Cooking with Beer

Posted in Beef, Beer, Beer Braise, Beer Snack, Braised, chris badenoch, Cooking Goat, cooking with beer, Dessert, Goat, Goats cheese, MasterChef, Mint, nose to tail, pigs head, Pork, Quinoa, Salad
Tags: Chris Badenoch, Josie Bones

This past weekend I was welcomed into the inner sanctum; I worshipped at the church of pork, was baptised in the cool flowing river of mince,

In other words, I made Salami.

This new awakening started with an actual awakening, at 4am, dragging myself out of a warm bed into the icy morning to drive three and a half hours to even icier Bright in the Victorian Alpine Region, or more accurately be driven to Bright by my lovely girlfriend who only fell asleep once behind the wheel. Accompanied by James my trusty beer guy, we were there to meet a brewer and a salami maker – Scott from Bright Brewery had invited us to spend the day with his old friend Ralph, an Italian gentleman and long-time resident of Bright who has been making salami for longer than I’ve been alive. Suffice to say he was a bit of an expert.

We were greeted at the door and bundled inside, bleary eyed and desperately in need of caffeine, and welcomed into the room that I will now only refer to as the Room of Salami Awesomeness!! (*double exclamation point mandatory). A large white table dominated. The action had already begun by the time we arrived, so we were handed a sharp knife, a chunk of pork and were instructed to trim, slice and dice to prepare the meat for mincing. We de-boned, de-sinewed, de-fatted skin and generally reduced a 130kg pig into piles of its various parts. (Sadly no offal or head as these are kept by the abattoir).

Next the mincing. After processing most of the mince into a course grind with their regular mincer, the guys cracked out their semi-industrial number to go through the skin and blood meat, for the cotechino. Then we discussed, over a table spread with mince, what styles of salami we would like to make. We settled on about one-fifth plain, two-fifths garlic, and the rest chilli and garlic.

The first step in seasoning is the salt and pepper. Salt was added in the exact percentage (2.7% if you’re curious) but pepper was an estimate based on years of experience. Trying to get a recipe is ludicrous as “about this much” doesn’t quite cut it in an ingredients list. Ralph spread these liberally over the mix and we began the task of mixing it by hand. The instruction was to mix it until the texture was sticky, and when your hands are too cold and tired to move, you’re about half way there. Here is where I developed my patented “punching” technique to mix the meat – something that caused much amusement to my fellow charcuterers. With freezing, aching hands we divided the meat up, added the chilli and garlic (again, recipe not: “about this much” and “enough” respectively) and then it was a break for an early lunch before the stuffing began (keep in mind this was still well before midday).

But lunch… I mean LUNCH! Wow! I would do the early morning thing and freezing our buns off thing and aching hands thing just to have a crack at this lunch. It was a simple but amazing spread of last year’s salami (plain and chilli), four types of cheese, pickled wild mushrooms (from their top secret foraging grounds), pickled eggplant, bread, home made wine… and then Scott says anyone for a beer. Perfection. I cannot begin to express the generosity of the people we’d met only that morning.

NB: We tried his experimental blueberry and blackberry wild ales, and his 18% abv ice-distilled dubbel. All delicious.

Wine in hand we had a quick tour of the Zonta property. It brought the surface all our fantasies of living the agrarian ideal, being almost entirely self sufficient with vegetable gardens, vines, smoking house, various poultry; basically everything but a pig. I offered to become their surrogate son in order to have a crack at playing on their land, but I think their own son Roger, who gave us the tour, is probably far more qualified for the role, seeing as he had a major hand in the salami making, building of the property, upkeep et al.

Back into the warmth of the wood-fired stove, we got on to the stuffing. These guys had salvaged and restored an old water-powered sausage-stuffing machine from an ex-butcher shop. This baby was seriously impressive, holding around 40kg of meat per go, being run completely on the town water pressure, and completely silent. They affixed a beautiful brass nozzle and the fun began. The skins (real intestine, ground, remade, dried and reconstituted in warm water) were threaded onto the nozzle. Salami after salami were quickly filled, dunked in hot water to tighten the skins, expertly tied and netted and then “spoodged”. Clearly not a traditional Italian term, probably spoodging is something amusing these guys made up to describe pricking the salami, which still sounds rude. Really, anything to do with sausage, salami, pricking, stuffing, spoodging sounds rude. However when googling “spoodge” and “salami”, lets just say it wasn’t edible meat I found…

Anyway, minds out of the gutter, after all the pricking and spoodging the salami is hung (sorry, couldn’t resist) in a cool, dry place with lots of circulating air for two months – so we can’t get our grubby little hands on it until September.

