Are you all getting tired of the New Belgium Brewing posts? We're certainly not getting tired of trying new recipes with beer. I've learned an important lesson with all of this: break the rules. Just because you've always put white wine in stroganoff doesn't mean you need to continue to do that. Try something different. The night before I made this, I knew I'd get home really late and want something quick. So, I picked up one of the refrigerated boxes of roast pork. The kind packed in gravy. The kind we eat about once a year but should probably use more often so I'd spend a bit less time in the kitchen and more time catching up on my reading.
I called Connie when I left my Columbus office. He knows it's 52 miles and 62 minutes door to door. He greeted me at the door with a glass of wine. Inside, mushrooms simmered on the stove and provided an incredibly welcoming aroma. I quickly sliced an onion and added it to the mix. Then, I stopped. White wine's always gone in next if it's pork stroganoff. Red wine if it's beef stroganoff. Hmm, what about beer? Fat Tire to be specific. We poured on in and took off on our evening yard tour.
A new hellebore is blooming. My favorite lily is looking great. The yellow iris have fat buds. The wisteria is budding. There are two plants I don't recognize in one of the beds by the neighborhood entrance. There are a LOT of thistles popping up. As much as I hate chemicals, it may be time for some Roundup. Our neighbor across the street came over and thanked me for getting involved. He wasn't home when the guys were mounding the bark mulch up around his tree trunks. I went over and told them they really needed it to look like donuts and not volcanos because the volcanos will kill the trees. They said they'd never heard of that. Somehow Ernie heard about that exchange and they researched it and I was right. He spent the evening digging the mulch away from his tree trunks. Finally time to head in and check on dinner.
The mushrooms and onions looked wonderful. The beer had reduced to a lovely sauce. I added the pork and let it simmer for a bit. Then, in went the pork gravy and some sour cream. Ah, dinner. As we ate, we discussed. Should I come clean and tell you all I'd used the packaged, refrigerated pork? Or, should I just say I'd used pulled pork. My take was that we all need convenience at times. And, life happens. Sometimes in order to get dinner on the table it's necessary to use convenience foods. Around here it doesn't happen often, but it does happen. So, there you have it.
We loved the stroganoff. I'll absolutely make it with Fat Tire next time. I'm very much enjoying stretching my cooking brain here. Thanks, New Belgium Brewing for the stipend to purchase the beer. We've enjoyed every bit of it!!!
New Belgium Brewing Pork Stroganoff
Ingredients:
8 oz box cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
12 oz bottle Fat Tire Ale
1 16 oz box cooked pork
1/2 c lowfat sour cream
brown rice
Directions:
Spray a large skillet with cooking spray. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute until they're softened. Add the onions
and beer
and simmer until the onions are nice and soft. Shred the pork and add it.
Stir in the sour cream and heat through.
Serve over cooked brown rice.
I received New Belgium Brewing products through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.
Does that pot roast look wonderful or what? I told Connie that last Sunday should've been called Beerday instead of Sunday. Thanks to the folks at New Belgium Brewing, we had a couple of cases of beer to play with. And, play we did. The day started early with baking three loaves of beer bread. Then, for lunch we had Chili Cheese Beer Bread Melts. Dinner was going to be pulled pork sandwiches made with beer braised pork. But, after two servings of bread, I was done with bread for the day. That and the fact that the pork was incredibly tender and flavorful all by itself tipped the scales in favor of pork pot roast instead of pulled pork sandwiches.
Pot roast is one of my all-time favorites. Typically, you brown the meat then cook it with moist heat. I kept remembering the wonderful pork roast from Fine Cooking. I made it January, 2009 when I participated in their cook the issue challenge. It called for rubbing the meat with salt and pepper and refrigerating it over night. Then, the meat is roasted at 300 degrees for 4-5 hours. After that, you add the vegetables and some liquid and roast the meat for another hour. Finally, the meat is broken into chunks and roasted for about 15 minutes. I combined some of those techniques with a more traditional pot roast preparation.
What did we think? We loved this. I'll absolutely try beer instead of red wine next time I make a beef pot roast. The meat was absolutely fall off the bone tender. The gravy was fantastic. It was a total winner!
Yes, I know what you're thinking. Kate has lost her freaking mind. It's finally happened. She's gone over the edge. Au contraire, my friends, this is one experiment that turned out wonderfully. Thanks to New Belgium Brewing and their gracious gift of brewskis we had plenty to experiment with. And, strangely enough, this was the first idea I had when presented with the challenge of creating a new recipe or a dozen that use beer. My expectations weren't high. I thought the beer ice cream would be interesting at best. Horrible at worst. But, what's the worst that could happen? I'd waste some ingredients and the ice cream would go down the drain.
The day after I found out I was one of the bloggers from Food Buzz who'd receive a stipend to purchase New Belgium Brewing products, we went to the monthly wine tasting dinner at Agio. Our tablemates pretty much thought I was nuts when I said beer ice cream was one of my ideas. We brainstormed other ideas, but most of those were in the normal range. Chef Joseph and I had an opportunity to chat and he said he'd never made beer ice cream but that it sounded interesting.
Connie doesn't really like ice cream. He liked this. In fact, he finished almost all of his two little scoops. AND, he's suggested that we fix this again for the next family party. Wow - that's huge praise from my hubby. George got to lick the bowl.
He had some huge purrs going on while he was licking the bowl.
