Colorado IPA beer-battered shrimp.

This isn't your Ma and Pa fish 'n chips from the family-run restaurant in town. It also isn't the freshly caught fish thrown into a deep-fryer. I'm a little land-locked here in Denver so I made due with what I had - frozen shrimp from a grocery store. When I was little, my dad used to take us to this great place in Lake Fenton for fish and chips. Think of a small town, make it smaller. Then, add old, mostly overweight men in overalls, the smell of beer and cigarettes and a decade-old dock sitting on top of a calm lake. And, you are in some sort of trailer house turned restaurant. That is where I used to have fish 'n chips growing up. I think my mom was conveniently busy or "sick" those days.... now, I understand.

My version of deep-fried beer-battered shrimp didn't have the smell of engine fuel from boats and we didn't wear overalls and smoke cigarettes. Although, we could do a costume-themed party in the future.

So, I'm a high school teacher by day and my spring break freedom today meant devising a dinner menu so I could cook for my friends: Emily, Crystal, Nate, and Beth. Plus, it was Luke's birthday! He luckily walked into a party and had a fried Oreo for his birthday!

beer-battered friend Oreo stays afloat amidst so many frying shrimp

First, I wanted the beer batter to sit for a few hours so that the flour and the beer could do their thing.

 I wish I knew what that meant, so let's pretend that the flour and yeast in the beer latch onto each other and do something important. I mixed 2 cups of flour, a bottle of Colorado's Odell's India Pale Ale IPA, some cayenne pepper and cumin, and a dash of baking powder together. I mixed it all together and set it in the fridge for a few hours. Minimum time? 30 minutes to set.

No one wants to just eat fried shrimp so I decided on shrimp tacos. I'm on spring break, so why not pretend I'm really in San Diego eating street tacos? Everyone gets to dream, no?

I had the fixings for a spicy 'slaw to go with the shrimp tacos: cabbage, carrots, onion and Siracha.

Most fish tacos have a cream sauce to slather on the tortilla. I absolutely hate mayonnaise.  Long story. That is the first and last time you'll see that nasty word on this blog. My sauce? Greek yogurt, fresh cilantro, lime juice, and a few dashes of salt. Just mix, and taste-test until you have the right amount of cilantro and lime.

We got a little fry-friendly so we beer-battered a few things we had laying around the kitchen: avocado, chicken, tortilla chips, and Oreos! We were about to beer-batter the last piece of the tres leches cake...

I spy...frying avocado and frying chicken

Emily got wide-eyed over frying so that was her station. She started as kitchen manager, then moved to line cook. You go girl.

If you have never fried before - do it! It is so much fun. A little dangerous at times. I about sprinted out of the kitchen to avoid burning skin. Crystal may have jumped 3 feet backwards to avoid popping oil. Be careful out there. Frying isn't for beginners. Just heat the oil up, test it out with a flick of water, then keep it a little bit cooler. Too hot and you've got smoke alarms and firefighters working overtime for you to eat a dinner.

that many bubbles is a sign it is TOO hot!

Once you are at the 'just-right' temperature, slide your battered goods into the oil and make sure you have something safe to remove them. Plus, have a paper towel lining your plate or platter to soak up some of that healthy frying oil.

You could say anything fried tastes great, but these shrimp tacos were "restaurant quality," according to a dinner party member. I'll heat up your oil anytime if I get compliments like that when I whisk some beer and flour together.

We resisted all temptation and didn't fry everything we sliced and diced.

All the frying really works up an appetite. Good thing because we were trigger-happy with our homemade deep fryer.

Cilantro-Greek yogurt, spicy 'slaw, Odell's battered shrimp on a tortilla

Here's what you need to do to feed 4 hungry people

Ingredients for the beer batter:
2 cups of flour
1.5 bottles of beer
cumin, cayenne pepper, and/or black pepper
1 tsp (?) baking powder
dash of kosher salt

Ingredients for the spicy 'slaw:
1/4 purple cabbage, sliced and diced
2 carrots, juliened
1/2 c onion, sliced and diced
 4-5 tbsps rice vinegar
4-5 tbsps red wine vinegar
2-3 squeezes of lime
Siracha, more or less depending on your tolerance for HOT
salt and pepper, to taste

Ingredients for Cilantro-Greek sauce:
1/4 c cilantro, chopped fine
1 c Greek yogurt (maybe more, maybe less?)
3 tbsps lime juice OR 1 whole real lime, squeeze all the juice
pinch of salt

Longest to Shortest Amount of Time - 

Beer Batter
1) mix flour, baking powder, spices together in a big bowl. Slowly stir in the beer until all clumps are gone. Set aside for 30 min; refrigerate for a few hours if you can

Ready to fry?
1)Heat oil in a deep frying pan. Test with a flick of water for bubbles. Bubbles are good. Too many bubbles accompanied with lots of popping oil means you need to cool it down.
2) Take your fish/shrimp/chicken/veggies and dip them into the batter. Slowly slide into the hot oil and let them cook. Golden brown = ready. Set onto a paper towel on a platter and let them cool. That's it.

