Ladies of Craft Beer

Posted By: JOConnell

Jennifer O’Connell lives in Decatur, GA and is a co-founder of Georgia Ale & Lager Sirens (GALS). A long time lover & friend of craft beer she is also known by some as Hoptrollop. A trained chef she currently cooks only for family and friends, but still gets her kicks creating dishes. If beer is involved in anyway, all the better.

Originally posted 2010-10-15 08:20:00.

Posted By: JOConnell

Ever notice traditional meatloaf is really dry? My guess is it’s the breadcrumbs the recipes always called for. Now I’m no food historian but it’s an easy guess that breadcrumbs were used to stretch the cost and number of servings per loaf. The problem is the breadcrumbs suck the moisture from the meat. You’d need a gallon of ketchup, or if you’re feeling fancy BBQ sauce, to get through the meal. There are ways to combat this arid meat. As usual my way involves beer, specifically soaking pieces of fresh bread in the beer. More specifically, soaking pieces of an onion bagel in strong ale. I also added chopped Mancini Fried Peppers with Onions. (I found this jar in the pickle area of the grocery store and they are soo good.) Then made a tomato sauce to coat the meatloaf and serve as a sauce.

Meatloaf Aday

1 ea Onion Bagel, cut in 1/2 inch pieces

1 bottle Beer, any type but I used a strong ale

1+ lbs 80/20 Ground Beef, basically one grocery store package which is usually more then a pound

1 Tbl + 1 tsp Grill Seasoning of choice

2 Eggs, whisked to mix yellow and white yolks

7 oz Mancini Fried Peppers with Onions, chopped plus 1 Tbl of oil from the jar

1 can (14.5oz) Tomato Sauce

1 tsp ea Worcestershire and Soy Sauce

Soak the bagel cubes in the whole bottle of beer for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 deg F

Put the ground beef in a bowl large enough to mix all the ingredients. Add your wet bagel cubes tearing each into about 8 pieces. Add 1 Tbl of the grill seasoning and eggs then thoroughly mix together, it’s best to do it with your hands. The chopped friend peppers with it’s oil go in now and mix in very gently, they will mush up. Put in a 9×13 pan and form into a loaf. Set aside as you make the sauce to top it with.

In a sauce pan add the tomato sauce and the beer you soaked the bagel in. Bring to a boil then lower the heat. Stir in the worcestershire and soy sauce, allow to cook for about 5 minutes. At this point, spoon some of it over the meatloaf to coat the top. Add 1 tsp grill seasoning to it and slowly cook down to about half it’s liquid. Serve it with the meatloaf in place of ketchup.

Put the sauce coated meatloaf into the 350 deg oven. At the 30 min. mark turn it 180 deg (front to back) for more even cooking. After another 15 minutes check the internal temperature using a meat thermometer. Poke the loaf in the middle but make sure you’re not going all the way through and touching the pan. You want the thermometer to reach between 160 & 165 deg. Tip: the warmer the food gets the more quickly the temperature rises so check accordingly. What I do is every 10 min. after the first 45 min. cooking. This meatloaf should take at least an hour to cook, I’m sorry I can’t be more specific for those that don’t own meat thermometer (you really should you know, beef is one thing but undercooked chicken can get you sick)

Always allow meat to rest after cooking for at least 10 min. Slice and serve with the savory tomato sauce. That night I also made Honey Balsamic sauteed Apples, steamed Broccoli and Onion Rings to go with it. Mmmmmm

Related Posts:

• Hot Game Sausage Dip
• Introducing… Jennifer O’Connell
• A Stout Cheese Ball
• Wild Mushroom Brown Ale Dressing
• Gingered Beef Short Ribs with Left Hand’s Good JuJu

Originally posted 2011-01-25 09:30:45.

Posted By: JOConnell

Photo courtesy of www.mybakingaddiction.com

I am not legally allowed to use the “S” word along side the “B” word which truthfully just makes me roll my eyes at the foolishness. Just look at Oskar Blues having to change the name of Gordon Imp. Red because of GB…. well that’s another rant. ANYWAY, it did inspire me with this recipe that would be yummy at a Superdiliicious BoggieBuggaBowl party this weekend. If you have access to some venison, bison or other game sausage great but I’ve made this plenty with plain ol’ Jimmy Dean, Italian and even turkey sausages. For the beer I’d just use some of the “less crafty” beers you’ve bought for other people or any lager/golden ale you have on hand. This dip goes well with any hearty cracker, bread and of course Fritos Scoops.

