Perennial Artisan Ales & Cheese Pairing

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Last night I attended my first beer and cheese pairing (I’d love to go to a wine and cheese pairing, too!) at the establishment I work at.  It was a lot of fun, and there were quite a few beers and cheeses to try.  I’d actually tried all of the cheeses before (part of my job is cutting and wrapping cheese – yes, I cut the cheese.), but the beers were new to me.

The beer was from Perennial Artisan Ales out of St. Louis, Missouri - a new brewery that makes rare beers using locally made ingredients.  They’re website seems to be having some trouble right now, so I can’t link to it or find out any more information. 

Twenty of my closest burly man friends (not really, I didn’t know anyone and sat by myself) and I tried six flights of beer paired with cheese from our store. 

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And no, I didn’t finish every single glass of beer.  I know my limitations.  And no, I didn’t finish every single piece of cheese.  I know my limitations. 

This is a display of all of the cheeses we tried + local Askinosie chocolate.

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1. English white stilton with mango & ginger.  If you’re going to try a fruit stilton, this is the one.  It’s our best selling flavor and probably my favorite.  It’s a crumbly sweet cheese with a bite.

2. Fresh goat log.  You all know how I feel about goat cheese.  Love. It.  Sometimes I eat goat cheese straight from the package with a spoon? 

3. Barber’s Vintage English Cheddar: a sharp white cheddar with a dry texture.  This one is a good cheese as well.  Aged cheddars have so much more flavor. 

4. Fenugreek gouda: a raw cow’s milk cheese with a hint of maple.  This cheese is gouda!  I love the maple flavor I get from the fenugreek. 

5. Fourme d’Ambert Bleu: a cow’s milk blue from France.  This was the only cheese I’m not a fan of.  It’s a leeetttle bit too strong for me.  I do like blue cheese though.  But not by itself.  If I’m cooking with it I like to use Maytag or Italian gorgonzola. 

6. Askinosie Chocolate Savao Phillipines Bar.  77% dark chocolate.  Oh baby.  I love all dark chocolate, but especially Askinosie.  It’s pretty amazing. 

 

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We started off with the Saison de Lis paired with the mango & ginger stilton.  “A straw colored Belgian-style saison brewed with chamomile flowers.  It’s fermented with a traditional saison yeast that imparts fruity and spicy notes that dovetail perfectly with the tea-like quality of the chamomile.  This refreshing brew finishes dry and slightly tart.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Followed by the Strawberry Rhubarb Tart paired with the fresh goat cheese.  “It begins as a Belgian-style witbier, to which strawberries, rhubarb and Indian coriander are added.  The result is a refreshingly tart and surprisingly citrusy beer with a subtle essence of strawberries.”

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Hommel Bier
paired with vintage white cheddar.  “Hommel is a dry-hopped Belgian style pale ale which defies tradition by combining Pacific Northwest hops and American malts with Belgian yeast.  Earthy hop aroma, spicy yeast character and slight orange notes flavor the beer.”










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Peace Offering paired with fenugreek gouda.  “An American brown ale brewed with a few hundred pounds of maple-roasted Missouri squash and a dash of cinnamon and clove.  This unique brew has a bold, caramel body, and hints of floral, hop bitterness balanced with the savory squash notes.”












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Heart of Gold paired with Fourme d’Ambert Bleu.  “This well balance wheat wine has a creamy mouth feel, a big hop character and a rich, caramel malt finish.  You’ll find that it’s surprisingly smooth for its strength (10% ABV).”













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And finally, we ended the tasting with Abraxas paired with Askinosie chocolate.  “An American imperial stout brewed to accentuate the sweet chocolate character and aged on cacao nibs, vanilla beans, freshly ground cinnamon sticks and ancho chili peppers.”

Whew.  That was a lot of information to throw at ya.  I hope you’re not asleep or gone by now.  If you are, I understand.  Cheese and beer pairing posts aren’t for everyone!  I just wanted to share my evening and what I learned with you. 

Honestly, I liked every single beer I tried.  If I had to pick my favorites I’d probably pick the Saison de Lis and the Peace Offering.  I thought the cheese pairing for those was spot on.  If you live in the area and would like more information about the beer, cheese, or tastings, feel free to email me. 

Okay, that’s all for today.  Class is dismissed.  I’ll be back with more dessert recipes soon.   I’ve also been planning a cheese post for the future; I already took pictures.  I’m not sure if you all would like that or not.  Sometimes it’s just nice to give myself a little break from all of the desserts. 

