Philosophy of Food, Issue #011: Carbonnade a la Creole

At last.  It is time to fully utilize my experience making stoofvlees to engineer a dish that is both wholly mine and worthy of being made for something other than a quick dinner.

The dish is essentially stoofvlees, with a few andouille thrown in and the sweet-and-sour European spices replaced with a considerable wallop of creole seasoning.

The Ingredients
-1 lb stew meat.
-2 large yellow onions, chopped.
-2 slices of bacon, chopped.
-1/2 teaspoon brown sugar.
-1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour.
-2 bay leaves.
-2 brat-sized andouille sausages, chopped.
-12 oz beer (I recommend a Munich style lager, such as Abita Amber).
-16 oz beef broth.
-1 teaspoon creole seasoning.
-1 tablespoon mustard (optional).

The Spice must flow!

Pictured: sweat and tears. . . mostly the later.

I wish I could get andouille from back home.  This stuff is okay, but not quite spicy enough.

MEAT!

The Process
First prepare a pot with a minimal amount of olive oil.  Then add the beef and brown.  Once the beef is browned, remove it to a bowl and deglaze the pot with a bit of beef broth, scraping off any beef reside with a wooden spoon and transfering it and all broth to the beef bowl.  Fry up the chopped bacon in the pot.  Don't cook it to crisp, only until it is fully cooked.  Remove the bacon to the beef bowl but leave all the grease.

At this point, add the chopped onions.  Once the onions start to turn just a little golden, add the brown sugar.  After around fifteen minutes of cooking, the onions should be more or less fully caramelized.  At this point add the flour and the meat (beef, bacon, and andouille sausage).  Pour the beer over the mix.  Once beef foam has dissipated, add the beef broth, creole seasoning, and bay leaves.  A special note, I made my own creole seasoning instead of using Tony Chacherie's like I usually do.

Bring the carbonnade to a boil and cover.  Boil it gently for about two hours, or until the onions have been fully disintegrated and the broth has cooked down to a gravy.  Add in mustard and parsley and serve over rice, noodles, or potatoes.

Double bubble toil and trouble. . .

The Results
I'm going to admit that I didn't go with my own beer recommendation, first off.  I used Franziskaner Dunkel, a dark German wheat beer, because it was what I had in my fridge at the time.  Also, I served it over rice.

A full tablespoon of creole seasoning isn't enough.  I might try two or even three next time.  It wasn't bad as is, but it definitely wasn't as spicy as I wanted.

Otherwise it was good.  Very much the same consistency as the stoofvlees I've made in the past, though a bit less sweet.  I might consider using more brown sugar to compensate for using a beer other than Leffe.

Here's how it was when it was about done.

In a bowl over rice.

At the table with a homebrew.

Philosophy of Food, Issue #010: Beer-Grain Bread

In addition to my culinary adventures, I also brew beer with a friend of mine.  I have not recorded recorded the details of my brewing endeavors for a number of reasons, and likely will not until I have a few more brews under my belt.  But, the two have overlapped.

Brewing requires the use of grain.  Mainly barley.  The grain is, however, removed before the yeast is added and there is no other use for the spent grain in the brewing process.  For my friend and I's first brew, we simply tossed out the spent grain (although I'm not sure we would have been able to use it for anything, as it was saturated with pumpkin).  I had the forethought to toss the grains from the batch we brewed last Sunday in the freezer.  Today I put them to good use.  I made bread.

The Ingredients
-3 cups of spent grain (I had a mix of victory and crystal malted barley).
-1 1/2 cups warm water.
-1 package dry bakers yeast.
-1/3 cup brown sugar.
-3-5 cups all purpose flour.
-Dash of salt.

The Process
Mix the brown sugar into the warm water and add the yeast.  Within a few minutes you should see a foam forming at the top.  This is called the krausen.  Put the grain in a large mixing bowl and pitch in the starter.  If you have a mixer, use it.  I didn't, so I went with a wooden spoon the start with.  I mixed in the flour 1/2 cup at a time.  The recipe I worked off of said to keep with the flour until the dough smooths out and stops being sticky.  For me this was after around 4 cups (8 1/2 cup portions).  If you're using a spoon, it will get to thick at around 2 1/2 or 3 cups.  At this point flour up your hands and kneed it in.  Transfer the fully mixed dough to a new bowl, cover it, and let it rise until it doubles in size.  At this point punch it down and split it into to bread pans.  Let it rise to double volume again then bake it for around 40 minutes at 375 degrees F.  The bread will be done when you stab it with something and the something comes out clean.

