“Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer.” – Henry Lawson

Spring is here and many of us are preparing to feast on the bounty that California agriculture has to offer. People are ready for the long summer nights full of barbeques and garden parties. But before all that kicks off, there’s one more big Spring Holiday on a lot of people’s minds which requires a hearty wintery meal: Easter.

There’s a lot of jubilatory decadence going on this time of year, but if you’re like me then you don’t want to be wasteful. This recipe makes use of the ham bone that might be left over from your upcoming family supper. Trust me: you don’t want to throw that thing away. It’s full of flavor and there happens to be a surprising amount of meat left on it that you couldn’t quite carve off, especially with the weight of those hungry family eyes staring at you in expectation.

The big reason I love this recipe – beyond the use of ham morsels – is that I get to use my favorite lager as the base for the broth. I’m talking about the flavorful and astoundingly refreshing Hacker-Pschorr Munich Gold. As always, be sure to buy enough so that you (and any dinner guests) have enough for the soup, some to enjoy while you cook, and some to savor with the meal after all your hard work.

What you will need:

• 2 bottles of Hacker-Schor Munich Gold
• 14 oz. chicken broth
• 1 ham bone
• 2 cups chopped cabbage (about half of a medium cabbage… use the rest for salad!)
• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 4 celery stalks, diced
• 8 scallions, sliced
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup light cream

How it goes down:

In a crockpot, Dutch oven, or soup kettle, combine the beer, broth and roughly 30 oz. water (you want the total liquid for your soup broth to be 2 quarts). Lower in your ham bone and bring the soup broth to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour. After that time, much of the meat should have fallen off the bone and into the soup. Remove the bone and once it is cool enough to handle, trim off the remainder of the meat, dice it and put it back in the pot with the cabbage, potato, carrot, celery, and scallions. Discard the bone (unless you’re very sentimental).

Let the soup cook for 40 minutes. In a small saucepan melt the butter over medium heat and use a whisk to gradually blend in the flour forming a bubbly paste. Next, slowly whisk in the cream and cook until the sauce thickens, then remove the pan from the heat. Whisk in a cup of the soup liquid into the sauce, and then blend the sauce into the pot of soup (Trust me, this blending step is necessary).

Hands down the greatest potato soup I’ve had! This is a wonderful winter or spring meal because it’s hearty and creamy, yet the lager gives it a light and satiny texture. The ham adds massive flavor, but it doesn’t make the soup too heavy, and the chunks of root vegetables nearly make the soup a stew. Serve this soup with some fresh cracked black pepper with a couple slices of buttered thick-cut toast. With this dish you can stay inside and curl up on your couch. There’s no need to leave the house, you know, because summer’s not quite here yet…

Cheers!

Neal F., Beltramo’s Spirits Staff

“If Food Could Drink” is an ongoing Beltramo’s blog feature with the aim of showcasing the multitude possibilities for cooking with beer, wine, and spirits. Recipes may include anything from appetizers to entrees to deserts, and will range in complexity, but always with the goal of encouraging readers to explore the nuances and versatility of alcohol in the kitchen. Eat, Drink, and be Merry!

Rum Cherries!

If Food Could Drink is an ongoing Beltramo’s blog feature with the aim of showcasing the multitude possibilities for cooking with beer, wine, and spirits. Recipes include anything from appetizers to entrees to deserts and range in complexity, but always with the goal of encouraging readers to explore the nuances and versatility of alcohol in the kitchen. Eat, Drink, and be Merry!

“Rum, n. Generically, fiery liquors that produce madness in total abstainers.” – Ambrose Bierce

It’s summer time and perhaps this year you got a bumper crop of fruits and veggies from your garden. Or maybe you enjoy prowling farmer’s markets for the freshest produce out there. But as summer wears on into fall, you might be thinking of how one might go about capturing these fantastical tastes and saving them for the months ahead.

