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Some people here are interested in dishes that can be cooked in a cast iron Dutch oven, especially outside, over coals. I don't have such a Dutch oven, but I make a lot of stews. Well, what better than a stew, now considered "Haute Cuisine", that was orginially cooked that way, by peasants, and is made with beer?
Carbonade Flamande, or Flemish Beef Stew With Beer.
Between the Ardennes and the coast of Flanders, chefs cook with beer. These traditions date back to charcoal burners of the Ardennes forests and the hermitages and abbeys of that region. the latter often boasting their own brewhouse. Corbonade flamande, beef braised with beer, is said to owe its name to its having originally been cooked in a pot set on charcoal - carbon.
Hmmm, If that ain't Dutch oven, what is? Might even be suitable for some who are into re-inactments, say around mid 1500's, especially if what is known as a Lambic-style brew is used.
Beer, and "Haute Cusine" you say? Well, properly you should make this with what are some particular ales that originated in Belgium and part of Northern France, that are somewhat sour. Sour as in acidic or tart--not horribly spoiled. (More below) Cooking is these places is as sophbisticated as anywhere else, and there is a long tradition of using the local brews. In most areas, some examples are available and some reasonable to excellent versions are being made by many American microbreweries, though they just can't match some of the styles from thjis part of Europe. Unless you cook wine dishes with Night Train, Ripple or Thunderchicken, you want to use the proper brew for this, not Bud or Mickey's. (Though I did read about a top chef that steams clams in Colt-45, because he doesn't want to overpower the taste of the clams--Seems a substitute deliveryman didn't deliver the usual allotment of Colt because he knew that the restuarant just couldn't have ordered it) .
Since many wine snobs and snooty TeeVee chefs still think that cooking with beer is low-brow stuff, and any beer will do as long as it is the right color, here is your chance to give them their come-uppance. Many are shocked that the brews often come in a corked bottle like champagne. Here's a link that shows beer-geeks can snob with the best of them, but might be an interesting read as well--above quote came from it.
http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000053.html
Anyway, here's an annotated typical recipe I snagged from on line:
ingredients:
3 lbs beef chuck roast, or similar well marbled cut, sliced into 1/4 to 1/3 inch slices (putting the roast in the freezer for about 30 minutes make slicing much easier)
1.5 lbs onions, sliced into thin half moons
3 strips of bacon, sliced into 1/4 inch lardons
1 cup beef broth may may want more broth on hand
About 2 cups dark beer (avoid beer which is too bitter, as the bitterness will be accentuated through the cooking process - I generally use Liefman's Jan Van Gent or Goudenband) have more beer on hand--for cooking and "cooking"
3 tbl flour
2 - 3 tbl butter (only if not enough bacon fat to cook the onions in step 4 or create a roux in step 5)
2 - 3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper, to taste
In brief, you basically render the bacon, until browned, remove it, brown the meat in the fat, remove it, and then brown the onions in the fat, and remove them. Remove but 3 tablespoons of the, now very tasty, fat, being careful to leave all the yummy brown bits in the pan. Add the flour and make a light-brown roux. Dump in the liquids including juices from reserved items, mix together. Then add the rest, and more beer or stock to cover if needed. Cover and cook at about 300 deg F for two-three hours.
You can of course use more beer instead of stock, or add other "stew" vegetables like parsnips, carrots or potatoes, when to add depends upon how you like them done. Or add some mushrooms treated like the onions. It's a stew. Some Dijon mustard is commonly added.
Or use broth or water, instead of the beer, or even (gasp!) wine, but what's the fun in that?
For more detailed instructions, which include the added fancy step of pouring the pre-gravy out of the pot, placing the meat and onions in alternating layers, then pouring the gravy back in before the long cooking period, look here:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/cookbook/recipe/67
Here is a link to a "fancy" version , which can give you some ideas on how to "spiff" it up if you like, though if a really good beer is used, I don't think that all the extra stuff is needed, and I just can't see leaving out the onions. Marinating the meat is cool, and the addition of apples, (I'd use tart ones) just before the end of cooking sounds good. A particular Belgian beer is reccomended in this recipe, but any beer like that described above will work, but I can see how this recipe might get overly sweet, unless a quite sour brew is used.
http://www.ochef.com/r34.htm
Authentically one should use brews called Saison, Bier de Garde, or lambics like gueze (careful with the with fruit lambics though--many are no longer properly sour, and retain too much of a sweet intense fruit flavor due to ruining the old process of making them). These are somewhat sour, to quite sour, complicated brews that will have a similar effect as does a dry, acidic red wine when cooking the meat. Brews with a pronounced, sweet-sour taste, but more to the sour work well too. Really many, but not all, Belgian or Belgian style brews work nicely. Darker, more strongly flavored ones often produce a tastier sauce. Like cooking with wine, the final dish will reflect what ale was used, so taste the it before commiting to using it. After a couple tries, you'll know what to look for in the the brew to make it the way you like. Careful with brews that are strongly hopped, they will cook down to a bitter taste, in fact the beers used for this type of cooking are traditionally made with aged hops that have little hop taste remaining, just the preservative properties.
