Panzanella

Bread salad.  It's never really appealed to me.  I mean, who in their right mind wants soggy bread?  Granted, I love salad dressing.  But, I'd rather have it delivered via some lovely salad greens.  Over the years I've read lots of panzanella recipes.  They've all looked so pretty.  The vibrant reds of the tomatoes.  The green capers and basil.  I just couldn't get my mind around soggy bread. 

So, here I am with these wonderful beers from New Belgium Brewing.  (Thanks if I've not said it before!  We really love your beers!)  I've done a taste test with two loaves of cheddar scallion beer bread.  One with the Mighty Arrow Pale Ale and one with the Ranger India Pale Ale.  We pretty much inhaled the loaf made with the Mighty Arrow.  The Ranger loaf is for bread pudding and something else.  Yes, panzanella was the perfect recipe for the bread.  So, fine, I'll make it.  But, that doesn't mean I have to like it. 

Heh, heh, heh.  Well, I didn't THINK I'd like it.  But, I did.  So did Connie.  We both gave this a five.  Now, here's the interesting part.  The recipes all say to leave the salad for 30-60 minutes to give the flavors an opportunity to blend.  Because I got home from the office and still had to process the cat food before fixing dinner, dinner was at about 9:00pm.  There wasn't time to let anything sit.  Not if I wanted to get to bed at a reasonable hour. 

Panzanella

Ingredients

olive oil
finely minced garlic
grape tomatoes
rolled anchovies with capers
roasted red bell pepper
red onion
kalamata olives
freshly ground black pepper
capers
balsamic vinegar
dijon mustard
fresh basil
cubed stale bread


Directions:
This is the easy part.  It's kind of choose what you want from the list as long as you have the basics in the salad.  The basics are tomatoes, bread and an oil and vinegar dressing.  I found recipes that included cucumber but didn't include any because I didn't have one.  Next time, I'll probably add that too.  You know, the everything but the kitchen sink routine.  Here's how I made the salad:

Take a wooden salad bowl and rub it well with finely minced garlic and a bit of olive oil.

Cut cherry or grape tomatoes in half and squeeze them well as you put them into the bowl. 

Add the anchovies, chopped,

Red onions, thinly sliced

Roasted red bell pepper, chopped (scissors are GREAT for chopping things like this!)

Kalamata olives

A little Dijon mustard

Some capers

Chopped fresh basil

Cubed stale bread.  We used leftover cheddar chile beer bread

Drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar and more extra virgin olive oil. Toss well and serve.

I received New Belgium Brewing beers as part of Foodbuzz's Tastemaker program.

New Belgium Brewing Beer Blast

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.