Gatherings: Casual-Fancy Meals to Share

We are always on the lookout for new recipes and food ideas to try. Colleen is as passionate about cooking and baking as I am about cigars and bourbon. As such, there are stacks of cookbooks, recipes, and food related books throughout our home. My role is mostly that of a consumer, while Colleen manages the preparations as well. There's a new book on the table that I expect will contribute to our dining pleasures.

Gatherings: Casual-Fancy Meals to Share is a new addition to the extensive library from America's Test Kitchen. The premise of the book is simple -- themed meals for entertaining friends in your home, with minimal stress. Easy plans for cocktails and appetizers, through the main course, and on to dessert are illustrated.

The book begins with some basic planning tips before getting into the meat (no pun intended) of the book. Each themed meal is presented in an easy to follow guide along with timings and tips. There's a "game plan" for the preparations which could start a few days in advance, all the way up to the hours before your guests arrive. The chefs include numerous options throughout for streamlining or simplifying the process based the situation.

The individual recipes within each organized meal are easily made on their own as well if you simply want to supplement your own plans. There's a handy listing of the recipes by course; drinks, appetizers, main courses, sides, desserts, etc. You can scan the list to mix and match as your tastes, and pantry, warrant.

The book contains numerous color photographs of the dishes. It's an attractive book and one that would make a welcome gift for both budding cooks and new hosts, as well as experienced chefs looking for inspiration. The book sitting in our living room has attracted the attention of visitors.

The publication date for Gatherings: Casual-Fancy Meals to Share is September 19, 2023. It is available for preorder from America's Test Kitchen as well the usual online book sellers.

A copy of this book was provided at no cost by the publisher. This review presents my opinion and is provided without obligation or compensation.

Cheers!

More "Dog Chow"

We recently reviewed the Flying Dog "Dog Chow Cookbook." For that first post, we enjoyed the Mac & Cheese recipe. Not content to try just one recipe, a few days later we were enjoying Orange Chicken with Snake Dog. The recipe uses Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA.

This was a simple weeknight dinner. Rice is one of our favorite side dishes, so as the Jasmine rice simmered, the chicken dinner came together easily. The tang of citrus from the orange juice and the hops in the beer gave a nice sharp edge to the sweet brown sugar and slightly caramelized onion notes. A touch of ginger sparked the flavorful sauce, which we enjoyed over the rice as well as the chicken. The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of Snake Dog, and to use the rest as needed as the chicken cooks. By the time the chicken finished, the balance of the bottle had been added, leaving no cook's treat. Ah well, bottle opener in hand, that can be easily remedied. We all agreed this was a "keeper" to reappear on another evening as a deceptively easy elegant dinner!

Cooking with beer is fun. During the preparation of both Dog Chow recipes we've tried so far, we all have remarked on the aromas wafting through the kitchen, which we attributed to the beers. And of course, you get to the drink the beer you're using too.

Flying Dog "Dog Chow Cookbook"

Flying Dog Brewery late last year released Dog Chow: Volume One, the first cookbook from the brewery. The 22 page, spiral-bound book contains 8 recipes, each featuring a different Flying Dog beer. Each recipe is accompanied by detailed directions and color photographs. The recipes were all developed by Flying Dog brewers, most of whom have culinary backgrounds. The book also contains descriptions of the beers in the Flying Dog lineup, as well as tips on cooking with beer. As is stated simply on the back cover, "This is a book about food and beer."

For our first recipe trial from the cookbook, Colleen selected Doggie Style Mac & Cheese. As is obvious from the name, this recipe features Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale. The bready, yeasty aroma as the sauce simmered hinted at the rich, layered flavors - so much more than cheese sauce! The dry mustard, onions, beer, heavy cream and milk makes for a sophisticated, but very approachable!, mac and cheese. We served this with pan-fried pork chops for a satisfying Winter comfort meal.

We have plans to try out some of the other recipes in the book, and will bring reports back soon.

Dog Chow: Volume One can be purchase for a mere $5 from the Flying Dog online merchandiser store.

Disclaimer: Flying Dog provided a complimentary copy of Dog Chow for me to review as I saw fit. The beer used in the recipe was purchased by me.

Steaks with Dunkelweizen and Spice Marinade

We enjoy trying out new recipes and this weekend we tried a new marinade to prepare some steaks for grilling. This marinade recipe is from Lucy Saunders' book "Grilling With Beer". The marinade is made with fennel, mustard, and celery seeds, red pepper, garlic, salt, chipotle pepper, brown sugar, and dunkelweizen beer. We used Erdinger Weissbier Dunkel, or Dark Hefeweizen. While Colleen prepared with marinade the house was filled with the aroma of the spices. Our son declared "It smells like barbecue." We let NY strip steaks marinate most of the day before throwing them on the gill. I also slow grilled some Vidalia onions with butter and parmesan cheese. Add in some corn on the cob and we had a super Summer time dinner in the works!

