Cilantro Hummus

Ingredients

4 raw garlic cloves or 5 roasted garlic cloves
¾ teaspoon salt
1- 15oz can garbanzo beans or chick peas
3 tablespoon well stirred tahini

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons water

¼ cup cilantro

1 tsp cumin

Directions

Puree all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.  You can add more olive oil or water to reach desired consistency.

Have New Age Craft Brewers Gone Too Far?

Recently i've heard more than a few people talking about how brewers have gotten a little too experimental.  I can see where they are coming from.  Take a walk through your local bottle shop and really pay attention to what is on the shelves these days.  You'll see Double IPA's, Tripel IPA's, Black IPA's, Coffee Stouts, Lemongrass Wheats, beers brewed with pumpkin, beers brewed with Yerba Mate and many more.  With so many different styles of beer available from a growing amount of brewers, it's easy to get lost when trying to decide on a beer.  It's not just the Americans who are making all these wacky beers either.  Belgians are now making Double IPA's and Barley Wines.

You may be surprised to hear that putting all these funky, often strange ingredients in beer is not all that new.  Belgians have been brewing using herbs, spices and barrel aging beers for centuries.  In Scandinavia there are many ancient recipes that call for different roots, barks and local herbs.  Believe it or not, hops have not always been a part of the brewing process.  What we are seeing a lot of today is the resurrection of ancient brewing traditions.  Dogfish Head makes a beer called Midas Touch, which is derived from a recipe from an Egyptian Tomb from 2700 years ago.  It's brewed with honey and  muscat grapes and has a very interesting flavor to it.

It is breweries like Dogfish Head that really push the envelope.  They're not afraid to try anything.  Experimentation is the only way we'll be able to keep our beer scene interesting.  If every beer brewed was supposed to appeal to every beer drinker out there we would be drinking some pretty boring beers.  Homogenization of beer in the 80's anyone?  As our palates expand and crave more flavor, the craft brewers of the world will be there to appease our taste buds.

I recently picked up a beer at a local bottle shop called Lambrucha by Vanberg & DeWulf.  The idea of the beer is a blend of lambic beer with kombucha - a fermented health drink.  I have to admit, I am a fan of both Lambic Beer and Kombucha to begin with, but never would I have thought to blend the two.  The resulting beer has a welcome tartness and fine bubbly carbonation.  It's a great spring or summer beer at 3.5% ABV so you can have a few glasses of it and spare yourself the nap afterwards.

I've been keeping track of all the beers I drink using BeerCraving.  This site helps you remember the beers you drink through pictures.  You can add tasting notes and even tag the place where you bought the beer to remember for later.  They'll be launching a beer app in January which will make it even easier to keep track of  the beers I drink.

So to all you highly experimental craft brewers out there, continue to make the most interesting beer you can think of.  I can't guarantee we'll like everything you produce, but we will admire the risks you take to further the craft.

TED Video: Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat

Tangy Baked Beans

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

½ cup onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 ½ cups water
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
2 cups cooked pinto beans
2 tbsp real maple syrup
¼ cup collard greens, kale or mustard greens, stem removed and chopped
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tbsp hot sauce
¼ cup ketchup
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Put beans in a small baking dish or divide into 2 french onion soup crocks.

In a medium sauce pan, sauté onions in olive oil over medium heat until soft, about 3 minutes.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, one minute.  Add 2 ½ cups water and remaining ingredients except beans and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.  Pour liquid over beans to cover by about ½ inch.  Cover dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes.  Remove foil, and if necessary add more liquid to cover.  Bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Allow to cool 10 minutes then serve.

Easiest Tomato Soup

Soup doesn't have to be complex to be delicious.  After all, it is a very humble food.  It's eaten by both rich and poor in almost every culture around the world.  Sometimes less is more, and this soup is a perfect example.  This soup uses only a few ingredients to create one of the most comforting foods I can think of.

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

1/2 cup onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 - 28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes in tomato juice, preferably organic
2 cups water
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
14 leaves fresh basil, chiffonade or chopped
olive oil

Directions

Sweat onion in olive oil with some salt over medium-high heat until translucent, 4-6 minutes.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about one minute.  Add tomatoes with juice, water and red pepper flakes being sure to break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.  Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer uncovered for one hour.  Puree with blender or immersion blender.  Adjust seasonings, add basil and serve with a drizzle of olive oil over each bowl.  Serve with crusty bread or grilled cheese.

