Cooking w/Beer: Roasted Fish with Wheat Beer Sauce

Sometimes there are beers that get lost in one's cellar. It's not that they're bad beers. It's just that it might not be a style one is really into. You have to figure out something to do with it. To drink an entire bomber of a beer you're not entirely sure you want to drink in the first place is hard to do. So, we look to cooking as an option.

For me, there have been a couple of wheat beers that just won't go away. One such beer was the Boulevard Smokestack Series' Two Jokers Double-Wit. This beer is said to be loaded with orange, coriander, and other spices. Spicy wheat beers are hit-or-miss for me. That and I don't always handle 750 mL of Belgian style brews as well as American counterparts. All that and I had the beer in my possession for nearly six months, the universally accepted limit for cellaring beers.

After some searching on the Internets, I came across a roasted fish recipe. It called for halibut or salmon. I was able to find salmon here in town, so that's what I went with. The recipe called for 12 oz. of beer. That left me with enough to drink at dinner which paired deliciously. I will definitely try this recipe/beer combo again.

ROASTED FISH WITH WHEAT BEER SAUCE

Serves 4

Ingredients
• 2 halibut or salmon fillets (about 1 ¼ inches thick), halved crosswise
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1 TBLS extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp butter
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 TBLS balsamic vinegar
• 1 bottle (12 oz) Wheat Beer
• 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 TBLS capers, drained
• 1 ½ TBLS chopped fresh tarragon leaves


Directions
Preheat oven to 450°F. Rinse fillets and dry thoroughly with paper towel; season with salt and pepper.

In large ovenproof skillet over medium high heat, warm olive oil. When oil is hot, add butter. When melted, add shallots and sauté 3 minutes. Add vinegar; cook 30 seconds, then add Wheat Beer and bring to a boil. Boil mixture until beer is reduce to about 1 ½ cups, about 4 – 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, cream, capers and chopped tarragon; cook mixture 1 ½ minutes longer.

Place fish on top of hot tomato mixture. Put skillet into oven and roast 10 minutes, or until fish is firm to the touch and just barely opaque in the thickest parts. Transfer fish to serving platter. Stir tomato mixture in the skillet and spoon over top.

Cooking w/Beer: Stovetop Brats

Last night we had what I am calling the "Oktoberfeast." This was a meal featuring German potato salad and some Brussels sprouts mixed with sour cream and bacon. There was an excellent Oktoberfest beer from Avery, but I'll post more on that later.


Now, I've made beer brats before, but this was different. First of all, I cooked the sausage in some water. One good tip I picked up was to poke some holes in the brats so that they would not explode. After the water evaporated, I browned them in the dry pan before adding some onions to cook in the remaining fat. Once the onions were browned, I tossed in a cup of beer and let it simmer.


Usually, I go for a high quality beer, but this time I went a little askew. The beer of choice was a Burger Beer, leftover from my sister's visit over a month-and-a-half ago. It's cheap and stays good forever in a can, but most importantly, it's a German style lager. There really is nothing special about the beer, but I did taste the same yeast as was in my much more expensive and better tasting Avery German style beer.

Cooking w/Beer: Meatloaf and Pumkin Bread

October rolled in this week. For me, the fall begins on October 1st. This year, the weather obliged as there was definitely a shift toward colder, wetter conditions. Using some fall seasonal beers, I made some dinner.


Meatloaf
I had to make some dinner and we had ground beef in the freezer, so I figured I could make a meatloaf. Several online recipes suggested adding some wine or various spirits to keep the loaf moist and add some richness. I figured there had to be something out there involving beer. I was right.

I found this recipe. I made about 2/3 of the recipe since I had two pounds of meat as compared to three. The key with the beer was to fry up some onions, pour in the beer, and cook it until it was thick (or about 3/4 of a cup).

The loaf turned out great. I could have done more with the flavors, but the beer insured it was moist. Speaking of the beer, I used a Great Lakes Octoberfest. The recipe called for a amber-colored beer, but I went with the fall seasonal from my favorite Ohio brewery.

Here's the recipe...
Ingredients:

• canola oil
• 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
• 10 ounces of bottle dark or amber beer
• dried thyme leaves
• dry mustard
• salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 cup fresh whole-wheat breadcrumbs
• chopped fresh parsley
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until translucent and starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Pour in beer and increase heat to high. Bring to a vigorous boil; cook until the liquid is quite syrupy and the mixture reduces to about 3/4 cup, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. Stir in thyme, dry mustard, salt and pepper. Let cool for 10 minutes.
3. Add beef, breadcrumbs, parsley, beaten egg and egg white to the onion mixture. Mix thoroughly with clean hands and transfer to the prepared pan.
4. Bake the meatloaf until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees F when inserted into the center, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes; drain accumulated liquid from the pan and slice. Serve hot or cold or in a sandwich.