Where I live a brew called Grimbergen Double is available, works quite well and is one of the less expensive. Doubles are often darker in color and fuller-flavored though some are on the sweet side, but this one is nicely sweet/sour. Triples are lighter in color and more dry, but won't be lacking in the flavor department.
At first taste, these brews may seem quite strange, somewhat to quite sour, with fruity, spicy or even musky smells or tastes. A few are are too sweet--they vary a lot. Even if it seems really sour, give it a chance, this is what you want for this--you can add a bit of sugar if needed during late cooking. If you can't stand aged cheeses, some of these brews, which aren't made with a single purified strain of yeast, won't be for you.
Cost for such brews start at perhaps $6-7, a few wil be much more, like $15-16 or even more, for 750 ml bottles. Some of these are aged for up to three years before bottling, and many can be kept in a cellar like wine for years. Compared to wine, pretty cheap (try getting a really tasty bottle of champagne for this price), and like wine, the higher priced ones are too spendy, scarce and just plain tasty on their own for most to use to cook with. Alcohol content may be nearly as high as wine, though not always. The range of tastes is actually wider than for wine, so if one is not to your liking, others probably will be, if you already like several kinds of beer.
If you don't like any beer but Bud, why are you still reading this? Go eat a Velveeta sandwich on Wonder Bread instead, or get back to work.
Works with other brews as well, just avoid the strongly hopped (like many American microbrews), or really sweet, and remember, if the brew tastes boring, so will the dish. Some vinegar may be needed as most brews don't have the sour notes.
If cooking with the Belgian-style brews sounds interesting, (I think it is fun and far cheaper than wine) here's a link to some other recipes that use Belgian-style brews, but they aren't really Dutch oven material:
http://www.unibroue.com/recipes/index.cfm
Carbonade Flamande, or Flemish Beef Stew With Beer.
Between the Ardennes and the coast of Flanders, chefs cook with beer. These traditions date back to charcoal burners of the Ardennes forests and the hermitages and abbeys of that region. the latter often boasting their own brewhouse. Corbonade flamande, beef braised with beer, is said to owe its name to its having originally been cooked in a pot set on charcoal - carbon.
Hmmm, If that ain't Dutch oven, what is? Might even be suitable for some who are into re-inactments, say around mid 1500's, especially if what is known as a Lambic-style brew is used.
Beer, and "Haute Cusine" you say? Well, properly you should make this with what are some particular ales that originated in Belgium and part of Northern France, that are somewhat sour. Sour as in acidic or tart--not horribly spoiled. (More below) Cooking is these places is as sophbisticated as anywhere else, and there is a long tradition of using the local brews. In most areas, some examples are available and some reasonable to excellent versions are being made by many American microbreweries, though they just can't match some of the styles from thjis part of Europe. Unless you cook wine dishes with Night Train, Ripple or Thunderchicken, you want to use the proper brew for this, not Bud or Mickey's. (Though I did read about a top chef that steams clams in Colt-45, because he doesn't want to overpower the taste of the clams--Seems a substitute deliveryman didn't deliver the usual allotment of Colt because he knew that the restuarant just couldn't have ordered it) .
Since many wine snobs and snooty TeeVee chefs still think that cooking with beer is low-brow stuff, and any beer will do as long as it is the right color, here is your chance to give them their come-uppance. Many are shocked that the brews often come in a corked bottle like champagne. Here's a link that shows beer-geeks can snob with the best of them, but might be an interesting read as well--above quote came from it.
