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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Approved Uses for Beer Other than Drinking...

Dips?  Sure.  I have had a great Beer Cheddar dip.  Sauces.  Yeah, see cheese again.  Bread?  Yes you can.  Chili?  You better add beer to your chili!  But, my favorite alternative use for beer is with Bratwurst.  Here is how you do it...

First, start with a good beer.  No Crudweiser or Chick Light here.  It has to be on the darker side.  I usually use Yeungling Lager.  When it is in season, I prefer Penn Brewery Octoberfest.  This time, I used Otter Creek Copper Ale...


First, you put your brats in a sauce pan, cover with beer, and turn the heat on low...


Once they come to a light simmer, keep your eye on them.  No rolling boil here.  You don't want to break the skins or you will have a Three Alarm Fire on your grill.  You just want to lightly simmer until they change color.  You'll finish cooking them on the grill.  Once they turn color on the bottom, flip them over and let the color change again.  Once they have a uniform gray color, remove from the heat and set aside.


While the brats were coming to a simmer, I thinly sliced half a sweet onion and started to caramelize in olive oil with fresh ground sea salt and pepper...



Once the onions reached that perfect brown caramel color, I deglazed the pan with some of the beer that I used to simmer the brats.  How much beer?  Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan...


Once reduced, I turned off the heat and set aside for later.  The beer will add a nice malty taste that will complement nicely with the brats simmered in beer.

By this time, the fire is ready and I took the pan with the brats outside.  Brats on the fire, flip when brown on the bottom.  It doesn't take long, about five minutes...


Once flipped, cook until the skins start to split, then back into the warm beer used for simmering...


I learned this technique at a huge summer party one year.  They were grilling huge amounts of brats.  they just placed them in foil pans with the beer to keep them warm and moist.  The beer also soaks into the brats adding more malty goodness...

Then, put your brat on a fresh roll, top with caramelized onions and spicy brown mustard.  Crisp skin, juicy, malty inside.  Heaven on a roll for sure.



Thanks for stopping by...

Bill

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