Heirloom Tomato and Pesto Salad

This weeks farmers market was filled with tomatoes!  All shapes and sizes were represented with a ton of heirloom varietals.  The vast array of tomatoes inspired me to make a salad that really celebrates the season.  These tomatoes are easily twice as good as anything you could find at the supermarket and worth seeking out.  For this recipe the more colors, the more variety, the better your salad will look and taste.  My suggestion is to visit the local farmers market or even better, pick some tomatoes from your own garden.  Tomatoes from Florida ripened with ethylene gas just aren't going to cut it here.  One taste of this salad and you're sure to be making it again and again. Here are a few shots from Sunday morning at our Denver Farmers Market:

Serves 2-4

Heirloom Tomato and Pesto Salad


Ingredients


4-5 of the best tomatoes you can find
1/4 cup of your favorite pesto, homemade

Directions


Dice tomatoes with a sharp knife, doing your best not to squish them.  In a medium bowl, mix in pesto.

Serve immediately.

The Best Zucchini

Squash season is upon us.  Since we'll soon have more of these than we know what to do with, I figured I'd offer up a great way to cook zucchini that I cook over and over again. The idea here is to keep the texture of the zucchini while still getting a nice sear on it.  This is one of my theories as to why so many people love grilled zucchini, because there is almost no way it can get soggy.  If you cook with high enough heat and be sure not to crowd, you'll get the same affect in the pan.  This recipe is incredibly simple and is one of my favorite ways to prepare this vegetable. 

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 small to medium zucchini, thinly sliced
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp good paprika



Directions

Heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add zucchini to the pan making sure almost all slices have surface contact to the pan.  Add salt but don't stir.  When zucchini slices are just beginning to turn brown(1-3 minutes), flip them over.

Let them cook for 1 more minute, then stir in paprika and pepper and cook 30 more seconds.  Remove from heat.  Serve hot.

Beer Craving Website Launch!

I've been working on a new website called BeerCraving.com for a few months now.  The website is a photo gallery of what some are calling "suds porn."  It's a way to catalog all your beer conquests around the world and share them with a community of beer enthusiasts.  Each photo links you to more information about a particular beer.  It's pretty addicting, especially for all the tastespotting.com and foodgawker.com fans out there.  Here is a screenshot of it:

Earth Worms

We just added some red wiggler worms to our garden to help out with the extremely sandy soil.  As mentioned in a previous post, the soil in our garden may have never seen much love from anyone.  We've added a ton of compost but it has begun to get quite expensive.  While searching for a solution to this problem,  we've decided to go back to the basics.  Worms may be the ultimate composter and nutrient supplier out there.  They're able to consume 4 to 6 times their own body weight each day and reproduce fairly quickly.  They process what is typically seen as garbage and convert it to "black gold".  While supplying plants with incredible nutrients, they also help to aerate the soil allowing for better root growth.

We've added about 200 worms to our garden and bought a home worm composter with 2000 worms to help with our food scraps.  We'll add the worm castings and worms to our garden as time goes on and the soil is able to support more life.  There are some things we feel that nature got right in the first place.  This is exactly why we've opted to fertilize our garden using worms rather than some chemical like miracle gro.  We've also added flowers around the perimeter of the garden to help attract bees.  I'll keep you updated on our progress.  So far so good though.  Things are flourishing even in what you can barely call soil.

Kefir and Cilantro Fruit Salad

Serves 2-3

Step your fruit salad game up.  Mix in some herbs and maybe even some cheese next time you put together a fruit bowl.  Mint and cilantro are my go to herbs with fruit but, basil also works well.  The tangy kefir plays nicely off the acidity of the raspberries, banana's provide a nice creaminess, sweetness from the blueberries and the cilantro bring it all together.  This is a great 3 minute breakfast.



Ingredients

1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1 banana, sliced
chopped cilantro
2 tbsp kefir


Directions

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, being sure not to mush the berries too much.

