Last Friday, I had an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on porters, tying together the style and George Washington’s well-documented love of them for Presidents’ Day. Since today is Washington’s actual birthday (at least under the converted Gregorian calendar), I thought I’d share the dessert recipe I came up with for the story, a variation on a porter float I called Washington’s Porter Float.

Pour a bottle of porter over vanilla ice cream, add a symbolic powdered wig of whipped cream and, because it’s Washington, put a cherry on top.

To which in the original I added. “A spoon is recommended for chopping it down.” Understandably it got cut. It was more than a little overly cutesy. But I still liked it. Happy Washington’s birthday.

I got an interesting sounding recipe in a press release today from Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewery. The recipe is for an appetizer called Fried Beer. Now, if you know me, you already know I’ll eat anything fried. There isn’t anything fried that isn’t improved by the process, at least in my opinion. My favorite sandwich is a Monte Cristo; a ham, turkey and cheese sandwich that’s battered and deep-fried. Yum. So this recipe has my name written all over it.

From the press release:

Saint Arnold Brewing Company may not be advertising in this weekend’s Big Game, but it is hoping to win the battle for buzz with an out-of-the-bottle innovation: Saint Arnold Fried Beer. Saint Arnold Brewing Company is the oldest craft brewery in Texas.

Developed by Houstonian Matt Schlabach and his team, the Carnies, Saint Arnold Fried Beer was the winning recipe in Saint Arnold’s One Pot Showdown this past weekend. Made with Saint Arnold Winter Stout, Saint Arnold Fried Beer is a delicious finger food that would make a great addition to any Super Party. Second place went to the Guzzlin’ Gourmets for their “Amberized Green Chili,” with the Backyard Militia’s “Brown Ale Pumpkin Soup,” taking third.

“Saint Arnold is proud to contribute to the growing understanding that beer is a great complement to food and can be a terrific ingredient as well,” said Brock Wagner, founder of Saint Arnold Brewing. “We may not have a Texas team to cheer for this year, but we sure can show our friends in New York and New England how to throw a great party.”

A total of 30 teams participated in the first annual cooking contest. Every recipe had to include Saint Arnold beer as an ingredient and each had to be cooked in a single pot in the Saint Arnold parking lot. The event raised $1,800 for Meals on Wheels.

The recipe is listed below:

Saint Arnold Fried Beer

Recipe by the Carnies, winners of the First Annual Saint Arnold One Pot Showdown.

Ingredients

• 2 Sticks of Butter
• 1 Cup White Sugar
• ¼ Cup Pale Malt Syrup
• ¼ Cup St. Arnold’s Winter Stout
• 1 Egg
• 1 Tsp. Vanilla
• 2 Cups Flour (+ additional for rolling)
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 1 Tsp. Cinnamon
• ¼ Tsp. Nutmeg
• ½ Tsp Baking Soda
• ½ Tsp. Baking Powder
• 1-1/2 Cups Oats
• ¾ Cup Chocolate Chips & Butterscotch Chips (Any Ratio of the two totaling ¾ cup, i.e. 3/8 cup each)

 

To make the dough

1. Begin by creaming the sugar and butter together with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
2. Turn off the mixer and then add in the malt syrup, stout, egg, and vanilla. Mix until incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and baking powder.
4. While the mixer is going, alternate adding the flour and oats to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until everything is incorporated.
5. On low speed or by hand, mix in the chips until thoroughly incorporated.
6. Chill cookie in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

To make the batter

1. With a fork or whisk, mix all the dry ingredients until thoroughly incorporated.
2. Add the beer and beaten egg and mix until no large lumps appear. The mixture will have some pea-sized lumps in it but should have nothing bigger.
3. Adjust the amount of beer as necessary to achieve a consistency of thin pudding or pancake batter.
4. Allow batter to sit for 10 minutes before using.

Putting it all together

1. Take chilled cookie dough and form into a disc a little less than 2 inches in diameter and about ½ an inch thick.
2. Roll in flour until completely covered and dust off the excess.
3. Dip discs into beer batter and cover completely. Remove with a fork or slotted spoon to drain the excess batter. Be sure that the dough is completely covered by batter.
4. Fry in 375Ëš F peanut or canola oil for 3 minutes or until golden brown and delicious.