1554 Beer Ice Cream
Ingredients:
12 oz bottle New Belgium Brewing 1554 Enlightened Black Ale
4 egg yolks
1/2 c sugar
milk (about 1/2 c - see directions)
1 c heavy cream
Directions:
Pour the beer into a saucepan.
Over medium low heat, reduce it to 1/2 cup.
Be VERY careful because if it starts to boil it'll overflow the pan and create a total mell of a hess. Once you've reduced it, pour it into a measuring cup and put the cup into an ice bath.
While the reduced beer is sitting in its ice bath, put the egg yolks and sugar in the top of a double boiler set over medium heat.
Make sure the bottom of the double boiler bowl is not touching the water. Whisk them until they're well combined. Add milk to the cup the beer is in to make a cup of liquid total.
Slowly pour the milk/beer mixturre into the egg yolk/sugar mixture, whisking the entire time. Continue whisking it until it coats the back of a spoon.
Slowly add the cream. Once everything is well combined, chill the mixture. Now, it's on to the ice cream maker.
Don't you love my note from Connie? He's the best!
Follow the directions for your ice cream maker.
I originally intended to coat pretzel chips with dark chocolate and add them in but this was wonderful on it's own and didn't need anything else.
MMMMM, I'm typing this as I'm eating this sandwich.
I wish it didn't have to end. This is the first of my recipes for New Belgium Brewing. Hopefully, the rest will be equally yummy.
One of the things I've discovered over the years is that if you're making a grilled cheese sandwich, the cheese melts much better if it's grated first. I've also discovered that rather than slathering the bread with a dressing such as mustard or mayonnaise, it's sometimes better to mix it with the cheese. That was the case here. Had I used cheese slices and loose chilies, they'd have skittered all over the place. This way, I only had to deal with the cheese mixture that oozed out of the sandwiches - not slip-sliding fillings.
I'm sure the filling would be good with another bread but it's designed for the beer bread. I used the cheddar scallion bread made with New Belgium's Mighty Arrow pale ale. It was a great match. Beer bread is so easy to make that I'm not sure why I've not made it regularly!
Chili Cheese Beer Bread Melt
serves two generously
Ingredients:
4 slices cheddar scallion beer bread, cut about 3/8" thick
1 c grated cheddar
1 c grated smoked gouda
2 oz chopped green chilies (I used Trader Joes)
2 T mayonnaise
1 T Dijon mustard
butter
Directions:
Combine the cheeses, chilies, mayonnaise and Dijon.
Lightly butter one side of each slice of bread. Pile some of the cheese mixture on two of the slices - NOT on the buttered side. I'm not saying that any of you would do that, just that that we've got the voice of experience here. Top with the other slice - buttered side out. Place the sandwiches in a heated skillet.
They'll take 8-10 minutes per side on medium heat. I'd advise against using a grill pan because the cheese mixture will ooze out and you'll have a mell of a hess to clean up.
I received a stipend from New Belgium Brewing to purchase the beer.
New Belgium Brewing was kind enough to provide several of us bloggers from Foodbuzz a stipend to purchase some of their beer and create a new recipe. I was particularly excited because their Fat Tire is one of our favorite beers. Time for some creative thinking. What can we make with beer? Oh, yeah, lots of things!
I made a list of potential dishes. Researched proportions for a few of them. Made a grocery list. And, off to the grocery we went. Were we in luck or what? New Belgium has a twelve pack called Spring Folly. It has three each of it's Fat Tire Amber Ale, Ranger India Pale Ale, Mighty Arrow Pale Ale and 1554 Enlightened Black Ale.
My first project was beer bread. I started in on the internet. What are the typical proportions? Turns out all of the recipes called for 3 cups of self-rising flour and 12 ounces of beer. The amount of sugar, though, ranged from three tablespoons to a half cup. Hmmm. Next question, which beer makes the best bread? My beer bread recipe ideas range from grilled cheese to bread salad to french toast. So, I decided to do a taste test and make three loaves of beer bread. We were forced to do a taste test of the beer so I could decide the amount of sugar in each loaf.
I know, tough job but somebody's got to do it! I kept track of what was in which bowl as I went:
First was plain bread with Fat Tire. I used a full 1/2 cup of sugar in this one.
Next was cheddar scallion, one with Mighty Arrow and one with Ranger. I used 1/4 cup of sugar in these. The Ranger is much more hoppy than the Mighty Arrow. There wasn't any method to my madness when I chose the metal bread pan for the loaf made with the Ranger. I just needed to be able to identify which loaf was which.
When you add the beer to the flour and sugar, it'll bubble like crazy. Just dig in and mix it all up and you'll be fine.
Out of the oven came the loaves. The house smelled incredible and I had a tough time sitting at the computer working while the scent of the bread wafted into the family room. But, they needed to cool just a bit before it cut them. Ah, it was finally time. We each had a slice for breakfast. And, wanted another one! But, we were well behaved and didn't make piggies of ourselves :-)
This is SO easy!! And, it is very good. I'm so looking forward to trying this bread out in several recipes this week.
Beer Bread
Ingredients:
3 c self rising flour
12 oz beer
1/4-1/2 c sugar
1/2 c grated cheddar and 2 chopped scallions (optional)
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375. Put the flour and sugar in a bowl. Add the cheddar and scallions if you're making a savory bread.
Pour in the beer.
Mix until the ingredients are combined. The dough will be very sticky. Pour the dough into a well greased bread pan. Bake for 55 minutes. Turn out of the bread pan to cool.