Hot Game Sausage Dip

1 lb Sausage, ground, style of choice

2 tbl Vegetable Oil (optional)

1 small Onion, diced very small

1/2 ea Green Pepper, diced very small

2 cloves Garlic, minced

4 oz Beer, a lager works well here

2 pkg Cream Cheese, softened by pulling from refrigerator in advance

1/2 cup Sour Cream

1/2 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Salt, pepper, cayenne (optional)

Preheat oven 375 deg

Cook the ground sausage in a large skillet. If the skillet is to crowded you’ll end up not getting the carmelizing sear you want, so do multiple patches if necessary. Remove from the pan and allow to drain on a paper towel until ready to mix everything together.

Add oil to the skillet if the sausage didn’t release enough of it’s own. It should be fine with traditional sausage but venison, bison and certainly turkey are much leaner. Saute the onions for 3 minutes then add the green pepper for 2 more. Add the garlic and mix it in followed by the beer. Simmer everything, stirring often, until almost all of the liquid is gone. Remove from heat and cool in the pan.

In a bowl add the cooked sausage and softened cream cheese. Stir together but some cream cheese chunks remaining is fine. Mix in the sauteed onion/pepper/garlic including all the liquid that remains. Salt and pepper to taste, use cayenne if you prefer a spicy bite.

You have 2 options at this point:

1. But in a 2.5 quart baking dish, top with the shredded sharp cheddar. Cover with foil and bake for 15-20 minutes until the middle begins to bubble. Remove cover and bake another 5 minutes or broil so just to give the top some color.

2. Forget baking and turn off the pre-heated oven. Add the dip to a 3 qt slow cooker, keeping on low until warm. Add shredded sharp cheddar just before serving.

Related Posts:

• A Meatloaf Aday
• Introducing… Jennifer O’Connell
• Creamy Garlic Mushroom Soup
• A Stout Cheese Ball
• Wild Mushroom Brown Ale Dressing

Posted By: JOConnell

The soup would have been better with a dry stout. I even considered waiting on writing this post until I had made it that way. But one of my mantras is “use what ya’ got” which makes life a little more creative, don’t you think? Yesterday, what I had was an open growler of ESB. Plus being snowed in I could only use what food I had on hand as well. Which was 1 lb of sliced mushrooms, part of a head of garlic, milk and the aforementioned ESB. It certainly sounded like soup to me.

Creamy Garlic Mushroom Soup

2 Tbl Olive Oil

6 cloves Garlic, sliced 1/4 inch thick

1 lb Mushrooms, Button or Criminis (Baby Bellas), sliced

3 Tbl Onion, diced very small

2 cups Beer, Stout or ESB if that’s what you have to use

3 Tbl Butter

3 Tbl Flour

2 cups Milk

1 Tbl Soy Sauce

1/4 cup Sour Cream

Salt & Black Pepper & Cayenne Pepper

In a 3 qt+ soup pot drizzle in the olive oil and add the sliced garlic while still cold. Bring the heat up to Med-high heat and saute the garlic until it just begins to get golden. Remove the garlic from the pan and set aside. Cooking the garlic this way first keeps it from having the bitter bite and adds a roasted sweetness to it.

Add mushrooms to the pan and saute 2 minutes then add the onion and sprinkle with salt and pepper. The salt will pull the moisture out of the veggies and create almost a stock to add to the soup. Add the beer and cook covered on med-low for about 5-8 minutes. Remove it all from the pan and set aside together.

Add the butter, when melted add the flour and whisk continuously. When the rue starts to change color add the garlic your sauteed earlier. Cook & whisk a couple more minutes until the rue turns a nice creamy color. Slowly add your milk a little bit at a time. Don’t worry if it clumps just trust and keep adding milk, a bit at a time, whisking until it’s smooth. Once the milk is all in add the mushrooms w/ mushroom/beer stock. You can go faster this time about a 1/4 – 1/2 cup at a time. Add the soy sauce at this point. When everything has come together allow to come to a boil stirring occasionally. This needs to boil for no less then 1 minute to properly thicken. If you feel it’s thicker then you’d like feel free to add some more milk/beer/water as you desire.

