We Welcome New Belgium

  Slowly but surely New Belgium Brewery of Fort Collins, Co. has been making its way east.  Fat Tire, probably the most well known of New Belgium beers, was always something to look forward to when making a trip out west.  We welcomed our first case of Fat Tire to the restaurant last week & needless to say, there were a lot of smiling faces!  Besides their beer tasting great, the company is extremely environmentally conscious.  So much in fact, it would take me longer to type it out than it would for you to browse it here!  They are setting a great example and beer always taste better when the water is clean!   Unless it comes from an Olympia can! 

   

Taking Coffee In New Directions

  I took one of Alinea's aromatic recipes and altered it.  I should have cut the recipe in half.  I used some of it and had quite a bit leftover.  What to do with it?  Brew it, of course.  Take away some of the anise, add some pistachio shells, maybe some juniper?  The pistachio shell idea came from home when my girlfriend was shelling some pistachios, and my latest bag of coffee from Bald Guy Brew had chocolate and peanut butter essence all over it.  The Sumatran coffee was asking for salted pistachio shells.  So, what are the possibilities of extra essence in your cup of joe?  Oh yeah, I toasted the pistachio shells first.  Here is the Alinea aromatic recipe.  It is a good starting point.

160 G Fennel Pollen

120 G Star Anise

60 G Lemon Zest

300 G Coffee

Grind Coffee & Anise

Chop Zest

Mix All       

Defeat In The 1st Round ; Apple Battle

Spice Rubbed Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Apple & Sweet Potato Hash, Wasabi Apple Sauce, Red Orach, Apple Chip, Crispy Sweet Potato

Fried Sea Scallop, Apple Slaw, Parsnip Puree, Apple Sauce, Apple Cilantro - Lime Coulis, Peppercress & Popcorn Shoot

Chef Nikki, Chef Eddie, Chef Ken

  Unfortunately I missed getting a photo of the dessert.  We had a great time doing this competition.  We don't really consider ourselves competitive when it comes to "Iron Chef" type stuff, but it was fun to do something new.  I was happy with all of our food, but seemed to be the only one.  The dishes were judged by the diners who did not know who was cooking each dish until after they completed the meal.  We ended up feeding 48 people, 3 courses from each team.  The variety of ingredients provided for us to work with was quite nice.  Each team was allowed to bring their own specialty bag, valued up to $100.    It was interesting cooking in a kitchen that I had only briefly stepped into once before.  It sure did make me appreciate our kitchen alot more.  No offense to Crippen's!  You guys just need some new cambros!  We do look forward to giving it another shot next year!