Using Brandy is one classic method for preserving fruit well deserved of attention. Brandied Cherries have long been a cornerstone of the cocktailing world and I believe that our culture is all the better because of this. I happen to love cherries and wanted to take on the techniques of altering this fruit with alcohol, but I wanted to throw in a curve ball. Indeed, I wanted to take the road less traveled. I thought long and hard about the art of the Brandied Cherry and the ingredients used in typical recipes. What it comes down to, as with all cooking, food preparation, or mixology, is balance of flavors. In the end, you can use nearly any liquor (or liqueur) to preserve all manner of fruit, and so instead of Brandy, I opted for Dark Rum. For the starting point of my culinary experiment I chose one of my current favorites, El Dorado Cask Aged 5 Years Rum ($17.99).

When choosing the spices to put in your fruity potion you want to consider two things. The first is what flavors will bind well with the liquor you have selected as your base. For instance, with the aforementioned Brandied Cherries it is common to incorporated cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. To highlight the flavors of Dark Rum I decided to nix the cinnamon and nutmeg, retain the dark spice of the clove, and add in cardamom, a healthy dose of allspice, and vanilla bean.

The second concern in choosing spices lies in how you plan to use the altered and elevated cherries once you’re finished. I had big dreams for what I might do with my future cherries, but more on that later.

The method to the madness:

• 1 ½ lbs. fresh cherries
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup water
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 whole cloves
• 6 whole allspice
• 4 cardamom pods
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 cup El Dorado Cask Aged 5 Years Rum 

Pit your cherries. Yes, this will take forever and might give you a hand cramp, but just go for it anyway and eat a few cherries along the way to make the job a little easier on yourself. You will then want to slice your vanilla bean down the middle and scrape out the dark, gooey mush from the inside. The goo is what you want to use for this recipe, but don’t throw away the husk of the bean because it’s still packed with vanilla flavor from all the oils in its skin (Tip: put the scraped bean pod into a spare jar of sugar. Even after only a day or two the sugar will have a powerful aroma and flavor of vanilla that can enhance many future recipes).

Bring the water, sugar, lemon juice, and your spices to a boil in a medium saucepan. Once boiling, reduce heat and let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. This is essentially just a flavored simple syrup. Cooking slightly longer here will thicken the mixture a little and result in more syrupy cherries. Be careful not to go too long, however, because you can burn this fairly easily. It’s worth mentioning here that many of the store bought brands have a more viscous consistency because they use thickening agents in their recipes, such as gelatin or tapioca powder.

After the mixture has reduced slightly, remove the pan from the heat and carefully stir in the cherries and the Rum. Let the flavors meld together for a few minutes while continuing to stir. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cherries to a sterilized jar approximately 1 quart in size, then pour the liquid from the sauce pan over the cherries and seal on the lid. After the mixture has cooled, put it in a cool, dark place such as a cupboard and let rest for at least a month. Once opened, the jar should be kept in the refrigerator.

The way these cherries taste after all is said and done is almost indescribable. Each of the individual spice characters are there, but they’ve come together to be much greater than the sum of their parts. There’s a deep earthiness to the spice notes that plays off the woodiness of the Rum. The Rum’s rich molasses notes flirt with the luscious vanilla bean nuances. The allspice kicks up the Caribbean flare. The flavors linger on the tongue for a very long time after the cherry is gone, and it’s slightly numbing in a very pleasant way.

I definitely like to use these Rum Cherries in a variety of cocktails because they’re so dynamic while most garnishes tend to be passive. This will work in your favorite Manhattan, even though these cherries are Rum-based. There are more than enough vanilla and spice notes to make it work, plus that little something extra to make your taste buds sit up and take notice. If you really want to get decadent though, I suggest that you incorporate these Rum Cherries into the dessert at your end-of-the-summer barbeque. Dish up some bowls of vanilla ice-cream, add on some sliced nectarines and assorted berries, then add a few of these cherries on top and drizzle on some of the syrup from the jar. Can you say, “Food Coma”?

Cheers!

Neal F., Beltramo’s Spirits Staff

     “Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer.” – Henry Lawson

Bread and Beer are cousins. Whisky and Beer are cousins too, but Beer and Whisky get to party together all the time. Why there doesn’t seem to be as much love between the former two has always been much of a mystery to me. I mean, they used to be a lot more close in ye olden days (Ex. The Plowman’s Lunch: bread, cheese, and beer), but they’ve kind of had a falling out lately.