Saint Arnold’s owner, Brock Wagner, in he tasting area of his Houston brewery. My family made the trek there after the Craft Brewers Conference in Austin last year.

This tasty looking recipe was featured on Chicago’s ABC Channel 7, created by Michael Pivoney, Executive Chef at Marion Street Cheese Market.

Stout & Cheddar Soup (makes 6 servings)

 

• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 2 jumbo carrots, diced
• 1 medium white onion, diced
• 1 stalk of leek, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup rye flour
• 2 bottles of stout beer (premium quality such as Guinness)
• 1 quart chicken stock (vegetable stock may be substituted)
• 1 tsp. thyme
• dash of Worcestershire sauce
• dash of tabasco
• 2 cups finely-shredded cheddar cheese (premium quality)
• Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper

 

Method:

In a large soup pot, heat the oil and butter then saute the celery, carrots, onion, leeks and garlic over medium-high heat for approximately 10 minutes - until the onions are translucent Add the flour and saute over medium-low heat for approximately 8 minutes until flour is slightly brown and has a nutty scent. Whisk-in the stout beer and simmer for five minutes, then add chicken stock and thyme and dashes of Worcestershire sauce and tabasco. Continue to simmer and when mixture begins to thicken, slowly add the cheese, whisking constantly until well-combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then allow the soup to simmer over low heat an additional 30 minutes.

Puree the soup in a blender and serve hot.

The tagline from one of my favorite graphic novels, The Watchmen by Alan Moore, is “Who Watches the Watchmen,” which itself is taken from one of the Roman writer Juvenal’s Satires. The notion of who keeps honest the people entrusted to keep people honest is as relevant today — and possibly more so — as it was in First Century Rome when Juvenal first penned the phrase. With blogs this is done quite simply, with the blogosphere policing itself, in effect, as we endlessly comment on one another’s work. This often leads to a healthy exchange of ideas and is personally one of my favorite aspects of writing online.

Back in July, I picked up on a item from the Oakland Tribune in which staff food writer Steve Dulas wrote about making pancakes with Olympia Beer, insisting it must be Oly or nothing. I didn’t think it would make much of a difference, and said so in my own post about Oly Pancakes. Over at SF Weekly there’s a regular blog called The Snitch written by Joe Eskenazi and at the same time he also questioned the Oly mandate and tried making the pancakes using different beers for comparison. At the time I wrote my post, I commented on both the original piece from the Oakland Tribune along with The Snitch’s take. As what goes around, comes around, the Snitch today made my critique the story of the day. In Joe’s original take on this story, he felt that Arthur Guinness would roll over in his grave should anyone have the temerity to try using his Irish stout for making pancakes. I took exception to that and this time around The Snitch tried making pancakes with Guinness, just to see if Artie’s ghost would indeed haunt him, and the results are as funny as they are illuminating. I just love the circular nature of the internet, it reminds of … well, pancakes. Well done, Joe, now I’m hungry again.

A few weeks ago while helping Moonlight with their hop harvest, owner/brewer Brian Hunt broke out something I’d never seen before: hop tea. Now I’ve seen regular hop tea before, I’ve even bought some at the health food store and tried it, but this was something totally different. Brian told me the idea grew out of an experiment he was doing to see how hops reacted at different temperatures, which he presented at “Hop School” a few years ago. He discovered in the process that he could make a delicious hop tea and that it varied widely depending on the temperature of the water. Here’s how it works:

1. Put approximately two-dozen fresh hop cones in a 16 oz. mason jar.
2. Heat water to __X__ temperature.
3. Fill jar with heated water and seal cap.
4. Let the water come down to ambient room temperature.
5. Refrigerate.
6. Drink.

There appears to be four main factors that change depending on the temperature of the water. These are:

1. Color
2. Float
3. Bitterness
4. Tannins

Intrigued by all of this and quite curious, Brian brought out seven examples of his hop tea made with water of different temperatures: 60°, 120°, 130°, 140°, 160°, 180° and 185°. They’re shown above from lower to higher temperature, left to right.

