Grilled Beer Sandwich

As you can tell, this blog has taken either a tragic or delicious turn for the better by featuring beer in multiple recipes. After a peek into my incredibly well stocked pantry, and a spin of the imagination wheel, I landed on a grilled cheese sandwich, but beerified. If fried sandwiches are good enough for Elvis…well they're good enough for me.

It's about to get all gooey

Gather the following:

• 1 loaf of multigrain beer bread 
• 1 jar of beer mustard 
• 1 block of beer washed or beer infused cheese
• 1 giant pile of beer glazed onions (see below) 
• Coconut oil, or butter if you’re a traditionalist
• 1 solid fry pan 

Pull your beer mustard out of the fridge and allow to warm slightly. Slice the bread into fry-able slices and shred the cheese.

For the Beer Glazed onions you will need the following:

• 2 large onions 
• 2 tsp of butter 
• ½ c water 
• ½ cup beer 

A quadruple beer threat of awesomeness

Thinly slice the onions, use a mandoline if you happen to have one. Warm your pan at medium and add the butter. Add all the onions – yes all of them and cook until they just become translucent, a little golden browning is okay, just don’t burn these guys. Stir as often as is necessary. Once the onions are translucent and the pan is mostly dry begin adding the beer a couple of TBSP at a time to deglaze the pan, allow the beer to fully evaporate. Continue this process alternating between beer and water deglazes until the onions are brown and sticky.

The sandwich fry:

Assemble the sandwich, collect your 2 pieces of beer bread, slather one slice with beer mustard, top with beer glazed onions and as much cheese as your heart can handle. Place those sandwiches in a preheated & buttered pan and fry with the lid on to encourage the cheese to melt and flip at your leisure.

You should turn up with something like what's in the picture - be classy and top the whole business with some chopped parsley. Serving a grilled beer sandwich with a glass of craft beer is a centre field home run for anyone looking to impress their beer inclined friends. Now get out there and knock one outta the park.

Curried Lentil and Cauliflower Soup

It's not yet past soup season and given the days here on the wet coast plague us with the "Damp" something warming is a welcome relief. It doesn't need to be fancy or French to sooth the hunched back surly symptoms of the Damp, just a solid stew/soup that'll fire up the burn from the inside out. 

Get some:

The soup horizon  - there's no going back

• 1.5 cups red lentils
• 1 onion
• 1/2 inch of ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 TBSP curry powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander 
• 2 carrots
• 1 small head of cauliflower
• 2 cups low sodium veggie broth
• 3 bay leaves 
• use all the soaking water from lentils
• 2 thai chilli's or 1 tsp chilli flakes

Topping: 

• Fresh herbs cilantro, parsley, fennel or chives
• Sour cream or yogurt
• Lime juice
• sprinkle of salt

Rinse the lentils multiple times in cool water to remove the outside starches place in the cooking pot & cover with boiling water by at least 2 inches. Allow to stand for at least 15 mins to soak. Meanwhile sweat the onions with a sprinkle of salt. Add the garlic and ginger briefly sweat. Push veggies to the side and dry fry the coriander, cumin & curry powder. Add the stock, & lentils with all the soaking water.

Bring the soup to a boil and then turn down to a simmer, add carrots and clamp the lid on and cook for 10 mins. Feel free to add more stock or water to loosen the soup up of it's getting too thick. After the 10 min has elapsed add the cauliflower and cook for another 10 mins. Stir often to stop the lentils from sticking to the bottom. Lastly add a chopped chilli pepper & stir well, cook for another 5 mins. 

Add the fresh toppings, these brighten the flavour and add dimension to the soup
try:  chopped fresh, cilantro, parsley, fennel or chives and a spoon of sour cream or yogurt.

Like all good soups this get better when it takes a little fridge nap over night. Excellent for freezing and nomnomnoming at a later date when your world is inside out and upside down and eating is just a matter of getting through the next 8 hrs.

