wshaffer

Tonight's beer recipe: chicken thighs braised with yam, tomatillos, pasilla peppers, garlic, onion, chipotle, orange zest, orange juice, and a bottle of Negra Modelo dark beer.

Recipe needs a little tinkering, which is why I haven't written it up in detail. The chicken was good, but the yam and tomatillos basically disintegrated - next time I'll add them after the chicken has cooked a bit. Also, I think I overdid it on the chilies a bit. And I think next time I'd reduce the amount of orange juice (I squeezed three whole oranges), and maybe use a mix of orange and lime juice.

I think now that I've proved that I can reliably do a decent braise or stew with added beer, I really ought to try one of those beer bread or beer cake recipes that I've collected.

Tonight's beer recipe was cod fillets poached in hefeweizen with lemon, allspice, red chile, and coriander. It was good, but not so magical that I think I'll make the exact recipe again.

However, the roasted leeks that I served with the fish were definite winners. Although, I think the recipe must be assuming larger leeks or less hungry people than we had available: I used 6 (admittedly smallish) leeks, and the two of us polished them off.

Another welcome discovery: The smoke alarm in the kitchen has a "shut up, I'm cooking" switch that will stop it from going off for 5 minutes after you press the button. I have always wanted one of these!

So, one of the things that became apparent when I was unpacking the kitchen was that we have too much beer. See, every time we have a party, we buy beer, and we always buy a bit more than our guests actually drink. And we don't drink it ourselves. So, I've decided that I need to cook with it.

I have a couple of recipes for chili that use some beer, and zellandyne and I once concocted a beef braised with mustard and beer that was very tasty. And my mother has a tasty recipe for beer bread that I should get from her. But beyond that, I'm looking for ideas. Any of y'all out there have favorite recipes that use beer?