As you can see, the lower the temperature, the more green the hops are and the water remains less cloudy. At the higher temperatures, the hops are stripped of their green, becoming brown, and the water also becomes more brown. Also, as the temperature increases, the hops lose their buoyancy and begin to sink in the water. Although you can’t see it in the photo, the hotter the water, the more hop bitterness and at the upper range, tannins begin to emerge. Here’s what I found:
 

• 60°: Fresh, herbal aromas with some hop flavors, but it’s light.
• 120°: Bigger aromas, less green more vegetal flavors.
• 130°: Also big aromas emerging, flavors beginning to become stronger, too, but still refreshingly light.
• 140°: More pickled, vinegary aroma, no longer subtle with biting hop character and strong flavors.
• 160°: Very big hop aromas with strong hop flavors, too, with a touch of sweetness. Tannins are becoming evident but are still restrained.
• 180°: Big hop and vinegary aromas, with flavors becoming too astringent and tannins becoming overpowering.
• 185°: Vinegary aromas, way too bitter and tannins still overpowering.

Trying each of the tea samples with Tim Clifford, who writes for Northwest Brewing News.

Brian was kind enough to let me take a small bag of fresh hops with me so I could recreate his experiment at home. I had enough for four samples and made tea at 100°, 140° and 160°. Using two dozen hop cones made the jars look light so I used three-dozen in the last jar, also using 160° water. I tasted them with my wife, hoping to get a civilian opinion, too. Here’s what we found:
 

• 100°: Hops still green and floating. The nose was very vegetal and reminded my wife of the water leftover in the pot after you’ve steamed vegetables like broccoli or Brussels sprouts. The mouthfeel is somewhat gritty with light, refreshing flavors and only a little bitterness, which dissipates quickly.
• 140°: Hops turned brown, but still floating. Light hop aromas with some smokey, roasted aromas and even a hint of caramel. Fresh hop flavors with a clean finish. My wife, however, made that puckering bitter face signaling she found it repugnant.
• 160°: Hops turned brown, but most has sunk to the bottom of the jar. Strong hop aromas and few negatives, at least from my point of view. My wife was still making that face, cursing me for dragging her into this. Hop bitterness had become more pronounced and tannins were now evident, with a lingering finish.
• 160° Plus: This sample had 50% more hops. The hops had also turned brown but, curiously, they were still floating. The nose was vegetal with string hop aromas. With a gritty mouthfeel, the flavors were even more bitter covering the tannins just slightly, but they were still apparent, and the finish lingered bitterly.

It seems like either 140° or 160° is the right temperature. Lower than that and you don’t get enough hop character (I’m sure that’s why the hops remain green) but above that the tannins become too pronounced. It appears you have to already like big hop flavor or you’ll hate hop tea. I found it pretty enjoyable and even refreshing though it’s still probably best in small amounts. You do seem to catch a little buzz off of it, which doesn’t hurt. I’m sure the amount of hops is important and more research may be needed on that front. Brian tells me that hop pellets can also be used though I doubt the jar of tea looks as attractive using them. They have the advantage of being available year-round, of course. If you use pellets, you need only about a half-ounce for each pint jar.

If you try to make Hunt’s Hop Tea on your own, please let me know your results. And please do raise a toast to Brian Hunt’s ingenuity.
 

Oakland Tribune staff food writer Steve Dulas did a fun piece on food for camping last week. He included baked apple, chili and, naturally, camp-style bean soup. But what caught my attention was a recipe for beer pancakes. Basically, the recipe calls for using a mix and substituting beer for the water, also including some oil or grease. But the author insists that Olympia beer must be used and that no other beer may be substituted. Hmm. They claim to have tried using a different beer that didn’t work as well, but neglected to tell us which beer they tried. As long as you use a beer similar to Oly, I really can’t see it making much of a difference.

