Food Recipes

Stupid Easy Rustic Beer Bread

Ron Unz Leave a comment

Ok, I love all things bread, but I’m a fatty, so that’s to be expected. My mother recently taught me a rustic beer bread she’s been making for my step father. The recipe was stupid easy and tasts great. This recipe is also very forgiving and requires no kneading. I made some tweaks to the recipe to include beer, specifically homebrew!

RusticBreadThis recipe only calls for four ingredients:

  • 6.5 cups bread flour
  • 1.5 tbsp. instant yeast
  • 1 tbsp. kosher salt
  • 3 cups pale ale

Whisk together the flour, yeast, and kosher salt in the largest mixing bowl you have. Then add the beer. Using a spatula, pull the bread dough together and be sure the liquid is mixedRusticBread-2 throughout. If the bread dough looks too dry, add a splash of water or more beer. You want a moist, pliable dough. It’s ok if your dough looks too wet. Again, this dough is super forgiving, you just don’t want it too dry.

Spray another bowl large enough to hold 2-3 times the volume of your dough with cooking spray. Place RusticBread-3the dough in the bowl and cover with a damp towel and place in warm place (I use my oven with the light on) and let the dough rise for 4-5 hours. The dough should at least double in size, how long it will take to rise will vary.

After your dough has doubled in size, carefully transfer the dough to a 9 or 12 inch cast iron skillet. I used a 12 inch skillet for this post. Using 9 inch skillet will give you a thicker loaf. If your skillet is well seasoned, RusticBread-4you shouldn’t need to spray it down with anything. If your skillet isn’t well seasoned, go a head and spray it down with some cooking spray. Let the bread rise another 2-3 hours. Another note, if you want to use loaf pans instead in place of a cast iron skillet, go a head. Just cut the loaf in half and place the two pieces into two different loaf pans.

Preheat your oven to 425° F. Place your cast iron skillet in the oven and bake your bread for 45-60 minutes. RusticBread-5Pierce the bread with a skewer after 45 minutes and remove. If the there is nothing sticking to the skewer, your bread is done. Continue checking the bread every 5-10 minutes until the skewer can be removed cleanly. If you have an instant read thermometer, like a themapen, you can check the bread’s doneness by checking it’s temperature. Cook the bread until the interior temp reaches 210° F.

Once your bread is done, remove from the oven and carefully remove from the cast iron skillet. RusticBread-6Place on a cooling rack until the bread is cool enough to handle. Cut the bread up however you’d like and enjoy.

In this recipe, I used pale ale, but you can really use any beer you like. Lighter beers work well and so do hoppy beers. Just about any beer will work. However, I have found that stout and porters do work, but I find that the darker malt flavors clash with the bread and make it almost bitter. Herbs work very well in this bread as well. Rosemary in this bread is fricken awesome. Just chop it finely and add it to your dry ingredients before you add your liquids. It’s that easy.

Spent Grain Buttermilk Biscuits

Jeremy Wickham 1 Comment

I brewed a Northern English Brown ale, and as I was cleaning out my mash tun, a light bulb light popped on in my head. I went inside, grabbed a few cookie sheets, and turned on the ovens to 200 degrees. That light bulb had my brain processing what I can do with these spent grains. I had about 1/3 of my spent grains drying in the oven. Every so often I would stir the grains around and let the hot steam escape from underneath the almost dried top layer.

As the wheels were still turning in my head, I knew I wanted to make biscuits for breakfast in the morning. Boom! I told my wife that is what I was going to do. I got that response that I knew she was worried. Even with the skeptical wifey, I moved onward and adapted my normal buttermilk biscuit recipe.
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A Taste of the Deep South(west)

Richard Bryant Leave a comment
Enchiladas and American Pale Ale
Enchiladas and American Pale Ale

The argument of just what makes up the South is long and energetic. Seemingly age old questions like “Is Maryland in the South?” as well as brand new arguments such as “How in the world is Missouri in the SEC? They aren’t even in the South, much less the Southeast!” keep cropping up year after year. Many of us in the Deep South think Memphis is “up north” while Memphians would certainly say they are more Southern than Miami, which, is, in fact, further south than all of us. I guess it depends, like most anything else, on perspective. If you feel Southern, you are. Never mind trying to define the authenticity or “Southernness” of others.

