Triple IPA Chili Verde with Pork #BeerMonth

The totally hoppy flavor of a triple IPA plays nicely against the citrusy taste of fresh tomatillos in this 3x IPA Chile Verde with Pork. This is slow simmered for the most tender pork with a sweet and slightly spicy tomatillo sauce.

 Beer Month is well underway now! Today  I am teaming up with a wholle lotta other bloggers (10 of us omg Yayyyy!!) to bring you our awesome recipes featuring beer! So be sure to scroll down to see what my friends made!

Imperial Porter Truffles, Beer Adventures in San Diego and a GIVEAWAY!!! #beermonth

You guys are in for a treat today! This last post for a beer month is a love letter to California Craft Beer (and my adventures there). To make #beermonth go out with a bang- I topped it off with an awesome recipe for Imperial Porter Truffles with 4 flavor variations! I also have a giveaway for Brewershirts.com. Super awesome shirts for beer lovers and home brewers! If you're not interested in my beer adventures skip to the bottom.

I love you and I miss you California!

Just a couple months ago I was fortunate enough to go on my first trip to California and fell in love! What's not to love especially when it's the dead of fuckin winter in NY?! I literally looked at house prices in San Diego because I loved it there so much!

The first part of the trip was hiking through Joshua Tree State Park. So we went from winter in NY to a dessert and it was "winter" there to. But their winter is 70's and sunny every day. It was absolutely gorgeous and we went hiking for miles every day. To save money we cooked our own breakfast, Lunch was eaten out backpacks and dinner was re splurge. So I got to sample most of the local cuisine guilt free and of course had a beer with dinner. My most memorable meal there was breakfast at Crossroads Cafe- a Mexican skillet polenta with queso fresco, eggs, black beans and ranchero sauce. This came to inspire a recipe for the blog coming soon.

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The second part of this trip was in San Diego- which I shall call Craft Beer Mecca! Here is the run down- my friend and I pretty much packed in as many Craft Breweries as we could. We went to Ballast Point, The Belching Beaver, Toronado (craft beer bar), Automatic (Blind Lady Ale House), Stone Brewing (amazing), Lost Abbey, Port Brewing Company, Iron Fist and Mother of Earth. Yeah we saw a lot in three days! But we missed so many as well! Either way my trip to Cali was EPIC!

Beer Highlights from the trip

Stone Brewing Company- it is MASSIVE and GORGEOUS! A seriously awesome place to hang out by far. The tour was great and their Cali-Belgique aged in red wine barrels. It's an IPA with saison yeast, already a great beer. The hoppiness it taken down by the dryness and champagney flavor the yeast gives it, then all of a sudden you get that sweeter taste of red wine. It was one of the most unique beers I tried. This was my favorite, so much that we went here twice!

The Belching Beaver- THE BEST DESSERT BEER EVER- You must have their Peanut Butter Milk Stout, So much peanut butter and so much sweetness from the milk stout, AMAZING! I brought a bottle home from 3 months ago and have not opened it yet! Luckily I found out I can order it online (it's not distributed in NY). That just about made my day! I also remember really liking everything they had, but the PB Stout was the stand out!

Ballast Point Brewery- The Sculpin IPA is a great beer, but we got to have the Mango Habenero Sculpin and that was really cool as well as this Thai Chilli Wahoo. There was some serious heat! The best though was their Victory at Sea Imperial Porter which I used for this recipe!

Mother of Earth- Beers was pretty good, California Cream Ale was my fave- BUT more memorable was the company- my friend and I befriended two random English dudes- love the accents. Well they bought me a couple pints and loved my filthy New Yorker mouth and pissed me off so I would curse them out. People are very entertained by mu drunk potty mouth. Bear in mind this was the last stop for the day and I was NOT driving!

Now for the recipe...

I always thought truffles to be intimidating, shockingly they are not. At lease these aren't! Don't be scared this is SIMPLE!

This is a recipe I made from The Beeroness, however the toppings are my own. I followed someone else's recipe since I don't know the first thing about making truffles! LOL! It is a VERY simple recipe reduce down some beer and stir in the chocolate and let it set. Then roll into balls then into toppings. Let's talk about toppings....

4 AMAZING toppings: Cayenne and Brown Sugar, 2-Coconut Flakes and Powdered Sugar, Crushed Pistachios and my FAVE- Black Forest Bacon and Brown Sugar! See below!

So if I made this recipe again I would add some cream or butter. The truffles are delish, just a little harder than I like.

