stand.

Since I’m a big fan of summer soups, I thought I would include this recipe. You can almost throw anything into the pot and have it be fantastic, but make sure you find the freshest ingredients possible. I try to include corn, squash, and fennel; for our summer produce, we head to the City Market in Kansas City. Saute, blend, simmer, serve...it can’t be simpler!


Fresh Veggie Summer Soup
Makes enough for 2 with leftovers


ingredients
6 pieces of bacon
2 earns of corn
1 yellow squash
1 large or 2 small Ppotatoes
1 fennel bulb
3 - 4 cups chicken stock
¼ - ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
fennel fronds for garnish



method
Prep all your ingredients: dice the bacon and set aside, remove the corn from the cob, and cut the rest of the veggies into a medium dice.

Brown the bacon in a large dutch oven or large soup pot. After the fat has rendered, remove the bacon and set aside. (Since my getting-ready-for-summer diet hasn’t being working as planned, despite training for a half marathon in a month and then a full marathon in October, we’re omitting the bacon ...use your healthy oil of choice) Saute the corn, squash, potato, and fennel in the bacon fat (or oil) until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the stock.




Now you have some options. If you want more of a chunky soup, you can bring the pot to a simmer and serve once everything has cooked through. You can also blend part or all of the soup in a blender (being very careful as hot liquids in a blender have potential to cause injury). Whatever you decide, finish the soup by cooking it through and season with salt, pepper (I like adding red pepper flakes in addition to black pepper), and the cayenne. When ready to serve, garnish with the bacon (I admit, the soup was still good even without all the bacon... it’s your choice) and fronds!



Beer Style and Recipe of the Month

IPA (aka India Pale Ale)

This is one of my favorite styles to drink and brew because it is so versatile; almost every brewer makes a few different versions of these, and it has become the standard measure for most commercial operations in the United States. Saying you will brew an IPA is like saying you’re going to bake bread...will it be wheat, rye, raisin, sourdough? All of them are bread, but each version will taste different. An IPA is much the same way: You can vary the grains, hops, and yeast, and still call the result an IPA (assuming you stay within a broad set of guidelines).

That being said, there is such a thing called “good taste,” and, although there are many variations, it all has to come together for a worthy product. IPAs can be sweet or dry, light or dark (relatively), high or low in alcohol... more often than not, they are hoppy with full hop aroma. In the United States, this usually includes citrusy hop aromas... mmm mmm good!!! In my opinion, a crisp, clean IPA on a summer evening is just FANTASTIC. If you’re not able to make your own, check out these fine comerical examples: Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA, Stone’s Arrogant Bastard,

There is so much to discuss regarding IPAs...it requires more space than I have here and on my blog. But I’ve tried to at least start the ball rolling! Check out my blog at: http://mikesbeerguyblog.blogspot.com for additional info. I briefly discuss the history, variables, and a mini formula for how to create one of your own!

When I designed this recipe, Amarillo Hops were in abundance. Now they are very hard to find. You can sub Cascade (one of my other favorite American hops) or any one of the American “C” hops. But here is the original version:


Batch of the Moment

OG: 1.067

FG: 1.017

ABV: 6.5%

IBU: 59


15 lbs American 2-Row

4 oz Crystal 60

4 oz Crystal 40

1 ½ oz Columbus Hops - 60 min

1 oz Amarillo Hops - 10 min

½ oz Amarillo Hops - 2 min

½ oz Columbus Hops - Flameout

½ oz Amarillo Hops - Dry Hop

House yeast (Pacman)

Mash dry at 149* F or lower for 60 - 90 min (feel free to add ½ - 1 lb of table sugar to help dry the beer out). Sparge and lauter as usual. Follow the hopping schedule. To ferment, I suggest a low temperature; I’ve used Pacman as low as 60* without any problems, but if you sub WLP001/WY1056/US05, maybe try in the 62-65 range to ensure full attenuation. After fermentation has completed, add the dry hops. When everything has become nice and happy (yes that’s the technical term), bottle or keg; carbonate in the medium range.


