Jalapeño Wonton Poppers

We love the fall. A lot of things about it make us happy, but not much compares to tailgating for football games for us. We love our tailgating family! Today we're sharing a favorite tailgate food of ours! We found the idea for these here, but made a few small changes to kick 'em up a bit. Things you'll need: softened cream cheese (we use neufchatel), shredded cheddar, jalapeños, cooked (and crumbled) bacon, BBQ sauce  wonton wrappers, and oil for frying.

When I was pregnant with Isaac, he had a milk protein intolerance, so I cut out dairy for a while. Do you know how tough that is? There's dairy in so many unexpected things. I once bought beef bouillon cubes only to get home and realize that they had traces of dairy. I cried. I found that there are some really good dairy substitutes, though. This recipe was one of the things we took to a tailgate while I was dairy-free, made from those substitutes...and no one knew the difference! These days, we make them with dairy cheeses, but just know they are super easy to make dairy-free if needed! And you could leave out the bacon to make them vegetarian.

First you'll mix all your ingredients together. Add about a teaspoon of the filling to your wonton and a dab of BBQ sauce.

You want to be sure not to overfill your wontons. The one above was a little overfilled...but believe me, it did not stop us from using it!

Close the wontons like this. Try to get as much air out of them, and seal the edges with water. You don't want them to have any openings when you fry them.  Then you want to fry them in oil at 350°, turning as needed, until they are golden brown. It doesn't take long.

And then stick them in a container and take them to your tailgate! You could also freeze them at this point if needed, and then bake to re-heat.  While these are much better warm, they are pretty decent cold, too.

Ingredients:

1 package refrigerated square wonton wrappers (approximately) 

1 8-ounce package neufchatel cheese, softened

2-3 jalapeños, seeds and ribs removed, finely chopped

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

4-6 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled

BBQ sauce to taste 

Instructions:

1. Heat oil to 350°,

2. Mix cheeses, bacon, and jalapeños.

3. Place about a teaspoon of the filling onto a wonton wrapper. 

4. Put a dab of your favorite BBQ sauce onto the mixture. 

5. Fold the wonton into a triangle and seal the edges with water. Try to remove any air bubbles.

6. Place in the oil and fry until golden brown on both sides, flipping as needed.

Making A Yeast Starter

This shows how much DME I need for my yeast stater.  (via YeastCalac)

What is a yeast starter you say?  Well, let me explain in a mini beer lesson...

When you make beer, basically you are making a big batch of "flavored sugar water" (wort).  When you add yeast to that sugar water, the yeast cells eat the sugar and ferment it into CO₂ and alcohol.  The CO₂ is released via the air lock and the alcohol stays in the beer.  That was fun right?

Back to why a yeast starter is good...

If you don't have viable yeast cells, they wont eat the sugar.  In turn, the wort won't ferment.  Making a yeast starter makes sure that there are enough viable yeast cells to chomp down on all those yummy sugars.

 Making a yeast starter is very simple and can be done within an hour (at most).  The photo shows the things you will need.

When making a yeast starter, you are just making a very small batch of beer.  Here I'm measuring out dried malt extract (sugar powder) to add to water.

Adding water to the pot.  Bring this to a boil then add the dried malt extract.

While waiting for the water to come to a boil, I make sure to sanitize anything that is going to touch the final product.  Cleaning and sanitization is key when doing anything brewing related.

Here is the wort boiling.

I found that the sweet spot for boil time is about fifteen minutes.  Some people boil for a half hour.  That's too long for me.  I lose too much wort during the boil off and fifteen minutes still does the job just fine!

For this starter, I'm using Wyeast 1056.  It's a basic ale yeast that can be used for a wide variety of styles of beers.  IPAs, Pale Ales, etc.

After the fifteen minute boil is done, the wort goes back into the glass and needs to be cooled down to room temperature before we can add the yeast.  If you add the yeast to wort that is too hot, it kills all the yeast cells.  Not good!

I use the very scientific method of a sink full of cold water and ice to bring the wort temperature down.

Here is the yeast being added to the cooled wort.

After everything is done, it's time to put the starter on the stir-plate.

A stir-plate is basically a box with a magnetic computer fan in it.  In with the starter is a one inch stir bar that the fan spins magnetically inside the jar so it keeps the yeast cells always in suspension.

To my absolute amazement, this starter started fermenting within an hour (I've never seen that before).