Per the author's suggestion, Colleen held a bit of the marinade aside and thickened it for use when the steaks were plated. We all enjoyed the flavors added by the marinade quite a bit. Colleen and I spooned the reduced sauce over our steaks, while my son found the steaks spicy enough on their own. There's an interesting multi-faceted profile to the marinade. The initial flavors are fennel and sweet, brown sugar. The flavor of the meat is not hindered at all. Then you are hit by the pepper and chipotle spiciness in a flavorful burst.

I decided to serve Clipper City Red Sky at Night Saison with the meal. The Saison stood up very well to the spices on the meat and provided an excellent palate refresher. Even the mild flavors of the buttery, sweet onions were able to be enjoyed next to the spice of the beef. The Dunkelweizen and Spice Marinade was declared a "keeper" and we'll be enjoying it again, soon.

See Lucy Saunders' site at grillingwithbeer.com for more information on this book.

Clipper City Dinner with Lucy Saunders

Wednesday evening I had the pleasure to attend a fine beer and food event at Tuscarora Mill in Leesburg, VA. Chef Patrick Dinh prepared 6 dishes from The Best of American Beer & Food. The author of this cookbook, Lucy Saunders, along with Hugh Sisson and Tom Cizauskas, both of Clipper City Brewing were our hosts and all regaled us with interesting information about beer, food and Clipper City.

Since I'll be marking half a century of life in a couple of weeks, my ticket to the event was an early birthday gift from my wife. It wasn't feasible for both of us to get away to attend the dinner as it was a 2 hour drive from home, and on a "school night." So Colleen said I should go AND spend the night in Leesburg to avoid the long drive home after dinner. Clipper City is one of my favorite breweries, and that we're fans of Lucy Saunders' book is no secret to readers of this blog. So this was an exceptionally special gift. (Dear reader, your envy is forgiven, I am indeed a lucky man.)

The Menu

Course 1: Lager Steamed Mushroom Dumplings with MärzHon Sweet and Sour Sauce, served with Balto MärzHon

Course 2: Angry Shrimp "Szechuan" Style, served with a fresh cask of Loose Cannon Hop³ Ale

Course 3: Fennel Crusted Rack of Lamb, with Barley Risotto and Peg Leg Stout Sauce, served with a fresh cask of Peg Leg Imperial Stout

Course 4: Holy Sheet Glazed Angus Skirt Steak with Cumin Pepper Onions and Raclette Potatoes, served with Holy Sheet Über Abbey Ale

Course 5: “Hooks 1 Year Blue” with Nut Bread, Pear Coulis and Micro-herb salad, served with Below Decks Barleywine (2007 vintage)

Course 6: Coconut Cream Pie Dessert with Hang Ten Marshmallows, served with Hang Ten Weizen Dopplebock (2007 vintage)

Now that you are salivating, let me add that the experience exceeded all expectations. Chef Dinh prepared a repast extraordinaire. All of the pairings worked extremely well. You will notice in the list above, not one, but two casks. Good beers on cask are not common finds, but this night we were treated to two casks of fresh ale.

The six beers selected for the evening were served in order of increasing ABV. I knew we where in for an extrAARGHdinary experience when by the third course the beer was already up to 8% ABV!

One topic of discussion during the evening was "are cask ales better than their non-cask versions?" That's probably a rhetorical question as they are often different beasts and hard to compare. However, when I was enjoying my fresh-casked Peg Leg Stout, I remarked to Tom Cizauskas that this was the best Peg Leg I'd ever tasted. The flavor is full of roasted malts and chocolate, highly drinkable with just enough bitterness to keep it interesting. The casking really smooths out and blends the flavors. If I had to pick one course as my favorite, I'd say it was the lamb and Peg Leg Stout.

Before the second course, Lucy Saunders, Hugh Sisson and I were discussing how to pair beer with spicy food. Does one want a highly hopped beer to accentuate and continue the flavor on the palate, or does one want more of a palate cleansing beer with the food? Well, I don't believe there is a definitive answer. But we do know in this case, the Loose Cannon Ale was a perfect match for the "Szechuan" spice of the shrimp. The spice wasn't fire-hot but it was very present, and the hoppy ale enhanced the flavoring on this dish. This pairing gets the vote as my second favorite course of the evening.

