Cooking With Beer

I adore beer, I really do. I'm a picky beer drinker, though- none of that Budweiser swill or Michelob nastiness for me. I usually stick with wheat beers like my all-time favorites Blue Moon and Paulaner, but I always enjoy trying new brews. That's how I discovered goodness like Blind Tiger Raspberry Wheat and Warsteiner Premium Dunkel. I like to support local breweries, too, which is how I ended up with a six-pack of Oklahoma-based Choc Beer's Waving Wheat.  I wasn't keen on Choc's bitter, spicy flavor, so after drinking two bottles and forcing Johnny to try one, I was left with three bottles of unwanted beer in the refrigerator. What to do? Throwing it away seemed wrong. Drinking it was unappealing. Thankfully. the March issue of Women's Health arrived with a solution: cook with it!

The issue includes all sorts of delicious-sounding recipes for beer, and today I baked a loaf of Roasted Garlic Beer Bread. Here's the recipe:

Roasted Garlic Beer Bread
from Women's Health Magazine, March 2011

• 2 whole garlic bulbs
• 2 c. whole wheat pastry flour (I only had whole wheat all purpose flour, so I used that.)
• 1 c. all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. fresh rosemary (I used dried rosemary.)
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1.5 c. lager or pilsner (I used one bottle of Choc Waving Wheat.)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the papery covering of the garlic and slice off the tops. Wrap heads in foil and bake for 45 minutes, or until garlic is very soft. Let cool.

2. Grease a 9"x5" loaf pan. In a large bowl, squeeze out the soft garlic pulp and mix with flours, sugar, olive oil, baking powder, salt, and rosemary. Add beer and stir until just combined. (Don't overmix.) Pour into loaf pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool before unmolding and slicing.

Overall, the recipe was very easy to put together. I think my garlic could have been roasted a bit longer, as it didn't squeeze out very easily. The bread was very garlicky (surprise!) and had a somewhat dense texture, but I think it's because I didn't use pastry flour. I think it's good and plan on having some for dinner tonight with my pork chops and roasted potatoes!

Ham & Bean Soup

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! I had the pleasure of a partly cloudy, reasonably warm holiday filled with delightful gifts and pleasant people at work. (Hotels never close!)

Johnny received a ham as a Christmas gift from his company; it weighed eight and a half pounds! That's a lot of ham for only two people! I cooked it last week and we've been eating ham sandwiches every day since. I made a breakfast strata with some of it (which we are still nibbling on), and today I made a delicious ham and bean soup. It's hearty, tasty, and good for you! Be warned, you'll need a huge pot to cook it in- it makes a very large quantity. We're planning to eat some for lunch throughout the week and freeze the rest.

Ham & Bean Soup
From allrecipes

• 1 (20 ounce) package 15 bean mixture, soaked overnight
• 1 ham bone
• 2 1/2 cups cubed ham
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 5 large carrots, chopped
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with liquid
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can low-sodium vegetable juice
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 7 cups low fat, low sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt.
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1. Place the soaked beans into a large pot and fill with enough water to cover by about 1 inch. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low for 30 minutes. Drain. Add the ham bone, ham, onion, celery, carrots, tomatoes, vegetable juice, and vegetable broth. Season with Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, chili powder, bay leaves, pepper, parsley and lemon juice. Pour in enough of the chicken broth to cover the ingredients.
2. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 8 hours. Add more chicken broth as needed throughout the day. Remove the ham bone and season with salt if needed. Continue to simmer for a couple more hours. Remove bay leaves before serving.