I will let this run for about 36 hours then pour some off to harvest yeast (I'll make another blog post about this) and stick the remaining in the refrigerator until brew day!

Something New!

Sarah and I try to do something meatless every Monday.  We were running out of ideas and making the same things all the time, so we needed to try something different.

Then we came across this Shakshuka recipe from Chef John over at Food Wishes.  We had never heard of Shakshuka but the recipe looked and sounded delicious, so we gave it a shot.  It's a pretty simple recipe and it doesn't take too long to make.  Most of all, everything is cooked in one pan, so clean up is a breeze.  

I really didn't miss not having a meat protein in this dish as the egg gave it enough texture to serve that purpose.  

We did find that two eggs per person was a bit much, and that one a person was perfect with some bread!  With the leftovers, we took out what ever eggs we didn't eat out and saved the pepper and onion sauce in a container and put it in the refrigerator.  It was easy to reheat in a pan and add an egg to cook for one person.  The sauce mixture would also be a good base for spaghetti or peppers and onions with a sausage.  

Shakshuka

Ingredients for 6 small portions:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
large handful of sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1 cup diced red bell peppers
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and sliced
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
28-oz can (about 3 cups) crushed San Marzano tomatoes
1/2 cup broth, or as needed
6 large eggs (or as many as you can fit in you pan)
crumbled feta cheese and fresh parsley to finish

Instructions:
1. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, and add olive oil.
2. Add onions and mushrooms. Season with salt, and cook for about 10 minutes, until mushrooms are golden brown and onions are translucent.
3. Add red bell peppers and jalapeno and cook for approximately 5 minutes, until the peppers begin to soften.
4. Add cumin, paprika, turmeric, black pepper, and cayenne, and cook for about a minute.
5. Add crushed tomatoes and broth, and cook for about 15 minutes. Veggies should be soft and flavors should be well-blended.
6. Check the mixture and adjust seasoning as necessary.
7. Make a well in the sauce for each egg.
8. Add one egg into each well.  Cook, covered, until the egg is done to your liking.
9. Top with feta cheese and serve with bread. 

A Lot has Changed

Well...it's been a while.  Not just a while, a LONG while!  So, finally I have decided to brew again, and it's been way too long!  With life and kids, it gets pretty busy.  I have not stopped brewing, just haven't blogged about my brew days.  

In the year that I did not blog my brew days, I built myself a brew stand.  It makes things a quite a bit quicker and easier during the brew/clean up.  I also have been  making a lot of wine.  Wine is more convenient to make.  It doesn't take a half of a day to make, and you can do all of it indoors.  (And it keeps the wife happy.)

Now on to this recipe...

Next year, my brother-in-law is getting married and asked me to brew a beer for his wedding reception.  I have never brewed a beer for that many people, but he said to do my normal five gallons and that would be enough.  I'm going to do a five gallon corny keg and take it to the reception.  Now I need to work on getting the recipe/brewing process perfect.  

For the reception, the groom wants an American Wheat beer.  So that's what I'm trying to create.  

Now, on to the video of the brew day...

YooHoo In My Mouth?

(Milk Stout Recipe)

I like to try to brew beers that take me out of my comfort zone.  This time I made a milk stout.  

To be honest, I don't know much about milk stouts...or stouts in general.  It is by far my least favorite style of beer.  I'm sure it has to do with me not giving them a chance, so this is my experiment to find what I like and what I don't like.

When I brew beers that I'm not sure if I will like or not, I only brew one gallon batches.  That way I don't waste five gallons of beer that I really don't like (though I would still drink it).  

This is my one gallon milk stout experiment process.

Here are the ingredients ready for brewing.  I have never used chocolate malt, roasted barley, or lactose before.  I'm very interested in what flavors these will bring to the beer.

After milling the grain, the smell was very strong of chocolate.  I was very surprised.  It smelled like a Baby Ruth bar!

The mash was so dark.  I'm used to a mash that is amber in color or lighter.  The smell was wonderful!

After an hour, it was time for the grains to come out.  Once again, the wort was as dark as midnight,

The recipe called for Fuggle hops.  These give of a very earthy flavor and smell.

When doing only a one gallon batch, very little hops are needed.

I usually only use dry yeasts when doing one gallon batches.  US-05, a very general ale yeast used for many different style beers. 

The final result.  

I am very excited to bottle/try this one!  Sarah mentioned that it smelled like I was baking brownies during the boil.  That's got to be good right?  We will see.

