American Beer TV! Ommegang Hennipin Farmhouse Ale Tasting

American Beer TV! Black Tuesday tasting

Got something special for you this time! Kenny and I do a review of the Bruery's infamous Black Tuesday!

Loki (That Arrogant Bastard) Ale Recipe and Documentation

Here is the competition documentation for my Loki (That Arrogant Bastard) Ale

Loki (that Arrogant Bastard)'s Ale

Category: Beers
Subcategory: Top Fermented - Light
Thursday November 05, 2009
(Recipe for 5 gallons)

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal):         5.00    Wort Size (Gal):   5.00

Total Extract (Lbs):     10.00

Anticipated SRM:          16.4

Anticipated IBU:          44.6

Wort Boil Time:             60    Minutes

Actual OG:  1.075   Plato: 18.20

Actual FG:  1.012   Plato:  3.07

Alc by Weight:  6.53      by Volume:  8.35  From Measured Gravities.

ADF:            83.1      RDF         69.3  Apparent & Real Degree of Fermentation.

Grain/Extract/Sugar

 %     Amount     Name                          Origin            Potential SRM

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 20.0     2.00 lbs. Pale Ale Malt (2 Row)        France          1.039      2

 70.0     7.00 lbs. Generic DME - Light          Generic           1.046      8

 10.0     1.00 lbs. Crystal 105L                           Great Britain  1.033    105

Hops

Amount     Name                   Form    Alpha  IBU          Boil Time

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  0.25 oz.    Simcoe               Pellet        13.00 13.9    60 min.

  0.25 oz.    Simcoe               Pellet        13.00            12.4    45 min.

  0.25 oz.    Simcoe            Pellet            13.00    7.1  30 min.

  1.00 oz.    Sterling           Pellet    4.50    6.5  20 min.

  0.50 oz.    Mt. Hood                  Pellet    6.50    2.5  10 min.

  0.25 oz.    Simcoe            Pellet            13.00    2.3  5 min.

  1.00 oz.    Simcoe               Pellet        13.00    0.0  Dryhopped in Secondary

  1.00 oz.    Hallertau                  Pellet    8.50    0.0     Dryhopped in Secondary

Yeast

-----

Danstar  Nottingham

WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast 

Bottling/Kegging Specifics

--------------------------

Bottling Date:          Sunday February 06, 2010

Process:

Added grains to 2 gallons of 170° water. Temperature fell to 160 after adding grains. Added low heat to bring back to 170° stirring constantly to avoid burning grains. Brought to a boil. Used a hop schedule of adding .25 oz of simcoe to the boil every 15 minutes. Added 1 oz. sterling hops with 35 minutes left in boil.  Added .5 oz of Mt. Hood at 25 minutes left.  I pitched starter of Nottingham ale yeast (corn sugar, yeast nutrients and yeast) in with tube of WL Hefeweisen yeast. It took a few days to start bubbling. Finally noticed bubbles on Sunday night (brewed Thursday night). By Wednesday primary fermentation had stopped. Racked into secondary on following Thursday, adding 1 oz of simcoe pellet hops,and 1 oz of Hallertau directly into the fermenter.

          Beer was in secondary fermenter for approximately 2.5 months. Final gravity was 1.012@68°

Log Notes:

          I wanted to brew an IPA that was similar to Stone Brewing’s Arrogant Bastard Ale. (I found out later that ABA is considered to be an American strong ale. I used a standard IPA extract kit recipe from the Bruery Provision’s store as the base of the grain bill. I did add an additional 2 lbs of pale 2row malt to that as I knew I wanted a ABV of 6.5 – 7.5. I wanted to experiment with dryhopping and I really liked a beer from The Bruery called Humulus Gold that had been dryhopped with Simcoe. So I decided to use 2 oz of simcoe.

          I read on a forum that Stone gets it’s hop characteristics from adding hops throughout the boil, so I decided to try that process. I split the simcoe hops into 2, 1 oz batches, then further split one of the one oz batches into four .25 oz batches. I added these every 15 minutes, keeping a close eye on the clock. The rest would be added in secondary to dryhop.

          In pitching the yeast, I was a little leary of using a dry yeast and I was afraid it might not work well. I had a slightly expired tube of WL300 hefeweisen yeast and I decided to throw that in there as well.  It might create a bit of clove and banana flavors that, although not exactly the ABA clone I was going after, I also felt would add a degree of complexity to the beer.

