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Cooking with Beer

by: Youffraita

Mon Sep 05, 2011 at 03:00:36 AM EDT

( - promoted by RiaD)

Mark Bittman's piece today -- he writes a cooking column for the Sunday Times Magazine -- was about cooking with beer.

I'll link to it later. The caveat about his recipes is, he consulted with a brewer, and while I have no doubt that the results are wonderful, you don't have to have access to world-class beers to achieve superior results. Although, you should probably stay away from stuff like Bud, Miller Light, and Coors. (And even Bud will do in a pinch.)

Youffraita :: Cooking with Beer

Personally, I like a nice nut-brown lager for cooking. Yuengling is the most common here -- hell, it's brewed here -- but Brooklyn Lager, or Sam Adams, or anything like that will work. What I use it for is stuff like beef stew (instead of red wine) and anything involving pork & sauerkraut.

In fact, for pork & sauerkraut, I rinse, squeeze, and caramelize the kraut (and a healthy dose of sliced onions, plus caraway seeds) in a roasting pan with lots of brown lager & chicken broth (adding more broth or water as needed to keep it from drying out too much, and stirring occasionally: low & slow, y'know? -- until the kraut is a moist, beautiful golden brown) along with other ingredients like smoked pork chops, ham, and sausages.

The ham and smoked chops can go in from the beginning...the sausages are best added during the last hour or so of cooking: prick 'em with a fork and bury them under the kraut unless you want them to brown.

I use beer as an ingredient in two other major dishes. Beef stew/pot roast and Arroz con Pollo. I was taught how to make Arroz con Pollo by a Cubana friend & IIRC, she used Budweiser. It was certainly delicious, and I've been following her method as well as I can remember it ever since.

For pot roast/beef stew, though, it's once again that nut-brown lager, this time half-and-half with either beef broth or bouillion (sp?) cubes and water. Low & slow: if you have an enameled cast-iron dutch oven, that is the perfect vessel. I don't need to give you the recipe -- hell, my own recipe changes every time I make it! -- sometimes mushrooms, sometimes something else...stews were invented to be played with. (I really love the sweetness of turnips in any beef stew, though: they add something that, combined with the beer, is just...too delightful.)

And now, here's the link to Mark Bittman's story I promised above the fold:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09...

Tags: Mark Bittman, Beer, cooking, recipes, (All Tags)

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Cooking with Beer | 23 comments

Hiya! (15.67 / 3)

My (her) Arroz con Pollo involved browning chicken pieces (I prefer to use thighs, but it's more traditional to use a whole cut-up chicken). Brown the chicken pieces; remove. Saute medium-grain rice in the oil, saute onions & garlic. Return chicken to dutch oven. Add beer/chicken broth and Sazon Goya. Add minced pimientoes (reserving one for later). Cover & simmer. Add more broth as required. When it's almost done, add frozen peas; stir; cook until peas are done. Top with reserved piemento; warm through.

Did I get it almost right, Ria? I think some people put olives in, too, but that isn't how I was taught to make it -- although I think it would be good that way, too.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Mon Sep 05, 2011 at 07:15:50 AM UTC

I'm glad (12.00 / 2)

you posted the recipe here. I was gonna ask you what Arroz con Pollo was. I'd never heard of it to the best of my recollection.

by: Alma @ Mon Sep 05, 2011 at 13:57:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

it's delectable! (13.50 / 2)

do try it.
i grew up on this dish, regular fare at our house- prolly 2-4 times a month.

& yes youff- you got it zakly right!

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett

by: RiaD @ Mon Sep 05, 2011 at 15:57:20 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Alma, it's basically (15.50 / 2)

a whole-meal rice pilaf. I screwed up, btw: after you take the chicken pieces out, you should saute onions & garlic & THEN add the rice & saute until the rice is more white than translucent. I like medium-grain rice for this dish: but I don't care if the rice sticks together; I kind of prefer it that way.

Then, as noted above, return chicken & any drippings to pot, add beer/broth/Sazon Goya/chopped pimientos. The rest of the recipe I've typed once already: if Ria said I got it right, then I did.

