Beer Girl Cooks

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comfort food

Pumpkin Ale Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Polenta

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Pumpkin Ale Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Polenta is a rich and delicious dish perfect for warming the heart and soul during cold times.

 

It was a hell of a ride last week.

Pumpkin Ale Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Polenta is a rich and delicious dish perfect for warming the heart and soul during cold times.

I had to take some time away and I’m still not ready to talk about it.

I’d rather focus on some comfort food instead.  Comfort food in the form of short ribs cooked low and slow in pumpkin beer, combined with mushrooms to make a rich gravy, and piled high on a creamy cloud of polenta.  And, of course, I say cheers and raise a glass to you with a warmly spiced pumpkin ale.

Pumpkin Ale Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Polenta is a rich and delicious dish perfect for warming the heart and soul during cold times.

That, my friends, is what dreams are made of.

UPDATE: Y’all, I have to offer my apologies.  I’m totally fine and nothing bad happened to me.  I thought it was obvious that I was expressing my extreme displeasure with the election and all things political.  I appreciate your support , kindness, and concern.  Tune in next time and we’ll totally talk about Thanksgiving and fun things like beer.

Pumpkin Ale Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Polenta
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Pumpkin Ale Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Polenta

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons butter divided
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil divided
  • 2 1/2 - 3 pounds short ribs
  • 1 -2 cups flour
  • salt and pepper
  • 16 ounces pumpkin ale
  • 12 ounces sliced mushrooms
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 15 ounce can beef consomme
  • Prepared polenta

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 275
  2. Prepare polenta according to package directions
  3. Melt 2 tablespoons butter into 2 tablespoons olive oil in a Dutch oven
  4. Add flour to a bowl and generously salt and pepper, stir to combine
  5. Dredge short ribs in flour and brown in Dutch oven in batches, 2-3 minutes each side
  6. Deglaze pan by pouring beer into pan and scrape up brown bits
  7. Return meat to pan, cover, and transfer to oven for 3 - 4 hours
  8. Remove meat from pan and shred from the bones, set aside
  9. In a cast iron skillet melt butter and olive oil over medium heat
  10. Add mushrooms, stir to coat, and leave alone for a few minutes then stir periodically until tender
  11. Sprinkle mushrooms with 1/4 cup flour, stir for about one minute
  12. Add consomme, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until thickened
  13. Add meat and any cooking liquid back into pan and cook until heated through
  14. Serve over polenta and garnish with parsley if desired

NOTES:

  1. I used NoDa Brewing Company’s Gordgeous Pumpkin Ale in this dish, which has cardamom and other spices in it.  If you use a different pumpkin ale, you may want to add some additional seasonings.
  2. If you use the polenta in the tube from the produce section, I won’t judge.  It’s a perfectly fine short cut.
  3. You can cook the short ribs in the beer ahead of time and then just make the polenta and mushroom gravy when ready to serve for an easy weeknight meal.

Pumpkin Ale Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Polenta

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

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Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

I’m sure you’ve noticed that this last week has been a rough one here in the Queen City, so I thought we could all use some comfort food.  I know I could.

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Pudding and bread are definitely two of my go to comfort foods, along with chocolate, potato chips, tater tots, cheese, and wine – does wine count?  Yes, I say it does!  In the non-food categories there are always my dear old friends over at at General Hospital, along with Dancing With The Stars, Steel Magnolias, and Fried Green Tomatoes to give my heart and spirits a lift.  And yes, I’m well aware that there are sad parts in Steel Magnolias, but I love that dang movie and it has a ton of comedy!

As usual, I digress.  I thought why not throw some pudding and bread together with all those apples occupying my counters and make some warm cinnamon-y apple bread pudding.  Bread pudding isn’t something I make very often, and whenever I do, I wonder why I don’t.  Other than the obvious waistline issues.  I actually made this recipe a couple of weeks ago when I was putting apples in everything, but today seemed like the right time to share it.

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Cheers to some warm comfort food with the hopes that this week is better than last week and that my beautiful home can heal and maintain the greatness that this city of Charlotte truly is.

 

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe
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Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Ingredients

  • 12 inch piece of French bread cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch pieces
  • 5 small apples peeled, cored, and roughly chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 5 eggs
  • 1/3 cups sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325
  2. Coat deep casserole dish with cooking spray
  3. Add bread and apples
  4. Whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla
  5. Pour milk mixture over the top of the bread and apples
  6. Toss bread and apples with the milk mixture to coat
  7. Bake 60 65 minutes or until set

NOTES:

  1. This Apple Bread Pudding would also be delicious dressed up with some caramel or whiskey sauce.
  2. Feel free to substitute the types of apples (I used a combination of granny smith and gala because it’s what I had)
  3. Feel free to substitute another type of fruit instead of apples, such as peaches or pears because either of those would be amazing too.
Apple Bread Pudding Recipe

Apple Bread Pudding Recipe is a fall version of an ultimate comfort food with bread baked in a rich custard with cinnamon and apples nestled inside. | Beer Girl Cooks

Roasted Tomato and Mascarpone Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

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Before we move on to today’s shenanigans, I just want to say thanks to all of you, my friends, for your kind words and well wishes for Chris’s dad. We both appreciate it so much.  There is continuing improvement, we’re moving him to his new facility today, and we hope to have him back home before Thanksgiving.  And his new digs are in Charlotte, so no more up and down the highway to visit!  Booyah!

