Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Beer Cheddar Fondue #BeerMonth

Beer Cheddar Fondue is made with sharp cheddar cheese mixed and melted with beer. You won't be able to stop dipping in till it's gone. Serve with lightly steamed vegetables and/or crusty bread. A great snack or, indeed, meal!

Food Lust People Love: Beer Cheddar Fondue is made with sharp cheddar cheese mixed and melted with beer. You won't be able to stop dipping in till it's gone. Serve with lightly steamed vegetables and/or crusty bread. A great snack or, indeed, meal!


The brewing of beer is one of the oldest arts of civilization. In fact, according to archaeologist Brian Hayden at Simon Fraser University in Canada, beer might well have been the motivating factor behind the sowing of grain which was the beginning of the end of our largely nomadic hunter-gatherer societies. And not a few millennia later, beer was being used as partial payment for workers building the pyramids. And, yet, here I am, for the very first time, taking part in the celebration of Beer Month, organized by Sophia of NYFoodgasm. What took me so long? After all, I’ve been a fan since way back.

One of my earliest memories of beer is sipping the foam, just the foam, mind you, off the top of my father’s freshly poured lager. The bubbles tickled my nose and the slightly hoppy taste was endured for the tickle, and because it was a privilege to be allowed that tiny sip of foam in the first place. My mother says that when she first met my father, he did not drink, but by the time I came along, or became conscious of such things, I do remember him manning the grill or a fishing pole or a crab net, not always with a beer in hand, but often.

Daddy taught me how to pour one properly, down the side of the glass, until almost the end of the bottle, to keep the foam from overflowing. No one wants a big head on his beer, says he. And he passed on his policy of drinking locally brewed beer, wherever he lives, a guideline that has proved valuable to me too. (Although I did draw the line at banana beer in Uganda. - It's a thing! - But the Bell Lager's not bad.) I take that a step farther and try to order what’s on tap when we are out as well. And I often incorporate beer into both sweet and savory recipes. With so many great beers out there, it seems a shame not to take advantage, doesn’t it?

Check out this map of the most popular beers of the world – I’ve supped 29 of these and many others not on the Most Popular list. (Most popular doesn't always mean the best.)
 Source: VinePair.com






How are you celebrating Beer Month? Scroll down to the bottom of this post for some great recipes from my fellow bloggers and then some suggestions from my archives. But meanwhile, melt some cheese for fondue!

Beer Cheddar Fondue

The only thing better than a slice or two of extra sharp cheddar to nibble while you sip a cold beer, is extra sharp cheddar melted with that beer (and another for sipping!) in a cheesy fondue.

Ingredients
For the fondue:
8 3/4 oz or 250g extra sharp cheddar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2/3 cup or ml beer, plus possibly more to get to dipping consistency
3 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (We like things spicy. Reduce, if you must.)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

For garnish:
2-3 teaspoons chopped green onions

To serve:
Mixture of fresh vegetables and/or loaf of crusty bread

Method
Depending on your vegetable, steam according to this chart on the lower end of the scale. If the veggies are too soft, they’ll likely fall off the fondue fork and get lost in the cheese. I set my timer and put the trimmed Brussels sprouts in first and added the rest as needed until finally the snow peas went in for barely any time at all.

Remove the steamer and immediately plunge into cool water. Drain.



If you aren’t serving immediately, you can refrigerate the vegetables but take them out in time for them to get to room temperature before serving. Or take the chill off in the microwave but do not overcook!

Grate your cheese and then toss it with the flour in a bowl.



Put about two inches or five centimeters of water in the bottom of a double boiler or in a pot with a metal bowl set on top. Bring the water to a boil and then turn the fire down to medium. Add the beer to the top of the double boiler or the metal bowl, then whisk in the dry mustard, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce. Cook for about one minute.

Add half the cheese to the beer mixture and cook until the cheese is melted, stirring constantly.

Add the remaining cheese a small amount at a time, stirring after each addition until the cheese is melted.

Add more beer, just a little at a time, if the mixture becomes too thick for dipping. If you finished off that first can thinking you wouldn't need the rest for the recipe, open another. It's Beer Month. Live large.



Pour into a warm fondue pot, garnish with chopped green onion tops, and keep warm over low heat.