Next we made the cotechino, which is a favourite for sure. It’s made from all the leftover bits – the skin, fat, bloody meat that can’t go into the salami. We tried the Zonta’s own version and it was an orgy of sticky, porky, need a moment alone goodness.

A few more drinks and a long goodbye (and cleanup) and it was over. A perfect day in perfect company making (hopefully) perfect salami. Mind you, the day wasn’t quite over, as we headed straight off to Bright Brewery for a little more Alpine hospitality from Scott and his crew.

Did I mention that Salami is a fantastic accompaniment to beer such as 3 Ravens Dark (smoked beer), Samuel Smith India Ale or the Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale.

Posted in Beer, chris badenoch, Pork, Salami, Sausages

BEER DONUTS with Chestnut Ganache

It is now well and truly Autumn and one of the highlights of this great season for me is the chestnut. Either used in sweet or savoury dishes, or simply served roasted, they sum up the flavours of the colder months – rich, warm and nutty,

Donuts are one of those sinful desserts that are almost always good, whether served as churros or loukoumades (a staple of so many restaurants nowadays), or eaten warm from a paper bag, slightly crispy, slightly soggy, coated in far too much sugar and cinnamon. The addition of chestnut flour to my standard Beer Donut recipe adds a depth of sweet, nutty flavour to the dough and the chestnut ganache centre, well let’s just say it’s a wee bit sexy.

I’ve used Little Creatures Single Batch Marzen to make the batter as it displays a great malt character and subtle nuttiness. Being a lager it has good carbonation to lift the batter, ensuring the donuts are fluffy and light.

We experimented with these at Josie Bones the other day and they were so good we added them to the menu for the night. The staff probably would have preferred we didn’t, judging by the speed the testers and leftovers disappeared. In the words of our Italian chef de partie, “If you made one hundred, I would eat one hundred.”

Alternatives:

I’ve been thinking about a few other combinations for this base recipe. How about Porter donuts filled with dark chocolat ganache, or Framboise donuts with raspberry jam filling? I think it’s time for some tasty experiments!

RECIPE                                                                       Makes 12+

150 ml Little Creatures Marzen

100 ml milk

10 g fresh yeast

300 g bakers flour

100 g chestnut flour

50 g caster sugar

100 g butter (at room temperature)

2 free range eggs (at room temperature)

1 cup caster sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

40 ml cream

200 g sweetened chestnut puree

120 g dark chocolate, chopped

Vegetable oil for frying

Combine the beer and milk, add the yeast and stir to combine.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flours and sugar.  Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the beer mix. Cover with cling film and rest in a warm place for 45 minutes to enable the yeast to activate.

Add the butter and eggs gradually and mix in a kitchen mixer with a dough hook fitted until you have an elastic, smooth batter.

Cover with cling film and let prove for at least another 30 minutes. The longer you leave it to prove, the lighter and fluffier the mixture will get.

For the cinnamon sugar, combine sugar and cinnamon and set aside until required.

For the ganache, combine the cream and chestnut puree and heat to a simmer. Pour over the chocolate and mix until the chocolate has melted and the mixture completely combined – add more chestnut puree to taste. Fill a piping bag with the mixture and set aside until required.

Pre-heat deep fryer to 180˚C.

Deep fry donuts in batches and drain on paper towel. We used a disposable piping bag and scissors to pipe the dough into the oil, but a well-oiled spoon or your hands will also work. They may end up a little misshapen, but they’ll still be delicious. When just cool enough to handle (use a kitchen towel to hold) fill with chestnut ganache, roll in the cinnamon sugar and devour.

Posted in Beer, Beer batter, chris badenoch, cooking with beer, Dessert, Donut, Little Creatures, MasterChef

New dish on the menu, slow cooked pork belly with pickled peaches and crispy sage.

Now all I have to do is figure out a beer match!

Posted in Uncategorized

I’ve been quiet on the blog lately as we’ve been busy setting up Josie Bones, our beer focused bar and restaurant.

