Tag Archives: recipe

Framboise Cranberry Sauce

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Cranberry Sauce is a staple at any Thanksgiving table and each year I like to try at least one new recipe. This year I made a Framboise Cranberry Sauce from a recipe in Cooking Light. They said the Belgian Framboise Lambic beer would add an underlying sweetness to complement the cranberries. However, I didn’t find that to be so true and the sauce was quite tart. Next time I would add a little more sweetness with either some orange juice or just some more sugar. (Anyone have any other ideas?)

This was extremely simple to make. Here is the original recipe and a photo of me getting mine ready.

Ingredients
1  (12-ounce) bottle Framboise Lambic beer (such as Lindemans)
½ cup sugar
1-½  teaspoons grated orange rind
1  (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries
Preparation
Bring beer to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar, rind, and cranberries; bring to a simmer. Cook 18 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature. Spoon into a bowl; cover and chill. (Sauce will thicken as it chills.)

A.B.’s Beer Bread

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We had a party to go to this weekend where we were to bring an appetizer and a dessert. My wife made some cranberry and white chocolate chip cookies from a recipe on the back of the Ocean Spray package of dried cranberries. I wanted to do something a little more sophisticated and fun and so I turned to a recipe for beer bread that I saw Alton Brown make the other night on his "Fermentation Nation" episode of Good Eats.

The main flavors for this bread come from some dill, cheddar cheese and, of course, beer. AB recommended a good pale ale as opposed to a stout, or lager, that I see called for in many recipes. I decided to go with Ithaca’s Cascazilla, a monstrously hoppy brew. Here’s a picture of it…

Unfortunately, this bread was close to awful. I found it way too salty to begin with, but even beyond that it just didn’t have a good taste to it. I followed the recipe exactly including weighing my ingredients. The texture of the bread was perfect, so I am pretty sure I didn’t make any mistakes. I’m not going to even give you the recipe (though the link is above). The unofficial Hop Talk rating for this is a 1. So sad.

But the cookies were awesome!

Chili and Beer

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Chili and beer (not to be confused with chili beer) is an awesome combination. This pairing is one of my all time favorites. I have many chili recipes but my standard is a favorite of everyone in the family and it is the easy to make. 

Chili con Carne

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium to large onion
1 pound lean ground beef
1 can (about 1 lb.) tomatoes
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon cumin
About 4 cups cooked dark red kidney beans, plus ½ cooking liquid; or 1 large can (1 lb. 11 oz.) kidney beans, not drained
2-4 green onions
1 small avocado
cheddar cheese
1 lime

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat; add onion and cook until soft. Add beef and cook, stirring, until meat is brown and crumbly. Spoon off excess oil (only if the meat wasn’t lean enough -I like to use 90%-95% lean meat and just leave the juices). Stir in tomatoes and their liquid and break up with spoon, salt, chili powder, oregano, and cumin. In a blender or food processors, whirl a third of the beans until smooth, adding their liquid as needed; stir into meat mixture. Then add whole beans, along with any remaining liquid, to meat. Simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes. Garnish with green onion, avocado, cheese and lime wedge.

You can add tomato juice if too thick, or add some cornmeal if too thin. I often double this and play with the spices.

Many beer styles seem to get along with chili. Use can have a stout, a porter, a pale, even a brown or a bock. I suggest your favorite. In the case I am having a Green Flash West Coast IPA.

To make it even better, just add a football game. (Also checkout one from Al)

Old Chub French Onion Soup

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From Ron’s kitchen, adapted from A.B. and others…

Old Chub French Onion Soup
Prep/cook time: All day (at least 3 hours)
Servings: 8

Ingredients

  • 4 lbs onions (yellow, sweet, red… whatever)
  • 3 TBSP butter
  • 12 oz Old Chub Scottish Ale (or any dark, robust, sweet beer)
  • 6 oz white wine
  • about 30-40 oz broth made up of:
    - 10 oz canned beef consume
    - 20 oz beef broth (or chicken)
    - 10 oz apple cider (A.B. recommends unfiltered)
    (amount depends on how thick you like it, and you can even do all beef broth if you like)
  • Bay leaf
  • 1 TBSP Parsley (or sprigs of fresh would be better)
  • 1 1/2 tsp thyme (or sprigs of fresh would be better)
  • kosher salt and pepper
  • splash of Cognac (optional)
  • 1 loaf bread (country style or french bread)
  • 1 cup cheese, shredded/grated (I prefer a combo 75% Mozzarella and 25% Gruyere)
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Trim off ends of onions then half lengthwise. Remove peel and slice into semi-circle strips
  3. Melt butter in dutch oven, add onions and kosher salt. (about 1 1/2 tsp salt) Stir to coat onions in butter. Cover and place in oven for 1 hour. After 1st hour, scrape & stir, return to oven with lid open a crack. After about 1/2 hour, scrape & stir again. Check every 15  minutes, scraping and stirring until onions are dark mahogany. Do not worry about burning.
  4. Remove from oven, add beer and wine (enough to cover) and turn heat to high reducing the liquid to a syrup. Add broth/consume/cider & herbs and simmer 15-20 mins, or put in crock pot on warm until you are ready to eat.
  5. Place oven rack in top 1/3 and heat broiler.
  6. Cut country bread in rounds to fit in mouth of oven safe soup crocks. Place bread slices on baking sheet and put under broiler for 1 minute.
  7. Season soup with salt & pepper (and Cognac). (remove herb sprigs). Ladle into each soup crock leaving about an inch then cover with bread toasted side down and then cover with cheese. Broil crock for about 1-2 minutes until cheese is melted and golden.