Searching for the line between "hobby" and "obsession"

Cooking with Beer

Brewers yeast pancakes

I’m not sure if you’re really supposed to do this but… I made yeast pancakes with brewing yeast. I just took a basic yeast pancake recipe I found online and substituted about 1/4th packet of Safbrew for whatever bakers yeast they had me using. T-58 I’d had sitting in my basement for over a year. Surprisingly, it worked pretty well. I definitely saw some rise to the batter after 45 minutes and noticed the cakes were much aerated than the normal thin pancakes I usually make.

As I write this post, I’m to the point where I’ve made yeast pancakes a few times. I’d say the biggest drawback is that you nave to hydrate the yeast and wait for 45 min. or so for the batter to rise before you can start cooking. This lengthens the process in the morning, making it less practical. Usually I have the time to do this on a Sunday morning, but sometimes would prefer not to wait.

Here are some more pics: (more…)


Braised chicken in dubbel with leeks

Last weekend I decided to try out a recipe of Sean Paxton’s, the guy who bills himself online and via the Brewing Network as “the homebrew chef.” I’ve been hearing good things about his recipes for a while so I thought it was time to take the plunge and try one out.

I picked one of the simpler ones to start off with (chicken braised in dubbel with leeks), as I don’t enjoy following recipes as much as you’d figure a homebrewer would. Of course, even with a simpler recipe, I ended up making a few variations. First, I used the dubbel I brewed last spring, Chasseur de Bruin, instead of Westmalle’s dubbel. I went with olive oil instead of duck fat (can you even buy duck fat??) and used roughly twice the recommended heavy cream (whipping cream is exactly what I used) and chicken broth.

I’d never cooked with leeks before. They are essentially onions. Here is a video demonstrating how to clean and cut them:

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