Beer Pairing: A Belgian style triple works great here. L'Herbe à Détourne matches well with its sweet creamy malts and dry bitter hops that compliment each other perfectly. The sweetness of the triple is present and the addition of bitter hops accentuate the creaminess of the soup perfectly.

Beer Marshmallows! Yup you read that right.

Our ingredients including DDC's Aphrodisiaque.
Beautiful Vancouver in the background

We here at Fondue Voodoo like to see great craft beer put to use, primarily put into our beer glasses where it can go to a very good cause, our bellies.

While sitting in front of a wood fire late one night with my stout nightcap in one hand and a slowly roasting marshmallow in the other, booze induced fireworks of imagination blasted off in my head...ok so maybe more like a click of a burnt out lightbulb, but that's hardly the point...and so beer marshmallows were born.

Choose a good, heavy flavoured stout or porter so that the beer shines through.

In multiple trials we've used these solid offerings with great success, Dieu du Ciel's Péché Mortel or Aphrodisiaque, Powell Street Craft Brewery's Dive Bomb Porter and Parallel 49 Brewing Company's Ugly Sweater. Yeah, product testing is the worst... ;)



You could let your beer go flat first so that all you get is the beer flavour, but we prefer to enjoy our marshmallows with all of the beers bubbly characteristics so we left it fully carbonated. You will thank me later when you have your first beer marshmallow burp while giggling to yourself...

What you will need:

• candy thermometer
• 1 large bottomed, well greased baking dish or cookie sheet with tall edges
• 1 cup stout or porter, divided into two 1/2 cup portions
• 3 tbsp gelatin powder (equal to 3 packets or about 12 sheets)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites (I prefer to use dried egg white powder for this)
• 1 tsp vanilla paste or 1/2 stem vanilla pod, seeded (optional)

Dusting powder for the set marshmallows

• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1/2 cup corn starch

Mix the icing sugar and corn starch together in a bowl and set aside for later use.

Powell Street's growler dispensing great
beer and wisdom

Add gelatin to 1/2 cup of the beer in the bowl of your stand mixer, gently stir and set aside.

Pour the remaining beer into a large heavy stock pot together with the white sugar, corn syrup and salt. Warm the sugars over medium low heat and occassionaly stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Once dissolved, increase heat to medium, and slowly bring to a boil. Do not stir during this stage. Allow the sugar mixture to boil until it reaches 118 degrees celcius (245 farenheit), just between a soft and hard ball on your candy thermometer.

Immediately, and very carefully! pour the hot sugars over the beer and gelatin in your stand mixing bowl and incrementally, but swiftly, turn it to high. Add the vanilla to the mixer and continue to whip the sugars and gelatine on high until it almost triples in volume and lightens in colour, approximately 10 minutes.

Almost there...

While the sugar mixture is being whipped, beat your egg whites in a separate bowl until they reach stiff peaks.

At the 10 minute mark add the egg whites and continue whipping until they are incorporated, about 1 to 2 minutes.

As soon as the egg whites have been incorporated pour into the greased baking dish and use a greased spatula to spread. Use some of the cornstarch and icing sugar mix to lightly cover over the marshmallows.

Place in fridge to set for 4 hours.

Parallel 49's Ugly Sweater dude gives the thumb's up

Once the marshmallows have set, remove from fridge and place on a cutting board dusted with the icing sugar and corn starch mix. Cut the marshmallows into cubes and generously dust each cube in the icing sugar mixture. Place on a wire rack and allow to sit for 3 to 4 hours to dry.

Once dried, put the marshmallows in a sealed container in the fridge. These are best within the first few days but can last for up to a week...trust me, there won't be any left...

In terms of serving you can have them as is, but we have also experimented with covering in chocolate and cashews, melting in hot chocolate, floating in a morning coffee for a breakfast beer chaser and charring with a blow torch which was both recklessly fun and delicious.

Now be careful kids, these surgery pillows of beer joy are additive, for good beer karma be sure to spread the joy around - your friends and family will approve.

