Fermentation Nation- Beer Bread

Bread is nice. Beer is better. This was quick (for bread) and easy (for bread) Good Eats recipe. There is no extra yeast, or rising time, or kneading.

The goods! Please note the thick grated cheese. This cheese should be grated by you! Don't buy shredded cheese- it has cornstarch added to it to prevent it from sticking together and that stucks. Don't be that person, shred your own!

All purpose flour and whole wheat flour are added by weight because we do things the Alton Brown way here.

Baking soda, salt, sugar and dried thyme...because fresh is harder to fine. Alton used a whisk to mix this up and incorporate the grated cheese.

 Now for the fun and fizzy part! We used Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It was delicious.

First a glass for myself.

 And then one to the dry goods.

And fold together as quickly as possible. I don't know why but AB says to. Quick hands!

 Baked for less than an hour but don't get excited. This sucker takes for-ev-ver to cool down.

And then you have to cool it again. But its totally cool to pick at the bits in the back.

And finally. Bread. Beer bread. Cheesy beer bread. It was good by itself and even better with beer. Absolutely no butter needed.

We paired with butter garlic sausage, homegrown mustard greens, and Steven's homemade IPA (one of the last ones!)

Henry ate carrots frozen into the shape of a shot glass. Because shot glass molds are the only ice cube trays I have. Classy.

Beer Bread by Alton Brown

I followed the above recipe aside from using dried thyme instead of fresh because I couldn't find it and I had already been to the grocery store twice. I also used a smudge more cheese because I'm a woman of action!

I plan on making this again over the Thanksgiving holiday. We are celebrating with my in-laws a day late with a hearty soup instead of the traditional turkey. When I make it again I'm going to mix the dry ingredients up really well before adding beer. I kept finding baking powder pockets in the bread. Rookie mistake. 

Age of Asparagus - Steamed Asparagus

Alternate title: The Cop Out

This is so easy it feels like cheating. But it is so good! But it is so easy! I'm not even a giant fan of asparagus but we are going to be making it a lot more now. Its there-isn't-even-pots-to-clean easy.

I have no idea if this is a pound of asparagus. Its a lot of asparagus. I already cut the ends off at this point and I cut a generous amount off. I hate the ends

So pretty.

Just wrap the asparagus up in a wet paper towel, sprinkle some salt, and nuke it for around five minutes. Alton Brown says three to four minutes for a pound of asparagus. But I think I had more than a pound in there and I hate when asparagus is stringy so I upped the time to five. This is literally the easiest thing I have ever done.

 The microwave gets really steamy which is totally the point. 

This was cooked really well. There was no mush on the tops like what happens when I try to steam these over a pot of boiling water. I thought the ends were still a bit too fibrous so I didn't eat the last inch but my husband did. We used this as a side for salmon and it went well together. My husband also had a banana nut muffin which didn't go as well....obvi. No pots were used in this entire meal so clean up was minimal.

Total Time: um like seven minutes? not even.

Steamed Asparagus by Alton Brown

Roh-Ruh

H has become increasingly clingy and will only allow me to hold him, so any cooking adventures have been on the back burner lately (heh).   I've been reluctantly letting H nap on me and in an attempt to make those quiet hours productive, have made a progress sheet of the Good Eat's recipes. 

Holy crap AB cooks a ton.  I knew there were 14 seasons of Good Eats but had no idea how much food this blog will eventually hold. There are about 630 recipes on food network dot com for the show. That is an overwhelming amount of Good Eats. We have just started and already I feel in over my head. Easy tiger, this is all just for fun. 

This is H in lieu of any food. The photo was taken with a camera much better than mine by a photographer much better than me so don't think the quality of pictures are going to get better around here. They aren't.

Happy eating!

American Classics VIII: Tacos - Fish Taco

I didn't think I could make fish tacos. I thought that was something best order from a restaurant. Wrong. These are better. They are amazing.

Only down side is this is a multi day process. You can't just whip these up. If you think there is even a chance you want fish tacos soon make the crema. It takes like 5 minutes to start and then at least a day to ferment.

The crema with the chipotle chili.

Finding this was the longest part of the process. In my grocery store, it was next to the jalapenos and salsa. You only need one, so grab the smallest can.

Beware of trying one 'just to see' they have a kick.

Protip: make sure to use a jar that has an opening bigger than your immersion blender...unlike this one.

My crema came out a little too foamy but I mixed it right before I used it. I think if you mix it up and refrigerate it for a while it would thicken up. I am also going to use two chilis next time for more spice.

