First, let me thank all of you who shared my blog in the past weeks, and especially this most recent posting. Keep sharing, I love watching the reader numbers climb!
One of the coolest things about fruits and grains is that they can be enjoyed in so many ways. Fruit can be used in jams, jellies, compotes, dried, fresh and canned. Grains can be used for cereals, polenta, bread, pasta, salads (quinoa and farrow particularly). But they also can be fermented because of the high starch and sugar content contained within their inherent structure. The thing that makes fruits and grains taste so good also makes them good candidates for producing alcohol.
It is said that agrarian cultures developed and flourished due to the need to grow grain for beer and fruit for wine. Now while that might not be ENTIRELY true, it makes for a good story. Think about it for a second. Tribes and peoples moved around a lot to deal with weather, follow the hunt, or get away from conflict. They were hunter-gatherers. Then, by accident, a fermented beverage was created and those same peoples decided to intentionally grow things TO ferment. Thus farming communities were born, or so the story goes.
Grapes are a wonderful thing, and those of you who love your wine know this! Unfortunately for me I have developed an allergy to sulfites and I can’t truly enjoy wine any longer unless I want to deal with a skull splitting migraine. There are a few times of year that I joyfully deal with the pain. One of those times is early to mid November, when the Beaujolais Nouveau comes out. Happily for me, there is a plethora of other libations of which I can partake without incident the rest of the year.
Beer – it’s like liquid bread. The same basic ingredients go into beer as go into bread – grain, water, yeast all go into bread. Add hops and a lot more water and you get beer! Oddly enough, the recipe is similar for whiskey, rye and scotch (without the hops and with a LOT more aging). Now, I know some of you will think that Budweiser, Coors and the like are beer, but they aren’t – they are carbonated bat piss. Real beer, truly handcrafted beer, tastes nothing like those impostors, and once you get a taste for the REAL thing, you never go back. There was a time that I drank Coors, Michelob, and Rolling Rock, but that is many years in the past, and frankly I am a bit embarrassed to admit it. But I have grown and so can you.
One of the things we like to do when we go out of town is go to the local micro-breweries and lucky for us they are popping up EVERYWHERE! Inside you can usually get a tour and learn how real beer is made, taste samples (except, apparently in Utah – stupid laws) and have some pretty decent food sometimes too. Take a look at Stone Brewing in Escondido, California for example. Their menu reflects what is available in the local area and they grow a lot of their own produce and herbs. Cool Beans! Then of course there are the ones like Squatters Brew Pub in Park City, Pyramid in Seattle and Gordon Biersch (several locations) – the beer is usually pretty tasty, but the menu is derivative staple bar food – no surprises and nothing truly inspiring in their offerings, except the beer, and sometimes not even the beer is all that great (Pyramid isn’t what it once was). Some of these now trendy “brewery restaurants” even take some of the “spent” grain used in the brewing process and make some damn fine bread. Perfect for everyone at the table! Natural grains give the bread a fabulous texture, there is no alcohol and the results are typically individual to that brewery. Absolutely delicious.
Hubby John has been brewing beer for 18 years now – in fact he opened his first bottle of homebrew in the hospital room the day Jack was born. Now of course, he has moved on to an uncomplicated kegging system and we always have something great for our guests to try. We have even begun composting the spent grain and I have been trying my hand at spent grain bread with moderate success. The key to perfection is still a mystery to me, and I am in search of a great bread making book – please leave a comment if you have found one!
If you are lucky enough to live in a town with an honest to goodness brewery and you haven’t been there yet, shame on you! Get your happy butt down there and try the food and the beer if you are so inclined. Even if you are a non-drinker, and plenty of my friends are, the food can be a draw for you and you are supporting a local business. Sadly for me, I have to travel to enjoy house made brews, unless I am drinking at home. Wait, that’s not sad…I get to travel AND eat and drink well.
This week’s Food Memories are a gorgeous Duck Confit and Spinach Salad at Café Terigo, a near perfect nitrogen poured Cream Ale at Wasatch Brewing, disappointing Sun Dried Tomato Risotto at Robert Redford’s joint Zoom and a spectacular breakfast with my main squeeze at the astoundingly beautiful Stein Ericksen Lodge – all in Park City, UT.
This week’s pic is that nearly perfect nitrogen poured Cream Ale.
Until next week – go out and make YOUR OWN Food Memories.
