Not beer related....

I know, I know, it's a beer blog, not a food blog, but it's my blog, and I'll post a recipe if I want.
I got this out of "Roast Chicken and Other Stories" by Hopkinson(?). The book's been getting a lot praise from the NYT and I guess other places, and overall, it deserves the praise it's getting.
I made this eggplant recipe from it last night with a pan-roasted pork tenderloin and jasmine rice:
Chili spiced eggplant:
1 1/4 lbs eggplant, peeled and cut into 1in. cubes
6 tbsp veg oil
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp sliced green onions
1/2 - 1 tsp dried chili flakes (to taste)
cilantro
Saute eggplant in the oil over med to med-hi heat until brown on all sides.
Remove from pan to drain on paper towels.
Add vinegar, sugar and salt to hot pan, and reduce until syrupy (I did "slightly syrupy", but it's a matter of taste).
Return eggplant to pan, and add green onion and chili flakes, stir to coat eggplant with vinegar. You're done when the eggplant is warmed thru.
Sprinkle with chopped cilantro to taste.

It was excellent with the pork we had, which I cook this way:
Pan-roasted pork tenderloin:
->1 pork tenderloin (roughly 1 lb, or more), patted dry.
->spice mixture (salt + pepper + thyme, greek spice, chinese 5-spice, or whatever else you desire
->1-2tbsp olive oil
Preheat oven to 375deg
Rub tenderloin with spice, and then coat with olive oil.
Heat an oven-safe skillet (ie, one with a metal handle, and nothing on it that will melt) over high heat (it's ready when a drop of water will dance on it).
Sear tenderloin on all sides until brown, and then put in oven for 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally. Tenderloin's done when thermometer in the thickest part reads 137 or higher (meat will still be slightly pink).

I'll leave "rice" to the reader.

Enjoy. (And I promise beer content this weekend)

What I'm reading and listening to....

Right now, I've been on a big horror kick, plowing thru several Brian Keene books. He's a pretty good writer in the pulpy horror vein. Over the xmas break, I read his "Dead Sea" (zombies), "Ghoul" (ghouls), and "The Conqueror Worms" (end of the world).
I just started his "City of the Dead" (more zombies). Of the four, "Conqueror Worms" was the weakest. I'm not sure if I'm getting burned out on the style or if the book just wasn't very good. Regardless, if you like horror, check him out. His books are quick reads, and go down easy.

On the music side of things, my wife gave me an iTunes giftcard, which I promptly spent on Sleater-Kinney's "The Woods" (their last album) and Clinic's "Visitations". I've already made my feelings known about Sleater-Kinney. Clinic kicks serious butt. It's an awesome album.

Happy New Beer!

It's the new year now, and I've got one beer bottled, and the other in my closet doing the dry-hop/secondary thing. I've already tasted my bottled beer, and while it's good (in the sense that there's nothing 'wrong' with it), it's a little more "stouty" or brown-aley than I really care for.
Oh well, I guess that's the price we sometimes pay. However, when I got done bottling that batch, I moved my version of "Maura's Bride Ale" to the secondary, and of course, I had to take a taste to be sure everything was ok. Fortunately, I think my concerns about the high temp were (at least this time) unfounded. The beer tasted "a-ok" to me. Now all I have to do is bottle this weekend, and I'm on to the next batch.
Since I'm working my way thru the "Homebrewer's Recipe Guide", and it's starting to get cold, I'm going to do a "Winter Prowler". Should be good.
Stay tuned, since I'm working on label designs right now, and I should be posting some this week (if I can figure out Inkscape, my illustration program).

More on the Homebrewer's Recipe Guide...

So my previous beer is now on its secondary fermentation, and I've already made another batch (what can I say, I'm in the beer groove).
Like my previous batch, this one is based on a recipe from the "Homebrewer's Recipe Guide", specifically the "Maura's Bride Ale". IIRC, the bill was:
3 1/3lb light extract
3 1/3lb amber extract
1lb Honey
1/2 lb Crystal Malt (20L)
2oz Willamette Hops (bittering)
1oz Liberty Hops (flavor)
1oz Cascade Hops (aroma)
1oz Cascade Hops (dryhop).