BTW, I have been known to eat the leftovers cold, straight out of the fridge.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Mon Sep 05, 2011 at 19:43:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

LOL (9.00 / 2)

Speaking of turnips...my father hated them. With a passion.

I can only assume (he grew up on a farm) that they were improperly stored. By the time I was putting turnips in soups & stews, he didn't even notice them. (Along with carrots & onions, properly stored turnips add a lot of sweetness to a stew. Old or badly stored turnips, OTOH, can be very bitter, so I am told.)

Of course, eventually I told him what I was doing. But at first...I let him think he was eating potatoes in his soup.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Mon Sep 05, 2011 at 07:32:32 AM UTC

Sometimes (14.50 / 2)

its just better to hide things and not tell them. Glad it worked on your dad. :)

by: Alma @ Mon Sep 05, 2011 at 13:57:55 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

i definately believe (12.67 / 3)

hiding vegies is a good thing. I do this all the time cos J is SOOOO picky. When i met him 10 years ago he basicly only ate hot dogs and pbj. Sad.

Although his palette has grown in the intervening years, i still hide stuff like turnips and squash and zuccini (sp?) He never even suspects...

I also do this with juice. He is sure that he only like a certain kind of OJ, and swears he doesn't like the frozen mix-it-yourself kind. I regularly rinse out the carton his juice comes in and refill with frozen, again, he never suspects....

Some people are so silly!!

by: dancingtrees @ Mon Sep 05, 2011 at 17:04:45 PM UTC

I once knew a couple (15.00 / 3)

who refused to eat anything that was too cute or too ugly. No lobster, for example: too ugly. It was a business dinner: my (company's) treat. I don't remember what they ordered, but I went to town: a terrific restaurant, on expense account?

"You don't want your lagniappe of sweetbreads? I'll eat 'em!"

If any restaurant here even has sweetbreads on the menu (much less knows how to prepare them properly) it's too expensive for me to dine at. I'm glad I got to taste things like that while I could still afford to (heh: my expense account could afford it, anyway).

dancingtrees, you don't say WHY he ~~dislikes~~ thinks he dislikes zucchini. They have such a mild flavor, after all. Have you ever tried stuffing a brickbat of a zuke? First, cut it in half lengthwise With a melon baller or sturdy spoon, scoop out the seeds. Lay the pieces cut-side-down on a cookie sheet & bake at 350 for half an hour. Flip them over, stuff them with the filling of your choice, and return to oven for another half hour.

I don't think the fillings I like would work on your SO, so: use the scooped-out seeds, finely chopped, as part of the filling, and fill it with something meat & veggie-based. I am thinking a chili-type thing, but anything he likes would work.

Only caveat: b/c the skin on a brickbat zuke is rather tough, you will want to scrub it well before cutting into it. I don't think this would work if you peel off the skin. Never tried it: but I think the zuke would collapse w/out the skin to hold it all together.

Good luck!

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Mon Sep 05, 2011 at 19:30:51 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

he is like a little kid (14.00 / 3)

and swears he doesnt like things even before he tries them.

... he grew up (from 8 on) as a latch-key kid and had to fend for himself, so he learned to eat things an 8 year old can make for himself

His mom was mostly absent, and is extremely bad at cooking. I mean extremely bad.

I cant imagine growing up this way, and had a hard time understanding his super-wierd eating habits... My mom could make anything, and make it delicious... and we had the two-bite rule. No matter what, we had to try 2 bites. At the time I hated this rule, but now I really appreciate the trouble my parents went through to make sure I had a well-rounded palette.

I'm like Mikey, I eat (damnnear) anything.

He really is 'growing up' with most of his eating habits, but still has a lot of holdovers from when he was a kid, like thinking he doesnt like squash and zuc. But I will admit he has been great about not showing his dislike of normal food to our daughter... If she offers him a bite of something, even if it is something he has previously sworn to hate, he will eat it and smile and make yummy noises... Good Daddy.

The stuffrd zuc. sounds SOOO good, I cant wait to try it! So many possible filling choices!!! how will i choose??!

by: dancingtrees @ Tue Sep 06, 2011 at 09:57:34 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

My brother (15.33 / 3)

will only eat corn, green beans, lettuce, and pickles as far as veggies go. He quit eating the goulash from the restaurant we go to when he found a sliver, and I mean just a sliver of green pepper in it.