Craft Beer Mustard

Mustard is the golden standard for everything in the Foundue Voodoo house, salad dressing, sandwiches, marinades and everything in between. I'd wash my hair with it if I could. I learned about DIY mustard using beer, and gave up buying mustard in favour of the tarragon pickled flavoured home spun version. The magic here is the love that goes into the craft beer and the patience required to leave the finished mustard in the fridge for 24 hrs while it settles down.

You'll need:

• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp tarragon vinegar 
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup stout - we used Central City's Red Racer Oatmeal Stout
• 1/4 cup brown mustard seeds
• 3/4 cup yellow mustard seeds
• 1/4 cup mustard powder
• 1/2 tsp tumeric (for colour)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne (for heat)
• 2 tbsp honey

In a sauce pan warm the vinegars, stout, mustard seeds and mustard powder to simmer (Do not boil!) to soften mustard seeds, between 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from heat, add remaining ingredients and use a food processor to process the blend until it reaches a consistency you're happy with. Cool and place in a glass jar and toss it to the back of the fridge for a little rest.

Test the mustard after 24 hrs, if it's bitter allow it it continue to rest - the bitters will mellow after a proper chilly nap.

Once your happy with your mustard adjust the flavour by adding more vinegar and honey to your preference.

Enjoy on everything.

Ants on a Log - Now for Adults

Warning - this post may contain nuts, deliciousness and double entendres.

Occasionally the Fondue household has a snack attack - which often ends in a salty sweaty mess of stale nachos and questionable salsa.  Ants on a log seem too childish to indulge in, and yet too delicious to give up on. Who doesn't like peanut butter? (blahblahblahAnaphylactic shock).
In the best interest of matching adult behaviour with childhood memories, peanut butter is getting a make over.

March sunshine in Vancouver is the best.

Get some:

• Clean, trimmed and dry celery ribs
• 1/2 c Organic peanut butter
• 1 TBSP honey 
• 1 TBSP Sriarcha hot sauce - or your favourite pepper based hot sauce
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp splash of fish sauce or soya sauce
• Nuts - salted peanuts, cashews, almonds walnuts 
• optional: cilantro & 1/4 tsp powdered garlic

Assembly - this is the easy part
Pile the peanut butter, honey, hot sauce, lime juice, fish sauce & optional garlic powder into a bowl and stir to incorporate.
Stuff your celery ribs with the spicy peanut butter topping.
Place the nuts securely in the peanut butter and place cilantro artfully on top.
Serve the remaining peanut butter with apple slices for a sweet salty spicy taste sensation.
This snack attack is great with a delicious Driftwood White Bark Witbier.
I wouldn't have been a happy child if I could have drank Driftwood with my after school snack.

Stout Infused Mushroom Lentil Shepherd's Pie

St. Patrick's day is by far one of the best celebrations of a Saint that has ever existed since the Pagan's were throwing party's...those guys did it up right. But celebrating with beer and parades, random strangers demanding kisses a la "Kiss me I'm Irish" T-shirts and silly green costumes gets a Fondue Voodoo seal of approval. We celebrate the best way we know how with beer infused veggie shepherd's pie, until the Pagans comeback...

What you will need:

humble beginnings

• 2 cups diced mushrooms (mixture of cremini and trumpet or others of your choice)
• 1 onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 2 cups green cabbage
• 1 TBSP oil, best choice - coconut oil
• 2 cups mashed potatoes
• 1 cup lentils (see cooking instructions below)
• 3 bay leaves 
• 1 bottle (340 ml) stout. We used St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout by McAuslan Brewing
• 3 TBSP mushroom powder
• 1 TBSP umami paste (can be substituted with 1 TBSP tomato paste or 1/2 TBSP anchovy paste
• 1 cup veggie/mushroom broth
• 3 TBSP tomato paste, or more depending on your preference
• 1 tsp rosemary powder
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 tsp oregano
• crack of pepper
• 3 TBSP beurre manie
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 TBSP freshly chopped herbs such as flat leaf parsley

Prior to starting, have on hand 2 cups of mashed potatoes, warmed up with speed up the process.
To cook the lentils first rinse with cold water, drain and then place in a stock pot and cover with cold water by 2 inches and add bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for 10 minutes. Once cooked pour into strainer and rinse with cool water.

