At an early age, my Mom--a wonderful cook in her own right--instilled in me a love of cooking. She taught me how to cook as a child, and I always found it enjoyable.
In college, I used this love of cooking to woo ladies. It worked! I can thank the talents my mom taught me, in part, to land my wife of seventeen years.
My love of the culinary arts propelled me to start a gourmet club with four other couples. We get together about five times a year to take part in themed dinners. This has been going on for about six years.
The other day, I was chatting with Chef Ron about incorporating more of my beer into the dishes that the St. Francis Brewery offers. I got to thinking about our root beer. It can be a wonderfully versitile ingredient. I decided to experimant a little in my kitchen to come up with a root beer based barbecue sauce.
I reduced an entire growler of root beer to one cup. I added ketchup and mustard, cholula sauce, cider vinegar, salt and pepper and a little unsalted butter, and simmered it for twenty minutes.
The result? It was a very sweet sauce with a good heat punch. I'll try it on some ribs this evening to see how well it works with food.
I'll share some with Chef Ron to see what he thinks. Who knows--maybe you'll see a root beer barbecue sauce on the menu some day.
Since I was in "Sauce Mode" today, I decided to try one other.
I love Worcestershire sauce. I use it as a base for my steak marinades. However, I find many store bought Worcestershires to be weak. What the heck. Why not try making homemade? I dug around the internet for some recipes and decided to try one out.
This one has eighteen ingredients. Among them are tamarind paste, anchovies and St. Francis' Doppelbock. After a three hour reduction, I'll strain all the solids out and bottle it up for myself and some family members. Cooking and brewing go hand-in-hand. If any of you have some ideas for combining beer and food, fire off a comment!
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