beer & food

The Session #10: Let it snow, let it snow

The SessionTed Duchesne at Barley Vine has announced the theme for The Session #10: “Let it snow, let it snow, Winter Seasonal Beers.”

The basics:

# Pick any Winter Seasonal beer you want. Or a sampler if you’d like (think the Sam Adam’s one I picked up earlier this week).
# If you select a single beer, let us know why you choose this beer.
# Extra credit for pairing your winter seasonal beer with a winter meal, or better yet a recipe based on the beer of your choice.
# Post your contribution to The Session on Friday, December 7. Send the links to your post and a few short days later Ted will post a round up of everyone’s contributions.

You don’t have to take the “let it snow” part literally. Just the beer.

Book review: Best of American Beer & Food

The Best of American Beer & FoodOnce a good ol’ beer person, always a good ol’ beer person.

Lucy Saunders can’t help herself. She’s a beer person, and that shows up on every page of The Best of American Beer & Food: Pairing & Cooking with Craft Beer.

(Disclaimer: Lucy has been a friend of my wife and I for 15 years, and we both had a small hand in this book. Now I’ll go back to calling her Saunders.)

This is the book you’d expect from someone whose preparation included working as a line cook in top flight restaurants where beer is treated with respect, but also the book you’d expect from somebody who has gone to brewing school. A beer person. Somebody who can talk to us about the pleasures of food and drink without being fussy. And don’t worry all these foods are recommended in the favorite food diet from https://tophealthjournal.com/5534/.

She isn’t pedantic when she writes about finding the right beer for a particular dish, nor when it comes to executing a recipe. She’s friendly, as you’d expect of a beer person.

So what’s in the book?

– Primers for enjoying the decadent side of beer, with separate chapters on beer and cheese, then beer and chocolate.
– An affirmation of what’s going on across the country, with interviews from every region.
– Recipes, of course, six or seven dozen of them, many made with beer and all intended to be enjoyed with beer.
– Food porn. Full-page, color pictures worth at least a thousand words apiece.

Who should own the book?

– It helps if you can cook — some of the recipes are challenging.
– Anybody looking for pleasures to enjoy with friends. Be ready to be inspired to prepare multi-course meals served with a wide range of beers.
– Anybody looking for simple pleasures. You can pick a single dish, a simple one, and stick to one beer.
– Food lovers who are ready to be surprised. I fully expect cooking types to find a recipe that looks too good to pass on, discover it is prepared or served with a beer style new to them . . . and have a new favorite beer.

No, this isn’t totally groundbreaking. Brewers Publications, the publishing arm of the Brewers Association and producer of this book, also put out Candy Schermerhorn’s Great American Beer Cookbook in 1993. There have been several outstanding books since (and soon I’ll get to reviewing Great Food Great Beer, also brand new) and you may want to buy one or more of them as well.

What I appreciate about The Best of American Beer & Food is the combination of how and what. Saunders’ approach elevates beer, in no small part because dishes that take a little more effort to prepare might just deserve beer with a little more flavor.

In the foreward, Randy Mosher writes, “But all too often in the world of fine food, wine swaggers into the dining room like it owns the joint, while beer is left to skitter in the shadows from crumb to crumb.”

In this book Saunders doesn’t swagger, but she sure does own the joint.

Session #8 Wrapup: Best of Beer & Food

The Best of American Beer & FoodCaptain Hops wraps up Session #8 with a haiku of course:

Another Session
Connects, satisfies, and builds
Beer community

He reports: “By my (non-scientific) count there were 28 participants, 16 recipes, descriptions of 4 formal beer dinners, and at least 60 beer and food pairing recommendations. In addition, I counted 7 first time Session participants.”

Session #9 will be hosted by Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey Brewing. Expect an announcement soon, but pardon him if it takes a few days. Yesterday was his birthday and tomorrow he travels to Denver. There’s a little beer festival going on there later this week.

Back to Beer & Food: Lucy Saunders rolled out her new blog in time for the Session, supporting her book The best of American Beer & Food: Pairing & Cooking with Craft Beer.

She’s going to be very busy at the Great American Beer Festival, but I plan to grab a minute here and there and post an interview as well as a review of her book (sneak preview: thumbs up).

Session #8: As Gouda it gets

The SessionSince the theme for Session #8 (What’s the Session? Start here) is Beer and Food in that order let’s get right to the beer, an Oktober beer. A Fest bier. Now what about the food?

Eleven years ago my wife (the first beer writer in our family and still everybody’s favorite) assembled the Brewpub Cookbook for Time-Life books, giving us a chance to pry favorite recipes from chefs.

It had taken us one bite to fall in love with the Smoked Gouda Cheese Loaves with Roasted Peppers and Balsamic Vinaigrette at Victory Brewing in Downington, Pa., earlier in 1996. As happens sometimes, when the book designer ran out of room and something had to go an editor decided that recipe would be one of the victims.

