Cooking with beer

[Truman42]

SWMBO brought me Paul Mecurios book "Cooking with beer" for my birthday, so tonight I thought I would give her a night off, let her relax on the couch and watch a movie, play on her iPad, whilst I cooked us up a nice dinner.

First up entree

Crispy beer battered prawns. The batter was made with Hoegaarden white ale and they tasted fantastic.


Then for main we had lamb shanks in Guinness. Although I used Coopers extra stout instead of Gunniess. These were fantastic and the lamb just fell off the bone. But it had a slight bitterness which I think came from the kalamata olives. So will probably omit them next time.



The little lady was very impressed..hopefully she will take care of dessert... ;-)

 

[dougsbrew]

Top job there Truman, however I would of used VB for the batter and drank the hoegarden .
I imagine the bitterness would of come from the stout, not the olives. Looks delicious. mmm desert...

 

[Cocko]

Good work mate!

Looks incredible.

 

[Rowy]

SWMBO brought me Paul Mecurios book "Cooking with beer" for my birthday, so tonight I thought I would give her a night off, let her relax on the couch and watch a movie, play on her iPad, whilst I cooked us up a nice dinner.
First up entree
Crispy beer battered prawns. The batter was made with Hoegaarden white ale and they tasted fantastic.

image.jpg
Then for main we had lamb shanks in Guinness. Although I used Coopers extra stout instead of Gunniess. These were fantastic and the lamb just fell off the bone. But it had a slight bitterness which I think came from the kalamata olives. So will probably omit them next time.

image.jpg
The little lady was very impressed..hopefully she will take care of dessert... ;-)

Bloody great looking tucker Truman. I disagree about tne Stout causing the bitterness. I have added too many olives to a dish and had the same thing. Did you try the olives first?

 

[Truman42]

@Rowy..yeh we did sample the olives and the bitterness was the same taste as they had. The stout didnt really add to the bitterness as it reduced a fair bit anyway.

 

[Dan Dan]

I've got this book too. Never used it though. Why? Here's an example: tonight I crumbed and fried up some flake. As we were enjoying it, the minister for war and finance commented how tasty and healthy it was. I pointed out it probably wasn't that healthy, considering it had been shallow fried. Her reply? "I thought it was grilled".

Too much effort

 

[dougsbrew]

Google is great -
A staple of Mediterranean cuisines, olives are most often eaten out of hand, though cooks also use them to flavor everything from pizzas to martinis. Raw olives must be cured before they can be eaten, and the curing medium--usually lye, brine, or salt--affects their flavor and texture. So too does the olive's degree of ripeness when it's picked. Green olives are picked while unripe, which makes them denser and more bitter than brown or black olives, which stay on the tree until fully ripened. Olives become bitter if they're cooked too long, so always add them to hot dishes at the last minute. Opened cans or jars of olives should be refrigerated, but some olives can be stored at room temperature if they're submerged in brine or olive oil.

 

[Rowy]

Dougy i reckon you hit it on the head!

 

[Truman42]

Even though the recipe says to add the olives at the start, next time I might try adding them with the beans in the last. Five minutes.

Thanks Dougy.

 

[pyrosx]

Were the olives pitted? I've found I don't usually like the taste of pitted (or even not pitted by split/cut as some of the canners tend to do) once cooked.

In my experience, unpitted completely intact olives cook up really well, no matter how long they're cooked.

 

[Pickaxe]

Nice work.
I've been using a brew I made where I went crazy with choc malt for stews, gives a great flavor and gets rid of a not so nice brew without wasting my time and effort. Great in an Irish stew.

Only tried my first beer batter recently, used the same dark beer too and it was great. Beer batter is the best. So simple.

 

[Truman42]

Were the olives pitted? I've found I don't usually like the taste of pitted (or even not pitted by split/cut as some of the canners tend to do) once cooked.
In my experience, unpitted completely intact olives cook up really well, no matter how long they're cooked.

Yes they were pitted kalamata olives from the deli at Woolies. Might try unpitted next time instead.. Cheers

 

[JDW81]

Although I used Coopers extra stout instead of Guinness.

I reckon Coopers Best Extra is a far better stout than the BUL Guinness we get here. Can't comment on the Irish version, never had it.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Sheaf is also great

 

[JDW81]

Sheaf is also great

Also a fan of Grand Ridge Skirt Hat Lifter.

 

[Mercs Own]

Great job Truman - glad you made the effort to cook from my book!! Regarding the bitterness in the stew - firstly I never by pitted olives as I think that the mechanical de-pitter leaves some pretty awful residual flavours. I always buy good quality jumbo Kalamata with the pits in them, try before I buy and if they are full flavoured and salty goodness then I buy and use. I use jumbo Kalamata in various dishes and usually put them in early in the cooking process and have never found that bitter quality in the dish? So could be the pitted olives that are the culprits or just the quality of the olives. I occasionally buy olives from woolies but they are not as good as from my local Italian deli. Also when you added the stout in to the hot pan if you added it on it's own and boiled it for any length of time you will get a bitter quality in the stew. I always add my beer and stock at the same time so as to avoid boiling the beer and extracting bitterness. Coopers Best Extra is certainly one of my favourite stouts to drink and to cook with.

Dan Dan I hope you do eventually cook something out of the book - the beer butter pasta is good and if your wife has a sweet tooth make some of the desserts like the Birramasu or sticky date pudding! At the very least you will enjoy it!

 

[DeGarre]

If I cook with a stout or porter (say, beef in stout) I like to use a bit of sugar to offset bitterness, but if I'm using a blonde beer instead I don't feel I have to use sugar at all as i find the sauce less bitter.

 

[alcoadam]

I usually add a few prunes to offset the bitterness, been doing it this way for some time...

 

[Truman42]

Great job Truman - glad you made the effort to cook from my book!! Regarding the bitterness in the stew - firstly I never by pitted olives as I think that the mechanical de-pitter leaves some pretty awful residual flavours. I always buy good quality jumbo Kalamata with the pits in them, try before I buy and if they are full flavoured and salty goodness then I buy and use. I use jumbo Kalamata in various dishes and usually put them in early in the cooking process and have never found that bitter quality in the dish? So could be the pitted olives that are the culprits or just the quality of the olives. I occasionally buy olives from woolies but they are not as good as from my local Italian deli. Also when you added the stout in to the hot pan if you added it on it's own and boiled it for any length of time you will get a bitter quality in the stew. I always add my beer and stock at the same time so as to avoid boiling the beer and extracting bitterness. Coopers Best Extra is certainly one of my favourite stouts to drink and to cook with.

Dan Dan I hope you do eventually cook something out of the book - the beer butter pasta is good and if your wife has a sweet tooth make some of the desserts like the Birramasu or sticky date pudding! At the very least you will enjoy it!

Thanks for the advice and tips Paul. Will try some good quality jumbo kalamata olives next time and remove the pits myself. (I must admit I thought I had done something wrong otherwise you would have said to put them in last in the recipe.)

I added the beef stock first then the stout and as soon as it reached the boil I transferred to the oven. So good to know I got that right. The beer butter pasta sounds old, might have to try that next.

Cheers

 

[DeGarre]

I usually add a few prunes to offset the bitterness, been doing it this way for some time...

I would too but I'm plum out!