Below are a few pics of the tasty food we’re developing.

Merguez sausages with imam biyaldi, black pudding and madeira jus.

Kangaroo sirloin with goats cheese stuffed zucchini flower and white almond gazpacho.

Oysters with guanciale and smoked dark ale jelly.

I’ll post some more beery recipes in the not too distant future! Promise.

Chris

Posted in Uncategorized

Oops, I just did. And it was super tender and super delicious.

I could make a thousand more horse related puns here but I will hold my tongue as eating horse is still a touchy subject in this country. I’ll stick to the facts and try not to offend anybody (for once in my life).

It is a little known fact that horse-meat has been exported to many European countries from Australia since the 70s. There are over 1.4 million horses in the country and some 30 – 40 thousand are sold every year overseas for either human or pet consumption.

So why don’t we eat horse?

It’s socially acceptable to eat baby lambs and baby pigs but not ok to eat a grown horse. We’re not talking foals here, I’m talking fully-grown beasts. I personally think there is really no good reason not to eat it as part of a balanced diet. The horse we ate was farmed, treated well and slaughtered humanely. Just like all the only millions of animals we eat each year. Horse-meat is a great source of protein, it’s lean and has a great flavour that sits somewhere between Venison and Veal.

Why is the only butcher licensed to sell horse-meat in Perth? Not fair! Anyway I was there recently and had to drop by and check out what was on offer. I had a chat with Vince the butcher and he kindly gave us 2kg of horse shoulder and 2kg of mince. I have eaten horse in France while on holiday but to be honest I’ve never tried cooking it myself so I set of into the sunset with my bag of horse meat into un-explored territory.

What ensued was a fantastic, delicious meal that I hope to repeat as soon as other butchers as courageous as Vince Gareeffa get their licences to sell horse-meat.

My recipe follows, beer braised shoulder of horse, served with a roasted cauliflower and Quinoa salad.

We cracked a bottle of Westmalle Dubbel for the occasion and what a match that was.

—————–

BEER MATCH

Belgian Dubbel

—————–

Beer braised shoulder of horse

Serves 4

2 brown onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

8 cloves garlic, peeled

150 g flat pancetta, cut into batons

4 bay leaves

2 kg Horse shoulder, trimmed

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 litre Amber Ale

Pre-heat oven to 160˚C or if you are lucky enough crank up the wood fired oven.

In a large heavy based pot or casserole fry off the onions in olive oil over a medium heat for 5 minutes, add the carrot and garlic and cook for a further 3 minutes. Add the pancetta and bay and brown.

Add the horse shoulder and brown all over, season really well with sea salt and pepper. Pour in the beer and add enough water to cover and bring up to the boil.

Take a piece of baking paper about two inches larger than the size of the pot. Scrunch it up and then flatten it back out. Place this over the meat and seal with the lid of the pot.

Cook in the oven for 6 hours or until falling apart. It’s a good idea to check the progress every couple of hours. Top up with a little extra water or beer if required.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes before serving.

To serve:

We served the horse with a roasted cauliflower Quinoa salad. Horses like salad so it seemed like a good match.

—————–

Note:

I cooked the horse in Little Creatures Roger but I think a Pale Ale or a wheat beer would work equally well as the braising liquid.

Posted in Beer Braise, Braised, chris badenoch, cooking with beer, Horse, MasterChef, nose to tail, Quinoa, Wood Fired Oven

We all love a bit of sausage (hehe) but the problem is when buying sausages you really have no idea what the ingredients are. What exactly is in those sausages? Meat yes, but then there’s all the fillers that bulk up the content and of course the preservatives. Here’s a list of some of the preservatives allowed in meat products in this country:

• Sodium acetates (262)

• Natamycin or Pimamycin (235)

• Nisin (234)

• Nitrites – potassium nitrite (249) and sodium nitrite (250)

• Nitrates – sodium nitrate (249) and potassium nitrate (252)

• Sorbates – Sorbic acid (200), sodium sorbate (201), potassium sorbate (202) and calcium sorbate (203)

• Sulphites – Sulphur dioxide (220), sodium sulphite (221), sodium bisulphite (222), sodium metabisulphite (223), potassium metabisulphite (224), potassium sulphite (225) and potassium bisulphite (228)

Now I don’t know about you guys but that doesn’t sound too good to me, I prefer a real sausage made from first principles with nothing added but good, flavoursome, natural ingredients.