With that in mind, I want to talk about one of those places that, depending on whom you ask, is unquestionably Southern or, as the next girl may say, seated firmly in the West: Texas. East Texas is as full of cotton as the Mississippi Delta, and you are just as likely to find Baptists and biscuits in Brenham as you are in Birmingham. However, Texas has another quality. The Lone Star State has a food tradition influenced by Tejano culture that predates its admission to the United States. While Greenville, MS has delta tamales, All of Texas is awash in Tex-Mex, that spicy American mixture of Indian and Spanish cuisine that we all love so much.

On second thought, I don’t want to talk about Texas so much–and I certainly could go on for hours–as I want to talk about Tex-Mex food, specifically that delicious concoction, the enchilada. Well, really I want to discuss the enchilada and beer! What could be more delicious than that?

Just what is an enchilada? Well, the word itself can be translated as “chilied.” Tortillas enchiladas are corn tortillas heated in oil and smothered in chili sauce. According to cook book author, Robb Walsh, they were originally served without fillings and topped with white cheese. In West Texas enchiladas are typically served like pancakes in a stack with cheese, onions, and other toppings in between. It is this type of enchilada I want to show you how to prepare.

Everyone knows how to pair spicy Tex-Mex salsa with a cool crisp Mexican lager. I could sit for hours in the Cantina munching and sipping while the football or soccer game drones in the background. Throw in a few good friends and this could become a marathon in a hurry. What many may not realize it that the spicy and pungent flavors of Tex-Mex pair quite well with the spicy, pungent flavors and aromas of American Pale Ale or IPA/DIPA. Like Tex-Mex, the APA and IPA are an American take on foreign recipes that have come into their well-deserved own. So let’s get to pairing one product of cultural diffusion with another!

In this entry, I will walk you through making spicy West Texas enchiladas as well as a well balanced American Pale Ale to compliment your dish.Read More

Shrimp Gumbo

Ron Unz Leave a comment


Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 1-4 hours
Serves: 6-8

History
Living in the south, you tend to pick up some classic southern recipes. This recipe is something my wife and I have been tinkering with for a long time. This is the recipe we have settled upon and we think it’s pretty damn delicious. This recipe is great for left overs. Have a lot of random left over veggies and protein? Brew up a batch of delicious gumbo! Anything that crawly, flys, or swims can be tossed into a gumbo.

GumboSmall

Ingredients
4 oz. Vegetable oil
4 oz. All-purpose flour
1 Medium onion diced
3 Stalks of celery diced
1 Green bell pepper diced
3 Cloves minced
2 qt. Low Sodium chicken stock (if using shrimp or crawfish stock, use 1 qt chicken and 1 qt other)
2 Chicken bouillon cubes
1 Can seeded and chopped tomato (not drained)
½ tsp. Black pepper
¼ tsp. Cayenne pepper
3 Bay leaves
2 tsp. 30% Less sodium old bay
¼ tsp. Smoked paprika
1 lb. Andouille sausage
1 tsp. File powder
1 lb. of peeled and deveined shrimp
Salt
Pepper

 

Cooking InstructionsPhoto Nov 02, 6 05 54 PM

  1. Place a Dutch oven over medium heat.
  2. Add the oil and flour and mixing using a whisk.
  3. Cook the roux until the roux reaches a peanut butter or red brick color. If any black flecks are formed during thiPhoto Nov 06, 4 01 34 PMs stage, throw the roux out and start over. The roux has burned.Photo Nov 06, 4 05 04 PM
  4. Add the onions, celery, and green bell peppers.
  5. Sauté the vegetables until they are translucent.
  6. Add the garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds.
  7. Slowly add the chicken broth while whisking.
  8. Add the bouillon cubes, tomatoes, black pepper, cayenne, bay leaves, old bay, and smoked paprika.
  9. Cut the andouille sausage into ¼ inch thick disks.
  10. Brown the sausage in a separate pan.
  11. Add the sausage to the gumbo.
  12. Simmer the gumbo for 30 min to 3 hours over low heat. The longer the better.
  13. 30 minutes before serving, add the shrimp.
  14. Taste for salt and pepper.
  15. Serve your gumbo over white rice.