Why is this a Foodgasm??

Ummmm chocolate and beer and yeah there was some bacon involved. This is definitely a one night stand kinda foodgasm... Heavy on the calories and fat. But you gotta indulge time to time!

What you need

Recipe from The Beeroness

1 cup Imperial Porter ( I used Ballast Point Victory at Sea)
8 oz. dark chocolate, chopped rough

Toppings
1 part chili to one part brown sugar
3 slices of bacon and 2 tbsp coconut sugar
1/4 cup coconut flakes and 2 tbsp powdered sugar
chopped pistachios

How to make it

SUPER easy
1- In a saucepan reduce 1 cup of beer to 1/2 the size on medium heat, stirring frequently.
2- When reduced remove from heat and melt chocolate into the beer.
3- Let sit on counter to become room temperature and set.
4- Roll into balls in hands and roll into toppings.

Brewer Shirts GIVEAWAY!!!  

Aren't these super cute??  These are the ladies shirts and there are lots for guys too!

You have a week to enter and 4 winners will be chosen to get one of their awesome shirts of your choice!! You love beer? You wanna win on of THESE! Please check them out brewershirts.com!


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MORE AWESOME #beermonth Recipes

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Honey Brown Beer Bread with Bacon, The Birth of a Brewery and More!

A #beermonth recipe, the birth of a brewery and exciting news of upcoming features on NY Foodgasm.

Chicken Beeriyaki with Asian Slaw #beermonth

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Millennial Central for Kirin. I received product samples to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation. All ideas presented are my own.

Here is the first group celebration of #beermonth my friends! My blogger pals have all joined together to bring you their take on beer recipes. I am super excited to introduce you all to Lauren of Hall Nesting, Heather from girlichef and Jessica from Jessiker Bakes! I love all these ladies and I want you to show them love to by checking out there blogs (I love them all and read them all every week!) and by checking out their recipes at the bottom of this post!  

This is my very first sponsored post, I often shy away from these things unless I genuinely think you guys wanna read about it. With this one, I knew I should be involved with this one. It is #beermonth after all! So when the opportunity arose for me to sample and cook with Kiran Ichiban, I was totally on board.

If you haven't heard of Kiran Ichiban it is THE Sushi Restaurant go to beer to represent Japan. To learn more about the beer, visit their website! I hadn't tried it before, so my expectations were low. But it was pretty decent, crisp and clean. Absolutely perfect to accompany any Asian dish. I think it represents Japanese cuisine pretty well; it is a simple yet elegant beer and very balanced. Not overly malty or hoppy you can pair this with most anything. But you know I don't just pair beer with food, I make food with beer!

Asian beer, Asian inspired dish! All you foodies- don't hate on me, I have a confession. I don't like sushi- nope- I tried it all and it ain't my thing. So that was out and I was glad, it's a whole lotta work. So I made something completely different with my beer. Chicken Beeriaki, it's like chicken teriaki, but like WAY better.

Everything is better with beer, but I also made this super easy too! All you have to do is brown some chicken and prepare the sauce in the food processor, then added the fresh Asian veggies. No cooking of veggies required, so it kinda makes an Asian slaw. I paired it with some sushi rice for that authentic feel. So I got what I like about sushi- protein, the sauce and that awesome sticky rice without the seaweed taste. I made a roll out of the ingredients, but I tasted it and I don't care for the seaweed AT ALL! If you do like sushi and seaweed wrappers this can easily be made into a roll. You can see I included a piece of the roll on the pictures so you could see it.

 Why is this a Foodgasm?

Chicken teriyaki is a staple- but kicked up with beer?! Even better. I find the beer flavor intensified and enhanced this and accompanied it even more than I imagined! This sauce is one of my new favorite things and I think it will be yours too! Even for the skeptical- try it! It will surprise you! Plus it is easy to make and low in fat and calories!

What you need

2 chicken breasts, cut into strips
1/3 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
Olive Oil as needed for browning

1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon pickled ginger
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup Kiran Ichiban beer

2 cups chopped Asian salad (the kind you buy in a bag)

 

How to make it

1- Dredge chicken in mixture of flour, salt and pepper.
2- Brown chicken on both sides in a skillet on medium heat.
3- In a food processor, combine: 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon pickled ginger, 1/2 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon minced garlic and 1/2 cup Kiran Ichiban beer.
4- Mix together the Asian chopped salad with some of the sauce.
5- Serve atop Sushi rice.