 

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So, how was your Halloween?  We don’t usually get a lot of trick or treaters because we live in a cul-de-sac, so we normally just go out for dinner then hang out and watch the tube.  This year we had some little visitors come to our hood for the trick and treat festivities.  They live in the woods in the middle of nowhere, so they have to go somewhere else or they get zero candy.  We hadn’t been trick or treating in so long!  We totally had a blast!

 

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The weather was nice for us on Halloween, but now it’s all rainy and gloomy.  It isn’t terribly cold, but all things considered, it was time for some comfort food.  My garden is still producing tomatoes, so I had a boatload of them accumulating on my counter.  It was a win-win over here.  A perfect way to use up all these tomatoes and a twist on one of the most classic combos ever – the grilled cheese and tomato soup.

 

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I know this will come as a shock, but I decided to change things up a bit.  Now, I’m totally not above opening a can of Campbells and dunking some Kraft American grilled cheese in there – and maybe throwing in some Pepperidge Farm Cheddar Goldfish Crackers because those things are crack.

 

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FULL DISCLOSURE: This is not a sponsored post.  I’m fairly certain that the nice people at Pepperidge Farms would not take kindly to me comparing their baby goldfish crackers to crack. I’m just sayin’.

 

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Any-hoo, I like croutons in my soup and what better crouton then a grilled cheese?  I also like goat cheese in my tomato soup, but decided to go a different direction and mix in some mascarpone that I had in my fridge.

 

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I highly recommend it!  Have a great week, y’all!

 

 

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Roasted Tomato and Mascarpone Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

Ingredients

Roasting the Tomatoes

  • 2 pounds mixed variety tomatoes halved
  • 1-2 tablespoons olive oil - enough to coat the tomatoes
  • sprinkle of salt

For the Soup

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 cloves minced
  • 1 small white onion diced
  • 3 cups vegetable stock
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt
  • pinch of pepper
  • 4 ounces mascarpone
  • 4 pieces sliced bread
  • 4 slices American cheese
  • 2-3 tablespoons butter
  • basil for garnish if desired

Instructions

For the Soup

  1. Preheat oven to 325
  2. Add tomatoes to a parchment paper lined baking sheet, toss with olive oil and sprinkle with salt
  3. Roast at 325 for 1 hour - time will vary according to size of tomatoes, but you want them soft
  4. Cool enough to handle and pull the peel off
  5. In a Dutch oven over medium heat melt the butter into the olive oil, add onions, cook for 2-3 minutes, add garlic, and cook another minute
  6. Add roasted tomatoes, vegetable stock, sugar, salt and pepper, bring to a boil, reduce, and simmer for 30-45 minutes
  7. Stir in mascarpone until mostly melted and mix with a hand blender until smooth - you can use a regular blender, but you'll want to work in batches
  8. Strain soup through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds
  9. Return to pot, adjust seasonings

For the Grilled Cheese Croutons

  1. You can totally make your grilled cheese the way your mama taught you, but this is what I did
  2. Melt 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons of butter in a nonstick skillet over medium to low heat, add 2 pieces of bread, then 2 pieces of cheese on each, top with remaining 2 slices of bread
  3. When the bottom is golden brown and cheese is melty, flip until the other side is also golden brown and cheese it toatlly melted - if there is not enough butter left in the pan, I just remove both sandwiches from the pan, melt some more butter, and finish the uncooked side
  4. Cut into bite sized pieces

To Serve

  1. Transfer soup to bowls, toss in grilled cheese croutons, garnish with basil if desired

Chicken, Kale, and White Bean Chili

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Happy Monday, Y’all!

 

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I’m keeping things short today.  It’s Monday, I have to go to work, and I had some fun distractions.

 

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Yesterday evening Lisa called because she was near my neighborhood.  We agreed that she should stop by and drink beer with us say hi.  Then my Carolina Panthers were playing on Sunday Night Football. Woot!

 

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Cam – if you are reading this I think you’re adorable, a fantastic QB, and I wish you were my son.

 

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I hope that wasn’t too creepy.

 

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In this house football season = chili season.  Normally I do a beef, bean, tomato sauce type chili, but I happened to have roasted a couple of chickens, so I used half of one for a spicy chicken, white bean, and kale chili for Chris.  I used the other half for a chicken, rice, and vegetable soup for me.

 

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FULL DISCLOSURE:  If you have been following this here website for more than 6.32 minutes, you know that I’m a complete weenie when it comes to spicy.  I made this spicy chicken, white bean, and kale chili for Chirs – not me.  I sacrificed myself and tasted this chili because I can’t in good conscience publish a recipe on this here website that I haven’t at least tasted.  It was way too spicy for me and had too many peppers – I know that isn’t a great endorsement for my creation.  Like I said, I made it for Chris and he absolutely LOVED it.  It peppers and spicy blow your dress up, this chili is for you!

 

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Chicken, Kale, and White Bean Chili

Ingredients

  • 1 white onion diced
  • 4-5 jalapeno peppers diced
  • 4-5 serrano peppers diced
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1 15 ounce can cannellini beans drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 of a whole cooked chicken shredded into large pieces
  • 3-4 cups kale roughly chopped, stems removed
  • 1-1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. In a large Dutch oven, combine butter and olive oil over medium heat
  2. When butter is melted and oil is hot add onions, jalapeno and serrano peppers, cook until onions are translucent and peppers are soft, 2-3 minutes
  3. Add garlic and cook 1 minute
  4. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and cook another 1 minute
  5. Add chicken stock, beans, chicken, and spices
  6. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer 20 minutes
  7. Add kale and simmer until kale is tender, 10 -12 minutes
  8. Adjust seasonings and serve with crackers or crusty bread