Spicy 'Slaw
1) chop your onion and cabbage, juliene (love this word) the carrots. mix together
2) add rice vinegar and red wine vinegar. mix. taste. add more if you want it.
3) add Siracha - be careful, just a little goes a looooong way. Squeeze some lime and mix.

Cilantro-Greek yogurt sauce: 
1) mix the greek yogurt and cilantro in a small mixing bowl. add lime juice so that the yogurt thins a little (think regular yogurt consistency)
2) add a pinch of salt and the lime juice. mix.

FINALLY. Put it all together
1) spread the cilantro-yogurt sauce
2) add some 'slaw
3) top with your fried goodies
.... eat up! Watch your friends go wide-eyed and in for seconds, and thirds

Baileys and cake

Wow. Talk about a taste of Baileys! This cake is going to get you drunk. No kids allowed. Or, if you want to scare the kids away from alcohol, make them drink the tres leches liquid I've got for you.

Ever heard of a Tres Leches cake? If you haven't, it is a sponge cake soaked with 3 Milks (leches): evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and I think regular milk. Why don't I know? I don't believe in milk. I believe in Bailey's. And Kahlua.

Wherever this recipe called for milk, I used Baileys. And when I made the tres leches mix, I used 1/4 condensed milk, 1/4 evaporated milk, 1/4 Kahlua, and 1/4 Baileys. ID your eaters, my fellow bakers.

I was nervous when I had to remove the cake from the baking pan. Why? Well, I had to use glass. Don't use glass. Cake sticks. Or, spray the shit out of the pan so there is no stickiness possible.

Cake: baileys, flour, egg mixture, salt and baking powder. 80% Baileys.

Tres leches: 1:1 ratio of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, Baileys, and Kahlua.

Luckily, my roommate helped me get the cake out of the pan so it could cool the way it was supposed to. You'd think the Baileys wouldn't be sticky, that stuff is like sticky sap coming from a tree.

Emily releases that sponge with gusto

Cooling on a swag cooling rack

I made this at the ski condo, where we ski, get drunk and make good food. So, my taste testers were 1 or 2 drinks into the night. This cake was like 2 shot skis. I had a few bites and had that past-buzz feel.

You don't know what a shot ski is? Let me show you.

Proper pastime of ski condo nights

I let the tres leches soak for 30 minutes then poured the "frosting" on. I need to work on that. I used 2/3 heavy whipping cream, 1/3 Baileys. And about 6 tablespoons of sugar. Pour that into a shot glass!

See how the frosting looks? It wasn't supposed to look like that. The frosting was like one of those fancy sugary shots you order for someone's birthday. Except way better. Mine has more alcohol. I wanted the real frosting, the whipped, thick creamy sugary frosting that reminds me of living in South America where the word dessert (torta) actually means "immediate diabetic shock" sugar. Next time? No liquor in the frosting so that the heavy whipped cream and sugar can combine.


End result? Tasty Baileys in a delicioso torta mexicana! Viva azúcar !

Day After Cake

P.S. condo roommates and friends decided on breakfast: leftover cake and the leftover frosting that I put in the freezer would be great for our coffee. Regular frosting would thicken up but of course, my frosting was really liquor and sugar.

Liquored coffee!

Frosting as creamer?

Breakfast of Colorado girls

The Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
a few pinches of salt
5 whole eggs - separate egg whites and egg yolk
1 c sugar
t tsp almond (or vanilla)
1/3 c Bailey's * I bet the flavored Bailey's would be sooooo good. Someone try it!
1/2 can evaporated milk
1/2 can sweetened, condensed milk
1/4 c Kahlua

For Icing:
1 pint heavy whipping cream
splash of almond or vanilla
3 tablespoons of sugar

Now, make it.....
The sponge cake:
oven @ 350 and spray your cake pan like you are a teenager about to graffiti
combine flour, baking powder, salt in a large bowl. You'll pour the liquid mix into this bowl later.
Beat the egg YOLKS with 3/4 c sugar until the egg yolks turn light yellow. Stop. Pour the mixture into the flour mixture and stir nicely until just combined.

Beat those egg whites until those lovely white peaks appear. Whip 'em good. Keep whipping and pour in the remaining 1/4 c of sugar. Beat a little bit more.

Fold this new egg mixture into the flour/egg yolk mixture. Fold. It's a weird word for baking. Stop as soon as everything is folded together. Pour it all into the cake pan and bake for 20 - 40 minutes. I live at high altitude and baked this at about 8500 feet. My baker's nose is getting good and 25 minutes was almost too much for us. Phew. Those of you at sea level, use your nose. Plus, it depends on the size of your cake pan.

Flip that cake onto a fancy cake platter so it will cool. My fancy cake platter was a red cutting board.


It works.

To make the Tres Liquores:
Combine the Kahlua, Bailey's, evaporated milk, and condensed milk in a liquid measuring cup, or fancy pitcher. Once the cake is cooled for 30- 40 min, pierce a few spots with a fork or toothpick. Then, pour that lovely liquored liquid all over the sponge cake. Give it 30 minutes or a day to soak it all up. I doubt you'll last a day.

Make a pot of strong, black coffee. Preferably Mexican coffee to stay with the theme.