Nutritional Information

Each serving includes chicken sauce and vegetables. Additional calories for white rice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#Beermonth recipes

 

Citrus IPA Poundcake #beermonth

What is an IPA you may say? (That is what my mom said to me anyways) IPA stands for India Pale Ale. IPA's belong under the larger umbrella style of Pale Ales, meaning that they use pale colored malts. The IPA is known to be a hoppy beer so you really taste the hops more than the malt. Digging deeper than that, the type of hops you use can bring out certain characteristic flavors and aromas. Many hops can bring out citrusy flavors naturally, so that is where the idea for this recipe came in...

IPA's are a hot style right now, with Double IPA's (also known as an Imperial IPA) and Triple IPA's trending I thought I would need to experiment with this style. To bring out the citrusy notes in the IPA I have wanted to make this pound cake for a WHILE now, to experiment and make something memorable with it.

It's good to have friends that brew craft beer! My friend Matt from Outer Lands Brewing Company asked me to try their Good Mojo IPA. It was the day after a beer festival, I didn't wanna look at beer or even drink it, but I took a taste. It's nicely balanced, not bitter at all with great citrus notes. Exactly what I needed for this recipe! For a non IPA drinker or someone that does not like a bitter IPA this craft  is for YOU.

#Beermonth Begins with a Chocolate Stout Shake!

For those of you that have been following me for a while you will remember #Beermonth from last year. It is a month where I celebrate my love for craft beer with: recipes, articles, reviews and more from me and some of my blogging friends! This year I have my friend Lauren from Hall's Nesting, Jessica from Jessiker Bakes, Melissa from Drunk and Unemployed and Nicole from Nibbles by Nic.You can expect BIG recipe posts 4/16 and 4/30 from ALL of us and maybe some articles and general craft beer love coming your way!

The Story of Beer Month...

My love of craft beer started with The Gateway to Craft Beer, Pumpkin Spice. I think you ladies know what I am talking about. If not this is the magic that is pumpkin spice ale- It is ale brewed with pumpkin and spices and then in NY (as I understand this is not done everywhere) they rim the glass with pumpkin spice sugar. TO- DIE- FOR. I fell and I fell hard for the spice. The spice captured my heart and then I just had to know more about craft beer.

I moved on to other fruit beers. One of my first faves was Bluepoint Blueberry Ale, so delicious and perfect in the summer. Then I tried Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. Then I really started getting adventurous and ventured onto the dark side. Dark beers- dun dun dun **cue scary music**

I learned one thing- never to judge a beer by it's color. Just like with people, you should see what's happening on the inside. While I don't encourage you to lick a person to see if they're any good... I do encourage you to at least take a simple sip of a beer. At worst, you can easily spit it our if you don't like it.

Since I had my own blog I knew I had to incorporate cooking and beer together for a month of craft beer love.

Since my love of craft beer grew, it blossomed into a new direction for me. I write for 2 magazines about local craft beer and have become completely immersed with the craft beer culture here on Long Island. Beer month was born so I can share recipes with local craft beer and give you a little taste of the local scene and happenings.

Since I never drink alone- I always invite some bloggers to get in on the fun with me!
I have some surprises too! This month I will be brewing my VERY own beer with The Brewers Collective, a local group of home brewers. I strongly believe that homebrewers' creativity heavily influences the nano and craft brew market. With homebrew you can take those chances and you know I like to get creative!

Now for the reason you are all here- this drippy mess of deliciousness that I call A Chocolate Stout Milkshake...

I have been going to a local restaurant, Relish, for a while now. The food is always fresh, as local as it can be and inventive while still being incredibly comforting and inviting. No small portion or names you cannot pronounce or understand. This is down to earth, creative twists on classic comfort. A place that anyone can feel comfortable. When I heard they were serving beer, I was excited. When I saw they had a Guinness Milk Shake, I had to try it and WOAH it stopped me in my tracks, I clutched my chest to keep my heart still. It was way better than I ever expected.

Chocolate and Stouts are  not an uncommon combination at all. If you follow one of my faves, The Beeroness, You will see stout and chocolate are a "thing", basically mouth magic! The dark maltiness of a stout already had notes of chocolate present often, so to add it to a chocolate recipe further pushes the bounderies.

So I thank Relish in Kings Park, NY for this recipe! It rocks HARD!

Why is this a Foodgasm?

This is pretty easy to answer, chocolate ice cream + stout beer = MAGIC.
But to balance it out there is caramel and chocolate syrup for a little more sweet-ness as stouts sometimes have a bitter edge to them.