Making sausages at home is really simple and the best thing is you can experiment and come up with your own combinations. I’m doing a sausage making demonstration soon so it’s been a bit of a sausage fest around here (sorry, couldn’t resist) as we practice and invent some super yummy flavour combinations. And those combinations are literally endless; you can even make vegetarian sausages if you hate yourself that much!

Another great thing about sausages is they can either be a quick, tasty snack (sausages, bread, onions and mustard, the good old sausage sizzle approach) or tarted up into a super yummy meal (sausages, braised lentils and a fennel salad for example).

The only piece of equipment you need is a mincer with the sausage stuffing attachment. If you have a Kitchen Aid this is one of the most versatile attachments. Failing that you can pick up cheap sausage machines from good kitchen supply shops. Sausage casings are available from most butchers, just ask and they should be able to rustle some up for you.

BEER MATCH

English Ruby Ale.

Lamb Sausages Recipe

Makes approximately 16

4 slices brown or rye bread, crusts removed

300 ml wheat beer

1.2 kg Lamb foreshank

Marrow from the shank bones (method below)

1 brown onion, peeled and quartered

7 anchovies

¼ cup chopped fresh rosemary

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sausage casings (preferably natural)

Pre-heat oven to 180˚C

In a bowl, soak the bread in the beer for a few minutes. Then squeeze out most of the liquid and discard it.

Dice the lamb into approximately 2cm cubes, reserving the bones. Lamb can be quite fatty so trim some of the fat if needed, you are after a ¾ meat ¼ fat ratio. Any more fat and the sausage will become dry, this may sound strange but the fat will leak out when cooking therefore losing all the moisture if there is not enough fat in the meat.

Take the bones and place in a lined baking tray and cook in the oven for 15 minutes, this softens up the marrow so you can scoop it out.

Mince the lamb in your mincer once on the finest setting, add all the other ingredients except the salt and pepper to the minced lamb and run through the mincer once more. This helps combine all the ingredients.

Add a very generous amount of salt and pepper, add more than you think! Mix the mince with your hands until well combined.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry of a little of the mixture to test for flavour and seasoning. Adjust your mixture to taste by adding more of what it needs and fry off another piece to test. Keep doing this until it’s just right.

Stuff the mixture into the casings with the stuffing attachment and twist into the desired lengths. Refrigerate over night to let the sausages set and the flavours develop.

Cook the sausages over a medium heat, either BBQ or in a pan and serve immediately.

It’s a good idea to seal the rest of the sausages in airtight bags and freeze until required. Sausages freeze really well and will last up to 3 months in the freezer.

To serve:

I served these babies with crushed peas, caramelized onions and some green beans tossed in plenty of olive oil, salt and pepper. A good squeeze of lemon doesn’t go astray either.

Note:

Natural casings are best, just make sure you rinse them thoroughly before using them. If you use artificial casing make sure they do not get wet otherwise they are a nightmare to stuff.

Posted in Beer, Beer Snack, Lamb, Lamb marrow, Marrow, Sausages

I absolutely love Korean food; from the amazing barbecues with all the accompaniments, through to the one pot rice dishes and pancakes. It’s all good and it’s all laced with fiery Kim Chi – and that my friend works a treat with beer.

I am fortunate enough to have a great little Korean grocery store less than 200 m from my front door so I’m constantly poking around in there looking for new and exciting things to cook. I went in yesterday to pick up some bits and pieces and noticed they some fresh Perilla leaves for sale, which I’ve not seen for a while. It dawned on me that I could use them as a wrapper for a Korean-inspired beer snack, so I grabbed some Kim Chi and seaweed salad, and raced to the butcher for some pork to finish the dish.

And before anyone can say it; yes I know, this is not a dish cooked with beer, but instead it’s a dish that pairs amazingly well with beer. You can’t cook everything in beer after all.

I should probably explain a few of the ingredients before I get down to the recipe.

Perilla leaves:

‘Wild sesame’ in Korean, it’s a hand-size leaf, dark green in colour and has an amazing flavour – you should pick up hints of apple, mint and anise.