          After being in secondary a bit, I noticed that there was a slight white layer of foam with large bubbles on the top. I wasn’t sure if this was an infection, or a result of the dryhopping. After tasting it didn’t taste like an infection at all, so I proceeded.

          I believe I left the beer in secondary too long. Although there was a good hop flavor, it wasn’t quite the punch I was looking for. I remember reading on the labels for Pliny the Elder that the beer needed to be consumed fresh to get all of the hop flavor. So, lesson learned.. don’t age hoppy beers.

          Overall, I’m very pleased with the results of this beer.

Historical Notes:

          This is not a period beer. India Pale ales can be traced back to the early to mid 1700’s. The invention of coal and steel, in addition to bringing about the industrial revolution, also brought about new ways of roasting malt. Previously malt had to be roasted using wood fires, which would impart a color and a flavor to the malt. The invention of coal allowed a new roasting process that enabled pale malt to be roasted in a way that would retain its light color.

          In 1774 the British Empire appointed a governor to India, opening the way for greatly expanded trade.  Popular brewing companies of the time, Bow Brewery, Allsopp Brewery, Bass Brewery and Ind Brewery were no strangers to exporting, as they had been exporting beer to the baltics and Russia for some time.  However it was George Hodgson that capitalized on exporting his pale ale to India starting in 1790. George Hodgson was the first to begin exporting beer to India, so much so that by 1800 amost all of the nine thousand barrels shipped to Inda were from Bow brewery. Hodgson did have to make adjustements to his recipe however. In order for his beer to survive the trip to Inda he had to increase the amount of hops he used dramatically. In fact it is said that the brewers at Allsop brewery were aghast at the bitterness of Hodgson’s beer.  Clearly they were not hopheads!  It is obvious that the IPA’s we enjoy today are directly descended and influenced by George Hodgson and his willingness to alter his recipe to survive the journey.

          American strong ale is a sub category that is neither recognized officially by the BJCP or GABF, however it has become popular describing the trend in American IPA’s that are reaching ridiculous amounts of both alcohol and hops.  If the brewers of Allsop brewery were appalled at George Hodgson’s bitterness,  they would be positively stunned to see what American brewers are doing with their ales!

Bibliography:

Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels, Brewers publications

A History of Beer and Brewing, Ian S. Hornsey, The Royal Society of Chemistry

Dark Earth - India Brown Ale Recipe and Documentation

Dark Earth India Brown Ale

Category: Beers
Subcategory: Top Fermented - Dark
Monday April 19, 2010
(Recipe for 5 gallons)

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal):         5.00    Wort Size (Gal):   5.00
Total Grain (Lbs):       11.00
Anticipated SRM:          21.7
Anticipated IBU:          49.7
Wort Boil Time:             75    Minutes
Actual OG:  1.077   Plato: 18.65
Actual FG:  1.012   Plato:  3.07
Alc by Weight:  6.74      by Volume:  8.62  From Measured Gravities.
ADF:            83.6      RDF         69.6  Apparent & Real Degree of Fermentation.

Grain/Extract/Sugar
%     Amount            Name                       Origin        Potential        SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 81.8     9.00 lbs. Coopers LME – Light        Australia      1.038          3
   9.1     1.00 lbs. Crystal 40L                     America        1.034        40
   4.5     0.50 lbs. Chocolate Malt               America        1.029         350
   4.5     0.50 lbs. White Wheat                  Belgium        1.040      3

Hops

Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha               IBU     Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz.    Cascade                      Pellet    5.75                     20.3    75 min.
0.50 oz.    Galena                                 Pellet    13.00          22.9    75 min.
2.00 oz.    Willamette                  Pellet      5.00         6.5     5 min.
2.00 oz.    Cascade                                Pellet      5.75         0.0     0 min.

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP002 English Ale

Process:

Made starter for yeast on Sunday, bubbles were forming on Monday morning. Used 2 cups of boiled water and ½ cup malt extract and yeast nutrients.

Brewday, Tuesday 4/21

Heated 2 gallons of water to 165° and added grains. Temperature dropped to 158°. Steeped grains at 158° for 45 minutes.  Sparged with 1 gallon at 180° for 30 min.  Added 2 gallons of wort and 5 gallons of water to brew kettle. Began boiling, added 1 oz cascade and .5 oz of galena hops at 75 minutes left to boil. Added 2 oz of willamette at 5 minutes, and 2 oz of cascade at flame out. Total wort at flameout was just over 5 gallons.