Our Community Garden Plot

Here are a few pictures of the community garden plot Jenni and I will be planting. It was supposed to be done over a month ago but at this point we're just happy to start growing some of our own food.  Our plot is in Denver at Colfax and Josephine directly next to East High School.

This garden is a huge step in the right direction for this community as well.  This lot was filled with trash, broken concrete and tons of other unmentionables.  The Colfax Corridor is a little run down to say the least.  However, projects like this are completely changing the landscape(no pun intended) of this part of town.  There's a farmers market directly next door to here and Marczyk Fine Foods is opening a second locations about 4 blocks west of here on Colfax.  Not to mention great organizations like, Same Cafe, who also has their own garden plot here, is just down the road.  Same Cafe's motto is "So All May Eat."  Your lunch costs whatever you can afford.  If you don't have any money, your lunch is free.  We're trying to work out how excess crops grown here can be donated to Same Cafe to be served in their restaurant.

Looking towards Colfax

Looking towards East High School

We're still deciding what to plant since it's so late in the growing season but I came across this awesome guide today.  Here is the crop calendar provided by Colorado Fresh Markets for Denver:

June 21st

June 25th

More Photo's Coming Soon

Community Gardens Impact on Health

A Garden in Every Neighborhood from Denver Urban Gardens on Vimeo.

Seed Bombs: Urban Agriculture

Common Studios: Green Aid from ISHOTHIM on Vimeo.

Craft Beer Round Up

I love craft beer. If you haven't been to the beer section of your liquor store in a while, you might be surprised at some of the beers now available to the American public.  It seems any ingredient used in cooking is fair game for brewing as well.  Below you'll find a beer brewed with endive and hibiscus, one brewed with fresh chilies and one that defines the style of Double IPA.  While these beers are new to the American public, many ingredients used in them do have some historical use in beer.

This brew is made with endive and hibiscus giving it a very interesting bitterness.  It is also part of an emerging trend in the craft beer world of "Colabeeration Brews" in which two breweries put their heads together to brew a beer together.  Vrienden means "friends" in flemish.  This style of beer comes from the Flanders region that hugs the border of France and Belgium.  Beers that emerge from this region are often described as "winey" due to the fact that many are barrel aged, have fruit added and incorporate wild yeasts.

This beer is brewed with 5 different types of fresh chilies.  Twisted Pine Brewery in Boulder, Colorado infuses wheat beer with jalapeño, fresno, serrano, habenero and anaheim chilies.  This brew makes an incredible addition to a bloody mary, or as they call it, a "Bloody Billy."  The beer packs a subtle heat with a well rounded fresh chili aroma and flavor.

This brewery, Russian River, is often credited with inventing the style "Double IPA."  The beer comes off very piney and grapefruity with a lingering finish.  This is a great beer to pair with blue cheese or calamari.

Tipping Etiquette Around The World

Mint.com Personal Finances

Beet Sashimi

This was the welcome finding of combining golden beets with red beets when pickling them.  I cooked the beets until tender, peeled them, and let them cool.  Next I put them in a mason jar, added some balsamic vinegar, salt and covered them with water.  I put a lid on them, refrigerated them overnight and they were delicious the next day.  The longer they sit in the liquid, the deeper the flavor.  Eat within 3 weeks. 

Beet Sashimi

Espresso Stout Floats

Photo by Athena Damianos

Ingredients

12 oz Espresso Stout, I like Twisted Pine's
1 scoop French Vanilla Ice Cream
Whipped Cream and Cherry 

Directions

Pour stout into your favorite mug and add a scoop of ice cream.  Top with whipped cream and cherry.

Stranahan's Whiskey with Spicy Burnt Lemon

Stranahan's Whiskey with Spicy Burnt Lemon

Mixology is really starting to take off in Colorado.  We've now got a ton of bartenders taking a chefs' approach to making a cocktail.  At Lou's Food Bar in Denver they serve a Bloody Mary infused with strawberry, tarragon and black pepper.  The Pinyon in Boulder has a cocktail made with Racer 5 India Pale Ale, Jackalope Gin and grapefruit juice that is exceptional.  If you haven't caught any of this exiting cocktail scene, here is a short list of a few of my favorite restaurants around Denver and Boulder that are taking cocktails to a whole new level.  Also following, an original recipe for Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey with Spicy Burnt Lemon.

