This year Big Brew Day fell on Brent’s scheduled weekend to brew; this was good for two reasons! 1. Brent was the one running around the house trying to brew while 20 friends were hanging out on the patio & in the backyard, and 2. I got to get in the kitchen and turn out some great beer-themed food!

I have quite a few vegetarian friends, which you would think would be difficult for me to work around being the dedicated omnivore that I am, but no. I take great pleasure in the challenge of having something equally delicious for them to eat whenever we have people over! The menu (with veg options) for Saturday included the following dishes, all prepared with delicious libations from Shvitzing Matilda Brewery! :

1. Deschutes BrewPub’s spent grain veggie burgers. I’m all about trying new recipes with spent grain in them, and these burgers have been raved about in the beerverse ever since they were put on the menu. Alas, I was unable to find anyone who had posted the recipe so that I might attempt to replicate them. BUT! Within 15 minutes of posting my lamenting tweet about not ebing able to find the recipe, or anyone that knew it, Gina the Brand Ambassador from Deschutes had replied saying that if I sent her my email address, she’d send the recipe right over! And she did! I hope she doesn’t mind that I post it here, because frankly, they were EXCELLENT! A huge thumbs up from all who tried them, including omnivores such as myself; hooray for another way to recycle my spent grain!

Veggie burger

Yields: 5 – 5oz burgers

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cup           cooked black beans

3.5 oz              carrots peeled

3.5 oz              red onion

¼ ea                 large red bell pepper

½ cup              Panko, Japanese bread crumbs

¼ cup              salsa your favorite

1 tsp                kosher salt

1 tsp                black pepper ground

1 ea                  clove garlic

½ tsp               chili powder

¼ cup              spent grain. If unavailable you can use cooked oat meal.

½ cup              whole wheat flour

Prep notes

In a food processor chop carrots, onion and red bell pepper separately into 1/8” size

Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix by hand.

Divide into desired size burgers and patty

Bake in 400 degree oven till firm about twenty minutes depending on oven.

Allow to cool, reheat using grill or skillet.

2.     Homebrew Chef’s Four Ale Nachos

These actually ended up being 3 ale nachos, as I got distracted and forgot to put out the IPA sour cream. Oh well, they were extremely well received anyway! I made a plate of 2 Ale Nachos together for the vegetarians, who I’m told thought the beans were great! The meat-eaters were in love with the chili which made such a disaster of my kitchen the night before – the Bubba Gimp Milk Stout that I put in there was probably the worst gusher I’ve ever opened. Milk Stout all over the white cabinets in my kitchen!  I subbed out lamb for beef (cheaper, and more of my friends eat it), and obviously some homebrew for the Lagunitas stout. The beer cheese sauce and the smoked porter beans both got a dose of Brent’s Iron Brewer Smoked Porter. Pretty damn yummy; a highly recommended recipe, great accompaniment for beer drinking!

3.     Beer Cook’s Spicy Beer (BROWN ALE) Brined Drumsticks (Wings)

I made a couple of changes to this recipe (hence the parentheses); I used a Belgian Wit to brine the chicken and I used drumsticks instead of wings because the thought of chopping wings for hours before a party filled me with dread! I’m pretty sure the recipe did not lack for my laziness though; this chicken was heavenly! Juicy, spicy and downright delectable – the spicy sauce was just fantastic! Absolute rave reviews from the beer drinkers in the house. I will definitely be making this again & again.

I’m really only just recently getting into the cooking with beer thing; It’s a new world to me. I’ve cooked with wine forever, and of course I make my own beer and pair it with food, but the incorporation of beer into the recipes has escaped me up till now; no longer I say! I plan to come up with recipes for each new beer we make! Stay tuned :)