Now, the icing:
whip 1 pint of heavy whipping cream and 3 tablespoons of sugar until it is thick. Sometimes, throwing the mixture into the freezer for 15 -20 minutes helps. Spread the sober love. Cut, serve. Share the love.

Stout Brownies with Whisky Ganache

I didn't invent this recipe. But a bartender should serve you this dense fudgy brownie with a shot of Bailey's or nonfat milk.

Spoiler alert: eating these St Pat's-inspired brownies before the ganache settles makes drunk leprechauns silent while they make silly noises as they spoon the gooey stout brownie into their mouths. Added bonus if you have some bananas or strawberries around to dip into the ganache before it settles.


ps. I had to borrow this photo because we just ate these up, no photos were even possible! Well, and we may have had a few too many stouts to drink to remember....

The stout is a heavy beer but smooth. The most famous of them all sells about 5.5 million a day but on this special day over 13 million sold (and hopefully all consumed) in ONE DAY. That's a lot of Guinness! Such a smooth, dark beer makes a smooth, dense and creamy brownie.

The traditional Sunday dinner on St. Pat's weekend wasn't about corned beef, cabbage or Bailey's. It was about "dipping foods." The theme of our get together meant dipping. Salsa. Guacamole. Sweet and Sour. Easy dip. Tasty dip. Whisky ganache got dipped into stout brownies. And strawberries got dipped into the whiskey ganache as it drunkenly fell into the strong, black muscle of a brownie.

Serves 16 (well, I think one serving size of these is about 2 forkfuls. So really, 32)

Ingredients:

16 ounces stout beer (such as Sam Adams Cream Stout or Guinness) Go for the Guinness!!!!

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I had 2 8 oz bittersweet and 1 8 oz semi-sweet)

2 sticks (8 oz) butter, in pieces

5 large eggs, lightly beaten - lightly. As soon as they are beat, stop.

2 1/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup hazelnuts, ground. I use my coffee grinder, then my coffee beans have a great hazelnut taste for a few days

For the ganache

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (by chopped, throw that chocolate into a coffee grinder or chopper as small chunks, it is a nicer way to get the chocolate to melt evenly)

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter (1.5 will do the job)

2-3 tablespoons Irish whiskey (yeah right! I used 5 or 6 tablespoons!) Be generous!

PS. To make ganache that is a little bit healthier, use coconut milk, brown sugar and chocolate. Simmer the milk and brown sugar, then add in the chocolate. Bring it to a simmer. Remove from the heat and voile, healthier ganache. Don't forgot to add your favorite liquor! WHISKY!

If you follow these instructions, you'll make new friends, both sober and intoxicated, and possibly have some people saying, "hey, aren't you the one that made those stout brownies?" in November.

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Butter a 13X9-inch baking pan. Line the pan with foil so that there is a 2-inch overhang. Butter the foil.

There are 3 major things that are about to happen: prepare the stout, prepare the dry, mix the wet together. Then, wet and dry come together and of course, it all gets gooey from there.

Bring the stout to a boil in a saucepan, reduce the heat to medium, and allow the stout to reduce down to 3/4 cup, 10-15 minutes. You need to see that the creamy foam top sits higher than the beer to show that it has reduced.
Allow the stout to cool slightly.

Melt the chopped chocolate with the butter in a large metal bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until smooth. You do this so that you don't melt the chocolate right over direct heat. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and gradually add the eggs, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens to a pudding-like texture. Whisk in the sugar until fully incorporated, then whisk in the vanilla.

Sift together the cake flour, cocoa, and salt into a medium bowl. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture in 2 additions, alternating with 2 additions of the reduced stout, stirring until fully blended. Mix in the nuts.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the top is set and a toothpick inserted emerges with a few moist crumbs attached, 24-30 minutes. You know the smell of baked brownies. Set aside to cool. Now, I live at 5280 feet and so my brownies were in at 350 for about 30ish minutes. I may have had a few glasses of wine, so it might have even been 40 minutes.

Prepare the ganache: Melt the chocolate, cream, and butter, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in your liquor of choice, as much as you want. Allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm, then spread it over the brownies in the pan, smoothing the top. Chill the brownies for at least 2 hours before cutting, if you want them to look perfect. If you want a gooey mess, give them 30ish minutes.

In true Green Day spirit, Cheers! is replaced by "Pot O' Gold!" ... which goes well when one is drinking a golden-colored ale.

To a .."pot of gold!"

The first crack

That first crack of an egg into a bowl is when baking gets real. That egg binds the liquids and dry together in such a special way. Who knew that an egg had so much power in the product? Try leaving an egg out of a recipe. Brownies cant be brownies!


That isn't why I am starting this blog. This is the place where the Whisk meets the Whisky. The place where beer becomes the center of attention in a chili recipe. Rum is the flavor in some home made, easy to dollop whipped cream. And it's the place where the stout brownie recipe hangs out in a digital file until next St. Pats Day.

Liquor in food? Yes! Drinking while eating? It's best when there is already some spirit in the food! Here's my place to share how I add some spirit to our palate.

Cheers!