Almost No-Knead Beer Bread

Oh my phobia of baking with yeast...it's illogical. The thought of waiting for something to rise, then kneading it is pretty horrible to me. But I love bread, so I thought I would give it a chance. Thanks to beer buddies Colleen & Stephen, I've overcome my bread yeast phobia! They passed on this gem of a recipe with the note that it's "idiot proof." Not only is it idiot proof, it's delicious! In the past week I've made 2 loaves, which have paired perfectly with soups and gravy, or it's great just as toast. Get baking and carb up, people!

Cooks Illustrated Almost No-Knead Bread (Adapted from the recipe originally published in the January 2008 issue of Cooks Illustrated)

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface
1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces) (Use whatever beer's in your fridge. I used an IPA and a Pale Ale and they both tasted great.)
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.

About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes.* Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

* My first loaf got a little charred on both the bottom and top of the loaf - see photo. For the second round, I kept the lid on longer and put a couple extra layers of parchment under the dough. You'll just need to get to know your oven to figure out what works best for you.

Pork Chops with Beer & Bacon Gravy

During our Wisconsin weekend in the fall, Matt and I picked up a pound of thick-cut, double-smoked bacon from Bavaria Sausage. Now, this ain't no normal bacon! I've been dreaming of what to do with it for months, as you just don't use this for anything. Surprisingly, inspiration came to me of all places but the treadmill.

Let me state this off the bat: I'm typically not a Rachael Ray fan. In fact, she drives me bonkers most of the time. (Seriously, she has a tab on her website called "Yum-O!" Can you feel my eyeroll through the computer?)

However, I've learned that I enjoy watching her 30 Minute Meals show, sans sound and closed captioning, while on the treadmill. The harder I run, the more I can justify eating the things she makes - like Pork Chops with Beer & Bacon Gravy. As soon as I saw her grab a beer from the fridge and pour it on the bacon & onions, I knew this was going to be the first use for the 'Sconsin bacon. Needless to say, it was delicious. Recipe can be found here.

(Yeah, the photo looks a little gross, but the camera ran out of batteries before I could get a snapshot of the plated entree.)

I made a few alterations to the recipe, but I think it would be pretty hard to mess up.

1. The recipe calls for German beer, but I used one of our Dry Hopped Irish Stouts. This gravy does retain some of the beer flavor, so use something you like.
   
2. I used homemade turkey stock in place of the chicken stock.
3. Doubled the bacon! (Can't have enough bacon.)
4. Cooked the gravy for about twice as long it calls for.*

*Matt's the gravy maker in our house, since I lack the patience to reduce anything to its proper thickness. So props to Matt for doubling the cooking time.

Goose Island Green Line Pale Ale

Thanks to our beer buddy, Colleen, we were able to attend the premier tapping of Goose Island's newest brew, Green Line Pale Ale, at Uncommon Ground Devon last night. The Green Line is a new "eco-friendly" beer as part of Goose's green initiative. So what makes a beer "green"? First of all, it's only kegged, which greatly reduces the waste factor. Second, it's only served in Chicago, which cuts down on the energy used for transportation and refrigeration. Also, the tap handles are made from trees killed in the suburbs by emerald ash borers.

As for the beer itself, head brewer Greg Hall described it as "a love child between 312 Urban Wheat and an IPA." For all you all-grain brewers out there, I found it very interesting that they only use one malt in the recipe (Briess Pale Ale malt). Overall, it's a lightly hopped, extremely quaffable session beer. (I easily drank 4 in an hour!) You'll definitely want to have one of these on a hot summer day. So be friendly to the environment - drink a Green Line.

Diacetyl Rest - Go for a Week!

In mid-late 2009 we brewed our first lager, an Oktoberfest. For our first lager (and having no temperature control device, just a fridge), it went really well. The final beer was malty with a nice hop bitterness, beautiful amber color, and crystal clear from the lagering (why filter a lager?).

I brought a sample to a Chicago Beer Society event, and one guy said he tasted a hint of diacetyl (a buttery by-product of lager yeast). I was unsure of this, having yet to train my palate for this flavor. But everyone really liked it and drained the bottle. Next day I brought a sample over to Half Acre brewing, and had a little lager schooling from head brewer Phil, who also tasted just a hint of the buttery diacetyl. After drinking this brew for a week or so, I was able to just pick it out too. He asked if I did a diacetyl rest, and I did do one for a few days. Phil said to just leave it out for a week! So next time, a week it is!

We've since brewed another lager, an American Premium. We had excellent temperature control, never letting the beer get above 50F (we pitched in the upper 40s), and a post-fermentation sample tasted great. So instead of doing a rest, I  just crashed it down to 36F and will be kegging it up soon for the super bowl. We'll see how that goes, but I think it should be fine. The yeast I used, Wyeast 2007, didn't say anything about needing a diacetyl rest, whereas the 2308 Munich Lager I used before clearly states that it benefits from one. So I guess the moral of the story is to read up on your yeast, and if a rest is needed, make it a week - cheers.

Irish Beef & Stout Stew

Happy New Year! If you're hungover or the weather's as bitterly cold as it is here in Chicago, you're not going to want to leave the house today. Thus, I thought I would share with you a great comfort food recipe using stout. I've made this many times with both Guinness and homemade oatmeal stout, but really any dark beer will do. Making this stew couldn't be easier - leaves plenty of time for relaxing in front of the TV while it's cooking. Serve with a nice crusty loaf of bread and more stout, of course.

Irish Beef & Stout Stew
from Everyday Food Magazine

• 4 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cans (6 ounces each) tomato paste
• 2 1/2 pounds new potatoes, scrubbed (I cut into small pieces.)
  
• 2 medium onions, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium beef broth
• 1 can (14.9 ounces) Irish stout beer
• 10 garlic cloves, sliced
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 boxes (10 ounces each) frozen baby peas, thawed

Preheat oven to 350. In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, toss beef with flour; stir in tomato paste. Add potatoes, onions, broth, beer, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cover, and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Transfer pot to oven, and cook, covered, until meat is fork-tender, 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Stir in peas, and season with salt and pepper.