Bottled on 5/25/10

Log Notes:

This beer was an experiment to me. I tried Sublimely self-righteous ale by stone brewing, which is a very hopped black ale, somewhere between a porter and a stout in color, but not in consistency. That got me wondering about darker, hoppy beers. I went searching for recipes. This recipe is based on Eric’s Bodacious Brown ale from B3. Here is his recipe as pulled from the Brewing Network Forums

11 lb 2-Row
1 lb Crystal 40L
.5 lb Pale Chocolate
.5 lb White Wheat
Mash at 154

1.5 oz Cascade ● Mash Hops
.5 oz Galena ● Bittering Hops are boiled for 75 minutes
2 oz Cascade ● Flavoring Hops boiled the last 10 minutes
2 oz Willamette ● Aroma Hops added at flameout
Cal Ale Yeast - ferment at 68 f

I substituted English ale yeast for the California ale yeast to add more of an English style to the beer. The results are very pleasing and what I was looking for. However, I believe the wheat in the recipe added a cloudiness in the beer that I would omit if I were to make this again.

This was also my first beer I was able to brew with my converted keg brew kettle. I underestimated my need to have a better plan for cooling beer the wort quickly. In the past, I was only able to boil 2-3 gallons at a time, and that left me with extra volume to fill with cool water, enabling me to get my wort down to pitching temp relatively quickly. However with this beer I was able to have a full 5 gallons of hot wort to chill. I solved the problem by freezing 3 two liter soda bottles of water, sanitizing them in iodine solution for 5 minutes and placing them in the fermenter. I opened the spigot on the brew kettle and let the hot wort flow over the icy two liter bottles. This enabled me to get the beer cool relatively quickly. I have since invested in a wort chiller.

Bottom line, my goal was to create a rather hoppy brown ale that had a balance between maltiness and hoppiness. The balance I’m looking for is not quite 50/50, but about 1/3 malt flavor, and 2/3 hops.

Historical notes.

This is not a period beer. This is a historical redaction, a what if, if you will. The legendary story of how the india pale ale is already well known. George Hodgson of Bow Brewing was producing pale ales in the 1750’s and they had become quite popular as exports. In 1790 Hodgson began to ship his export pale ale to the recent British colonies in India. In order for them to survive the journey, they increased the amount of hops in the mix to take advantage of the preservative qualities of hops. The rest, as they say is history!

However, I wondered if there might be someone in the Indian colonies that didn’t want a pale ale. What if they wanted one of the brown ales that were also popular in Britain at the time? The result was a highly hopped brown ale. There are no historical references to indicate that this beer was created and was shipped in this time frame.

Bibliography

More Beer forums

Brewing Network Forums

Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels, Brewers publications

A History of Beer and Brewing, Ian S. Hornsey, The Royal Society of Chemistry

Wit of Baldur - Belgian Wit Recipe and Documentation

Here is the competition Documentation for my Belgian Wit:

Wit of Baldur Belgian Wit
Category: Beers
Subcategory: Top Fermented - Light
Tuesday July 06, 2010
(Recipe for 5 gallons)
Recipe Specifics
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Anticipated SRM: 6.1
Actual OG: 1.056 Plato: 13.80
Actual FG: 1.012 Plato: 3.07
Alc by Weight: 4.53 by Volume: 5.80 From Measured Gravities.
ADF: 77.8 RDF 64.7 Apparent & Real Degree of Fermentation.
Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
80.0 6.00 lbs. Alexander LME - Wheat America 1.037 4
6.7 0.50 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
6.7 0.50 lbs. Flaked Oats America 1.033 2
3.3 0.25 lbs. Wheat Malt Belgium 1.038 2
3.3 0.25 lbs. Rice Hulls America 1.000 0

Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.50 oz. Styrian Goldings Pellet 5.25 11.7 60 min.
0.50 oz. Saaz Pellet 4.30 9.6 60 min.
0.50 oz. Saaz Pellet 4.30 1.6 5 min.
Extras
Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 Oz Bitter Orange Peel Spice 15 Min.(boil)
1.00 Oz Corriander Seed Spice 5 Min.(boil)
Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale

Process:
Heated 2 gallons of water to 172°. Added grains (premixed) , stirred and let steep for 60 min. Strained grains. Added 1 gallon of 168° water to grains, stirred and let stand for 20 min. Strained liquid into rest of the wort. Brought 3 gallons to a boil. Added Syrian Goldings and Saaz hops. Let boil for 45 minutes. Added Bitter orange peel. Let boil for 10 minutes. Added Corriander and rest of Saaz Hops. Let boil for 5 minutes. Flameout.
Cooled wort using sanitized 2 liter bottles filled with ice in the brew bucket. Transferred wort via spigot on my converted keg brew kettle. Once converted pitched yeast at 86° with OG at 1.053 (1.056 when factoring temperature.)
Bubbling active next day for 4 days. After 4 days noticed just a few bubbles. Waited it out and bottled after 14 days.