Kim Chi:

Fiery Korean pickled and fermented vegetables, most commonly cabbage. The vegetable is added to a solution of ingredients including garlic, salt, onion, sugar, ginger, fish paste and chilli (this combination varies depending on region and season). It is then usually compressed and left to ferment. The result is a very crunchy condiment, with heat ranging from the very mild to blow your head off strong. It is loved so much in Korea it pervades much of the cuisine and annual festivals are held in its honour.

Seaweed salad:

This particular salad is a simple condiment the Koreans usually serve as part of their barbecue meals. It’s simply strips of seaweed, sesame oil and garlic. It’s refreshing, cleansing and has a fantastic crunch to it.

BEER MATCH

A dry, crisp lager.

KOREAN BEER SNACK                                              Makes 12

500 g meaty pork belly

2 tablespoons soy

1 teaspoon chilli powder

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon caster sugar

¼ cup red wine

200 g Korean seaweed salad

200 g cabbage Kim Chi

12 Perilla (wild sesame) leaves

You need to slice the pork as thinly as you can, around 3-4mm. I find the best way to do this is to place the pork in the freeze for an hour to let it firm up. This makes cutting a lot easier, unless you have a meat slicer that is.

Mix all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir until combined.

Place the sliced pork in to mix and give it a really good coating, cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate over night.

In a large frying pan over a medium – high heat, heat some olive oil and cook the pork in batches for 1 ½ minutes each side. The pork should be nicely caramelised but not burnt, be careful it cooks very quickly.

To serve:

Take one Perilla leaf, lay down some pork, a few strips of Kim Chi (depending how hot you want it) and top with some seaweed salad. Roll it up and stuff it in your mouth. Go back for seconds quickly otherwise you’ll miss out.

Note:

Most Asian supermarkets have these ingredients but do yourself a favour and search out a Korean one, it’s well worth the experience.

Posted in Beer, Beer Snack, Kim Chi, Korean, Pork: Recipes and articles

The good old steak sandwich is a bit of an Australian institution; you’ll find a variation in pretty much every pub and greasy spoon up and down the coast. Alas nine times out of ten it’s some frozen, tough rubbery grey thing between old stale bread with some store bought sauce on it… yuck.

This is my version and I urge you to give it a go and let me know if it’s the best goddamn thing ever.

Now keep in mind that you can use other cuts of meat for this. If sticking with beef you could go for chuck, shoulder or even shin. Alternatively you could use pork or lamb, and again go for the cheaper cuts.

I use the Lebanese bread pockets in this recipe, they are just a baby version of the larger loaf and I find them perfect for a sandwich. If you cannot source them just use a larger Lebanese loaf cut into healthy portions.

BEER MATCH

To match with the sandwich over all I’d go for either an Australian Pale Ale, American Pale Ale or a German Lager.

If you want to highlight and compliment the beef in particular go for a Porter or Belgian Dubbel.

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BEER BRAISED BEEF SANDWICH                                              Makes 4

Olive oil

1.5 kg beef ribs

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 onion, thinly sliced

5 cloves garlic, sliced

4 sprigs thyme

1 x 500ml bottle German style wheat beer

4 Lebanese bread pockets

8 slices Jarlsberg

2 handfuls rocket

Dijon mustard

Heat a flameproof heavy-based casserole over medium heat and pour in a good amount of olive oil. Season the ribs with salt and pepper, then add to the pan and cook for 5 minutes until browned all over, working in batches if necessary. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Sauté the onion and garlic for 5 minutes or until softened and slightly browned, then add the herbs and return the ribs to the pan. Deglaze the pan with beer then bring to the boil. Add enough water to cover, cook covered on lowest possible setting for 3 hours or until the meat is about to fall of the bone.

Carefully remove the ribs from the braising liquid and keep warm. Strain the liquid into a saucepan and over a medium heat reduce until thick. When cool enough to handle, remove the bones and any fat from the beef ribs and place the beef back in the reduced liquid. Check the seasoning and adjust if required.

To serve:

Cut the bread rolls in half and lightly toast, generously spread the mustard on the bottom piece. Place a layer of beef, a piece of cheese and then finally some rocket.

Note:

If you have any leftover beef (which is doubtful knowing how tasty it is) you can reheat it and serve with mash potato or even pasta.

Posted in Beef, Beef ribs, Beer, Braised, cooking with beer, Sandwich