Remove from the heat for this next step. If you have an immersion blender that’s what I used. If you don’t you can do this in a regular blender in multiple small batches. To the soup add your cayenne and black pepper, salt if needed and the sour cream. Blend until smooth with flakes of mushrooms throughout.

For garnish, I had some additional mushrooms that I fried up in a couple of Tbl of olive oil then sprinkled with salt.

Related Posts:

• Hot Game Sausage Dip
• Introducing… Jennifer O’Connell
• Interview with Randy Mosher about Women and Beer (Guest post by Ingrid Calderoni)
• Beer Apps for Techno Geeks
• How Do You Judge a Good Beer Bar?

Posted By: JOConnell

Featured image courtesy of www.ecosystema.ru

I lived in San Francisco during, probably the most developmental time of a person’s childhood, middle school. Having been an Army kid I lived many different places but SF is the one place I would move back to in a heart beat (plus a big lotto win.)

I remember one Thanksgiving crabbing on the dock of the bay, in a seated position. No really, I also left my heart there but that’s a story for another time. This year I wanted to make a appetizer for Christmas dinner and decided to do a crab dip with the flavors of SF instead of New England or even Low-country South. I’ve added Anchor Steam beer, artichokes (which seems to be added often in SF crab dips) and Panko for the crispiness on top.

SF Dippy Crab

2 8 oz packages Cream Cheese

1 small Onion, diced very small
2 cloves Garlic, minced
3 oz Beer, Anchor Steam is my choice

2 cups Crab meat, prefer Dungeness but it does not need to be lump
1 Lemon
1 lrg can Artichoke Hearts, quartered or smaller

1/2 cup Mayo
1 tsp+ Worcestershire
1/4 tsp+ Hot Sauce
1/2 tsp+ Old Bay Seasoning

1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

Also needed: butter or oil, salt and pepper and items to serve with such as sourdough bread, crackers and veggies.

Pull the cream cheese out of the refrigerator at least an hour before so that it can come up to room temperature. This makes it soft enough to blend with the other ingredients.

Preheat oven to 350 deg.

Add a tablespoon of butter or oil, your choice, to a saute pan and when warm add the onion and garlic. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper to season and once translucent, add the beer. Simmer until the liquid has reduced to a tablespoon and the onions are soft. Set to the side to cool.

Pick through the crab meat gently to make sure there isn’t any hard pieces of cartilage. Cut the quartered artichoke hearts in half, if you have whole ones we’re going for 1/8 sized pieces. Mix the two together gently and squeeze the juice of half a lemon over it all. Put back in the refrigerator to keep chilled.

In a large bowl, add the softened soft cream cheese, mayo, worcestershire and hot sauce. Blend all this together very well. I find using a fork at the beginning helps to break up the cream cheese then if you use a rubber spatula you can make sure what’s stuck to the bowl gets in there as well. Add in your cooked onion/garlic including the remaining beer. Then stir in the Old Bay until just blended. Fold in the crab and artichokes gently, try not to break the big pieces up, until it’s all coated.

Add this to a 1 1/2 qt casserole dish sprinkle with the Panko breadcrumbs and place in the oven. Cook 15-20 minutes until warm in the center with golden crumbs on top.

Related Posts:

• Introducing… Jennifer O’Connell
• A Meatloaf Aday
• Hot Game Sausage Dip
• A Stout Cheese Ball
• Wild Mushroom Brown Ale Dressing

Posted By: JOConnell

Do you remember the Kraft Mac & Cheese ads that had the little girl insisting it was “cheese and macaroni” because it was so cheeesssey? Yeah, they were annoying but I have them imprinted in my head. In this case the name works because the beer is what makes it special.

I make a homemade mac & cheese that’s a combination of what my grandmother made and a recipe from a soul food restaurant I worked in. I decided to bump it up a notch for a holiday party and replaced some of the milk with beer. Yuengling is actually perfect for this, you get a nice beer flavor without loosing the taste of the, so very important, cheese.

Beer Cheese & Macaroni

1 lb Elbow Macaroni or other tube style pasta ( I like Corkscrews if you can find them)

1/2 tsp Seasoning Salt or regular Salt plus Pepper

8 oz Sharp Cheddar, shredded

4 Tbl Butter

4 Tbl Flour

2 1/2 cups Milk, anything but non-fat

12 oz Beer

8 oz Velveeta, 1/2 inch cubes

8 oz Mild Cheddar, shredded

Pre-heat oven to 350 deg.