Log Notes:
This recipe is from a kit from stein fillers. My goal at this point is to make good examples of each style in order to understand the brewing of many different styles. I knew that this beer would not have a true wit color due to using malt extract, as extracts tend to be a bit darker than their all grain counterparts.
I did encounter a couple issues with brewing this beer. Bits of orange peel kept clogging the spigot as I was draining into the fermenter. I will use a grain bag next time. This was something I didn’t even think of. I got as much as I could out through the spigot, then had to pick up the very hot brew kettle with oven mitts and pour the rest into the fermenter. It was definitely a learning experience.
This style has become one of my favorites due to its unique flavor and refreshing drinkability. When I do this style again, I will add lemon zest to increase the citrus flavor to this beer, and do an all grain version to get the color closer to style.
Historical Notes:
Tracing this recipe through history seems to be a difficult task. Reseach I’ve done leads back to weisse beers and weizens, neither of which are very recognizable as the beer presented. There are references to a weissbeir being produced in the city of Hamburg in 1410. It is noted as being made primarily from wheat instead of barley and having very low alcohol content (2-3% ABW) and a sour flavor from open fermentation. One modern example of this style is Hottenroth from The Bruery in Placentia CA, although its flavor is drastically different from above.
Although it seems a staple to this style, I could virtually no information on the origins of a style using exclusively corriander and orange peel. Using herbs and spices in making beer of course harkens back to the style of the most medievally maligned of beers, gruit ale. Both corriander and bitter orange peel have been used in beer since the ancient Egyptians, among other ingredients. However in the mid to late 1700’s coriander specifically was viewed as an adulterant to beer. Something that lower brewers would add to their beers to allow them to save substantially on the cost of malt and hops.
In The London and Country Brewer, published in 1736, we see the following on the use of coriander:
“There is another sinister Practice said to be frequently used by ill persons to
supply the full Quantity of Malt, and that is Coriander Seeds: This also is of a
heady Nature boiled in the Wort, one Pound of which will answer to a Bushel of
Malt, as was ingenuously confessed to me by a Gardener, who owned he sold a
great deal of it to Alehouse Brewers for that Purpose, at Ten-pence per Pound. ”
Although the ingredients used in this beer were being used to make beer in period, there is little to no evidence that this specific combination enjoyed any degree of success to be documented about. A period version of this beer would most likely be a Berlinner Weisse style gruit, without hops.


Bibliography:
Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels, Brewers publications
A History of Beer and Brewing, Ian S. Hornsey, The Royal Society of Chemistry
The London and Country Brewer

American Beer TV! History of Beer

Kenny and I dig a little deeper into some brewing history!

American Beer TV! Rugbrod review

Greetings all!

Kenny Yowell over at Cabo Tacos in La Mirada has asked me to talk with him about beer for his American Beer TV channel on YouTube! So here is an episode I'm in reviewing Rugbrod from The Bruery! Enjoy!

Congrats to Erik over at Mystery Brewing! He made his goal to get his startup brewery running. I'm proud to have contributed (if even only a small amount) to this great effort!

Beer Review (kind of)

Big thanks to Harry at Harry's Deli in Irvine. This great at what he does, and he was kind enough to give my IPA a shout out on his Facebook, Blog and Twitter!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=12424273&id=434117285506

The IBA is ready to drink. Look for some pics coming soon!

Bottling and brewing

Last night I got my IBA (india brown ale) bottled (44 bottles YAY!) and I brewed a belgian wit beer.

What is an IBA you ask? Well to answer that, I first have to explain the story of the India Pale Ale that is so popular here in California. See back when the British colonized India, one of the requirements of the government was to provide beer for the troops. Unfortunately when they tried to ship the pale ale of the time around the cape of good hope at the southern tip of Africa, and back up to the colonies in India, the beer had spoiled. They needed to find a way to make a beer that would last the trip. Fortunately the answer was close at hand. Hops, one of the main ingredients in beer, is a natural preservative. Also higher alcohol content would allow beer to last longer. So they upped the ABV, and added lots more hops and BOOM, the beer survived the trip and India Pale Ale was born.