We felt bad, but not as bad as we would have if we didn’t have the recipe for ourselves. We’ve made it for Valentine’s Day, my birthday and other special occasions. Meanwhile it fell off the menu at Victory, though it was resurrected for a dinner last year when the brewery celebrated its 10th anniversary. Good choice.

The recipe for Smoked Gouda was conceived to show off the restaurant’s woodburning ovens. The wedges of cheese are combined with whole-grain mustard and spices and wrapped in puff pastry, and served with marinated roasted red peppers atop a bed of specialty greens tossed with balsamic vinaigrette. The acidity of the peppers and vinegar contrasts nicely with the creamy cheese and rich pastry.

You can see why the dish matches wonderfully with Victory Festbier. Not a beer we can get around here, so we usually substitute something German brewed – the Ayinger Fest-Marzen or the Spaten Ur-Marzen. This time of year we can grab an American seasonal, with the current house favorite being Flying Dog Dogtoberfest.

Marinade for Roasted Peppers
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh green onions
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup pure olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

4 yellow peppers
4 red peppers
1/4 cup olive oil

1. Coat the red and yellow peppers in olive oil, and roast over an open flame (grill or stovetop gas burner) until skins blacken and blister. Put the peppers in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let steam for 10 minutes. Remove the burnt skins, ribs, stems, and seeds. Cut the peppers in 1/4-inch-wide strips, and put back in bowl. Add marinade ingredients, stir and refrigerate at least 1 hour and preferably overnight.

Cheese Loaves
1 12×15-inch sheet puff pastry dough
1 pound smoked Gouda cheese, cubed
1/4 cup whole-grain mustard
4 green onions, thinly sliced
4 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked and chopped
2 tablespoons cracked black peppercorns
Egg wash (egg beaten with few tablespoons water)
1 cup Balsamic Vinaigrette (see recipe below)
Garnish: mixed greens, chopped green onions, cracked peppercorns

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Divide sheet of puff pastry into 4 equal pieces, and set aside to reach room temperature.
2. In a medium bowl, combine smoked Gouda, mustard, green onions, sun-dried tomatoes, and peppercorns. Mix well.
3. To assemble loaves: Brush each piece of puff pastry on edge closest to you and the two side edges with egg wash. Place cheese mixture in center of dough, dividing mixture between the 4 pieces. Fold over and seal all edges with a fork. Brush top with egg wash.
4. Place loaves on a greased cookie sheet, and place in preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate pan once halfway through cooking. Loaves should be golden brown when done.
5. While loaves are cooking, prepare Balsamic Vinaigrette.
6. To assemble plate: Place lettuce garnish at top of plate. At bottom of plate, place a quarter-cup puddle of the vinaigrette. Place roasted peppers on either side of garnish. Place loaf on top of vinaigrette. Scatter chopped green onions and peppercorns over entire plate.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
Leftover vinaigrette makes a great salad dressing.

2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
3 cups blended oil (25 percent olive oil, 75 percent vegetable oil)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked and chopped
2 tablespoons cracked peppercorn melange (a mixture of different peppercorns)
1/2 cup roasted pine nuts
Salt to taste

1. In a bowl, combine garlic, vinegar, honey, and mustard. Slowly add oil while whisking to create an emulsion. Add remaining ingredients and adjust seasoning.

Makes 4 servings, but we never seem to have leftovers.

Loosening the belt for The Session #8

The SessionI think I put on five pounds this week just reading or thinking about food and beer together.

Lucy Saunders’ new book arrived in the mail this week, I received a press release about a beer cookbook out in January and I chatted with a chef who has a different, and I think excellent, idea on how to approach a beer cookbook.

So I couldn’t help thinking that in just two weeks we’ll be loosening our belts for The Session #8, since Beer Haiku Daily has made the theme Beer & Food.

I’m already warming to the task.

Today a bit about Tuesdays at one of my local brewpubs, Chama River Brewing in Albuquerque. Each Tuesday the restaurant offers a three-course dinner, with the selections changing once a month. Customers can order just the meal ($25), the meal with wine ($45), or the meal with beer ($35).

Most often the beers come from Chama’s six-beer regular lineup. I’ve copied the August menu here because it included a seasonal.

1st Course
Chorizo and Wild Mushroom Strudel
Spinach Salad and Port Wine Syrup
Beer Flight: Paired with – Demolition Dubbel
Wine Flight: Paired with – Vivac “V” Reserve Merlot

2nd Course
Seared Sea Scallops
Apple and Belgian Endive, Fingerling Potatoes and Brown Butter
Beer Flight: Paired with – Copper John Pale Ale
Wine Flight: Paired with – Casal Garcia Vinho Verde

3rd Course
Chocolate Banana Wontons
Coconut Dipping Sauce
Beer Flight: Paired with – Sleeping Dog Stout
Wine Flight: Paired with – Rocha White Port

Part of a family of restaurants, with siblings that earn Wine Spectator awards, Chama offers a well chosen and reasonably (but not cheaply) priced wine list.

But I always drink the beer.