Archive for June, 2008
Beer/Food Recipes
Thursday, June 26th, 2008 | Recipes/Food | No Comments
This was originally posted as a comment in the previous blog, but I felt it warranted it’s own post…
Todd S writes…
“Thanks all for coming, and as promised here are recipes from the evening:
HERBED CHEVRE:
1/4 cup parsley
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (8-ounce) mild, creamy chevre log
Mix the parsley and pepper together on a plate. Roll the chevre log in the mixture, pressing lightly so the seasonings adhere.
Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 1 to 2 hours.
Remove the log from the refrigerator and unwrap. Cut log into smaller pieces and put in mixing bowl. Mix, with electric mixer, on medium speed until cheese is crumbly. Add 1/4 tsp. water to cheese; mix again. Remove from bowl with rubber scraper and shape into ball.
CROSTINI:
1 long, thin, good-quality baguette
1/4 cup olive oil
2 T. unsalted butter, melted
2 T. parsley
1 T. dill
1 tsp. black pepper
Kosher salt or coarse sea salt to taste
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Slice the bread on a slight angle into ¼-inch-thick slices and place on a baking pan in a single layer.
Mix the olive oil, butter, parsley, dill and pepper in a small bowl.
Brush one side of each piece of bread with the butter mixture and sprinkle with salt. Toast in the oven
10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown and crunchy.
Let cool completely, then store in an air-tight container up to 1 week.
GRILLED PORTOBELLO MUSHROOMS:
6 portobello mushrooms
1/2 cup canola oil
6 T. onion, chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
8 T. balsamic vinegar
Clean mushrooms and remove stems, reserve for other use. Place caps on a plate with the gills up.
In a small bowl, combine the oil, onion, garlic and vinegar. Pour mixture evenly over the mushroom
caps and marinate for 8 hours, turning mushrooms over occasionally.
Grill on hot grill for 10 minutes.
LEMON-GARLIC SHRIMP SKEWERS:
2 T. kosher salt
2 T. sugar
2 to 2 1/2 pounds peeled, deveined shrimp, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parsley
1 T.grated lemon peel
2 or 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Lemon wedges
In a bowl, mix salt and sugar. Add shrimp and stir gently to coat. Cover and chill 1 hour.
Rinse shrimp WELL and drain.
Put shrimp in a bowl. Add olive oil, parsley, lemon peel, garlic, and pepper. Mix gently but thoroughly to coat.
Thread shrimp on metal or soaked (in water) wooden skewers, running skewer through the body once near
the tail and once near the head end of each shrimp so it looks like the letter “C.”
Lay shrimp skewers on high heat on a gas grill; close lid. Cook until shrimp are bright pink and opaque,
5 to 6 minutes total.
Note: The 1st two steps of the recipe can be done 1 day ahead of grilling and serving. The salt/sugar mixture
not only adds flavor and makes the shrimp more tender but also acts as a mild preservative.
BEER-BRINED GRILLED PORK CHOPS:
2 cups water
2 cups dark lager beer
1/4 cup coarse or Kosher salt
3 T. dark brown sugar, packed
3 T. light molasses
1 cup ice cubes
6 boneless pork chops, thicker cut
7 large cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. tarragon
Combine 2 cups water, beer, coarse salt, sugar and molasses in large bowl. Stir until salt and sugar dissolve.
Stir in ice. Pierce pork chops with fork and place in large resealable plastic bag. Pour beer brine over
pork chops; seal bag tightly. Place bag in baking dish and refrigerate 1 to 1-1/2 days, turning bag occasionally.
Prepare grill (medium heat). Remove pork chops from beer brine; pat dry. Mix garlic, pepper, salt
and tarragon in small bowl. Rub garlic mixture over both sides of pork chops. Grill pork chops until
thermometer inserted in center reads 160. Remove pork chops from grill, cover with foil and let stand 5
minutes before serving.
LEMON SQUARES:
Crust:
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1-1/4 cups butter, melted
Preheat oven to 325. Mix flour, powdered sugar and butter with a fork until well blended (mixture will be crumbly
and seem somewhat dry). Pat into greased 13×9 pan and bake for 15-20 minutes (until light golden brown).
DO NOT OVERBAKE.
Filling:
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups white sugar
3 T. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
5 T. lemon juice
Combine eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and lemon juice. Mix well and pour over HOT crust. Bake
another 20 minutes.