Best Cocktails of Denver and Boulder:

The Pinyon in Boulder, Downtown
Oak in Boulder, Downtown
TAG in Denver, Lodo
Lou's Food Bar in Denver, Highlands
SALT in Boulder, Downtown
RootDown in Denver, Highlands 
Colt & Gray in Denver, Union Station Area
Happy Noodle House(Bitter Bar) in Boulder, Downtown



Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey with Spicy Burnt Lemon

Ingredients

2 oz Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey
7 dashes Angostura Bitters
1 tsp simple syrup
1 tsp lemon juice
lemon twist
2 thin slices of Serrano pepper
water (to taste)


Directions

Fill a large glass with ice then add bitters and whiskey.  Stir until chilled.  Add simple syrup and lemon juice.  In a rocks glass squeeze the lemon peel with a lighter lit while close to the glass to perfume the glass with a really nice burnt lemon aroma.  The flame should dance a little bit as you do this.

Strain whiskey into rocks glass, then muddle the rest of that lemon peel and the Serrano in the bottom of the glass.  Add 2 ice cubes, taste the drink. and add water to your liking.

Honey Carrot Soup

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

¾ lb. carrots(4-5 medium carrots), peeled and thinly sliced
2 ½ cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 onion, chopped
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 cup milk or cream
1/3 cup honey
fresh grated nutmeg
pinch cayenne pepper

Directions

Sauté carrots and onion over medium-high heat for 5-8 minutes or until onion is translucent.

Add thyme, cayenne and broth and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer over medium heat about 10 minutes or until carrots are tender.

Remove thyme stems and blend using an immersion blender or a regular blender until smooth. Return to pan.

Add honey, milk and nutmeg. Return to simmer then serve immediately.

Winter Pesto Crostinis

Makes 20 to 25 crostinis

This is a great seasonal recipe that you can eat year round.  It is so flavorful you wouldn’t even know there was no basil in it.  It is also incredibly healthy.

Ingredients

1 cup kale, torn into small pieces and stems removed
1 cup spinach, loosely packed
½ cup parsley, loosely packed
½ cup nuts (pine nuts, hazelnuts, macadamia, any mild nut will work)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp fresh rosemary, stem removed
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp salt
Pinch red pepper flakes
delicious bread or crackers (I like a crusty baguette)


Instructions

Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl to cool the kale after cooking.  Bring a pot of water to a boil then add kale and blanch for 4 minutes.  Remove kale with slotted spoon and place immediately in ice bath to cool down.  Once cool, drain excess water from kale.

Add everything except bread and olive oil to a food processor.  Drizzle olive oil into the processor while pulsing.  Do not over process; we’re not making baby food here.

Spoon about 1 tsp of the pesto on each crostini and grate fresh Parmesan over the top.

Video: Principles of a Good Salad

Watch as Jamie Oliver gives a good lesson on how to make a simple fresh salad. Anyone can learn a few tips from this video, amateur or pro.

Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles

Makes 4 pint jars

Ever wonder if you could make your own pickles at home. It's actually easier than you think. Most store bought pickles are laced with things that you don't really want in there, like high fructose corn syrup, Polysorbate 80 and Yellow #5. I prefer to use ingredients in my food that don't have a number after their name. These pickles were pretty easy and came out pretty delicious.

Here is what you will need to make your homemade pickles:

Equipment:

4 pint jars w/ lids
large pot

Ingredients:

4 medium cucumbers, scrubbed and sliced 1/8 inch thick

1/2 cup onion, sliced

1/2 cup kosher salt

4 cloves garlic, peeled

3 tsp Pickling spice
1 tsp turmeric

1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

2 cups hot water

1 cup sugar

Watch this video before you make the pickles. It's helpful and the guy is hilarious:

fyi, that's not me...but this guy knows what he's doing. He's a "blue ribbon prize-winning pickle maker." I didn't have a canning kit; but tongs, a ladle and an extra towel sufficed for every thing I needed to make these pickles.

Add salt to the cucumbers and onions to remove water. This helps make them crisp and crunchy.