Here’s where I could do some ranting. I might, for instance, feel inclined to rail against the recent trend of carb-bashing that has swept our calorie-obsessed culture over the past few years. People concerned about their waistline make the choice between Beer OR bread. I could be very bitter about this, my friends, but I would prefer to just sip on a nicely refreshing hoppy and bitter Beer. Yes, my friends, I would rather focus on the matter at hand and find a solution in order to get these two old friends back together. What will it take? I believe the answer lies in a double feature of sorts. Or better yet, a buddy flick starring both these tasty titans.

What I want is bread made with Beer. Dark, bold Beer to make a hearty and flavorful bread. I’m talking about banana bread made with Stout. So I implore you to put down the caloric calculator and try this recipe on for size next time you’re in the kitchen.

• 1 mashed banana
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground clove
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup toasted chopped pecans
• 1 cup golden raisins, packed
• 1 cup Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, mash the banana and combine with the brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, oil, and vanilla extract. Separately, sift together the wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and all the ground spices. Add the flour mixture into the bowl with the wet ingredients in parts, alternately with the Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout to ensure the ingredients are completely blended. Then fold in the chopped pecans and raisins.

Pour the batter into a medium bread pan and bake for one hour. When you take the bread out of the oven, let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes before taking it outand letting it rest on a cooling rack.

This bread is dense. Black hole dense. It’s heavy and dark and packed with flavor. The Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout adds heft and notes of coffee and chocolate, while the golden raisins and spices brighten up the scene a little and add some flare. Tying it all together is the creamy banana. Here we have Beer and bread back together again, and thick as thieves! I like to warm up a slice in either the microwave or toaster and then spread the bread with butter and paired with a glass of milk. Who says Beer isn’t for breakfast?

 Cheers!

 Neal F., Beltramo’s Spirits Staff

“What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch?”  -  W.C. Fields

Summertime means Barbecue. There’s actually not a time of the year that Barbecue isn’t fondly welcome in my home and belly, but it seems like a lot of other people wait until the warmer months for this culinary genre. With that in mind, I offer up this saucy dish prepared in a slow cooker. You don’t have to wait for the snow to melt off your grill outside in order to enjoy this, but you can pull it off in the summer too. Just throw all the ingredients together and go out into the Californian wilderness for a hike at The Dish or Windy Hill. When you come back home, the aromas will be so mouthwatering that you won’t mind regaining all those calories that you just burned!

•  3 lbs. beef chuck, cubed
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 2 large bell peppers
• 6 oz. tomato paste
• 1-2 chipotle chile peppers (minced) in adobo sauce (appx. 2 tablespoons)
• ½ brown sugar, packed
• ½ cup cider vinegar
• ¼ cup chili power
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons liquid smoke
• 1 cup Anderson Valley Boont Amber Ale
• 8 toasted Dutch crunch buns

Combine the beef, onion, bell pepper, tomato paste, brown sugar, vinegar, chipotles, chili powder, cayenne, cumin, salt, Worcestershire sauce, adobo sauce, liquid smoke, and Boont Amber Ale into your slow cooker. Cover and then set cooker to high and leave for 6 to 8 hours (until the beef is falling apart).

Shred the beef with a fork (until it resembles pulled pork), and then pile it onto the toasted buns. Serves 8 people.

Yeah, that’s all there is to do. The hardest step of the recipe is waiting so long while the deliciousness develops, but the rewards are plenty.

After 6-8 hours in the slow cooker, the beef is fall-apart tender and the flavors of the spices all comingle perfectly. I like to butter the rolls and then stick them either under the broiler or on a griddle to toast. Then portion the barbecue mixture onto the toasted buns, adding as much of the sauce as you see fit. The flavors are rich and smoky with a lot of spiciness. The Boont Amber Ale definitely contributes to the richness with malty essences that get dark and dense during the long cooking time. Have your bold, beefy, barbecue sandwiches (side salad optional) with a cold Boont Amber Ale chaser! The beer will cool down the spice and it also has a sweetness that provides a nice counterpoint to the smoky, robust flavors of the sandwich.

Cheers!

Neal F., Beltramo’s Spirits Staff