Brown Ale Marinara + Zucchini Lasagna

When one of your beautiful little angel friends comes back from abroad with a bottle of Danish beer….you cook with it. This is what I did when my good friend Meghan returned the to US with Bøgebryg Brown Ale. This beer is chock full of caramel malt flavors with a kick of smokiness, making it perfect for a marinara sauce. Since this recipe was so easy, I decided to turn it into two: Brown Ale Marinara and a zucchini lasagna that uses said marinara. Enjoy the meatiness below.

Pichuberry Pizza

Do you ever see a strange ingredient at the grocery store and think, “I wonder what that tastes like?” I do this all the time. During this past month, my local grocery store has had pichuberries on the shelf. I kept passing by them until last week when I decided to just go for it, not knowing what I would be getting myself into. I let the little orange dudes sit in my refrigerator for a few days while I researched what exactly these things were. Everything that came up kept boasting that these are the new superfruit of the future but there weren’t too many recipes or articles that described their use as an ingredient. So I did what any normal person would do – bit into one. It tasted like a tart cherry tomato with a lot more seeds. For cooking, I thought I would take a safe route and use it like a tomato so I made a sauce out of the pichuberries and slathered them on a pizza. Here are the results:

The Ultimate Bratwurst

This weekend I went to Oktoberfest in Denver and did what most people do at Oktoberfest – ate a bratwurst. You totally thought I was going to say “drank a beer” didn’t you? I did that too, don’t worry. Why I’m mentioning my sausagefest experience though (I just had to plug that in somewhere), is because it just wasn’t that good. I was so pumped about eating a giant bratwurst and was sadly let down by a small sausage in a giant bun with mediocre sauerkraut – bleh. I just need to say this: if you’re going to use a hoagie as a bun, you better fill it up with some dank food. To ameliorate my despair, I set out to make a brat, on a hoagie, like no one has ever made before.

Cooking with Beer | Festina Pêche Lobster Pasta

PorchDrinking.com Article:

Chelsea Mitchell uses Festina Pêche to create a sauce for her lobster pasta – and shows you how to do it too.

 

http://www.porchdrinking.com/cooking-beer-festina-peche-lobster-pasta/

Independence Chicken

 

I had continuously gone to the liquor store and passed by Aspen Brewing Company’s Independence Pass Ale. Every time I went, I would look around, think about buying it, and then decide to go with another IPA. Finally, I got some advice from one of the beer gurus. He convinced me that this IPA was worthy of my purchase. I was reluctant, but I did it anyway.

Baba Black Lager Mustard

Ready for a mustard that’ll kick your ass? Well I’ve got the recipe for you. It wasn’t until this morning (when I tried it for the first time) that I knew how spicy it was but whewwweee it’s pretty damn awesome. When deciding what beer to use, I picked the only thing in my beer fridge that wasn’t already assigned to another recipe: Baba Black Lager by Uinta Brewing Company. I was slightly weary of this choice and considered going out to get something else but then my laziness won and I figured it couldn’t turn out that bad. Why was I scared to use it? Because Baba has all kinds of malty and chocolate tones that I thought might throw off the flavor of the mustard. Luckily, everything turned out fine – better yet, it turned out great. The roasty malt flavors were a perfect addition to the spicy kick from the brown mustard seeds – and this is how Baba Black Lager Mustard was born.

Grilled Shrimp with a Serrano and Mango Birra Risotto

 

Because adding beer to risotto is way better than white wine. And because I wanted something Summer-y.

Apricot Tomato Bruschetta made with Crossover (a rustic saison aged in white wine barrels)

 

First think I’d like to say:

Growing basil and mint is one of the smartest things a home cook can do. They grow like weeds because well, they kind of are. Their abundance of leaves means lots of uses without having to spend a pretty penny at the grocery store. For this recipe, I pretty much picked my whole basil plant. I’m not too worried though, since I know it will be replenished in about 2 weeks. Until then, I’ll be spreading my basil-mint pesto on just about everything.

Chelsea’s Somewhat Philly-style Cheese Steak

 

No description necessary, really. You probably guessed I would use the giardiniera on a cheese steak. During the creation of this recipe, I finally figured out how they cut the meat so thin – now you can too!  

Guest Post: Colorado Mojo Pork Arepas

From Guest Poster/fellow Porch Drinker Chris Day 

This recipe pulls inspiration from Colorado and South America by pairing Odell’s floral and citrusy St. Lupulin Extra Pale Ale with arepas and tender pulled pork doused in a spicy mojo sauce.