It was a pleasure to finally meet in person, both Lucy and Hugh, having had only electronic exchanges with them in the past. And it was fun to meet up with Tom Cizauskas again. Besides beer-related conversation, we both enjoyed a laugh over our fond remembrances of phonograph records. Of course I dropped another hint for a Clipper City dinner in Fredericksburg. :-) Shawn Malone, and the entire staff at Tuskies, did a superb job in presenting this dinner. If you find yourself in Leesburg, be sure to visit Tuscarora Mill. When it comes to craft beer and food appreciation, suffice it to say, they get it.

In the top photo are Chef Dinh, Lucy, and Shawn. At the bottom, Shawn and Tom successfully tap the Peg Leg Stout.
More photos from the evening are posted here.

Update, March 9: Tom Cizauskas has posted his notes on the dinner here.

Dinner à la The Best of American Beer & Food

As promised a few weeks ago, this is a report on some recipes we've tried from The Best of American Beer & Food. (In the interest of full disclosure, Colleen did the cooking. My only contribution was selecting the beer and assisting with the tasting.)

We started off with the Brickskeller Carrot Ginger Curry Soup (page 88). The recommended pairing was a Hefe Weizen so I selected Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier. This soup certainly lived up to expectations. Thick and rich, perfect for a cool Fall evening. The dish was a bit on the sweet side but the Hefe Weizen matched up perfectly and mitigated the sweetness of the soup. I may have consumed my beer too quickly, but the pairing suggestion was so spot on that I had to have a sip after each spoonful. Easy to prepare, we'll be having this one again.

The soup was followed by Slow Roasted Wild Salmon with Caramelized Belgian Endive and Almond Piccata (page 123). The suggested pairing is a Light India Pale Ale or Pilsener but we opted for a little more kick and went with Odell India Pale Ale. The slow cooked salmon was very moist and tender. The almond and garlic piccata added quite a bit of kick that the IPA handled quite well. The GABF Gold Medal Odell IPA is a well-balanced beer and the citrusy hops worked very well with the garlic, almond, parsley and sea salt garnish. The caramelized endive was a nice complement to the salmon and beer.

Both dishes were very enjoyable and the beers selected matched up extremely well. The only downside is the binding on my book has already separated and the pages are coming loose. But I guess it's not all a loss as Colleen remarked during dinner that we need to get a second copy of the book; one to keep in the kitchen where it will undoubtedly get soiled, and another to keep on the bookshelf for reading. The dinner was a success and we'll be trying more dishes from Lucy Saunders' The Best of American Beer & Food soon.

The Best of American Beer & Food

Don't think The Best of American Beer & Food by Lucy Saunders is just another recipe book. Sure, there are plenty of recipes, but there's so much more. The author gets right down to business. The first two chapters go into depth about two classic foods that pair remarkably well with beer; cheese and chocolate. Typically people think "wine and cheese" but we know better don't we? Not only does Saunders provide examples of cheese and beer pairings, but she explains how to plan a beer and cheese tasting. The chapter on chocolate is mouth watering as well. Both of these chapters include recipes to match the topic.

The next six chapters are divided up by U.S. geography. Remember, the subject is the best of American beer and food. Saunders introduces us to regional specialties and the people who bring them to the table. Throughout the book, the author draws on her extensive circle of friends in the brewing and cooking world. You might be well-advised to consult this book when planning a trip. Saunders gives us a tour of how the restaurants of the region are integrating beer into their recipes and menus. These chapters are a treasure trove of "words of wisdom" from the chefs and brewers on how to cook with beer and how to choose the right beers to serve with the food.

The remaining chapters of the book are devoted to recipes and the beers that go with them. The contributors to these chapters read like a who's who of American restaurants and breweries. These are not your simple beer bread or beer chili recipes. The foods discussed here are varied and many can best be described as "fine dining." But there's nothing pretentious in the book. The writing in the book is very conversational and the recipes clear. Although many of the recipes come from restaurants, they've been adapted for the home cook. Not all of the recipes include beer as an ingredient but suggested beers to serve with the dish are listed. It's not just about cooking with beer, it's about food AND beer, together.

Visit Lucy Saunders' website at www.beercook.com for more writings and recipes from the author. She also blogs at her new website www.bestofamericanbeerandfood.com where you can read more about the contributors and find out about upcoming book signings. I'll be reporting back as we work our way through some of the recipes from this book in our kitchen.

Update: Read about a couple of the dishes we tried here. And here.