Everything went pretty smoothly in the brew process (I even had the chance to work on a cool papercraft project someone gave me, which hopefully I'll finish soon, so I can post a picture), but unfortunately, I'm not sure how well it'll turn out.
When I pitched the yeast and got fermentation going was right around when it warmed up this week, and I think that may have screwed up my beer.
The temp strip I have on my fermenter wasn't registering, so my fermentation took place above 78deg F. (that's the highest the scale goes) So, if it tastes like bananas (esters), I won't be surprised. I read somewhere that a long secondary ferment can lessen that flavor element, so maybe if I just let it sit in the secondary for a long time (2-4 weeks, maybe?), it'll be ok. I'm moving it to the secondary this weekend, so I'll know soon enough.

But anyway, even though this batch may not be perfect, I have to say the book I'm working with right now is pretty close to perfect. The recipes are clear and concise, and are mostly extract recipes, since the authors claim that some 80% of homebrewers (including me) brew primarily extract beers. It's nice to have a recipe guide that aims to meet your needs.

I actually own another book by the authors, called "Secrets of the Master Brewers". I've never made any of the recipes in there, but it was a good read, and it turned me on to a lot of fine breweries.

What I'm reading now...

Right now, for pleasure I'm reading
World War Z, an Oral History of the Zombie War, which is actually a lot better than the name implies.
My current technical book is
Programming Erlang, which is a tutorial on Erlang, a functional programming language developed by the people at Ericsson.

Bubble, bubble...

Well, the beer got made yesterday, and it's busily bubbling in my guest bath as I write. I was going to work off a recipe in the Joy of Homebrewing, but while I was getting my wallet out of my old pants (which were in my closet, next to my stack of library books), I noticed
The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide. One thing led to another, and I decided to work off a recipe in there, specifically the "Jack the Ripper British Ale".
Their original recipe is:
6 2/3 lb light malt extract
1/4 lb crystal malt
1 oz Hellertauer hops (boiling)
1/2 oz Tatinger hops (aroma)
1 oz Hellertauer hops (dry hop)
2 tsp gypsum
1 tsp irish moss

Working with what I had on hand, I went with:
1/2 lb of Caramel malt (instead of 1/4lb crystal)
1 oz Cascade hops (boil),
1/2 oz of E Kent Goldings, 1/2 oz Willamette (aroma)

I'm going to stick with Hellertauer hops for the dry hop, though.
What I'm hoping I'll end up with is something with good body (my last beer elicited more than one comment about being really good, but lacking in body), and a good hoppy aroma plus some bitterness.

I'm going to be waiting at least 2 weeks (1 week initial ferment, 1 week secondary ferment) to taste it in flat form, but hopefully it'll be a good one!

Quiet too long...

Wow, I knew I'd been a bit slack on my posting, but I hadn't realized just how long it's been until I looked at the date on my last post. Yeesh, six whole weeks!

Anyway, I plan to make up for it, hopefully with several new posts today and in the following days.
First on tap, I'll be brewing today. I've got 5 lbs of liquid malt extract, several ounces of hops, and several varieties of loose grain from my freezer that I probably should use up (if they're not already bad), so I'm going to see if I can't take a base recipe (Wise Ass Red from Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing) and make it my own.

So here's what I have:
5 lbs amber liquid malt extract
2 oz Cascade hop pellets (alpha 5.1)
1 oz Hellertauer Hops (alpha 2.5)
1 oz E Kent Goldings hops (alpha 6.0)
1 oz Willamette hops (alpha 3.7)
1 lb caramel malt
1/2lb chocolate malt

Looking at this, and what I want to make, I think I need to make a quick trek to the brew store for more malt extract (and those grain bags to hold the hops/grain.)

Stay tuned!