Remove from pan (cut while still slightly warm). Makes 30 bars.
CHOCOLATE GUINNESS CAKE:
Cake:
1 cup Guinness
6 T. unsalted butter
4 oz. unsweetened high quality baking chocolate (I used Ghiradelli)
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp. baking soda
Frosting:
1-1/4 cups powdered sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream
Heat oven to 350. Butter a 9″ springform pan and set aside.
In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, combine Guinness, butter and chocolate. Stir and cook very
gently until butter and chocolate melt and the mixture is fairly smooth; remove from heat. Whisk in the sugar.
In a small bowl, mix the sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Whisk this mixture into the Guinness mixture.
Add the flour and baking soda and mix again until smooth.
Pour the batter into the buttered pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the cake is risen and firm.
Place pan on wire rack and cool completely in pan.
Mix powdered sugar in bowl to break up lumps. Add the cream cheese and mix until fairly smooth.
Mix in the heavy cream until the mixture is fluid enough to spread easily (but is not too runny).
Frost only the top; shave chocolate across top.”
June Tasting: Food/Beer Pairings
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 | Tasting Reviews | 9 Comments
Here’s the latest information from Todd regarding beertasting…..
As of today, we have 10 attendees (including myself). Based upon that, I have planned the tasting around 13 beers. I will provide multiple beers, and anybody else who wants to provide more than 1 is welcome to do so. Here is the list of beer styles we need:
- Belgian Style Wietbeer I (TBD) Todd
- Belgian Style Wietbeer 2 (TBD) Luke
- Hefeweizen Wiehenstephan (Chuck )
- American Style Wheat Beer New Holland Zoomer Wheat Ale (Mike)
- American Lager Jimmy Buffet Land Shark Lager (Zombie)
- Pale Ale I Founders Dry Hopped Pale Ale (Mike)
- Pale Ale 2 (TBD) Pete
- IPA AleSmith IPA Steve B.
- Brown Ale Hazelnut Brown Nectar (Steve V)
- Porter Bell’s Porter (Mike)
- Oktoberfest/Marzen potentially Bell’s Octoberfest (Chuck)
- Stout Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout (Andrew)
- Bock (TBD) Pete
(Chuck: Here are some possible suggestions of some of the traditional beers in each categeory.that we’ve not tasted yet this year. Selections marked with an * are in the top 100 list)
Belgian Style Witbiers — Hoegaarden, Unibroue Blanche de Chambly, Allagash White Ale, Celis White, Sam Adams White Ale, Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat
American Style Wheat Beers - Bell’s Oberon, Sam Adams Summer Ale, Three Floyd’s Gumbalhead, Sam Adams Hefeweizen, Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat, Magic Hat Hocus Pocus
American Lager — Lots of beers qualify for this category but I was hoping for something a little more refined such as Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold, Heavy Seas Uber Pils, Penn Pilsner. Technically, Dortmunder Gold and Penn Pilsner are German style lagers brewed in US, but I’d rather have them than Budweiser…
Pale Ale — Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Anchor Liberty Ale, Magic Hat #9, Alpha King Pale Ale*, Great Lakes Burning River Pale
IPA — Given the recent hop-themed beertasting, might be difficult to find a non-repeat in this category. Here’s some options… AleSmith IPA*, Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA, Heavy Seas Loose Cannon, Founders Centennial IPA, New Holland Mad Hatter IPA, Stone IPA (but Ruination IPA would be a repeat)
Brown Ale — Sam Smith Nut Brown Ale, Sam Adams Brown Ale, Pete’s Wicked Ale, Goose Island Nut Brown Ale, Abita Turbodog, Hobgoblin
Porter — Sierra Nevada Porter, Sam Smith’s Taddy Porter, Darwin Original Flag Porter
Octoberfest/Marzen — Not sure what’s available this time of year. The only Octerberst we’ve had this year is the Dayton Art Institute Octoberfest.
Bock — Shiner Bock, Anchor Bock, Dead Guy Ale, Aventinus* , Kulmbacher Eisbock ( I expanded bock beers to include maibock, doppelbock and Eisbock)
(Todd)
Please let everybody know what you are bringing so we end up with the right counts. Specify the specific brand/label if you are bringing one of the beers requiring two varieties.