This grain went into our next brew, a Vanilla-Nut-Bourbon Brown Ale.

It looks kind of like a glass of beer, doesn't it?  But it's not.  The color comes from brown sugar and the foam is krausen: live yeast!

Dough!

Double dough!

The Results

Behold!  Bread!

This is the first time I've used yeast for something that isn't a beverage.  The results are. . . interesting.  It's not as gritty as a truly whole grain bread, but still has a good bit of crunch to it.  I had a few slices with my dinner, and I'll probably try it with peanut butter tomorrow.  I'm not unhappy with it, per se, but it isn't as amazingly delicious as some of the other things I've made (I'm looking at you, stoofvlees).  I still have enough leftover grain to try it again.  Or, maybe I'll fish up another recipe that uses spent brewing grains.  I know I've seen one for dog treats. . .

Blooper Reel #001: Brat-Bean-n-Cheese Omelet

So, every  now and then I try something new in the kitchen and it just doesn't quite work.  The idea is sound, but the execution just leaves something to be desired.  In recognition of the fact that I make mistakes I'm going to be introducing a new segment called the "Blooper Reel."  In the Blooper Reel I'm going to explain what I was trying to do and show you exactly what went wrong.

For our first Blooper we have a dish that I have attempted to make twice now.  It is rather simple: an omelet of cheese, chopped beef brat, and chili beans.  It should be quite delicious.  Actually, the failures were quite delicious.  The issue is that I can't keep the damn thing together!

Take One

Look at it.  By rights it should be delicious!

I forsee a small problem...

<vader>NooooOOOOOooooOOOOooo!</vader>

Take Two

Again, with less fillings.

Better. . . better.  Maybe. . .

Crap.

I think I either need more egg or I need to spread the egg out more on the pan. . .hm.  I'm always open to suggestions.

Sweet Nostalgia, Issue #002: Cinnamon Pancakes

I'm going to apologize in advance for the lack of pictures.  I tried this on a whim and didn't have my camera handy.

Well, here's the long and short of it: cinnamon pancakes.  Just add some pancakes to your eggless pancake batter (about a tablespoon maybe. . . I probably should have measured) and enjoy!

For some reason the batter turned out thicker.  I'm assuming it has something to do with the cinnamon, since the pancake batter was otherwise identical to the stuff I made yesterday.  The batter took on a little of the reddish-brown cinnamon color and the pancakes had a hint of cinnamon taste, although it wasn't overpowering.

Success all around.

Tommorrow: grocery run.

Following that: the world!

The Philosophy of Food, Issue #009: Eggless Pancakes

If you had told me 10 years ago that one day I would voluntarily eat chicken and beans for dinner and be glad of it, I'd have called you a liar and asked if you wanted to see my Pokemon cards.  Now. . . well, lets just say that half a chopped chicken breast, steamed rice, salsa, and chili beans fried up together in a pan greased with extra virgin olive oil is palatable (and pretty much all I have in my fridge right now).  That's right folks, I am in sore need of a grocery run.

Anyhow, an industrious cook can make culinary gold out of anything, right?

Fast forward to this afternoon.  I'm hungry.  I need lunch.  I'm rationing my chicken for dinners, however, which severely narrows down my options.  "I have flour in my cuboard," I say to myself, "I can make pancakes with flour!"  But, I used my last egg for breakfast this morning, and you need an egg to make pancakes from scratch, right?  Apparently not!

That's it.  We're calling the union!

The Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted

The Process
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Pour on the milk and melted butter and mix it until smooth.  I recommend using a whisk.

Lightly grease up a griddle or frying pan over a medium heat.  Scoop the batter onto the griddle using around 1/4 cup per pancake.  Brown on both sides.

Enjoy

The Results

Above: delicious scabs.

Delicious!  Very thin and light, but not quite crepes.  Probably a little better for you too, but I'm no dietitian.  I'd have eaten them with peanut butter, but it is one of the many things I am out of.

Grocery run Saturday, after which I will make something new for you folks.