Beer and Bratwurst Pizza

With the new grilled pizza cookbook we received as well as our grill gadget pizza oven, we have been experimenting with different types of pizza.  We do run into a few pizza competitions each summer and perhaps a new creation will turn out to be a winning entry sometime in the future.  After leafing though the pizza cookbook, I was inspired by a ballpark style hot dog pizza.  Hot dogs are good.  Bratwurst is even better.  Chedarwurst, brats peppered with little bits of cheddar goodness, are my favorite.  I felt a pizza experimentation coming on fast.  Here is what we came up with one warm Friday evening.

Hope made a batch of dough.  While the dough was rising, I simmered two fresh brat links that I had picked up from my butcher earlier that day in some Penn Dark.  I always simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes, or just until the casing on the link starts to expand.  At the same time, I caramelized  half of a medium sweet onion.  Finally, I took a quart of homemade sauerkraut that a friend of The Oldest makes every year and dumped into a colander to drain.  (One note should you decide to try this recipe.  Do not use canned sauerkraut.  Buy the fresh stuff that you find in the plastic bag in the meat case, or make your own.  The fresh kraut is crispy in texture and at the same time tart, but not sour like canned kraut.)  Once the dough was ready, I layered the pizza skin with a very thin coat of olive oil, thinly sliced sharp cheddar, sauerkraut, my caramelized onions, and then finally my bratwurst, sliced into quarter inch rounds.

Eight minutes in the pizza oven later, and here was the final product.

After slicing, I served with a little drizzle of spicy brown mustard on top.

Good, but not quite there.  I needed more onion, cheese, and perhaps a tough of garlic.  But, the flavors are there.  The bratwurst crisped up nicely and retained a bit of that beer infusion.  The sauerkraut started to brown and caramelize in places as well.  Perhaps some caraway seeds are in order.  This experiment was a good start.  I will be making this pie again with some modifications in the future for sure.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill  

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