But Brown ale was popular at the time in England as well. Who's to say that all the British in India just wanted Pale ale? This is where I start to tweak with history. Lets say an enterprising brewer developed a malty brown ale that would survive the trip as well. The result would be a hoppy, high alcohol brown ale, and that is pretty much what  I brewed!

Paper Chef 50th Anniversary! Riccota stuffed honey gruit pork chops!

One of the reasons I started blogging was the ability to share new kinds of beers with people. This challenge has given me a great opportinity to do just that! This months paper chef is being presided over by Kathy at Prospect: The Pantry. The ingredients she selected are Honey, Dill, Ricotta, Eggs and a theme of rejuvenation, celebrating the equinox and the change of seasons. An interesting blend, and one that could lend itself easily to a sweet dish. However here at the Brew-B-Que, we need 2 more ingredients... Brew and BBQ! 


Fortunatly I happen to have some home brew that fits the bill perfectly! I have an excursion into the medieval periods, back before hops. Back to the days of an beverage called Gruit ale. Gruit was a beer that was brewed using herbs other than hops for bitterness. This was especially popular in Scotland and Ireland where they resisted using hops until the late 1600's. I wanted to brew a beer that would give me an idea of what a traditional Irish ale would be like between 1100-1200 AD. Using a book called Sacred Herbal and Healing Beers by Stephen Harrod Buhner. This gave me several good ideas for a recipe, although I was not able to find one of the herbs used historically in a gruit, bog myrtle, or sweet gale. The recipe I used was rather close however. Here it is:

3 Lbs light liquid malt extract, 
3 lbs wildflower honey
2 oz Mugwort
1 oz yarrow.


This yeilded a light, hazy, lightly carbonated, dry citrusy ale that is very refreshing. People are always amazed that there is no lemon in this at all. No lemon peel or anything. It is all the magic of natures herbs. I like to think this is exactly the sort of beverage that heralds and celebrates the arrival of spring. Its like liquid sun... and it makes a great base for a marinade!


(you knew that's where this was going didn't you?)


So lets take a look at the marinade ingredients!

1 bottle of homebrewed gruit ale
1/4 cup worshtershire sauce
2 tbs fresh dill
2 tbs honey
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp old bay
2 springs of fresh Rosemary
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.
5 fresh pork chops

Place the porkchops in the marinade and let them go at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. 


During this time I made the ricotta stuffing consisting of the following.


1 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
1/4 cup dill
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese


Remove the pork chops, pat dry and use your chefs knife to make an incision about 3/4 of the way through the pork chop. Fill with the ricotta cheese and then cover the opening with a nice strip of thick bacon to seal everything in and pin shut with toothpicks. 


Grill these over a slow heat for about 15 mintues per side, turning them carefully to keep the filling intact. I boiled the marinade and added a bit more honey to create a mop sauce to keep them nice and moist while cooking.


I took the rest of the ricotta filling and cooked it over a double boiler to add a sauce and get more creamy cheesy goodness on the plate. Here is the result:

I'm not the best photographer I know, but I did at least get a decent camera instead of my phone like last time! I'm sure I'll get better as time goes on! 


I was very pleased with the results. The pork was juicy and flavorful with a touch of sweetness that was almost pinappley (is that word?) The bacon gave it a great salty balance to the creamyness of the filling. I would make this again!


I want to thank all involved with paper chef for inspiring me to use food, beer, and my bbq in new and unique ways!


Till next time, 
Cheers and Happy Eating!

Bottling my IPA

Saturday night I bottled my IPA that had been dryhopped with simcoe hops. I haven't got all the specs in my software yet, but I will and I'll post all the stats up here. It's got a nice rich amber/redish color, rather citrusy hop aroma, and still maintains a substantial malt flavor. I believe it will come in about 7.5 abv, which is appropriate to style.  The tasting was on the flat beer, before it naturally carbonates in the bottle. Natural carbonation normally results in a significant flavor change. We have a few more days at least before I can really get a solid idea of how it came out. So far, however, things are looking good!

Paper Chef 49!

Well my first entry a Paper Chef competition,  Paper Chef 49 is done!

Looking at the ingredients, (prawns, sweet peppers, fennel and Passion) I thought I would start with the esoteric ingredient first and work from there. What is my passion, in a culinary sense? What do I want to make, to try and eventually blog about? What is it that I want to share with the world? For that answer I have to look no further than the name of my blog; Brewing Beer and cooking on the BBQ. Also we have Superbowl 44  happening during this challenge, and many people are very passionate about that!  I happened to be having few guests over to watch the game, so in addition to the normal snackykins that one finds at such events, I wanted to do something a little different.