Cook the pasta following the box’s directions except pull it out 2, or so, minutes early. You will be baking everything and you don’t want the pasta to become mushy or loose their shape. After draining place pasta in a 9×13 buttered pan. While still warm, toss with the seasonings and 4 oz of the shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Put aside.

In a 5 or 6 qt pot melt the 4 Tbls of butter, add 4 Tbls of Flour and whisk until a paste. Stirring constantly, allow the roux (yes, that’s what this is) to bubble and toil for no less then 1 minute. It’s okay if it turns off-white but if it gets a nutty brown you’ve cooked it to long. Although a brown roux the start of a good Ettouffee.

When the roux looks good turn down the heat to very low. Start adding your milk an ounce at a time, then whisk it into the paste. Don’t freak, the roux/milk will become a clumpy mess at this point, it’s supposed to. Keep adding your milk and as the mixture thins out you can add more and more at a time. When all the milk is in, add your beer, about a 1/2 a cup at a time, as you stir. Turn the heat back up and bring it all to a boil still stirring constantly. Once it’s at a rolling boil allow it to continue for more then a minute and reduce the heat again.

Over a low flame, just warm enough to melt the cheese, add the Velveeta 6-8 cubes at a time and stir until melted. Continue until all the cubes have melted in and turn off heat. Stir in the mild cheddar. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired but remember the pasta already has some.

Ladle the cheese sauce over the pasta and carefully stir until it’s all incorporated in the pan. Sprinkle the remaining sharp cheddar over the top and cover pan in foil.

Bake for 20 min, rotate pan in oven 180 deg, bake another 10-15 min. Uncover and bake another 15-20 minutes until the middle is bubbly and the edges plus a few pasta tips begin to brown.

side-notes:

1. TA-DA you’ve now made a Mornay/Cheese sauce with Beer. If you follow the same process with only milk it would be a classical Bechamel. If you use stock instead of milk or beer it would be a Veloute. See it’s easy to be fancy.

2. You can make this ahead of time. Follow the recipe but before covering with foil allow the whole thing to cool. Then just wrap in plastic and refrigerate at this point. It will make the baking process take longer so be sure to take that into account.

Related Posts:

• A Meatloaf Aday
• Hot Game Sausage Dip
• Gingered Beef Short Ribs with Left Hand’s Good JuJu
• “Gambero in Birra” aka Herbed Shrimp in Beer Sauce over Lemon-Parmigiano Linguine
• Introducing… Jennifer O’Connell

Posted By: JOConnell

Ugh, holiday parties. They can be fun, inebriating and if you’re not careful lascivious. Regardless, bringing food seems to be required much of the time. When you have a reputation for making good food, no matter what is going on in your life, you can’t just bring the cellophaned cheese tray on display in the front of (insert name of big grocery store here). Beside, I don’t want to eat the rectangles of orange and white cheese with the dried corners.

Cream Cheese to the Rescue! Going back 3 generations the smart women of my family knew that you can put anything in or on cream cheese and you have an appetizer. For my mom it was the little frozen salad shrimp and cocktail sauce poured over the white rectangle. Her mom always had hot pepper jelly on hand and if she had the time she’d roll those up in slices of salami, if not it was do it yourself. I still LOVE that combo. This Stout ball is a little more involved but mostly you’re just getting your hands messier.

A Stout Cheese Ball

1 8 oz package of Cream Cheese

3 oz plain Chevre or goat cheese crumbles

3 Tbl Stout Ale (Lagunitas Imperial Stout worked for me)

2 Tbl + 1/4 cup fresh Chives, diced

2 Tbl + 1/4 cup Nuts, roasted & chopped

Pull the package of cream cheese out of the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature and soften.

In a bowl, with a spatula or your hands, blend the cream cheese, Chevre and stout until evenly mixed. Add the 2 Tbl each of chives and nuts, incorporate. (I used Pumpkin Seeds because I had them on hand but walnuts would work really well I think) Return to the fridge for about an hour to allow to chill back down.

Take two pieces of plastic wrap and cross them in the middle to make a larger, sturdier work space. Mix the remaining nuts and chives and spread evenly in the middle of the wrap X.

Get the cheese mixture which should be pretty solid, push it all together into a ball shape. I found this easiest to do with my hands. It should be about the size of a softball. Place in the middle of the chives and nuts on the wrap and roll it around until every part of the ball is covered in pretty green. Wrap up the whole thing and return to the refrigerator until time to serve, with crackers or sliced bread.

