I started cooking with beer and I can’t stop

Howdy and happy summer! Summertime makes me think of two things: the beach and some ice cold drinks. Of course, iced coffee is always at the top of my list (I’ve been drinking it since I was four, I know, it’s bad), but now that I am recently old enough, beer is now part of my summer! Since I started working at an awesome local craft brewery, I’ve been bringing home more beer than I can drink– so I started cooking with it!

 

I got the best birthday present, the Craft Beer Cookbook, for my birthday, and it’s really gotten me hooked. Everything I make is amazingly delicious, craft beer is a great tool for cooking because it adds lots of depth of flavor. Now I know that there are a lot of people who are either craft beer “snobs,” or don’t know what it is, so I’ll explain. Craft beer is typically made in smaller batches, and doesn’t use adjunct ingredients. For example, some big names may use corn or rice to feed the yeast, but they don’t give that much flavor. Craft beer does not use these filler ingredients, and therefore has a fuller, more-developed taste. Yum!

I’m still learning more about beer and working through the cookbook, but I find myself wanting to cook with beer even when I’m not trying out a new recipe. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that this past week I made beer-braised chipotle chicken with red peppers and drunken cilantro lime rice (from the cookbook). It was super easy to make, and the sauce was basically just beer that we allowed to cook in a pot for a bit with the chicken. The rice was also cooked with beer, I used an amber ale instead of the recommended pale ale with citrus notes, and I’m thinking, why don’t I cook with beer all the time? It’s basically a pre-made sauce; the brewers already took the time to develop a beer with nicely balanced flavors, and as cooks all we need to do is throw some protein and vegetable in there!

So next time you are staring in your fridge and don’t know what to make, grab a cold one and make some awesome chicken with it! Or try the cookbook, because there is soo much more than chicken in there! I have to tell you, I don’t believe in making brownies from scratch, because they never seem to come out as fudgy as the box mix. But I made the chocolate stout brownies from the cookbook and they were the BEST. I ate the whole pan, they were rich, velvety and fudgy, and I can’t make them ever again if I plan on fitting into my new summer clothes. I will have to experiment a little more with beer in desserts, and I will report back to you. Happy cooking!

Is it cheating if you cook with condiments?

After trying to cook dinner at my friend’s house last week I realized: my fridge holds an inordinate amount of condiments. Who knew, right? I never realized it, but I figured that having the whole fridge door filled with condiments was normal. But it’s not true, some people have like, two things on their door! Trying to cook with only ketchup and one kind of condiment made me think; am I really cooking if I’m using condiments?

Chefs are amazing for making flavors, but condiments are equipped with their own flavors already. So it would seem that I’m not a creating flavors like a chef if I’m using condiments to season meat like shrimp and chicken. What do I mean by seasoning with condiments? Okay so last night I needed to whip up some shrimp because I didn’t realize how late it was and how angry my stomach was at me. So I threw some shrimp in a pan and added some balsamic vinaigrette, pesto, sweet chili sauce, and Sriracha. All condiments! But the shrimp tasted great; sweet, spicy and a little bit tangy.

But after trying to cook without these accoutrements, I was struggling! I mean, my pasta still came out really good, but I thought I was good at cooking. Urg. Am I really cheating though, it’s still creative to combine all of those things… I think. I have cooked some pretty kick-ass things without using condiments, it’s really only my unplanned-I’m-starving-and-need-to-eat-now meals that have me grabbing a bunch of condiments like a crazy person. I don’t know if any of you out there do that too, but if you do, I’m telling you that I, a random person writing stuff on the internet, have declared it acceptable. If you made it, and it tastes good, it counts. Go us! *Clinks glass,* to the lazy and/or creative and hungry chefs out there, cheers!