I hope you encougrage the princess to always offer her daddy a couple of bites of whatever you've cooked that has veggies in in. :) I love your slyness in hiding the veggies. :)

by: Alma @ Tue Sep 06, 2011 at 12:08:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh, well, I'm with your brother on (11.50 / 2)

green bell peppers...they are SO much tastier when they are ripe (i.e., red) bell peppers.

I'll use the green ones when I'm making New Orleans dishes, as part of the "trinity" of pepper, celery & onion. Otherwise? yuck.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Wed Sep 07, 2011 at 04:39:35 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

But (12.50 / 2)

he wouldn't eat the red ones either, or yellow, or orange, or purple. I think you get the idea. Just corn, green beans, lettuce and pickles. Oh and if a tomato looks really, really good he might have a wedge of it on his salad. If it doesn't he takes it off. I just remembered that lately he has been eating a little bit of coleslaw. He's been eating about a tablespoons worth.

I love my peppers really sweet too. :) But I'll still eat the green ones raw.

by: Alma @ Wed Sep 07, 2011 at 13:15:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Almost tipped you a (15.00 / 1)

fuggeddaboudit b/c what I really wanted to say was "eeeewwwwwww."

RAW green bell pepper? It's bad enough cooked! Actually, I'm sure I have eaten it raw on occasion, but still: eewwwww!

Yellow and orange bell peppers are my favorites for salads: very mild. You can stuff 'em with chicken salad or egg salad or anything like that for a light lunch, too.

But I still like red bells the best for everything except Cajun cooking, where the trinity (celery, onion, green bell, minced finely & sauteed into oblivion) is king.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Sat Sep 10, 2011 at 06:17:28 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

dancingtrees, it was the one-bite rule (7.00 / 2)

at my house. I love mac & cheese & still make it. But I could never abide the (canned & heated up) stewed tomatoes that were always a side dish.

Still won't eat stewed tomatoes. I have a love/hate affair w/tomatoes as it is.

Somewhere along the line, I got smart: "Look! I'm eating my one bite right now!" while having enough of mac & cheese [or whatever] remaining on my plate to take the bad taste out of my mouth.

SO glad your partner is a great Dad. As with you & your mother, mine's one-bite rule made me a very experimental eater...I might still hate stewed tomatoes, but I'll try damn near anything...I draw the line at insects. Luckily they aren't on any menus in PA or NYC that I know of.

;-D

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Wed Sep 07, 2011 at 04:47:16 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

insects... (10.33 / 3)

the princess WANTS to eat bugs. she asks me all the time what bugs can we eat? I tell her shrimp.

I made the mistake of telling her that some people eat choc. covered bugs and now every bug we see, "can it be chocolate?"

by: dancingtrees @ Wed Sep 07, 2011 at 12:17:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

ooh: a thought, dancingtrees (13.50 / 2)

Do you like acorn squash? This one's a keeper: if your area grows them, anyway. Slice acorn squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds. Put a small chunk of butter & either a tablespoon or two of real maple syrup or a dollop of brown sugar into each half. Bake at 350 for one hour.

It's like candy, sort of: I always mix up the flesh of the squash with the sugary-buttery goodness of the syrup. (Some freshly grated nutmeg on top of the butter/sugar just makes it that much better.)

I don't have a recipe for this...I grew up eating it, and when I started making it, I just faked it: there's not much you can do to screw this one up!

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Wed Sep 07, 2011 at 05:31:50 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

this is (13.67 / 3)

how mom always did butternut squash... I dont think ive tried with acorn squash, but what a fantastic idea!

by: dancingtrees @ Wed Sep 07, 2011 at 12:18:27 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks, dancingtrees! (10.00 / 1)

The only time I've ever cooked with butternut squash was to make a from-scratch pumpkin pie. Gooseneck squash is actually better than butternut for this b/c you can get several pies from one gooseneck (and pie pumpkins are THE best, but most of them go to the pumpkin-pie-filling cannery: fresh ones can be very difficult to find, depending on where you live).