So I have my cooking method down (Grill) and one extra ingredient (Beer).  Beer makes an excellent acid base for a marinade, but what kind of beer would go good with the other 3 ingredients?  Something light, so as not to overpower the flavor of the shrimp, but something that might complement the fennel. A Belgian witbierr sounded like just the thing.  I decided to go with Mothership Wit by New Belgium Brewing. I have been enjoying it a lot lately and I haven’t gotten around to brewing my own witbier yet. Mothership Wit is a  light organic wheat beer beer that is seasoned with coriander  and orange peel. 

Keeping with these light zesty flavors, along with the history of the fennel lead me to use a mediteranian feel with the dish, using garlic and dill to finish the marinade.

I’ve seen fennel on countless cooking shows, but I’ve never worked with it before. When I got it home I sliced off a tiny bit to taste it. It’s definitely got a unique flavor profile. The way I described it is anise crossed with the texture of an onion. Much of the research suggests that it can be roasted, and from that I extrapolate that if it can be roasted, it can be grilled.

Sweet pepper is basically bell pepper from what I’ve been able to find out.

                From the kitchen dictionary at Recipezaar.com:

                                “In the U.S. the term sweet pepper covers a wide variety of mild peppers that, like the chile, belong to the capsicum family. The best known sweet peppers are bell peppers, named for their bell-like shape.”

So that makes that ingredient pretty easy to work with. Here is my final recipe:

Mothership Wit Superbowl Skewers

1 Fennel
2 Red Peppers
1 lb of uncooked, peeled, deveined prawns

Marinade
18 oz of New Belgiums Mothership Wit Belgian whitebeer
3 gloves of chopped garlic
¼ cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons of Fresh Dill
Dash of Kosher salt
Dash of freshly ground black Pepper.

Chop fennel, red peppers into chunks. Detail the prawns, place all 3 in large non-reactive bowl. In large measuring cup combine beer, garlic, dill, salt, pepper, and olive oil and mix to form marinade. Pour the marinade over vegetables and prawns and refrigerate. Marinate at least 2 hours. Get your charcoal ready and start skewering. Cook 7-10 minutes per side.

 

How did it come out? Pretty much everyone agreed that the prawns were the best they had ever tasted, however the marinade didn't penetrate the vegetables as well as it did the meat. Fennel was new to everyone I presented it to, and it didn't go over great. This is primarily a carnivorous Superbowl crowd, so that it far from surprising. Overall, I felt the dish was a success. It was a lot of fun and got me thinking about food differently, and trying new things. Isn't that what paper chef is all about?

Alton Brown's top 5 cookbooks

This is too good of a resource to pass up.

In an article at wall street journal.com Alton Brown gives his top 5 cookbooks!

Alton Brown is the deity of culinary endeavors in the nerd pantheon. I need to work on getting these. I used to have access to the Joy of cooking book and found it an awesome read. I've heard about Ratio and really wanted to grab that one as well.

If you have problems with the link, here is his list:

1. The Joy of Cooking
By Irma S. Rombauer
Bobbs-Merrill, 1936

2. The Frugal Gourmet
By Jeff Smith
Morrow, 1984

3. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
By Marcella Hazan
Knopf, 1992

4. Outlaw Cook
By John Thorne
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992

5. Ratio
By Michael Ruhlman
Scribner, 2009

Cooking for the Superbowl!

I have a lot of cooking to do this weekend! I can't wait! I'm heading to the grocery store tonight to stock up.

First I have a potluck on Friday for my office. The theme is the Superbowl, of course. So I figure I will be putting the soup back in Superbowl!

Then this month's Paper Chef is up. It looks like the winner from last month's contest has selected Prawns, Sweet Peppers, Fennel, and PASSION, as the ingredients. Read more about the passion part on her blog Show Food Chef.

I was grabbing some chinese food last night while checking the paper chef ingredients on my phone. Low and behold here was my fortune!

Can't really read it can you? I know my phone is crap.. I need to invest in a better phone/camera soon.

It says, "A solid challenge will bring forth your finest abilities." However it was all in caps, so it was yelling at me. This is the proverbial gauntlet being thrown directly towards my feet! Reading about Paper Chef and getting that fortune within 5 minutes? It's fate I tell ya.

I will have the double pleasure of cooking it for my superbowl get together and inflictin... er, um, sharing my triumph with my loved ones!

And that of course is the third event! Superbowl sunday itself. I will have to fire up some coals and put on an array of goodies!

Stay tuned!