http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000053.html
Anyway, here's an annotated typical recipe I snagged from on line:
ingredients:
3 lbs beef chuck roast, or similar well marbled cut, sliced into 1/4 to 1/3 inch slices (putting the roast in the freezer for about 30 minutes make slicing much easier)
1.5 lbs onions, sliced into thin half moons
3 strips of bacon, sliced into 1/4 inch lardons
1 cup beef broth may may want more broth on hand
About 2 cups dark beer (avoid beer which is too bitter, as the bitterness will be accentuated through the cooking process - I generally use Liefman's Jan Van Gent or Goudenband) have more beer on hand--for cooking and "cooking"
3 tbl flour
2 - 3 tbl butter (only if not enough bacon fat to cook the onions in step 4 or create a roux in step 5)
2 - 3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper, to taste
In brief, you basically render the bacon, until browned, remove it, brown the meat in the fat, remove it, and then brown the onions in the fat, and remove them. Remove but 3 tablespoons of the, now very tasty, fat, being careful to leave all the yummy brown bits in the pan. Add the flour and make a light-brown roux. Dump in the liquids including juices from reserved items, mix together. Then add the rest, and more beer or stock to cover if needed. Cover and cook at about 300 deg F for two-three hours.
You can of course use more beer instead of stock, or add other "stew" vegetables like parsnips, carrots or potatoes, when to add depends upon how you like them done. Or add some mushrooms treated like the onions. It's a stew. Some Dijon mustard is commonly added.
Or use broth or water, instead of the beer, or even (gasp!) wine, but what's the fun in that?
For more detailed instructions, which include the added fancy step of pouring the pre-gravy out of the pot, placing the meat and onions in alternating layers, then pouring the gravy back in before the long cooking period, look here:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/cookbook/recipe/67
Here is a link to a "fancy" version , which can give you some ideas on how to "spiff" it up if you like, though if a really good beer is used, I don't think that all the extra stuff is needed, and I just can't see leaving out the onions. Marinating the meat is cool, and the addition of apples, (I'd use tart ones) just before the end of cooking sounds good. A particular Belgian beer is reccomended in this recipe, but any beer like that described above will work, but I can see how this recipe might get overly sweet, unless a quite sour brew is used.
http://www.ochef.com/r34.htm
Authentically one should use brews called Saison, Bier de Garde, or lambics like gueze (careful with the with fruit lambics though--many are no longer properly sour, and retain too much of a sweet intense fruit flavor due to ruining the old process of making them). These are somewhat sour, to quite sour, complicated brews that will have a similar effect as does a dry, acidic red wine when cooking the meat. Brews with a pronounced, sweet-sour taste, but more to the sour work well too. Really many, but not all, Belgian or Belgian style brews work nicely. Darker, more strongly flavored ones often produce a tastier sauce. Like cooking with wine, the final dish will reflect what ale was used, so taste the it before commiting to using it. After a couple tries, you'll know what to look for in the the brew to make it the way you like. Careful with brews that are strongly hopped, they will cook down to a bitter taste, in fact the beers used for this type of cooking are traditionally made with aged hops that have little hop taste remaining, just the preservative properties.
Where I live a brew called Grimbergen Double is available, works quite well and is one of the less expensive. Doubles are often darker in color and fuller-flavored though some are on the sweet side, but this one is nicely sweet/sour. Triples are lighter in color and more dry, but won't be lacking in the flavor department.
At first taste, these brews may seem quite strange, somewhat to quite sour, with fruity, spicy or even musky smells or tastes. A few are are too sweet--they vary a lot. Even if it seems really sour, give it a chance, this is what you want for this--you can add a bit of sugar if needed during late cooking. If you can't stand aged cheeses, some of these brews, which aren't made with a single purified strain of yeast, won't be for you.
Cost for such brews start at perhaps $6-7, a few wil be much more, like $15-16 or even more, for 750 ml bottles. Some of these are aged for up to three years before bottling, and many can be kept in a cellar like wine for years. Compared to wine, pretty cheap (try getting a really tasty bottle of champagne for this price), and like wine, the higher priced ones are too spendy, scarce and just plain tasty on their own for most to use to cook with. Alcohol content may be nearly as high as wine, though not always. The range of tastes is actually wider than for wine, so if one is not to your liking, others probably will be, if you already like several kinds of beer.
If you don't like any beer but Bud, why are you still reading this? Go eat a Velveeta sandwich on Wonder Bread instead, or get back to work.
Works with other brews as well, just avoid the strongly hopped (like many American microbrews), or really sweet, and remember, if the brew tastes boring, so will the dish. Some vinegar may be needed as most brews don't have the sour notes.
If cooking with the Belgian-style brews sounds interesting, (I think it is fun and far cheaper than wine) here's a link to some other recipes that use Belgian-style brews, but they aren't really Dutch oven material:
http://www.unibroue.com/recipes/index.cfm
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