Here is the menu:
- Chevre on crostini(paired with the Hefeweizen)
- Grilled Portobello Mushrooms(paired with a Brown Ale and a Pale Ale)
- Garlic Shrimp Skewer(paired with a Belgian Style Wietbeer and an American Lager)
- BBQ Beef Sliders(paired with an IPA and a Pale Ale)
- Beer Brined Pork Medallions(paired with a Porter and a Bock)
- Lemon Squares(paired with Belgian Style Wietbeer and an American Style Wheat Beer)
- Chocolate Guinness Cake (new recipe)(paired with a Stout and an Oktoberfest or Marzen)
_____________________________________________
From: Todd
Subject: June Beer Tasting
We will be meeting at my house on the 25th at 7:30 PM with tasting to begin shortly there after. Just to recap, it will be a food pairings theme. My lovely wife and I are working diligently to close on the menu, but the overall execution will be as follows.
My wife and I will prepare a handful of appetizers, main course finger foods, and of course the famous Guinness Cake, for a targeted number of 6-8 courses depending upon attendance. Early next week I will send out a note with the courses, as well as two beer selections (by type to allow the buyer some choice in selection) for each course (for the comparison). For example, we might have lamb and we will taste the dish with a Belgian Ale and an American Style Pale Ale (just an example, I am not saying this is a good choice for pairings).
Confirmed so far:
- Steve Brooke
- Jay
- Chuck
- Stephen VanHorn
- Pete
- Zombie
- Luke
- Mike
- Barter
What my house lacks in gadgets and high-end electronics, I promise to make up in ambience! I have polished the rabbit ears and channel 16 looks pretty good in B&W!
He beat him like a rented mule!
Monday, June 2nd, 2008 | Tasting Reviews | 4 Comments
Pens dominate Game 3 of Stanley Cup
When looking for a host for May, we were looking for something new and different. Steve V. stepped up to the plate, and not only delivered a hit, but a game-winning walk-off grand slam to boot! A fantastic night of beer-tasting — Steve delivers with good food, great beer, a basement that would fit into any Homearama house, and the Penguins on a 92 inch projector-type screen for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
OK, so Detroit would make a series of it and eventually win the Stanley Cup in Game 6. But not before the Penguins turned it around in Game 3 and made a series of it In the exciting game 3, the Pens go up 2-0 and then hold off the Red Wings to win Game 3 by the score of 3-2. It would have been an exciting game to watch on my 21 inch screen, but it was truly a breathtaking experience watching the Pens win covering the entire wall of Steve’s media room.
We had a great turn-out, and once again, a lot of quality beer to drink. I counted 16 beers for the night. Here’s the line-up (please post any corrections and I can fix them) from my notes….
- Steve V (host) — Dogfish Head Burton Baton, Ommegang Rare Vos
- Mike — Goose Island Summertime Kolsch
- Joe — Great Lakes Holy Moses, Harpoon 100 barrel series Fifth of Forth (bonus)
- Craig (new guy) — Great Lakes Elliot Ness Lager
- Todd/Jay (tag team) — Celis Grand Cru, Fuller’s London Pride, Stone Pale Ale, Bell’s Double Cream Stout, Left Hand Milk Stout
- Chuck — Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hop Harvest Ale
- Zombie — Orval
- Steve B. — Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
- Dave S. — Rogue Mom Hefeweizen
- Pete – Goose Island India Pale Ale
The theme this month was beers related to the Top 125 Places to Have a Beer list, courtesy of All About Beer Magazine. I was quite intrigued by this list, and a little upset that I personally had only visited 1 of the top 125 places (A recent weekend trip to Cleveland and the Great Lakes Brewery would soon double my participation to two). The list on this webpage has some additional information and some of my thoughts — look for a separate upcoming blog entry with some of my analysis. We had 3 beers from the Great Lakes Brewing Company (#35 on the list) and two beers from Goose Island (#84). In addition, we had 1 beer each from Dogfish Head (#91), Sierra Nevada (#60), Rogue (#32), Ommegong (#86). We also had Orval from the famed Abbaye de Notre-Dame d’Orval (#7) along with 5 recent winners from the Great American Beer Festival (#1), Great British Beer Festival (#4), and the World Beer Festival (#25).