Cheers

For a discussion on IPAs...check out: http://mikesbeerguyblog.blogspot.com

Presto Pesto...and our Book Giveaway Winner

First some bookkeeping: We are happy to announce that the winner of Melissa Clark's In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite is CC. Congrats CC — we'll be contacting you by email — and thanks to everyone who entered!

Now on to Mike the Gay Beer Guy's April post

It’s spring time ... well it’s supposed to be. I think the weather in the Midwest is so much less stable than the East or West; it seems that every other day is something different. Like one day it is 70 degrees and sunny, and then the next day it’s below freezing and on the verge of snowing (yeah, for REAL! As I’m writing this, it was 65 yesterday, this morning it is in the low 50s, and tomorrow, when I’m planning to brew, it’s going to be a rainy 40 and falling for the next few days)(UPDATE: As I’m editing the post, Kansas City received a few inches of snow this past weekend... for REAL!?!?! And keep in mind it was in the 60s this afternoon)(And update from Janet, as I put this online, the East Coast is expecting up to a foot of snow, no joke!)

But let’s be positive, spring weather is around the corner. And when it’s spring time, my thirst for beers changes drastically. No longer do I crave anything high in alcohol, nor anything with a big, malty backbone or spiced up with a whole bunch of hops. Key words become crisp, clean, easy, and most important, social. OK, you can call me out: “social” doesn’t exactly describe beer. BUT, when I’m hanging out with friends or family for late spring and summer dinners, sitting under the stars, or watching the baseball games, beer suddenly becomes a part of the atmosphere.

I have a few standard warm-weather beers styles I go to. The easiest and most successful is my wheat beer. It’s a relatively simple recipe, pairs well with sooo many dishes, and best of all, it’s very low in alcohol, easy drinking, and easily entertains a crowd for one of those warm days and cool evenings!

So what to serve? One of my favorite warm weather pairings are pasta dishes. My mom used to make a pasta salad with tomatoes and cucumbers and all sorts of other fresh veggies from our garden. Anyone who knows me realizes that I didn’t inherit a green thumb like my mother... my thumbs are black as death! BUT I’m proud to say that I do have a basil plant. I am so excited that it has not only survived the winter, but that it’s generally in good health, and, well, still alive! Um... PESTO?

Ingredients
4 cups FRESH Basil... yes, you can go to the supermarket and buy pre-packaged, but it’s not the same as cutting it from your own plant. If you don’t have a garden, try a farmers' market!
Feel free to experiment a little too: try Thai Basil form the Asian market, or maybe Arugula, or some other green? My plant has exploded with leaves, so I have enough for this batch.
A few cloves of garlic... maybe 3 or 4?
⅓ cup pine nuts... or sunflower seeds
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup EVOO
Salt/Pepper to taste

Method
Put the basil, garlic, pine nuts, and cheese in a blender or food processor. Blend until everything comes together in the form of a smooth paste, scraping down the sides of your bowl every now and then.

Once everything has come together, you want to emulsify the EVOO into the basil mixture; add the EVOO through the opening in the top of the blender in a slow and steady stream so that it incorporates into the basil mixture evenly. Taste and season appropriately! The pesto will keep for a day or two, but I think it’s better to eat it right away.

Although you can use any pasta, I think it’s better with something a bit wider than spaghetti! This makes about a cup of pesto, which is enough to use for 4 as a side dish, or 2 as a main course!

I have to give a big thanks to my friends C, S, and E. Not only did C and S invite me into their home, but they let me use their high powered camera from their business... E works for them, so it was perfect timing; the three of them finished their work day with a delicious meal!


Mike’s Wheat Beer
So I must confess... the best wheat beer I ever made was the one where I cut ALL the corners! These are relatively simple recipes, so cutting corners is easy to do, in my opinion. Here is the result. For information on how to make this a fruit-wheat beer (such as raspberry or blueberry... hahaha or you could say blue-beery... ok sorry), check my blog! The address is at the bottom of this post!