Even Olympia beer, of course, hasn’t really been Olympia beer for at least four years, when SABMiller closed the old Tumwater, Washington brewery on July 1, 2003. Since that time it’s been made at any number of Miller breweries dotted throughout the west. Before that Olympia bought Hamm’s and Lone Star, but business continued to decline and the family (the Schmidt’s) decided in 1982 to sell to G. Heilemann, then one of the largest brewery businesses in the U.S. The following year, Pabst bought Heilemann, who later sold it to Stroh’s, which itself was eventually bought by Miller Brewing. Union politics probably led Miller to close Olympia, who by then was also brewing many other regional brands such as Hamm’s, Lucky Lager, Henry Weinhard and Rainier.

Olympia beer — than and now — is one of dozens of regional American-style light lagers that are all but interchangeable. What makes any of them unique has more to do with marketing and perception than reality. People don’t buy Olympia because it’s good, they buy it because it’s cheap. As pointed out by The Snitch (a blog at SF Weekly) Olympia beer is the “Offical Beer of 18-year-olds Walking Through the Door, Hoisting a 12-Pack Overhead and Shouting ‘Woo-Hoo!’” The Snitch tried Dulas’ recipe, both with Oly and Henry Weinhard’s Blue Boar Ale, perhaps not realizing the Henry Weinhard is an “ale” and Oly is a “lager,” concluding that the Oly was discernibly better. I’m still willing to bet any cheap lager will make the pancakes taste exactly the same.

The Snitch also wonders aloud (a-print just didn’t sound right) what the pancakes might taste like if made with “Pyramid Apricot Ale or Bass Peach Ale?” I’m not sure there’s enough apricot flavor in the Pyramid to give the pancakes any sweetness. The Bass suggestion is a complete bust, of course, because there is no such beer. The Snitch also ruminates over “Cranberry Lambic,” by which I presume he means Samuel Adams’ version of a lambic. And lastly, he believes Arthur Guinness would “come back from the dead and stop you” if you tried using his stout. I’m not sure why he feels so strongly about Guinness given that it has been used successfully in cooking for centuries. Despite being dark in color, it’s quite light-bodied and thus might work quite well in pancakes.

Certainly, the notion of taking the idea from the campground into the kitchen is an intriguing one, as is using different beers. For that to work best, I think, you’d have to throw out the mix and make the batter from scratch, however, and use richer beers to have them actually affect the taste of the pancakes beyond fluffiness and texture. Would the yeast in a bottle-conditioned beer contribute anything? [Lucy, Bruce, Sean - anyone know?] It could be fun to use something like Marin’s Blueberry Ale or a syrupy wood-aged beer.

Perhaps it was because I was hungry when I first read the article, but I think I’ll be giving it a try the next time I make pancakes. If you try it, too, let me know the results. Post a comment with the beer you used and how the pancakes tasted. Let’s build a beer pancake database.
 

Steve Dulas’ World’s Best Pancakes
 

(Photo by Mike Lucia - Tribune Staff)

The preferred beer is Olympia. Any other American beer will likely mess this up — seriously. The morning we ran out of Oly and used another brand, the pancakes were not as tasty. 1 2-pound package Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix 4 to 6 12-ounce cans Olympia beer 1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon grease While the grill is heating to medium, pour pancake mix into a large bowl. Add beer, one can at a time, until the batter reaches a smooth consistency. When a few drops of water dance and sizzle on the grill, it’s ready. Wipe the grill with a thin coating of oil or grease on a paper towel, then drop batter onto the grill, about a half-cup per pancake. Cook about 2 minutes, and flip each cake when the top is covered with air bubbles. Cook another minute then serve. Makes 40-50 4-inch pancakes. Note: If you’ve got a lot of campers you might want to graduate to the 5-pound package of Krusteaz and use more beer, up to a full 12-pack.

The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin has a nice write-up of Lucy Saunders‘ book “Grilling with Beer,” including a couple of recipes from the book. This is my favorite paragraph from the article. Foodies take heed.

Saunders rarely refers to beer generically. Her ingredient lists may call for Asian lager on one page, then apple ale, rauchbier (which has a smoky flavor) or a porter. Her cooking advice is for people who recognize the difference, and the beauty, of matching the right beer to an entree, salad or side dish.