While visiting Cleveland the weekend before the tasting, I managed to make it to the Great Lakes Brewery. I planned to bring home a growler or two for this tasting, but the only problem was that I waited till Sunday to purchase my growler, only to find the brew pub closed. So I didn’t bring back any beer - but posted a couple of pictures in this month’s photo section
I was so enthralled by the Penquins game, I didn’t take a lot of notes for this tasting. But I do recall we had some absolutely excellent selections — both in quantity and quality. Although the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter was the only beer we had in the official top 100 list, I felt we had a lot of memorable selections.
I was very intrigued by the Fifth Forth of Ale selection from Harpoon’s 100 barrel series. I’ve been reluctant to buy Harpoon as I’ve had mixed experiences with them, but this one was indeed a winner. From their website, the 100 barrel series is a “one-of-a-kind limited batch creations fashioned by a Harpoon brewer. Every couple of months a different Harpoon brewer will choose a style, develop a recipe, and brew the g=beer - form selecting the ingredients to the final filtrations.” I thought this Scottish Ale had a lot of flavor and Scottish malt backing, which normally I don’t find appealing, but in this case was exceptional. The Fifth of Forth was session #22 in the series, and session #23 is currently available (Old Rusty’s Red Rye Ale). But this is the first of seen of this series in Dayton - I wonder what happened to the first 21 sessions?
I also thought the Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Fresh Hop Harvest Ale was interesting. According to the Sierra Nevada website, this is the first time that an American brewer has put out a beer with fresh-picked hops from the Southern Hemisphere. I don’t know if this is significant, but it sounds interesting. Although the beer was quite enjoyable with a hoppy bitter taste, I’m not sure if it was that significantly different than the normal high hopped beers we tasted last month.
The Burton Baton is a mix of the 90 minute IPA aged in oak barrels. The oak aging adds a wonderful woody, vanilla flavor to the beer, and there’s a bit of an alcohol aftertaste (alcohol content 10%+). This would make a fine sipping beer to end the night with with very similar characteristics of a fine barley wine. I would be curious to see if and how this beer ages.
Of the three beers that I would consider summer beers, the Summertime Kolsch, Holy Moses, and MoM Hefeweizen, I enjoyed the Goose Island Summertime Kolsch the best for a beer to have on a summer day. Although the Holy Moses had a bit more flavor and spice to it.
The Edmund Fitzgerald is one of my favorites and the Double Cream Stout, Left Hand Milk Stout also received high marks. They each deserve a separate tasting when they have my undivided attention (and my taste buds not so spent).
- Great Lakes Elliot Ness BA A- RB 90
- Dogfish Head Burton Baton BA A- RB 94
- Goose Island Summertime Kolsch BA B RB 55
- Great Lakes Holy Moses White Ale BA B+ RB 70
- Michigan Brewing Celis Grand Cru BA B RB 58
- Fuller’s London Pride BA B+ RB 81
- Stone Pale Ale BA B+ RB 92
- Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere BA A- RB 94
- Harvest Fresh Hop Ale (2008)
- Rogue MoM Hefeweizen BA B RB 63
- Ommegang Rare Vos Belgium Style Ale BA A- RB 88
- Harpoon Firth of Forth Ale BA B RB 66
- (100 Barrel Series)
- Orval Trappist Ale BA A- RB 98
- Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout BA A- RB 97
- Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter BA A RB 98
- Goose Island India Pale Ale BA B+ RB 90
- Left Hand Brewing Company Milk Stout BA B+ RB 87
MVP POINTS TOTAL
Steve grows his lead with another 5 extra points for a top 100 (Edmund Fitzgerald #52). Todd and Jay combine with 3 bonus beers, and Joe gets extra points for bringing his Harpoon 100 barrel series. In addition to his hosting and bonus beer points, I’m giving Steve V. and extra 5 points for having the best basement and another 5 points for putting the hockey game on the big screen. And Zombie gets an extra point for bringing Belgium trappist beer as well as for his original post for the Top 125 list.
Remember, an easy way to pick up points is to add any relevant content to the blog such as a review of a beer tasted, notification of an upcoming event, or anything beer related.
Prev Total May Score New Total
- Steve B 52 9 61
- Andrew S. 45 0 45
- Todd 36 8 44
- Mike 37 3 40
- Steve V. 9 31 40
- Andrew W 35 0 35
- Dave S 25 3 28
- Chuck 24 3 27
- Jay 18 9 27
- Zombie 17 6 23
- Luke 19 0 19
- Joe 4 9 13
- Pete 9 3 12
- Dave H 3 0 3