And by that I mean blogging about desserts – not eating desserts.  Eating desserts never gets old.  Never.


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Cherry-Vanilla Bean Cookies

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I don’t have anything crazy for you today – just some simple cookies.  They were very delicious and blog-worthy, though.  Cherry-Vanilla Bean Cookies.  Isn’t that a good name for a cookie? 

These are crisp, yet soft, slightly chewy and full of fun ingredients: fresh vanilla bean seeds, dried cherries, chopped toasted pecans, and white chocolate chips. 

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I love the flavor combination, I love the name, I’m giving these five stars on the cookie rating system.

I have a distant cousin and her name is Cherry-Marie.  I’ve never met her before, but I did hear her name mentioned occasionally when I was growing up.  Every time I’d hear it, I’d wish my name was Cherry. 

I also wished my name was Victoria, Samantha, Jasmine, and Claudia when I was a kid. 
What did you wish your name was?  Or was I the only one who did that?  I was definitely inspired by American Girl and Babysitters Club books…

Time to go to work!  Have a good day!

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Cherry-Vanilla Bean Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 a vanilla bean, seeds scraped out
1 large egg
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, walnuts or almonds, toasted
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. 
In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, sugar and vanilla bean seeds until creamy - about 1 minute.  Beat in egg, sour cream, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well combined - about 1 minutes.  Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour, cherries, nuts and white chocolate chips until just incorporated. 

Place heaping tablespoons full of dough onto cookie sheets.  Bake 12 minutes or until light golden brown.  Cool 1 minute before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen big cookies

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Southern Fried Chicken Pot Pie

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I’ve got a very busy day planned today, so there’s no time to dilly-dally. 

Checklist for 12/23/12
-Watch as much 30 Rock as possible.
-Buy new DSLR camera.
-Make French Macarons.
-Shred it with Jillian.
-Make orange marmalade.
-Read Room.
-Bake pound cake.
-Make dinner?

Usually my dinners are boring, healthy, and fairly quick.  You would be unimpressed if I showed you.  There’s a lot of tofu, kale, broccoli, beans, rice and pasta involved. 

Every once in a while you have to give yourself a little break and eat something not healthy. 

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Comfort food is good for the soul.  Does anyone like pot pie as much as I do?  It’s such a good meal to have in January when it’s freezing outside.  This Southern Fried Chicken Pot Pie is my invention.  I’m quite proud of it.  Let me tell you what’s inside.

The crust is really cool.  It’s a pie dough made with cornmeal, buttermilk and butter.  Since this is a Southern pot pie, I used a little shortening in the crust, too.  Shhhh.  I don’t usually do that. 
It tastes like a cornbread-pie dough.  Yum. 

The filling of the pie is pretty easy to throw together.  I’m hoping the filling sounds good to you; it sounds good to me, but it’s kind of weird.  Onion is sauteed in butter, then milk, flour, and chicken stock is added to the pan to make a cream sauce.  Mashed potatoes and sweet corn are whisked into the cream sauce. 

This filling is poured on top of the bottom pie crust, and then topped with sliced fried chicken.  The other crust is placed on top, and then the pie is baked for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbly.

And you have pot pie for all of your Southern friends to enjoy!  Just don’t invite Paula Deen. 

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Southern Fried Chicken Pot Pie

Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chilled shortening
1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
1 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 cups prepared mashed potato 
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup sweet corn
3 cups chopped fried chicken strips

To make the dough, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor; pulse until combined.  Add butter and shortening; pulse until crumbly and pea-sized lumps form.  Add buttermilk, and pulse until a dough ball forms.  Shape dough into 2 discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; stir in onion and cook 6 minutes, or until tender.  Whisk in flour and cook 1 minute.  Whisk in milk and chicken stock, and bring to a simmer, whisking frequently, until thickened.  Whisk in potato, salt, pepper and corn until well combined.  Set aside.

Thinly roll out one dough round, to an 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface; transfer dough round to a 9-inch deep dish pie dish, and fit into bottom.  Pour creamy-potato-corn mixture in dish, and top with chicken.  Thinly roll out additional dough round, to an 1/8-inch thickness, and place on top of chicken.  Pinch and crimp dough edges to seal. (Optional - whisk together 1 egg + 1 tablespoon milk until combined; brush over dough for a shiny glaze.  Cut 4 slits in center of dough)

Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Cover pie with foil, and bake an additional 15 minutes or until bubbly and crisp. 

Makes 8 servings