helenas

Stopped by Griggstown yesterday for quails but their fresh chickens looked so irresistible i ended up getting one as well. That was in fact a very smart choice: one of the best chickens i had in recent memory (i usually buy Eberly's or Bell&Evans).

Lancaster Hop Hog IPA became a new favorite - although a bit on a thinner side the tropical flavor of this beer is addictive. Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' IPA - quite bready and a very long bitter finish, very nice.

WHT, this sounds intriguing: any particular type of beer? Do you cook beans in the same liquid? Or you add a fresh beer?

current favorites:

freshly killed chicken from Griggstown Quail Farm, spatchcocked, quickly harissa marinated and roasted; cazuela roasted fingerlings and porcini; roasted golden baby beets with walnuts and garlic chives yogurt dressing; pickled fiddleheads and ramps;

what can i say - same league, but as much as i love to hate Dogfish Head, this one is a winner: in terms of aroma and very long finish. but you know what - these days i always have some Red Seal in my fridge

Margaret, i politely disagree: i used to order Cusine et Vins de France directly and never had a problem with lagging - the date their site would announce the availablity was the date plus minus i would get my issue. Same experience when i ordered single issues of Saveurs from some CA company (don't have their link handy). And apropos of nothing, i have a subscription to australian Gourmet Traveller which i get at the same time that it hits newstands in Sydney or Melbourne

My contribution to this thread (and i cooked with beer on many occasions) would be a seafood stew from Mai Pham's Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table: broth made from beer, chicken stock with tomato chunks, fish sauce, lemongrass, dill and celery with seafood and more tomatoes and dill added towards the end. Tonight i made this yet again with Czechvar, red snapper, large shrimps and serious amount of dried bird red peppers - mind-bogglingly good!

Always glad to hear about a new IPA... For me, the best Hop Devil is the standard by which to judge all IPAs. ← i probably keep getting bad Hop Devil as i find it quite underwhelming. On the other hand i consider Hop Hog quite an interesting IPA: plenty of grapefruit bordering really strong almost guava aroma. We had a side to side tasting tonight and both preferred Hog to Devil. Tomorrow i'm planning the comparative tasting of two imperial IPA heavyweights: Stoudts Double IPA vs Dogfish Head 90 Minute: i'm almost sure which one reigns supreme

the favorite cut: here are some of the dishes i made: Mock porchetta:( recipe link) Five Spice Roasted Belly: Belly roasted with cloves and oranges: pork rillons: (recipe link) :

Susan so what do you think? i tried it a while ago but don't remember if i liked it or not... maybe it's time to have a thread on our hop favorites! i'm having Flying Fish Extra Pale Ale tonight, and can't really describe it better than somebody already did on ratebeer: "Pretty bland, doesn’t really speak strongly of either malt or hops, but instead of a flat bread and hints of dried apricot. Very smooth and not too watery, nice and evenly viscous on the palate. Extremely drinkable, but not notably amazing."

Victory Storm King imperial stout, nice but nothing special so need to retest. Another King: Three Floyds Alpha King pale ale: the king indeed, and a perfect match with edamame yuzu pesto and soba.

Inspired by this thread i made stir-fried edamame with yuzu kosho and pan roasted scallops. today i whipped sort of pesto with a rest of the edamame bag: egg yolk with beans then yuzu kosho and olive oil. The pesto came out so delicious but soba-pesto thing was on a gloppy side - next time i'll just puree beans and stir in yuzu paste and olive oil for a looser consistency.

Barbara's Shredded Oat w Almond and Vanilla is my current favorite: is this the same one? Squares stay pleasantly crunchy and the cereal is excellent in Edensoy Extra soymilk.

Unibroue's beers are great: thanks for reminding - i'll pick some for dinner tonight.

Stoudts Fat Dog is our current favorite imperial. Need to try Victory Storm King once again, totally forgot if i liked it or not .

Looks like Total yogurt is back: at least i got some yesterday at Delicious Orchards (NJ)

I think Long Beans deserve their own thread: my favorites: deep-fried (sometimes with eggplant) and tossed with yuzu kosho; cut-up in tiny beads and added to a braising meat during last 30min (tried this with mediterranean flavored lamb, today it will be with sake braised pork belly); The beads trick i've learned from the indispensable Amaranth to Zucchini book, where there are some other interesting long beans ideas. Paula Wolfert has a bunch of suggestions in her Mediterranean Grains and Greens such as macaroni-style beans from Turkey, or fritters with skordalia from Greece. Also here on eGullet there are excellent ideas from Jinmyo on Dinner thread: when i have time i'm planning to pull them together.

Asparagus plus morels and ramps - Tom Colicchio has several recipes in his Think Like a Chef. Yesterday i made his pan-roasted poussin with morels, ramps and asparagus: very nice dish but next time i'll change the ingredients ratio: his for 4: 3-4 poussins, 1/2 lb morels, 1/2 lb ramps, 1 lb asparagus, 1/4 lb sugar snaps; mine for 2: 1 poussin, 1/4 lb morels, 1/4 lb ramps, 1/2 lb asparagus, 1/8 lb sugar snaps; and still ramps were hardly discernable and there was no enough asparagus so the next time i'll double the amount of both;

yesterday: Lancaster Hop Hog IPA - pretty good; Weyerbacher Hops Infusion (IPA) - decent but where're those hops? today: Stoudts Double IPA - outstanding; Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - classic;

incidentally i've got the english version of this book recently and fully agree - it's a great one: Dishes of France : An Insider's Tour of the Region and Recipes

Inspired by today's article in sfgate about food blogs i made Ghormeh Sabzi, or Persian Green Herb Stew: used couple of small lamb shanks and some meaty neck pieces and increased the amount of herbs substantially - excellent dish.

actually before i got this book, i made sausages with plums after i found a recipe on the web. They were quite good and more interesting than the traditional sausage-grape combination.

Was planning to make some mechoui tonight but there were no appropriate lamb cuts in my grocery - instead got couple of perfect monkfish tails (filleted). Marinated them in charmoula (sans lemon juice) for several hours, then wiped the marinade from one of tail sides and tied them together (thick end to thin end for even hight) stuffing all charmoula inside, dredged the tied roast in some flour and browned on all sides. A splash of riesling and then roasted in hot oven. Made a quick sauce of pan juices and creme fraiche. Served to a morrocan salad of grilled egglant sprinkled with turkish biber pepper. Warm pitas.

Susan, to get the idea check the cookware section in The Spanish Table: Cazuelas and Cocote. I have both types in couple of sizes but mostly use a 11 inch covered cazuela. In fact tonight i used it for yet another dish from the book: braised cabbage. Added some double smoked bacon, fresh bay leaves and riesling instead of chicken stock. Very nice, especially sprinkled with coarse sea salt and red pepper flakes (my favorite marash). I will probably be making country-style pork ribs adobado (sans chicken) tomorrow and then leave the book alone for some time