Vanilla Porter Home Brew
August 23, 2010 Leave a Comment
My husband has spent the last few months building a home brewery system which he has detailed in full on his site. Finally this last Wednesday he was ready for a full brew and I hung around to help and take pictures.
We made the Vanilla Porter recipe from Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora, CO which is an amazing beer. They have made the Urca Vanilla Porter All Grain recipe available here.
First there were 20ish pounds of grain
And hot water
And these had to be added to the mash tun
and boiled and boiled, and then drained
and then the liquid portion is transferred to the boil kettle
which is when this starts to look like beer.
There's a lot more to it, but he's probably better at explaining that. Now, it ferments for 3 weeks. Somewhere along the way is when the vanilla beans will go in and it will hopefully be delicious.
Turkey, Chorizo and Lentil Curry Soup
August 16, 2010 Leave a Comment
This is a mish mash of quite a few recipes I've found, mostly from this Low Fat Turkey and Lentil Soup recipe. Most of the improvisations were to add some fat, fake the Thanksgiving turkey and remove anything I knew my husband wouldn't eat. No vegetables, but he will eat lentils. Go figure.
The portions I used are for a half recipe, just enough for 3 bowls and to fill my 2 quart Le Creuset french oven. My chicken stock comes from Organic Low Sodium Better than Bouillon Chicken Base dissolved in water, this has all the carrot and celery flavor I need to remove those items that Jason hates from soup. You may want to add a 1/2 cup of each to step 3 if your stock is on the bland side.
2 tablespoons oil (I used my usual 3 parts vegetable oil, 1 part olive oil)
1/4 pound chorizo, no casing
1/2 pound turkey breast, thinly diced
1 cup red lentils
1/2 of a large walla walla yellow onion
1 jalapeno
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons thyme
2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
1 bay leaf
3 cups chicken stock
- Thinly dice the chicken breast. Coat thoroughly in poultry seasoning and paprika and set aside.
- Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan on medium.
- Chop up the onion, jalapeno and garlic. Saute until softened in the pan.
- Add in 1 tablespoon of curry powder and stir thoroughly. Let cook for 1 minute.
- Add in the chorizo, making sure to break it up as it's cooking. Give this about 5 minutes.
- Add in the turkey and thyme and mix everything up. Cover and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring to make sure the outside of all the turkey has turned white.
- Add in the cup of lentils and stir everything together to evenly distribute then add in the 3 cups of chicken stock and bay leaf. Bring to a boil for 1 minute.
- Lower temperature to low and simmer for 20 minutes, or longer if you want the lentils softer.
Remove the bay leaf and serve. It paired great with the pita & hummus I snacked on while cooking, but mixed terribly with chili pepper and lime coated jicama I pulled out while eating.
Delicious Sangria
June 16, 2010 1 Comment
If it's not going to feel like Summer it's at least time to act like it's Summer.
This past Christmas I received a wonderful pitcher and glass set from a friend in Germany along with a locally well tested recipe for Sangria that makes some changes from the classic.
1 peach
1 nectarine
1 orange
2 red plums
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup Diasoronno amaretto
1 750ml bottle of cheap Spanish red wine
Sierra Mist
Star anise pods
Slice the fruit into large chunks and chill overnight in the 1 cup of Diasoronno, inside a Ziploc bag. Throw the bottle of wine and the Sierra Mist into the fridge to chill overnight as well.
An hour before drinking, pour the bag of amaretto and soaked fruit into your pitcher.
Next add the 2 cinnamon sticks on top of the fruit.
Add the chilled wine. I used a bottle under $8.
And next I topped it off with 10oz of Sierra Mist.
Then, you drink it. I added a Star Anise pod (also a gift from Germany) to the top.
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