But I never, ever thought of eating a butternut the same way as an acorn squash. NEVER. ENTERED. MY. MIND. Guess I always thought of them as fodder for squash puree -- something with no appeal for me. But baked with butter & maple syrup? Wow, I bet that would be delicious.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Sat Sep 10, 2011 at 06:07:18 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

if i'm (15.00 / 1)

in a hurry i'll often split the butternut, scoop out seeds, fill hole with butter/brown sugar & a few raisins... cover with plastic wrap & nuke for 20 minutes.
gha! it's just heaven

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett

by: RiaD @ Sat Sep 10, 2011 at 14:15:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

dancingtrees, it is beyond (15.00 / 1)

decadent, but -- does your SO like seafood at all?

Paul Prudhomme -- and this is not strictly Cajun, I think it is an adaptation from his restaurant -- but he has a recipe for seafood-stuffed zucchini in a seafood-cream sauce.

Posting the recipe on this site would be a clear violation of copyright law (although I have no doubt it has been posted somewhere on the web, I don't want to post anything here that could attract legal...problems). I could, however, type it up and email it to your mother. Or you could go to the library.

The book is Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen and the recipe begins on p. 69 of the hc edition (William Morrow, 1984).

In glancing at the recipe again, I see that he uses small zucchinis. But I always used brickbats. Once the seeds are scooped out and chopped up, the flesh of a brickbat is just as tender as that of a small zuke.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Sat Sep 10, 2011 at 06:33:28 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

wellll... you get it honest (13.33 / 3)

mrD is not picky...& never really was....
but his mom was!
she had an intense aversion to seafood.
to explain-she was from the "upcountry" & mrDs dad was from the "lowcountry" or the coast... so he loved seafood & she thought it smelled bad.

i make spaghetti & clams- it's my gramma's recipe. not long after we were married & moved to the farm Papa came down the road & we were eating spag&clams. his eyes lit up & he gobbled down a bowl. after that i almost always had a child take him a bowl of spag&clams when we had it.

when they came home after Nana got sick she was hardly eating. after i got her eating again one of the things i made was spag&clams. you know what she said..? "mmmmm, delicious! is this chicken?" i said "we call it white spaghetti Nana!" avoiding answering the question altogether.

.............
and then there's the other side...
mrD got diverticulitis...cannot eat seeds, nuts, corn & some peels
he kept asking for butter pecan ice cream.
somehow the store was always out but always had plenty of cookies&cream
(^.^)

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett

by: RiaD @ Tue Sep 06, 2011 at 14:35:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

My friend David used to make (15.00 / 2)

something like that...he would cook the clams (and more often, mussels, b/c they're much less expensive) in olive oil w/white wine, crushed red pepper, and minced shallots. Then serve it over linguine.

Well. Replace the spaghetti/linguine with a really great loaf of Italian bread: Eat the seafood & dip the bread into the broth to sop it up and eat that -- my favorite version. Once he tried it, David liked it too.

These days, I do clams w/linguine from a cookbook I have -- there is a certain brand of canned clams that is just terrific. I miss the fresh ones: but I don't trust any seafood sold this far inland that hasn't already been processed (frozen or canned).

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White

by: Youffraita @ Wed Sep 07, 2011 at 04:57:32 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

i get (16.00 / 3)

Gortons clams (i think)

Spag & clams:
take a sticka butta, put it in a sauce pan on med-hi heat
add 1 med onion, chopped
some mushrooms (if desired) fresh or 1 lg can of pieces & stems, drained
stir until onion goes clear
add 2 cans chopped, minced or diced clams, drained (reserve liquid)
cook until it begins to bubble at edges of pot
add a couple-three shakes of dill weed & some parsley
add the reserved clam juice
turn flame to low.

serve over angel hair(about 1/2 lb) with lots of shredded parmesan
with garlic bread & a side salad

absolutely delish!

my mom made this with half olive oil, half butter
i like the taste of butter better so....

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett

by: RiaD @ Wed Sep 07, 2011 at 13:48:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Cooking with Beer | 23 comments

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