Cooking with Beer Wednesday: Pot Roast!

Perfect Pot Roast!OK, everyone loves a GOOD pot roast.  Unfortunately, everyone HATES a bad pot roast.  Anyone who has had a dried out piece of boiled beef knows that it can go horribly wrong.  There is a secret to perfect pot roast every time, and the biggest part is how you cook it.  I've had a few failures, but none of them have been when I used a slow cooker.  The lower heat and extended cooking time has never done me wrong.  The second mistake people often make is not taking the time to brown the meat before cooking adding the liquid.  After years of experimenting, I think I have got the recipe down perfectly, so I present to you here, my perfect pot roast.

Cooking with Beer Wednesday: Beer-braised pork shanks with Gluten-Free Sirloin Gratin

Tonight I wanted to stretch myself a bit, so I found a couple recipes that I thought would go well together, and adapted them to our dietary needs. Since wheat does not agree with me, making recipes wheat and gluten free can sometimes be a struggle.  Using a gluten and wheat free flour substitute can change the flavor profile a bit.

I was afraid that doing the rue needed for the gratin (a fancier Mac and cheese using marscapone and parmesan cheeses) would stretch that to its limit, but it got rave reviews.

The seasoning in the braised pork added some great flavors as well.  The use of cinnamon and cloves in the braising liquid really deepened the flavor profiles with flavors that you don't usually find in a meat dish.  The kids didn't want to try it when they found out there was beer in the liquid, but Carrie asked for seconds, so I think it was pretty good.

Recipes can be found here.

Bacon Night! - Slow Cooker Northern White Bean Bacon Chowder

Bacon, Beans, and Crock Pots - yes please!Ok folks, it's been cold and windy, so a nice soup sounded good tonight.  I started with Northern White beans, and kicked them up with lots of bacon.  Add some chicken broth, veggies, and seasoning then throw it into the slow cooker and forget it for 8-10 hours.  Nice quick prep in the morning, then nothing left to do when you get home from work but add some milk to smooth it out and dish up dinner for the family.  You can find the recipe here.

Cooking with Beer Wednesday - Beer Braised Irish stew w/ Colcannon

Beer Braised Beef - always a good start!Cooking with beer.  Just makes you feel good to hear those words to start a post doesn’t it?  This week I turned to AllRecipes.com for inspiration, and found a new go-to dish.  I modified this recipe to make it gluten-free by using a gluten-free beer from 10Barrels brewing, and using an all-purpose gluten free flour mix from Bob’s Red mill.  The only other change I made was to use red potatoes instead of russets.  

Recipe is here for you to give it a try!  The beef was as tender as anything I’ve ever made, it almost melts in your mouth. The Colcannon was what made this meal interesting.  The little bit of crunch and slight bite from the cabbage and the richness of the bacon really kicked up the mashed potatoes.  I had never heard of Colcannon before, but even the kids agreed it was great.  I may never make mashed potatoes any other way again.  

A nice big plate of Fat Boy Heaven right here!

Bacon, Bourbon, and Beef - It's Bacon night!

OK, as I said earlier today, I have decided that Thursday will be Bacon night from now on.  So to kick it off, I went all out today.

Bacon and Beef Meatloaf

Bacon and Burger Meatloaf

2 lbs. 85/15 Ground Beef

1 lb Bacon (roughly cut)

1 medium onion, diced

3 tbs. Worshtishire Sauce

1 tbs. minced garlic

1 cup Oatmeal

2 eggs

 

1.  Start by cooking the bacon in a saute pan untill cooked to desired color.  Set Bacon aside to cool.

2.  Saute the onion in the bacon grease, then remove, draining the fat.

3.  Mix all the ingredients together and put into loaf pan.

4.  Cook at 350 for 60-70 minutes until internal temp exceeds 170

 

Candied Bacon Yams

Candied Bacon Yams

Ingredients:

5 large yams

1 lb Thick sliced bacon

1/4 cup Brown sugar

1/2 stick butter

1.  OK, the first step here is to candy the bacon.  Lay the slices on a cookie sheet, then sprinkle with the brown sugar.  Bake at 350 until bacon is a golden brown (20-25 minutes).

2.  Let bacon cool, and then crumble.

3.  Peel the yams and cut into medium sized chunks

4.  Boil yams until fork tender

5.  Drain

6.  return to heat, adding bacon and butter

Gluten-Free Bacon Bourbon BowniesGluten-Free Bacon Bourbon Brownies

Ingredients:

1 pkg Betty Crocker Gluten Free fudge brownie mix

1/2 lb. Bacon

4 tbs. Bourbon

1 egg

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  Fry bacon and then crumble.

3.  Add bacon crumbles (with grease), Brownie Mix, and all other ingredients to bowl and mix well.

4. Spread (mixture will be pretty thick) mixture into 9x9 pan.

5. Bake for 23-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean from the center.

 

Bacon Night!

OK, bacon has rightfully taken it’s place as the sixth food group.  As such, Thursday night will henceforth be known as Bacon Night in America.  To start things off, tonight will be a bacon feast: Bacon Burger meatloaf, Mashed Yams with Bacon, and Bacon Bourbon Brownies for dessert.  Stay tuned for recipes and pictures!

Cooking with Beer: 15 Bean Cajun soup with Ham Shanks

A nice soup on a cold wintery day can be just the thing.  One of my favorites is a nice thick 15 Bean soup. Hurst’s Hambeens Cajun 15 Bean Soup can be found with the other beans and legumes at most grocery stores.  I love their flavor, and the great mix of beans they provide.  I also found when I first started cooking that their recipes on the back were great for making sure the soup came out perfect every time.

I started today by soaking the beans in water for 7 hours.  The longer you let them soak, the better and faster they cook.  Keep this in mind if you want to cook them in the crock-pot.  Leaving them to soak overnight before turning on the crock-pot in the morning will give you perfect beans every time.

Once I had drained the water from off of the beans (trust me, never use the liquid you soaked them in to cook them), I added them to the pot.  At this point the standard recipe and I diverge in the wood.  Hambeens recipe calls for just 2 quarts of water.  I prefer a thicker, more flavorful soup, so I used 2 bottles of Henry Winehard’s India Pale Ale, and 2 cups of beef stock.

To this I add the included seasoning packet, 3 tbs. of Garlic Powder, 2 tsp. black pepper, and 2 tsp. Lowery’s Seasoning Salt.

I then add 2 Large Ham shanks.  I prefer the shank to the hock as it has more meat, and seems to have less salt.  You could also brown some cajun sausage links or the like here for different flavor profiles.

Bring the soup to a rapid boil for 3-5 minutes, then turn to low and let it cook.  After about 2 hours, here is what it looks like:

Enjoy!

New Feature - Cooking with Beer!

Starting today, each Wednesday I will be posting a Dinner recipe that features beer.  This is not just a gimmick, this is something that I fell quite strongly about.  Wine has been used for centuries in cooking, but Beer has never quite gotten it’s due.  With more nutritional content and often more flavor than wine, I find beer to be an amazing liquid to cook with, often using it in place of stock or even water in recipes.

Stay tuned, this could get a little crazy!