Einbecker Ur-Bock

I've noted before that all in all, I sometimes tend to shy away from German beers. Not that they're bad at all, I just prefer the crispness and hoppiness and bitterness of, e.g., ESBs and IPAs. That being said, Einbecker Ur-Bock (currently on draught at Milltown) is a lovely beer - sweet-but-not-too, more hops than many, and very nicely malty. A good bockbier - apparently Rogue Dead Guy was based on this.

Bell's Consecrator Doppelbock

Another day, another exciting new release from Bell's, this time the Consecrator Doppelbock. Keeping with the general pattern from Bell's in their non-stout (and non-Sparkling Ale)(well, and Two-Hearted Ale)(okay, also Oberon) offerings, the Doppelbock is very-good-not-quite-great. It's not really fair comparing their non-stout offerings to their world-class stout line, but there's the rub.

Which is to say: the Doppelbock is a very good beer. Good balance, tremendous mouthfeel, nice and malty. Neither too bitter nor too sweet, it is an excellent beer to pair with hearty foods.

Poblano Peppers and Mushrooms

An altogether successful experiment, this dish was just good enough that it left open the tantalizing possibility of perhaps being great with a little tweaking.

Ingredients:

• three poblano peppers
• two packages/hefty number of white mushrooms
• garlic
• two serrano peppers

Procedures:

• slice poblanos lengthwise; mushrooms across; garlic lengthwise; and chop serranos very finely
• heat oil to medium in a pan; add garic and serranos, cook for a minute or two
• add poblanos and sauteé until softening
• add additional oil; wait one minute until heated, then add mushrooms
• sauteé until mushrooms are cooked

Very good already, but what's missing here? Some wine? Something else?

UPDATE: maybe orange juice?

Taco of Opportunity

Saturday brought physical labor, and so Saturday lunch necessitated high-protein refueling. Result - the Taco of Opportunity.

Ingredients:

• spicy pork sausage
• kale
• garlic
• beer
• flour tortilla
• spicy German yellow mustard
  

Instructions:

• Sauteé pork sausage in pan on high heat; when lightly browned on both sides, add beer to pan and cook until beer is half boiled off; remove sausage
  
• Sauteé garlic and kale (with stems intact) in pan until half-wilted; after removing sausage from other pan, move kale to sausage pan and finish in beer/sausage juices
• Warm tortilla. When warmed, slather with mustard, followed by a layer of kale, and then sliced pieces of sausage.
• Enjoy!
  

Lifeblogging Food Bits

Warren Ellis has an excellent post on/example of lifestreaming. I deal with the geekier aspects of it over here, but contained in the post are also some excellent foodie resources:

Right now, I’m eating jerky and drinking a cup of coffee. Neither of these came from objects with a net presence, of course. I have to photograph them, curse the really fucking cranky camera in my phone, and upload them. What’s the information? What is the context?

If my camera wasn’t playing silly buggers, you’d doubtless be able to make out that the jerky comes from the excellent Martin’s Jerked Meat. You can’t find the Lewis & Clark Expedition 1804 jerky on the site, they don’t make it any more — I bought the last of it a few months back at Cressing Temple. They made it according to a recipe actually employed on that expedition — one of Martin’s specialties is “historical” jerky.

What do you divine from this? Other than that perhaps I earn too much money? Well, even in the crappy picture you can see the coffee is El Paraiso Lot 20, a first-harvest ground coffee sold by Fortnum & Mason.

...in the summers I start saving money, to make Xmas a bit of a production for them. I get a goose ordered in from David Harrison, Lili gets to pick a tree from the Hawkwell Tree Farm (unless she decides she’d derive more amusement from watching us try to assemble the stupid, massive, electrocution-risk artificial tree we got given a few years back), I get a crate of champagne and some edible gold and silver leaf to sprinkle in it… and I order a hamper and a fruit basket from Fortnum & Mason to be delivered on Xmas Eve. And that can of coffee was in the hamper this past Xmas.

And the jerky? Lili has always loved doing the country fairs, and Cressing Temple hosts the Essex Food Fair twice a year. Martin’s Jerked Meat were exhibiting there. Lili had never tried jerky before — that’s why she loves these things, she gets to try new stuff and have a go at local arts & crafts, plus there are usually horses and she’s been riding since she was two and so is besotted with the shit-deploying bastards. We came away with six bags of jerky varieties, plus some fruit leathers.

(Fruit leathers she knew, since we once attended a banquet consisting entirely of medieval foods, as orchestrated by the marvellous Stuart Peachey. I hugely recommend his books, for those with an interest, on Tudor- and Stuart-period food. Apparently we couldn’t leave without lots of fruit leather too.)

Jerky! Fruit leathers! Christmas geese!

Hot Slavic

From the Real Paul Jones, Borscht Mexicali:

I took borscht the famous beet and cabbage cream soup South of the Border with some good results. The sweetness of the beets, the heat of the serraño peppers, a slight tang of lime and some chorizo made for a lovely fuschia colored soup which I accented with blue corn tortilla chips. Yummmm.

I started with a “Mexican Beet and Cabbage soup” from Epicurious and subbed serraño for jalapeño. Added some Mexican chorizo (before and after the blending as some in my family like to taste a chunk or two of meat now and then even in soups). To keep with the winter vegetable feel, I also added a few carrots. Some borscht recipes call for parsnips, potatoes, and vinegar. I passed on all of that.

That does sounds pretty good.

Schneider-Weisse Aventinus Doppelbock

Generally, German beers are not my favorite. Not to say that I don't like them - I tend to, they're fine - but they don't really have either the hops I prefer in my ales or the smoothness and fullness of a stout. They're malty, is what they are. That being said, I've been hoarding a bottle of Schneider-Weisse Aventinus Doppelbock in the basement for a while, waiting for the right opportunity to pop the top, and I figured that Chapel Hill's day of winter was a good enough excuse. And it was - and it was good. Definitely malty-not-hoppy, but very smooth and massively flavorful, and not too sweet. Recommended, if you're into these things.