A Taste of the Deep South(west)

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


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.

 

Diacetyl: What the ale is wrong?

2015-10-28 20.23.17The scientific definition of diacetyl is a vicinal diketone with the molecular formula C4H6O2. In simpleton terms, it is a movie theater butter or butterscotch flavor. Yes, I have heard that movie theaters actually are using diacetyl when they ask you if you want your popcorn buttered. Is this fact? I’m not saying no, but I wouldn’t doubt it. But diacetyl is a common problem in homebrew. I have even had a lot of commercial examples that have loads diacetyl. But this is is not a flaw in some English style beers.

So how does diacetyl get in our beer? Diacetyl is produced during fermentation. It starts to show up in the low krauesen phase. Huh? Low krauesen? This is the phase of fermentation when the yeast has finished growing and you’ll start seeing a foam wreath develop in the middle of the surface. The yeast has not completely adapted to the environment and ready to start metabolizing those sugars you worked so hard to create. Ok, maybe I need to go in depth on the yeast development cycle one day. It is quite interesting what all those yeasts do during fermentation. Back to diacetyl. It can start showing up in the low krauesen phase and the yeast will start cleaning up by products that were developed during late krausen phase.

Ok, so now we know when diacetyl can show up in our beer. Now why am I tasting it in my beer Well, it can be a lot of things.

  • If you have a long lag phase (from when you pitch to when you get to the growth phase of fermentation) which can be caused from poor yeast health or insufficient aeration.
    Some bacteria strains can cause diacetyl production. Here is where I use that sanitation word. Any homebrewer has heard sanitation probably 3.7 million times. Seriously. Sanitation, so that’s 3,700,001 times.
  • Premature racking out of primary. See earlier? You might not be able to see when your beer in late krauesen. So make sure your beer is done fermenting by checking your final gravity for a couple days straight to make sure your gravity is not dropping.
    Under pitching. Huh? So you’ve never made a yeast starter? You’ll improve your beer ten fold by making yeast starters. Take the plunge, get a stir plate and you can make sure you’ll have enough yeast to pitch.
  • Too much oxygen. Wait one minute. I bet you remember me mentioning earlier about insufficient aeration? Well of course I did, there can also be too much. Yeast absorb all the oxygen it can during the growth phase. Well if there is too much oxygen there will still be oxygen lingering when the fermentation is over. Most homebrewers don’t filter their beer. If there is still oxygen left over, the yeast will still be feeding off of it and still trying to go through fermentation phases. Also minimize oxygen exposure after fermentation started, e.g. while racking to the keg or bottling bucket.
  • Increase your fermentation temperature. That is use a diacetyl rest. A diacetyl rest is a common practice for lager beers. When you warm up the yeast it becomes a bit more active and it will help clean up the yeast. You can also use a diacetyl rest for ales, but most of the time you are fermenting at the correct temperature for the diacetyl to be cleaned up.
    Use a less flocculant yeast strain. Flocculation is the state of yeast of being clumped together and falling out of solution. If the yeast is still in suspension it will be a little more efficient when cleaning up diacetyl.

Diacetyl will most of the time be a flaw in lagers, but not in every ale style. It is acceptable in a Czech Pale Lager, English and Scottish style beers and also a dry stout.

I’m sure we have all had this problem show up in our beers. This is one of the major issues that I fight with, especially since I started doing lagers.

Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew.

References:
How to Brew by John Palmer
Beer Judge Education Course

Originally posted on I Make Wort.