Brew Kits Blog

Recently Melissa Schilling wrote an article about beer pairings – pairing beers with specific dishes to enhance the tasting experience. The chef responsible for these creative dishes used in the pairings is Mark Perez of Davenport Roadhouse. The beers he pairs them with are all from Santa Cruz Ale Works.

“Actually, I woke up in the middle of the night, and thought ‘Pretzels! Swiss! Sausage! Inside a chicken. Perfect!’” he said.

The article also discusses organic as opposed to non-organic hops and various other technical aspects of brewing, but I just wanted to pass along these creative and delicious-sounding pairings:

Pretzel Crusted Sausage Stuffed Chicken, paired with Hefeweizen

• 6 chicken breasts, butterflied and lb. thin
• 4 Corralitos Brauts, casing removed
• 1 white onion diced
• 12 oz. pretzels ground
• Dijon or your favorite mustard
• 1 cup each shredded manchego and swiss cheeses
• Salt and pepper

In a saute pan sweat the onions in 1 Tbsp. spoon butter for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add sausage and combine with the onion. Cook the sausage medium rare still on the pink side. Set aside and let cool. Combine sausage mixture with the cheeses. Lay out the chicken breasts. Season with salt and pepper. Spread sausage mixture across the breast and slowly spiral the chicken breast into a pinwheel. Position seam side down, to keep in place for cooking. Spread a thick even layer of mustard over the breast. Firmly press the ground pretzel into the mustard.

Drizzle olive oil over the breast and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Sweet and Spicy Smoked Pork Ribs, paired with India Pale Ale

• 2 racks pork ribs
• Oak or Hickory wood chips
• Brine
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup salt
• 1 24 oz. can jalapenos in escabeche
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup coriander
• ¼ cup black peppercorns
• 5 bay leaves
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1 gal. water

Place all ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Let cool and refrigerate. Submerge ribs in brine for overnight up to 24 hours. Remove ribs from brine and dry off with paper towels.

• Spice rub
• ¼ cup of each
• chili powder
• cayenne
• paprika
• black pepper
• white pepper
• ground coriander
• granulated garlic
• dry mustard
• oregano
• 5 ground bay leaves
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup salt

Combine all.

Peel off the membrane on the back side of the ribs. Rub spice mixture into ribs. Use a firm amount of pressure. Let sit refrigerated for 8 to 12 hours.

Place wood chips in a shallow metal pan. Soak wood chips in beer for 1 hour. Drain. Prepare the grill.

Next, place all the coals to one side of the barbecue. Place the pan full of the soaked chips on the coals. Place the ribs on the opposite side of the coals and cover. Flip and rotate the ribs every 20-30 minutes. You will need to start a second batch of coals if you use spare ribs. Good spare ribs will take three hours. Back ribs take about 1½ to 2 hours.

A good test to check for doneness is to try and fold the ribs over. If the meat between the ribs breaks they are done.

Over hot coals apply your favorite barbecue sauce. flip and re-glaze avoid burning the sauce if it contains a lot of sugar. Put three coats on each side.

Spice Rubbed Ribeye, paired with Pale Ale

¼ cup each equal parts:

• Coriander
• Coffee
• Salt
• Black pepper

Rub spice into steak and grill in pan with half olive oil half butter on medium high heat.

Cherry Tomato Salsa

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes quartered
• Half a red onion thinly sliced
• 1 jalapenos seeded and diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• Fresh cilantro, basil and Italian Parsley — chiffonade
• ¼ cup balsamic
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. spoon honey
• Salt and pepper to taste

Toss all ingredients in a bowl and serve over the grilled spice-rubbed ribeye.

Read the original article here.

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