nosh nook #154 - thursday, october 15, 2009

cooking with beer (link)
10.14.09 - npr - by kevin d weeks

it's amazing what they're doing with beers these days. making pumpkin beers is one thing, but there are beers made with rice, coffee, bacon, watermelon & rainwater. there's beer brewed in barrels made of paraguayan palo santo wood. i hear that angelina jolie's coming out with a beer made from the rice & tears of orphaned kids just in time for the holiday season. with so many choices of beer, there are also a range of things you can do with your beer--drink it, shotgun it, spray it in the air to celebrate your softball championship, consume it through a funnel, pour it on the curb for your homie. the possibilities are endless.  

npr's kevin d weeks loves cooking with his beer. people are always cooking with wine, so why not beer? he notes that "ancient egyptian and sumerian physicians considered cooking with beer a healthy practice." these days irish & belgian (& occasionally german) cooking uses beer as an ingredient. we irish also use beer as a mouthwash, but that's besides the point. pretty much any beer will work, but he suggests that you "avoid india pale ales." as it is, that's my mantra in life. weeks also recommends pairing your beer with sweet vegetables or putting some in marinades & desserts.

since he's apparently a fancy lad, the first thing weeks ever cooked with beer was welsh rabbit. cooking welsh rabbit's a bit more effort than i'm willing to make, but he does provide a few manageable beer recipes in the article, recipes for beef carbonade, dill & beer quick bread, patatas bravas and guinness & chocolate cake. i try to avoid beef, but the bread, potatoes & cake sound damn good, especially the chocolate cake. guinness has a chocolatey taste as it is, so i can only imagine it inside of a luscious chocolate cake. maybe one day i'll get off my ass enough to bake one myself. then i can stop imagining.