Serve with your lightly steamed vegetables and/or cubes of crusty bread for dipping. And, of course, your favorite beer for drinking.

Food Lust People Love: Beer Cheddar Fondue is made with sharp cheddar cheese mixed and melted with beer. You won't be able to stop dipping in till it's gone. Serve with lightly steamed vegetables and/or crusty bread. A great snack or, indeed, meal!


Enjoy!






#BeerMonth participants and MORE beer recipes!! Sending out a huge thank you to Sophia, chief Beer Month cheerleader and organizer extraordinaire!

Pin this Beer Cheddar Fondue!

Food Lust People Love: Beer Cheddar Fondue is made with sharp cheddar cheese mixed and melted with beer. You won't be able to stop dipping in till it's gone. Serve with lightly steamed vegetables and/or crusty bread. A great snack or, indeed, meal!

From my archives - click on titles to open recipe post

My recipes with beer in them

Slow Cooker Beef and Guinness Pie

Tangzhong Rye Bread
Mocha Porter Quinoa Loaf

London Porter Cake with Lemon Glaze

The Post Bender (Hangover Cure)

Spicy Cashew and Feta Beer Muffins


Best recipes to eat while eat while drinking beer



Spicy Georgia Sugared Peanuts

Cheese Stuffed Soft Pretzels

Spicy Keema Naan

Bak Kwa or Grilled Chili Pork Jerky

Ploughman's Lunch Muffins

Spicy Roasted Corn Shrimp Dip
Snorker and Spicy Slaw Sandwiches

Spicy Sticky Wings

And if you've scrolled down this far, pull up a chair and let my father pour you a cold one. This one's Pilsener on the beach near Salinas, Ecuador, brewed in nearby Guayaquil. And it's delicious.






Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Mennonite Paska #BreadBakers


Peel and blend a whole orange and a whole lemon to create this slightly sweet yeast bread traditionally served for Easter in the Mennonite community. The buttery sugar glaze is not optional. Neither are the sprinkles. 

This month’s Bread Bakers challenge, chosen by our creative host, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla is to bake a traditional Easter, Passover or springtime bread, perhaps venturing into another culture or country to expand our horizons. I was determined to make homemade matzo because it’s impossible to find here and I thought with a homemade version at my disposal, I could try all the matzo-based recipes I’ve been seeing on the web like chicken soup with matzo balls, Chocolate Peanut Butter Matzo S’mores, Northern Fried Chicken and Chocolate Toffee Matzo, just to name a few. But the more I researched what it would take to make matzo at home, the more I realized that my sad, sad oven which can barely be coaxed up to 425°F or 218°C on a good day, was just not up to the task. So I started scouring the internet for something new, something different, something tasty.

According to Lovella, one of the authors of Mennonite Girls Can Cook and the sharer of this paska bread, she inherited the recipe from her husband’s grandmother and it’s one of the most viewed pages on their site. I was intrigued by the whole orange and lemon that are pureed then added to the dough. Lovella also declares, and I can confirm, leftovers make fabulous French toast or eggy bread.

Adapted from Lovella’s Paska Bread – I baked two in bread pans and one in a Nordic Ware 12-cup Anniversary Bundt pan but this could easily be stretched to fill four pans. Lovella made five to seven so they must have been smaller!

Ingredients
For the bread:
2 packets active dry yeast (1/4 oz or 7g each)
1 cup or 240ml warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 medium lemon
1 medium orange
1 1/4 cup or 295ml milk
1/2 cup or 115g butter, plus extra for buttering the mixing bowl before the first rise and the baking pans
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
About 7-8 cups or 875g-1kg flour, with a little extra for kneading

For the glaze:
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Good pinch salt
2-3 tablespoons milk
2 cups or 250g icing sugar

For decorating: colored sprinkles

Method
In the bowl of your stand mixer, put your yeast, the tablespoon of sugar and warm water and allow your yeast to proof. After 10 minutes, if you have a bunch of foam in the bowl, proceed. If not, throw it all out and start over with new yeast.

Meanwhile, zest your lemon and orange with a microplane or fine grater into the vessel of your blender.