Super-Amazing, Yummy Carrots

When I saw the recipe for roasted cumin-lime carrots on Pinterest, I literally drooled. Adam and I always struggle with side dishes...especially ones that don't involve cheese or baked beans. Adam loves really sweet, cooked carrots, but I prefer mine raw or in a soup/stew. These were nothing like anything we would ever make, and everything I wanted in my mouth. Lime. Mint. Honey. Get in my belly!

We couldn't find the baby carrots with fresh green tops in our grocery store, so we went with regular carrots and cut the bigger parts in half.  I was a little hesitant about not peeling the carrots, but Google told me it was fine, just to wash them first - so that's what I did! 

Seriously - you must try these carrots now! The mixture of lime, honey, and mint with the carrots, along with the amazing blend of spices made for a side dish that I wanted to last forever. This recipe landed a comfortable spot on my Delicious things I've made Pinterest board.  (Did I mention that I obsess about recipes on Pinterest? No? More about that another time.)

Roasted Cumin-Lime Carrots

- 1 pound baby carrots with fresh green tops (we used regular sized carrots, and cut them accordingly)

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- Juice and fresh grated zest of 1 lime

- 1 teaspoon agave nectar or honey (we used honey)

- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

- 2 green onions, thinly sliced

- Small handful fresh mint leaves, chopped

It's Been Too Long!!!

Well this comes after a long hiatus. We have not stopped cooking or brewing beer, but we have not had the time to post it to our blog. We have made the goal to start reinvigorating our blogging skills.

Since our last post, we have had our second child, Isaac. A little boy that has typical middle child syndrome without being the middle child. It's funny how much Lucy looks like her mother, and Isaac looks like his father. We couldn't be more blessed.

Back to the brewing...

I (Adam) took a long time off from brewing due to not having enough time to brew. I brewed a nice little American Wheat Beer ('Merican Wheat Beer) a few weeks ago. It came out...HOLY COW! It is fabulous. It has really gotten me back into brewing.

This weekend, I brewed a Hefeweizen.

Sarah loves wheat beers and Hefeweizens so I try to brew things that will make her happy.

What follows is my brew day.  (Note: I do brew in a bag, so it's not a typical brew day.)

Here is the recipe

I started by milling all the grain.

This is my strike water with my bag in the pot.  Ready to bring up to temp.

The temp that I needed to add my grains was 158° F.  I have found that I don't typically need it to be that hot to equal my mash temperature.  This time, it seemed to work perfectly.

At 158° F degrees, I poured my grains into my water.  This is called "mashing in".

After mashing in, I was shooting for a mash temp of 155° F.  My mash settled in at 154.2° F.  That was perfect for my 60 minute mash.

While I was mashing, I looked to see how my yeast starter was doing.  A yeast stater is when you take a packet of yeast, and brew up a "mini" beer.  When the yeast is added to the "mini" beer, the yeast cells multiply, thus making a lot more yeast cells to help ferment your beer. I made my yeast starter 24 hours before my brew day.

After sixty minutes, the mash was done.  My way of letting my grains drain is to set up a ladder with a pulley.  I hook the pulley up to the grain bag and it locks it in just high enough to drain into my brew kettle.

Here is a nice photo of the sugar being extracted from the grains into the brew kettle.

After we have the right amount of wort, it's time to start the boil.  I put the pot up on our patio table to help with the later processes of brewing.  (This will be shown later on).

While the sixty minute boil is going on, it's a perfect time to grab a glass of homebrew.  Pictured is my 'Merica Wheat Beer.

The saying is a brew kettle that is not watched, will ALWAYS boil over.  A brew kettle that is watched will NEVER boil over.  We can see what I did here.  What a mess.

We are at a nice rolling boil.

I like to do what's called a "whirlpool".  This takes all the junk from brewing and forces it to the center of the brew kettle.

After the 60 minute boil is done, it's time to chill the wort down so that I can add the yeast.  Yeast will be killed if added to wort that is too hot.  I have a plate chiller to help with this step.  It chills the wort down quickly and simply.

Here the temp is at 72° F.  It dropped even more, so that's perfect!

After getting the wort into the fermenter, it was time to aerate the wort. Aerating the wort adds O² for the yeast to eat.  This makes alcohol.

Now that there is plenty of O² for the yeast, it's time to add the yeast.

Finally, the brew day is done.

This is the final product in my insulated brew bag to help control fermentation temperatures.













This day was made easier by both kids and the wife napping!

-Adam