OG 1.043, FG 1.009, ABV 4.5%, IBUs 17
4 ½ pounds Base Malt
4 ½ pounds malted Wheat
1 oz Tettnanger hops at 4% AA (or something else?), 60 minutes
Yeast of your choosing
Mash grains at 150* F for 60 minutes. Sparge and lauter as usual...there is always the
possibility of a stuck sparge, so use rice hulls as appropriate. For hopping, simpler is better. If you’re going to drink this straight up with a neutral ale yeast, maybe try something more interesting, like East Kent Golding, or Styrian Golding, or even an American “C” hop. If you’re going to use a more flavorful yeast, keep the hop rather neutral. (if you plan to use the Weinhenstephen yeast, which commercially is WLP300 or WY3068, keep the reins in on your fermentation temp...too high and you get all sorts of over fruity nastiness!) If you’re planning to add fruit, keep both the hops and yeast neutral so the fruit flavor shines through.

In the past, the best yeasts I’ve used have been US-05 and my house Pacman strain. For
a discussion on all of these factors (“all” being fruit and yeast), check out my blog at: http://mikesbeerguyblog.blogspot.com

CHEERS
- Mike TGBG

We'll Have Beer with that Chicken Please

Mike the Gay Beer Guy is back for his monthly posting on fabulous pairings with beer. Up this month, a delicious chicken dish. You don't have to brew your own beer to make this, of course, although if you're inspired to take that one, Mike's the guy to show you how...

Hi Janet and Rachel -
First off, I have an announcement to make! Due to the GREAT success from my entries in LTIR, I have decided to start my own beer blog. Basically, it comes down to this: I have received so many great comments about my posts, but so many folks read the beer lingo like a foreign language. In order to go into more beer related detail (and to cover a wider range of ideas), it became necessary to go down a new avenue. Of course I’ll still be writing for LTIR once a month, but I’ll make sure the focus is food related.
Check in at mikesbeerguyblog.blogspot.com regularly for posts about beer, brewing, eating, and everything else out there!

One of my favorite styles out there is the Belgian Dubbel — one sip and you can taste so many things: malt, dried figs, raisins, spice, amongst others. I have made my Dubbel recipe a few times, but by far the best batch is the first one from 3 years ago. I didn’t really know what I was doing back then, so I’m surprised the bottles I have left are still palatable. As this is a GREAT beer to drink, it is also pretty easy to cook with, too! How do I justify cooking with a beer I’d want to drink? Not easily! But this one certainly lends itself quite well to the purpose (maybe that’s why I have so many bottles around the house?!?!?!). Like wine, I recommend saving the REALLY good stuff for drinking... I would never cook with a Trappist Dubbel, but there are some great domestic varieties available for both as an ingredient and consumption that don’t carry the subtleties of great Belgian beers and, quite honestly, don’t cost as much.

For this recipe, I thicken my sauce with a roux, but feel free to omit the extra fat
and reduce the sauce naturally; keep in mind that as beer boils, it’s going to get more bitter, and you might find it necessary to add some sugar or honey to compensate. You also don’t need to use a Dubbel. A nice amber or brown ale would work nicely! Just make sure the beer is balanced towards the malty end of the spectrum, rather than the hoppy end. I’ll list some possibilities in the ingredients! Bon apetite!




Chicken and Herbs in a Belgian Dubbel Sauce
Makes 4 servings

ingredients
2 tablespoons butter (Everything tastes better with butter!!)
2 tablespoons (plus maybe a bit more) Flour
2 tablespoons EVOO (maybe more)
4 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves, cleaned and patted dry with paper towels
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium shallot or 2 small shallots, minced or in thin slices
1 12-oz bottle of Belgian Dubbel Beer
1-2 teaspoon dried tarragon (or whatever herb you having available... Thyme? Sage?)
1 bay leaf
Salt/Pepper to taste
For the beer, I of course use my own (the recipe follows)... if you don’t brew or have a seemingly endless supply in your beer cellar, the classic Dubbel example comes from
Westmalle, one of the six remaining Trappist breweries in the world. Other examples you
should try come from Chimay, New Belgium, or even Allagash breweries. I’m also a fan of
the Bornem Dubbel, but I would save it to drink... I don’t think it would taste good in cooking, although I admit I’ve never tried it! You might also consider trying Dogfish Head’s Raison d’Etre or maybe even Newcastle; I have tried this also with some of my English-style beers with GREAT succes!

