Brown Sugar and Porter Glazed Pork Chops

Recipe by Doug Johnson

Ingredients

2 large ½ inch cut pork chops(center-cut, bone-in)
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup Pearl Street Porter
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup raisins
2 apples, cored and sliced
¼ tsp rubbing sage
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Directions

Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over high heat. Rub chops with salt, pepper and rubbing sage. Brown pork chops on both sides. Add beer, cider vinegar, and brown sugar, stir until dissolved, scrapping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Add apples and raisins then cook uncovered until the sauce turns into a syrup like glaze 20-40 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before serving. Goes great with sweet potatoes.

Note: This recipe would be delicious with most darker beers, just stay away from the hoppier ones.

Ode to the Chipwich

A childhood memory revisited, the Chipwich, the creation of a New Jersey man, is still just as good as I remembered.


Ingredients

8 of your favorite chocolate chip cookies(I find thin ones work best)
3 cups(24 oz) of vanilla ice cream
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate mini's

Directions

Put cookies in freezer to harden them up for at least 15 minutes. While doing this, allow ice cream to melt a little bit to make it easier to work with(just be sure not to turn it into soup). Put chocolate chips in a bowl to roll the Chipwiches in.

(note: try to minimize melting here, be speedy with these next few steps) Assemble cookie sandwiches by dividing the ice cream evenly among 4 cookies. Smash remaining 4 cookies on the top of these and spread ice cream around the edges. Roll each cookie sandwich in the chocolate chips, pushing down to make sure the chips stick to the ice cream.

Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 20 minutes to let harden.

Boulder Restaurant Happenings

See Boulder Restaurant Reshufflings

By Claire Walter on October 6, 2010

Czerny closes one, The Kitchen partners to open another

I’m in Germany right now, as you know if you have been reading this blog, so it’s a little tough to follow Boulder restaurant news (not for lack of online resources but for lack of time), but here’s what I recently learned.

Talented chef/restaurateur Radek Czerny, whose l’Atelier on East Pearl is one of Boulder’s culinary landmarks, has closed Radex Bistro at 28th and Iris. He opened it with the seemingly unfortunate name, Full Belly Bistro. That always reminded me of an all-you-can-eat joint It was bright and moderately priced, and even renaming it Radex Bistro as a tribute to a restaurant he once operated in Denver didn’t help. Now it’s gone.

Meanwhile, The Kitchen is set to expand next door into theWest Pearl space most recently occupied by Abo’s, pizzaman Steve Abo’s attempt at a downtown restaurant. Actually, it was his second try in the space that was previously Seven Eurobar, Seven and Seven on Pearl.

Abo too tried the renaming tactic to try to keep a restaurant afloat there. First, he opened a confusing thematically named and decorated restaurant called Circle, then he reinvented it as Abo’s on Pearl, a sitdown restaurant, the Daily Camerareaders again named Abo’s as their favorite pizza, the restaurant was closed.

According to a recent tidbit reported by Westword, Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson are expanding into that space. The owners of The Kitchen and its associated upstairs wine bar/lounge are remaking it into The Kitchen Cafe to open in 2011. When The Kitchen, which opened about six years ago in an East Pearl space that had been a used bookstore and then the short-lived Triana, it was one of Boulder’s first restaurants (perhaps the first) to aggressively promote sustainable and green practices, such as local sourcing of foods, filtered rather than bottled water, recyclables and wind power.

“It’ll be a modern-day pub,” Musk told Westword‘s Laura Shunk. “We want to create a public space for sharing food and drink with friends that upholds The Kitchen’s philosophy on food but expands the community by offering a more price-accessible menu.”

I wonder whether they might have had the new place in the back of their minds all along, since The Kitchen’s URL is thekitchencafe.com.

Roasted Potatoes with Goat Cheese Crumbles

Serves 4

Ingredients:

About 6 medium red potatoes, cubed
1 tbsp paprika
About 10 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves removed (or ½ Tbsp dried)

¼ cup goat cheese, crumbled
fresh ground pepper and salt
parsley, chopped (as garnish, optional)

Instructions:

Heat Broiler. Put potatoes in a pot of cold, heavily salted water(should taste like the ocean) and bring to a boil. Boil for 13-16 minutes until potatoes are just slightly tender. Drain potatoes and allow to cool 5 minutes. In a large bowl, toss potatoes with olive oil, fresh ground pepper, salt, thyme leaves and paprika. Put on baking sheet and broil until golden brown, 5-10 minutes turning once halfway through.

Sprinkle crumbled goat cheese and parsley over the potatoes then serve.

Cauliflower with Toasted Almonds

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
¼ cup sliced almonds
2 whole cloves garlic, peeled
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste


Directions

Steam or boil cauliflower until tender 6-8 minutes.
Infuse oil with almonds and garlic by heating olive oil, almond slices and garlic over medium high heat just until almonds begin to change color. The almonds change very quickly so you must keep a close eye on them. Add broccoli immediately and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Mario Batali loves sausage...

Amber Ale Arroz con Pollo

Here is a recipe I wrote about a year ago after traveling to South America posted on Brewers Associations new website: Amber Ale Arroz con Pollo - Recipe

http://www.craftbeer.com/pages/beer-and-food/recipes/recipes-list/show?title=amber-ale-arroz-con-pollo