Chow time

In a separate stock pot add the oil and gently sauté the onions, carrots, celery and cabbage for about 5 minutes until the onions are translucent and then add the garlic and sauté for about 1 minute. Remove from pot and add the mushrooms. Sauté until browned. Deglaze the pot with the stout. Add the stock, mushroom powder, umami paste and tomato paste and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and whisk in beurre manie to make a lightly thickened sauce. Bring back to the heat and bump the heat up to medium to thicken - it should just cover a spoon slightly. Add in the mushrooms, vegetables and lentils back to the pot.

Once the mushroom-vegtable mixture is heated through pour into a casserole dish and cover with the mashed potatoes. You could proceed to bake for 20 - 25 mins to heat all the layers evenly, or place on top rack under the broiler until the potatoes are browned.

To serve, scoop a 1/4 cup of peas on the dish and then add a layer of the Shepherd's pie on top. Finish with herbs, cracked pepper and Worcestershire sauce.

Shepherd's Pie Beer Pairing: Best to pair this meal with the same beer as you used for the deglazing. An oatmeal stout works great here as the creamy oatmeal and toasted malts balances perfectly with the richness of the mushrooms and lentils.

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

Guest post from Jar Head:

Cold dark winter nights call out for a hearty soup. This soup definitely is the ticket, the earthy, meaty flavours that the wild rice and mushrooms will stick to your bones and warm you up from within.

What you will need for the rice:

• 1 cup wild rice
• 4 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp baking soda *
• 3/4 tsp salt

* Baking soda breaks down the pectin seed coating of the rice and also lowers the temperature necessary for Maillard reaction (browning) to occur. This leads to a nuttier tasting wild rice and a deep brown more complex stock which we will use to enrich the soup.

What you will need for the soup:

• 1 TBSP unsalted butter
• 600-700 grams of cremini mushrooms
• 1 leak chopped
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2/3 cup brown ale (such as a Belgian Dubbel like St. Bernardus Prior 8)
• 4 cups low sodium broth
• 4 TBSP dried mushroom powder (we used a mixture of cremini, matsutake, chicken of the woods and bear's tooth mushrooms)
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup minced chives or green onions
• 1 TBSP umami paste (can be substituted with 1 TBSP tomato paste or 1/2 TBSP anchovy paste)
• pepper

Start with making the rice. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bring the water, bay leaf, salt and baking soda to a boil over medium-high heat in a stock pot. Add the rice and return to a boil. Cover and transfer to the heated oven and bake until rice is tender - approximately 35-50 minutes.

Strain through a fine mesh strainer and reserve the liquid which we will use for our soup. Top up the liquid with water until you have 3 cups.

For the soup, first make a slurry of cornstarch and 4 TBSP of the stock you plan to use - set aside for later use. Next melt the butter over medium high heat in large stock pot. Do this next part in stages, add the mushrooms, garlic and leaks to form a small layer on the bottom of the pan and sauté until browned - feel free to use the ale to deglaze as needed. Remove the mushrooms from the pot once browned and start with a fresh batch, continue until all the mushrooms are browned. Return the cooked mushrooms back to the pot and add in the stock, remaining ale, mushroom powder, thyme and umami paste and bring to a hard simmer. Add the cooked rice and the cornstarch slurry and stir until the soup thickens. Stir in the sour cream and serve topped with green onions.

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup Beer Pairing: A dark brown ale works best here with the meaty flavours of the mushrooms. We went with the St. Bernardus Prior 8 which is a strong abby Belgian dubbel which we also used for deglazing the pot.