Pumpkin Bread
I stumbled over a pumpkin bread recipe a while ago that used a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. That beer would be ideal as it uses real pumpkin as its primary ingredient. However, Dogfish Head is not available in MO, so I turned to a local favorite. Schlafly's Pumpkin Ale is one of the two or three best pumpkin beers I've ever had. This was the logical substitute.

The original recipe can be found here (although I reprint it word-for-word below). The only difference, again, was the beer. I'd suggest only using pumpkin beers by Dogfish Head, Schlafly, or Southern Tier. In my humble opinion, those are the only pumpkin beers worthy of consumption. The rest are spiced ales with some pumpkin pie flavoring.

The bread was good and contained a hint of pumpkin without being too pumpkiny or bright orange. I will certainly make this again, but I might add a tablespoon or two of some pumpkin puree to give it a little more pumpkin authenticity. I think it would pair well with a chocolate stout or maybe a porter. Also, I might try it with a black bean chili with chunks of yams.

Here's the very simple recipe...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine:

12 oz bottle of Dogfish Punkin Ale

3 cups self-rising cake flour.

1 tablespoon brown sugar

A dash each of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, but not too much, as you don't want to get in the way of the flavors Sam Calagione and co. have created.

Pour batter into a greased loaf pan, and bake for about 45 minutes, or until top is golden brown, and a toothpick comes out clean.

Cooking w/Beer: Beer Brats

Sometimes the brats from the farmer's market are a little dry for my taste. So, I find it helpful to boil my brats in some beer. I used to go buy a tall-boy of Bud to boil my brats so as not to waste a good beer, but my thinking on this has changed. My partner feels that you should only cook with a wine you would drink. I've decided the same goes for beer.

For my beer brats, I like to use a dark or amber lager. The darker malt gives the brats a little bit of sweetness to seal in the flavors. For this particular boil, I used a Coney Island Human Blockhead. For me, almost no one makes a better lager than the Schmaltz Brewing Co. Well, them and Great Lakes Brewing, but that's the list for me. I usually toss in about 10-12 oz. of beer with some chopped onions and water. This left me enough beer to have with dinner. Then, I figure one could throw in whatever flavoring for the boil. I keep mine simple.

The boil takes maybe 10-15 minutes. Then you throw the brats on the grill. The result is a tasty, moist brat, best served on a bun with mustard.

Cooking w/Beer: Beer Can Chicken w/Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale

Friends brought over a chicken they raised. We decided to do something we hadn't done in a while: do a beer can chicken. The biggest difference was that I didn't run to the store to buy a Bud for the chicken. It was decided that we should use a beer that we would drink.

I did some research and found that many different beers could be used, but which would we use for this chicken? R put a spicy rub with chocolate. Anything too bitter would bring out the bitterness of the chocolate. I thought about a Hefeweizen, but the flavors would be lost to the spicy rub. A wheat ale seemed too delicate. Finally, we settled on a brown ale that would bring out the sweetness of the rub and stand up to the spice and smoke. So, a Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale was poured into our beer can chicken contraption.

I forgot just how moist a beer can chicken tastes. The chicken actually sat in the grill longer than I had intended, reaching temperatures well beyond the minimum. Normally, this would mean a dried out chicken, but the beer properly cooked and moistened the bird. Additionally, the sweetness of the malt complimented the rub well.

If I learned anything from the beer can chicken, it's that you should always cook with a beer you're willing to drink. R has the same rule for wine. I'll remember this for my next beer dish.

Cooking w/Beer: Bell's Expedition Stout-Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

I made an ice cream with Bell's Expedition Stout using a recipe from Perfect Scoop. The original actually called for Guinness Stout which is a little on the weak side for me. An imperial Russian stout like the Bell's Expedition is more than twice as alcoholic and infinitely more flavorful.

Due to the extra alcohol, the ice cream was soft, but it was still very good. Chocolate, roasted malt, hops, coffee all assaulted my taste buds. It was great for my tastes, but R complained of bitterness. That may have been the hops. Pairing this ice cream with some vanilla would probably cut the bitterness.

So, for your own Bell's Expedition Stout ice cream, here's what you do:

1. Turn to page 32 of Perfect Scoop.
2. Follow the directions using high-end, organic milk chocolate and substituting a Russian imperial stout for the Guinness.
3. Mix and chill.
4. Drink the rest of the beer.
5. Churn in your ice cream maker. (Here, Ziplock bags, salt, and ice will probably not do.)
6. Freeze.
7. Enjoy.