method
Start by making your roux. Melt the butter in a small pot over low heat. When the butter has melted, add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon (or a whisk) until you have a creamy paste. Although ideally you should have equal amounts of fat and flour, I often need a touch more flour. Continue to cook the mixture over low heat for 10-15 min, or even a little longer. Your roux should come to the consistency of light peanut butter, but a little lighter or darker is fine! I’ve read that you shouldn’t use butter if you want to cook the roux past a light brown stage, but I’ve certainly gone darker and never had a problem... feel free to substitute a different
fat for the butter if you feel uncomfortable (or suddenly health conscious).



In a 12-inch skillet or dutch oven (make sure whatever you use has a lid), heat the EVOO over medium/high heat. This should be done as the roux is cooking, maybe a few minutes into the whole process. Reduce heat to medium or less and brown your chicken on each side (make sure it is seasoned with salt and pepper), maybe 4-5 min per side. Once the chicken is browned, remove it from the pan to a plate. Add the shallot and garlic to the now chickenless pan and saute for a few minutes until everything has been cooked through; you may need to add some more EVOO.

When the shallot and garlic have cooked, deglaze the pan with the beer, scraping up all the bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the tarragon and bay leaf, and bring the pan up to a boil. Add your roux and reduce the heat to low (simmer); cover and cook for 20 minutes. When adding the roux, start by incorporating about half; if you want your sauce thicker go ahead and add more. (You can actually store unused roux in an air-tight container in the fridge.) During the last 5-8 minutes, depending on how thick your chicken breasts are, add the chicken back to the pan to finish cooking and to heat through. Serve with rice, mashed potatoes, asparagus, green beans, roasted carrots, butternut squash, even corn (as we used)... the ideas are endless!

Although you could drink a nice Dubbel with this dish, I actually think it would be more interesting to go with something somewhat sour — a nice Lambic (please nothing too vinegary), either straight (hahaha, even I laugh) or with fruit, would be great. Maybe try something from Jolly Pumpkin Brewery or possibly even a Saison, the classic example being Saison Duont. For our dinner, I paired this dish with a bottle from my first even hard cider. I still think it needs a few more months to go, but overall it worked well; you might want to try Woodchuck or possibly Ace Pear.



(Beer) Recipe of the Month
This is the first recipe for a Dubbel that I brewed; since I was then a new brewer, the
recipe is based on 5 gallons at the end of the boil, rather than the 6 I use now for most of my recipes. Don’t hate me. I’ve tried a few different yeasts for this too... but I keep coming back to the Chimay yeast, which you can buy commercially or even culture from the bottle! I’m not worried about IBUs (bittering units) for this recipe, since most of bitterness drops out as you age this... I’m sure this Dubbel will keep for at least 5 years, if not longer! The bottle I used for making the chicken was from 2009... notice how it was CRYSTAL clear just a bit longer than 2 year later!

Belgian Dubbel
OG 1.068, FG 1.010, ABV 7.5%
10 lbs Base Malt (try to find something European)
1 lb Dark Candi Syrup
½ lb Cara Munich Malt
½ lb Special B Malt
½ lb Cane Sugar (Table sugar)
1 oz Tradition (usually 5-7% AA) for 60 min
WLP500 - Trappist Ale Yeast (make an appropriate starter!!!)
Mash at 149*. Ferment starting in the upper 60*s and let the sucker rise up to ensure
fermentation has completed! Traditionally, this beer is served with a high carbonation, but I like something in the mid range. Honestly, it’s your beer, it’s up to you...

For info on how to brew beer, check out my blog at mikesbeerguyblog.blogspot.com!!! Other future topics include yeast starters, pairings, gadgets, and all other things beer related!