Pinterest Project - 5th Edition - OktoBEERfest

OktoBEERfest

Some wonderful friends of ours recently moved to the Chicago area.  For several years they invited us over for an OktoBEERfest every October.  They would cook a delicious feast and every dish would incorporate beer.  We decided to carry on the tradition ourselves when they left so I took upon myself the task of finding a bunch of beer recipes for the celebration.  As usual, I overdid it, and we all were stuffed by the time the actual dinner course was served, but that's ok, that just means yummy leftovers.  After deciding upon recipes, I gave the list to the hubby to figure out what beer to put in what.  When a recipe calls for "beer", let's face it; you are fooling yourself if you are just throwing any ol' beer in.  I was further impressed when the hubby took my list and came up with beers that would work nicely and he didn't even have to make a trip to the store.  That's the kind of beer selection we've got.

here are some of the store bought beers we used

It was several courses (did I mention that I kind-of overdid it?), so I was in the kitchen all evening and didn't get pictures.  But that's ok, because the websites I pinned from have plenty of lovely pictures.  The recipes below have links to the actual websites where I found them, but if you would like to check out my Mamalaurarose OktoBEERfest pinboard, you can find these recipes pinned there as well as other beer recipes I plan to try at some point in the future.

The Appetizers

Beer Battered Onion Rings -     Beer used- Shift- This is brewed by the New Belgium brewery and is an excellent canned beer. It is a pale lager.

The review- Delicious and they paired VERY nicely with the beer cheese dipping sauce below.

picture from thecozyapron.com

Beer Cheese Dipping Sauce-     Beer used- Speakeasy Prohibition (pictured above) is an amber ale.

The review- Also a hit!  We used this as a dip for the onion rings as well as store bought honey pretzel bites

Soup Course

Bacon Beer Cheese Soup -    Beer used- Deschutes Chainbreaker pictured above) is a white IPA. The recipe called for a Belgian style wheat beer (they suggested Blue Moon).  Hubby says the Chainbreaker is a Belgian Wit (White Wheat Beer) so it fits the style the recipe calls for, but it's an IPA, so a bit hoppier than a Blue Moon would have been.  

The review- This was definitely one of my FAVORITE recipes of the night.  It has a bit of a kick (that's from the cayenne) I did not use the full amount and it was perfect. ( I believe I used about half.)  I omitted the croutons and used 2% milk instead of half and half.  After I cooked it, I threw it all in the crock pot on low to marry the flavors and keep it warm to serve later.   We served the soup with the beer pretzel bowls below. 

picture from theslowroasteditalian.com

Beer Pretzel bowls -  Beer used-  Home-brewed California common- This beer was brewed by my hubby's friend, who introduced us to the OktoBEERfest tradition.  Prost, Miles!  FYI, Anchor Steam is a type of commercial California common beer that you may have heard of or seen in stores, so something like that would be good if you don't have a homebrewer in the house.    

The review- The recipe was not difficult, but it did take time, and I was disappointed in the results given all the time I spent.  Perhaps I needed to pay more attention to exact rising times and that was my problem.  I also greased a pan instead of using parchment paper as suggested and used normal flour instead of bread flour.   Anyway, the end result was pretzel bowls that were not puffy round balls and were a bit soggy on the bottom.  They tasted just like I wanted them to, but the texture and look left me disappointed overall.  I'd like to try this recipe again and see if I can make them look like the picture on the website.  

Dinner course

Autumn Pear Salad with Wheat Beer Vinaigrette -   Beer used- Home-brewed american wheat.  This beer was brewed by the hubby.  

The review- Mmmmmmm!  I love a good salad.  I did make some changes though.  We omitted the chicken (we had it all over the place elsewhere in the meal)  and the goat cheese.  We used Bartlett pears (our favorite) and used toasted almonds instead of toasted pecans.  The vinaigrette was very yummy with this salad.  We have leftovers, so I think I will add some cut up avocado to it today (we love avocado around here!)

Beer battered asparagus with lemon dipping sauce -   Beer used- Home-brewed White Smoke Munich Helles ("And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it") .  This beer was brewed by my hubby with his buddy shortly after Pope Benedict resigned and while we were waiting for our new Pope.  

The review- Everyone enjoyed these.  The comments from others especially noted how delicious the dipping sauce was paired with the asparagus.  

picture from menumusings@blogspot.com

Chicken with Honey Beer Sauce-  Beer used-  Sam Adams Latitude 48 (pictured above) is a citrus-y IPA.  The hubby actually had the Munich Helles earmarked for this chicken and the citrus-y IPA for the asparagus, but in my rush, I accidentally switched them.  They were still very yummy, but I am sure my husband's original choices would have been even better.  

The review- This was a very good recipe.  Because of all the dishes I was preparing, I precooked the chicken which dried it out a little more than I like.  We added slices up brats to the dish as well since, after all, it was OktoBEERfest, so brats were kind of needed somewhere.  :)  Delicious.  

Dessert

Guinness Brownies -   Beer used- Home-brewed chocolate cherry stout.  The recipe obviously called for Guinness, but when you have not just a stout, but a CHOCOLATE CHERRY stout home-brewed by an amazing man, the obvious choice is to use the chocolate cherry stout.  

The review- This was my VERY FAVORITE recipe of the day.  Moist, rich, chocolatey goodness with a hint of the chocolate cherry stout.  It was heaven.  I think the hubby has one more bottle of this and I'm already planning the next batch of brownies AND I will soon be pressuring him to brew another batch of the chocolate cherry stout as well....SO GOOD!

picture from napoleongrills.com

Here are my two eldest girls enjoying the day