Needless to say the store bought Wine Cheese Ball someone brought, had nothing on this version.

Posted By: JOConnell

Dressing/Stuffing – Inside/On the side – Bread/Cornbread/Wild rice – Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned/Oven-dried bread

Whatever it’s about it’s all good. I personally grew up calling it stuffing whether it went inside the bird or not and my mom always used the Pepperidge Farm package, adding little else. That is still what I think T-Day should taste like. Thanksgiving is all about childhood memories for me but every other day of the year I’m happy to experiment. This recipe is a bit of both, I do start with the package of PF Stuffing but add both traditional and unique ingredients.

Wild Mushroom Brown Ale Dressing

1-2/3 oz/0.105 lbs Dried Wild Mushrooms

3 bottles Brown Ale of choice (I used Avery’s Ellie’s BA)

1-1/2 sticks Unsalted Butter

3 stalks Celery -diced

1 Med. Onion -diced

1 package Herb Seasoned Stuffing

2-4 slices Multi-grain Bread – toasted and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 tsp of dried or 1 tsp of fresh Thyme

1/2 cup Pumpkin Seeds – toasted

Reconstitute the dried mushrooms in 2 bottles of the brown ale on low-med heat. Allow to cook and reduce as you put the rest of the stuffing together.

In a large saute pan melt one stick of butter and add onions, celery and a pinch of salt. Stir and cook, about 5 minutes, until translucent. Adding the salt is a chef’s trick to when you want translucent veggies and not browned. The salt brings out the liquid in them reducing the chance of browning. (It works the other way too, if you want them browned do not add salt until they are the color you want.) Melt an additional 1/2 stick of butter into the veggies this is optional but adds more moisture and yummy goodness. Set to the side.

Preheat oven to 350 deg.

Lightly butter the bottom of a 13 x 9 baking pan and blend the herb stuffing and the cubed multi-grain bread together. Add the celery and onion to the bread, getting all the melted butter, stir well then sprinkle with thyme and black pepper.

Drain the mushrooms from the liquid but retain both. Roughly chop the mushrooms and add to the stuffing pan. Add the liquid all over the bread and gently stir to get each cube moist. Stir in half the pumpkin seeds and sprinkle the rest onto the top.

Cover the 13 x 9 pan in aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the cover and bake an additional 15 – 20 minutes until the middle is hot and there are some crispy pieces on top.

An additional note: Since I made this dressing early so I could share it with you I’ve decided to do something different for Thanksgiving Day. I’m going to bake it inside apples. I’ll take some small apples, core them, brush them with a mixture of melted butter and honey. After stuffing each one with the dressing I’ll put a dollop of goat cheese on the top then bake at 350 deg. for 15 to 25 minutes. Wish me luck that it will be as yummy as it sounds!

Happy Carbs with a side of Turkey Day!

Posted By: JOConnell

West Coast IPAs have a reputation for being rather hoppy. Not just a little bit but big, citrusy, grassy and bite ya’ in the ass hoppy. I love them but it can be rather tricky to cook with them. The beautiful hops cook down to a bitterness that is not pleasant in most foods. So I am continually on the search for ways to use beer in my favorite recipes and this is one that works. Beer in hummus may seem weird but hear me out. I always add liquid because it gives the hummus a creamier texture. There’s lemon juice and olive oil in the recipe but it’s not enough and plain water gives no flavor. Then one day I threw in a little Sweetwater IPA from the bottle I had just poured and “Viola!” I mean “Ah-Ha!” Do be aware that this is consenting adult hummus since the alcohol has not been cooked out, though, really it’s not much.

Hop Bomb Hummus

2 cans Garbonzo Beans, aka Chickpeas, drained

1 large clove Garlic, peeled

1 large Lemon juiced, plus the zest of said lemon

3 Tbl Tahini

1/4 cup American IPA

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

In a food processor pulsate beans and garlic until coarsely chopped. Incorporate the lemon juice, lemon zest and tahini in to the ground beans/garlic. Add the IPA and whiz, scraping down the sides as needed until almost smooth. With the processor going add the olive oil in a small stream, this seems to make it blend more quickly. Taste. Then mix in the salt and pepper to your liking, beans usually do need a good bit of salt.

Pat yourself on your back for eating such a healthy snack with your beer.