Use a sharp knife to cut all the white pith and peel off of the citrus and then cut off and discard any hard membranes between the pegs. Remove any seeds and discard. Add the orange and lemon to the zest in the blender.



Put your milk and butter in a microwaveable measuring cup and heat them in the microwave on a low setting until the butter is just melted. Add them to the blender and blend for two to three minutes.

Add in the eggs, the rest of the sugar and the salt. Blend again for a minute or two.

Pour the mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer (where the yeast has been hanging out and, if all is going to plan, foaming) and mix well.



Start adding the flour, a cup at a time, mixing very thoroughly in between, until you have a nice soft dough. You may not need all the flour.



You can use the dough hook to knead the dough but it should be quite sticky still so I found it easier to take it out and knead it for several minutes on a lightly floured countertop.

Before kneading


After kneading
Wash out your large bowl and rub the insides with butter. I keep empty butter wrappers folded up in my freezer door for this purpose. One use only, but they work beautifully. Go ahead and prepare your baking pans in the same manner.

Return the kneaded dough to the buttered bowl and cover the bowl with a loose tea towel. Leave it in a warm place for about hour.

Before then after the rising. This dough soars.


When the dough has risen, divide it into three or four even pieces.



Press them out gently and fold them over in thirds lengthwise. Put them buttered pans, seam side down, and sprinkle on a little more flour.

Cover the pans loosely with tea cloths and put them back in the warm place for about 45 minutes. About 15 minutes before the second rising time is up, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

When the oven is preheated, carefully remove the tea cloths and place the loaves in the oven to bake.

As you can see, I could probably have made one more loaf.




Bake uncovered for 35-45 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 200°F or about 134°C or the bottoms sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool briefly in the pan. Turn the loaves out onto wire racks to cool completely.


Meanwhile, make your glaze by whisking the butter, lemon juice and salt with one teaspoon of milk. Add in the sugar and stir well. Add additional milk a little at a time until you reach your desired pouring consistency.

When the loaves are completely cool, pour over the glaze and quickly decorate with colored sprinkles while the glaze is still sticky. It will harden after pouring, making the loaves easier to wrap and carry.


Enjoy!





Do you have a traditional Easter, Passover or springtime bread you make each year? Perhaps you’ll find a new favorite in this great list from my fellow Bread Bakers:





                                                              .

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. This month Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla has chosen breads from around the world that are traditional for Easter, Passover, or Springtime. Thank you for hosting, Camilla!

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Sliced up and ready to become French toast



Monday, April 13, 2015

Cheese in Ham Muffins #MuffinMonday


These guys are savory muffins, replete with cheese, baked in a ham cup. Nuff said. They might not cure what ails you, but they help.

This has been a shite week, as my British friends would say. No kidding. Bad news on several fronts. And while some people eat chocolate or turn to liquid consolation, I tend to bake and pray. And I try to understand why some things happen the way they do. To nice people. And why some nice people DO the things they do. When the decision is so obviously detrimental. So, as I said, I pray about it. For health, for understanding, for acceptance, for direction. And I bake stuff that I want to eat. Which means that this week, it’s a savory muffin. Can’t say I’m feeling a whole lot better, but at least I’m not hungry on top of that. How do you console yourself? All suggestions welcome.

Ingredients
1/8-1/4 cup or 30-60ml olive oil
12 slices thin cut ham, plus 1 more for garnish (I used the Oscar Mayer Delifresh stuff.)
2 cups or 250g flour
7oz or 200g strong and bitey cheese, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup or 240ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it liberally with the olive oil using a pastry brush.



Line each muffin cup with a circle of ham.



Cut the cheese into small chunks and set aside a good handful for putting on top of the muffins before baking. (Cut the rind off and discard, if there's a rind.) Cut the extra slice of ham into pieces.



In a large bowl, mix together your flour, the bigger pile of cheese, baking powder and salt, making sure that the cheese is well coated in flour and is not sticking together in clumps.



In a smaller bowl, whisk together your eggs, milk and oil.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients stir until just mixed.


Divide the batter between the muffin cups, holding the ham up on one side with a finger while you spoon the batter in, if necessary.



Top each with the reserved smaller pile of cheese and a piece or two of ham.



Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for a few minutes and then run a knife around the muffin pan to set the muffins free. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.





Enjoy!


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