 

Notes
This recipe is just so damn delicious. Serve it over white rice or do like in some places in Louisiana and serve your gumbo over grits. There are also a lot of parts of this recipe that can be tinkered with.

First, the roux is the hardest part of this recipe, but is the keystone to this recipe turning out. I personally like the very dark roux (brick in color), but it is very difficult to pull off without burning it. However, starting the roux on the stove top and then finishing it in the oven makes things a little easier.

Make the roux as directed in steps 1 and 2. After the roux has been started, toss the uncovered Dutch oven into a 350º F oven. Stir the roux every 15 minutes or so. Pull the roux out of the oven when it has reached your desired level of doneness. Alton Brown has a very good video describing this method, so I recommend checking it out.

Gumbo’s can be cooked with a large variety of different proteins. You can put chicken, beef, duck, crab, or any meat you can think of into a gumbo.  A gumbo can contain anything that “walks, crawls, swims, or flies.”  You’ll want to brown any protein that isn’t seafood before you add it to the gumbo.

You also may have noticed my recipe does not include okra. That’s because I don’t like okra, so we use the file powder instead. However, if you like okra, feel free to toss it in. However, you might want to back off on the file powder to keep the gumbo from getting too thick.

Choose your Stocks

You can also supplement the chicken stick with other stocks. Shrimp or crawfish stocks are great. Crawfish stock is my personal favorite.

To make shrimp stock, start with 2 lbs. of whole head-on shrimp. Use a medium sized shrimp. Peel and devein the shrimp. Toss the heads and shells into a sauce pan large enough to hold all of the heads and shells. Add enough water to cover the heads. Simmer for about an hour and you have shrimp stock.

Photo Nov 02, 4 34 53 PMCrawfish stock is bit different from a shrimp stock and requires a bit more work, but it’s totally worth it. Crawfish yields very little meat per pound of crawfish. You can get a lb. of tail meat from 5 lbs. of crawfish if you are lucky.   So for this recipe, you’ll need at a minimum of 5 lbs. of crawfish.

At this point in the recipe, I am going to assume your crawfish have already gone through a boiling process or are left over from a crawfish boil. You can buy frozen boiled whole crawfish sometimes at the grocery store. Frozen crawfish work fine. Just a note, crawfish from a left over crawfish boil are the best option for this gumbo recipe. The juices from the heads and meat just can’t be beat.

Remove the head and shell of the crawfish. Place the shells and heads into a stock pot. I would use the heads and shells from about 3 lbs. of crawfish.  I would discard the rest of the shells and heads.

Add enough water to the stock pot to cover all of the heads and shells. Simmer on low until the liquid reduces to about a quart and your crawfish stock is done.

If you are not in the south and can’t find crawfish, you may need to look online for a vender who will ship you live crawfish. Also, even if you are in the south, you will only find crawfish during the spring and the very beginning of summer. Crawfish is seasonal, but you still might be able to find some in the freezer section.

 

Rosemary Cream Biscuits

Ron Unz

Round1Discoloration-2There isn’t a single traditional home in the south where biscuits aren’t a staple. We don’t make biscuits a lot in our house due to our busy schedules, but we do like to make them about once a week. This recipe is a quick cream biscuit recipe that can be easily whipped up in minutes. This minute is great on those nights you want a biscuit with your meal, but don’t want to spend a lot of time making them.


Round1DiscolorationPrep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 18-20 min

Ingredients
1 tbsp. fresh finely minced rosemary
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1.5 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp. honey

 

Steps

  1. Preheat your oven to 425°F
  2. Whisk together the rosemary, flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.
  3. Add the heavy cream and honey.
  4. Mix with a spoon until just about everything is roughly incorporated.
  5. Flour a flat working surface.
  6. Place the dough on the work surface and kneed the dough until everything looks uniform.
  7. Roll the dough out until about 3/8 of an inch thick.
  8. Cut out the biscuits in any shape you want. I tend to just free style them. You just want them rought all the same size so they cook evenly.
  9. Place the biscuits on a greased baking sheet.
  10. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
  11. Place the biscuits on a cooling rack and then consume.

These biscuits are super easy and super delicious. If you don’t want the rosemary in the biscuits, then take it out. The biscuits will still be delicious. I absolutely love making these to have with my biscuits and gravy. The rosemary compliments sawmill gravy so well.