I carefully picked the leaves off the cilantro and it took for freaking ever. Next time I'm being less careful. It all gets blended anyway.

Lime zest, cumin, salt, pepper, garlic!

And Tequila. Tequila is the most important part.

I had to cook mine longer than AB but he cheated and used an electric skillet where you can set the temperature. I don't have one of those....yet. 

So pretty!

I cheated and bought tortillas from the store. Be better than me - make your own!

We paired these with an IPA that Steven brewed- his first majorly successful beer!

Tacos, beer, baby toys, and a dirty table. Oh and we also ate the rest of the fish after inhaling these tacos. Real life.

Total Time: Freakin' days. 

I wonder how long the crema would stay good in the fridge. I will definitely start the fermentation process on the weekend next time. That would set you up perfectly for a taco tuesday.

Fish Tacos by Alton Brown

Power to the Pilaf- Rice Pilaf

Carbs. A giant plate full of carbs. I love it.

Carbs with topping!

red bell pepper, onion, golden raisins, peas, pistachios

 Oh and the orange zest! AB added orange peel and removed. I've kept it in. It was good!

Sweatin' the onions and peppers.

Added the rice and let it get "nutty".

At about this time I realized that the pot is supposed to oven as well. crap. So everything is moved to a cast iron dutch oven.

Instead of water, the rice cooks in chicken stock. AB uses chicken stock and saffron water but holy hell that is expensive. We just replaced the saffron water with more stock and it was still delicious.

The part where I was most skeptical. Alton takes a wet kitchen towel to wrap the lid of the pot before placing in the oven.

It worked! Well at least the the towel didn't catch on fire, which I take to mean it worked!

The moment of truth. 

Ours wasn't quite done and still crunchy. Added a half cup of water and put the lid back on for 10 minutes and that was all it took to finish it up!

Added the fixins.

We threw in some chicken to appease my protein lovin' husband.

A big bowl of this is a giant warm hug. From rice. Just let it happen. With chicken this was a great main dish. When we do this again, I think we will double all toppings and add more vegetables. You can pretty much throw in any bits and pieces of leftovers from the fridge/pantry.

I have no idea how long this took to make. I'll time it next time.

Rice Pilaf by Alton Brown

Gravy Confidential - Sawmill Gravy

Whats a biscuit without the gravy?

This is one of those recipes that AB just tacks on in the last five minutes of the show.  The recipe isn't on Food Network but its easy none the less.

First fry up some sausage.

 I used a pound of regular ground sausage.

Once the sausage is done remove the meat and keep the grease.

Add 1/4 cup of flour. And put over medium-high heat. Wait until it all turns a deep brown and smells nutty.

I thought this was brown and nutty enough but our gravy still tasted floury. You should brown more than this!

Add two cups of milk slowly.... you may not need it all. AB didn't, I did and my gravy was still pretty thick.

 The finished breakfast.

 For two of course.

Total time: about 10 minutes after the sausage was cooked.

Our gravy was pretty bland and floury. Next time (and there will be a next time) we will add a ton of salt and pepper

The Dough Also Rises - Southern Biscuits

Biscuits are an absolute, must-have, definite staple in my parent's house. Every Saturday they have eggs, sausage, biscuits, butter and sorghum. Mouth watering.  The last time we visited my mom had english muffins instead of biscuits, which my dad and I could agree was just unacceptable.

My dad typically makes biscuits from bisquick and they are divine. But if you're going to make a biscuit from scratch, then lets make a biscuit from scratch.

In this episode AB mentions a biscuit flour which I didn't bother with because Alton didn't. At the beginning he mentions substituting all purpose flour for one part cake flour, one 3 parts all purposes. But Alton doesn't do this when he bakes. I did.

I used 1.5 cups all purpose flour and half a cup of cake flour instead of two cups all purpose. I did measure by weight to 10 oz and I had to top it off with all purpose to meet the mark.

The liquids.

Crumbly dough with the shortening and butter patted in.

And its brought all together with my fingertips.

Anddddd all rounded out.

AB made a dozen, I got almost nine. 

Protip from the show: push down the middle of the biscuit and it will rise evenly.

And golden brown!

Served up with eggs, sausage, and gravy.

Total Time according to AB: 40 minutes

My Total Time: about that.

These biscuits were delicious but salty. They were best straight from the oven but we ate them leftover as well. Better than my dad's bisquick biscuits? Probably not. But they are from scratch, dammit!

Southern Biscuits by Alton Brown