Simmering cucumbers in vinegar and spices

Jars loaded with cucumber 1/2 inch below the top, looking good already

Simmering jars for 15 minutes to seal for prolonged storage. Never let jars touch the bottom of the pot to prevent breakage. Use a rack or kitchen towel to act as a barrier between the pot and the jars.

B&B Pickles

Ingredients

4 medium cucumbers, scrubbed and sliced 1/8 inch thick

1/2 cup onion, sliced

1/2 cup kosher salt

4 cloves garlic, peeled

3 tsp Pickling spice
1 tsp turmeric

1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

2 cups hot water

1 cup sugar

Directions

Run your jars and lids through the dishwasher.

Combine cucumbers and onions in a large colander. Toss with salt and let drain over a bowl for 2-3 hours and cover them with a clean kitchen towel and a tray of ice which help keep them crisp. Combine remaining ingredients in a large pot(3-4 qts) and bring to a boil. Rinse salt off the cucumbers then add them to the pot and cook for 8 minutes over medium high heat keeping the temperature just below boiling.

Line jars up in a row on a towel to prevent spillage(turmeric will stain). Ladle the cucumber, vinegar, spice mixture into each jar. Do your best to get a piece of garlic in each jar. Fill to 1/2 inch below the top of the jar. Seal jars.

At this point if you're planning on eating your pickles in the next 3 weeks, you can let your jars cool then put them in the fridge. Further processing will allow you to keep the pickles for up to a year.

To process jars, bring a large pot of water to a simmer. Place a rack or kitchen towel at the bottom of the pot to prevent jars from touching bottom. Add jars and make sure they're covered with an inch of water. Heat for an additional 10 minutes(15 minutes if you live above 5,000 ft). Remove jars and allow to cool.

Store in a cool, dark place for up to a year. They will taste good in just a few hours but will taste even better in a day or two. Once opened, they should be refrigerated and will keep for about another 3 months.

Notes: I recommend watching a video tutorial on how to do this on YouTube.

Drunken Monkey Cupcakes

This recipe is sort of a fusion of traditional banana bread and cupcakes. Some ginger and spices add a welcome complexity to these, while still maintaining a great banana flavor. The beer in the recipe provides a subtle sweet roasty flavor with a unique fluffiness from its' carbonation. The frosting is based on a canoli filling recipe I stumbled across when I was looking to do the frosting a little bit differently. These cupcakes make a great snack for any time of the year.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

2 cups ripe bananas (3-4 bananas), mashed

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp molasses

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

2 eggs(preferably free range), beaten

6 oz 70% cocoa bitter sweet chocolate, chopped(I used a food processor)

6 oz unsalted organic butter(1 1/2 sticks)

1 cup stout beer (I used an Espresso Stout from Twisted Pine)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tsp nutmeg

Ricotta Frosting (recipe follows)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir to combine.

In a large bowl cream together butter, brown sugar and molasses until there are no more lumps. Add mashed banana, eggs, ginger, stout, vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Add dry mixture to wet mixture, stirring just until everything is combined.

Spoon into a cupcake pan with wrappers lining the pan filling each about 3/4 full.

Bake for 17-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 40 minutes then add ricotta frosting.

Make the Ricotta Frosting:

Ingredients

1/4 cup coffee

1 tbsp kahlua

2 tbsp 70% cocoa bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small chips

1 tsp lemon zest

2 tbsp Ricotta Salata(or regular ricotta drained in a fine sieve)

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups powdered sugar(add less or more depending on desired sweetness)

3 tbsp butter, melted

Directions

Combine all ingredients and whisk until proper consistency, adding more sugar or coffee as needed. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before spreading on cupcakes.

Mashed Potato Casserole

Serves 6

Ingredients

5 cups of your favorite mashed potatoes(warm)

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar

1 cup panko bread crumbs

½ cup shredded parmesan

1 tbsp paprika

fresh ground pepper

1 tbsp butter, for greasing pan

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spread mashed potatoes evenly in a buttered 13 x 9 baking pan. In a medium bowl mix together cheddar, bread crumbs, parmesan, paprika and pepper. Top mashed potatoes with cheese and bread crumb mixture and bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes if the casserole is not brown on the top, turn on the broiler for a minute or two and remove from oven when browned. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and serve.

FREE THE HOPS!