And in Philly, Joe Sixpack is also waxing eloquently about Lucy’s book, in his latest column, entitled “Beer, briquettes, barbecue: bee-yoo-ti-ful.”

Without argument, outdoor grilling and beer is the greatest union ever devised by man, and I’m including bacon and eggs, fast cars and loose women and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Fire and fermentation: It’s the heroic achievement that separates us from monkeys. It’s part of our DNA, this primeval passion for flames and altered reality.

Also, it tastes good.

Well said, Mr. Russell. He sat down with Saunders when she was in town last month for a beer dinner at Monk’s Cafe and Belgian Emporium and they discussed the relationship between food and beer.

The barley malts in beer, Saunders told me over beers on a visit to the city recently, add to the flavor of grilled food, often caramelizing on its surface. Wash down a bite, and the citrusy hops will cut through the fat. Take another gulp, and the carbonation completes the refreshment.

“There are so many different flavors in beer, it’s not very hard to find styles that add to the flavor of food,” she said.

How true, I’m continually amazed at how many people still believe wine pairs better with most food and how entrenched that false notion is in our culture. It’s the perception, of course, that wine is sophisticated and beer is not, but happily that’s slowly — very slowly — beginning to change thanks to the hard work of people like Lucy Saunders and her new book, Grilling with Beer.”

In the interest of full disclosure, Lucy is a friend and colleague, and I contributed a chapter to this book, but either way it doesn’t diminish the fact that you should buy several copies right now, one for yourself and a few more as gifts. With grilling season officially upon us, you need this book right now, but Christmas is only six months away. Do you want to be at the mall Christmas Eve looking for that last minute gift? Or would you rather take care of it now, and save yourself the time to enjoy a few more Christmas beers come December? See, it pays to shop early.

MSNBC recently shared a tasty sounding recipe for beer-battered fish and chips. The recipe is taken from a new cookbook, “The Summer Shack Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Shore Food” by Jasper White. There’s even a video of it taken from the Today show. I’m hungry just looking at the ingredients. Yum.

Here’s the recipe for the batter:

INGREDIENTS
 

• About 6 cups peanut, canola, or other vegetable oil for deep-frying
• 1-1/2 pounds (or a little more) skinless fish fillets (large flounder and fluke, haddock, hake cod, Pollock, ocean perch, or tautog), cut into 4 thin (less than 3/4 inch) slices
• About 3 tablespoons Spiced Seafood Salt, or salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1-cup all-purpose flour

 

For the batter:
 

• 1 cup of cornstarch
• One 12-ounce can beer or ale
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

 

DIRECTIONS
 

The batter can be made several hours in advance and refrigerated until ready to use.

1. To make the batter: Combine the flour, cornstarch, beer, egg, and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk well. The batter will be very light-slightly thinner than a regular pancake batter. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes, or up to 3 hours.
2. Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Heat 3 inches of oil to 375 F in a 4-to-5-quart Dutch oven over medium heat or in a deep fryer.
3. While the oil is heating, dry the fish fillets between several thicknesses of paper towels. Season with the spiced salt (or salt and pepper). Drop the fillets into the batter and toss with tongs to coat evenly.
4. When the oil is hot, lift the fillets one by one from the batter with the tongs, letting excess batter drip back into the bowl, and lower them into the oil, holding each fillet suspended in the oil for a few seconds to set the batter and prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. The temperature of the oil will drop when the fish is added, but you overheated the oil, to 375 F, to compensate for this. Don’t let the oil come back over 350 F once it recovers. Fry the fillets until deep golden brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer them to the paper towel-lined baking sheet with tongs. Serve the fish hot with the French Fries, coleslaw, tartar sauce, lemon wedges, and malt vinegar.

There’s also a recipe for “Boardwalk French Fries” to complete your meal. Sounds good to me. One of my favorite meals that my mother made was beer-battered fish and chips but, sadly, her recipe was lost when she passed away. As a result, I’m always looking for a close approximation of that comfort food from my childhood. This one looks pretty close, but who knows, I never really watched her make it. But there’s really only one way to find out. I guess I better get cooking.