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1. The only beer I remember trying other than Natty Light and Budweiser was Magic Hat No. 9. I thought I was so cool and adult (I was 18. Shame, shame illegal drinking). Is that even considered a good beer? I don't know!
2. Even though I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2002, I didn't "officially" stop drinking beer until the spring of 2003. While I was intent on not letting a single gluten free crumb enter my body, I was a bit more relaxed in terms of gluten filled water aka beer. I also had joined a sorority and had trouble letting go of the drinking games. The last beer I drank was in the spring at a keg race we had with a fraternity. We lost, I got a major stomachache, and after that I never drank a sip of beer on purpose again!
3. Last year in Scotland I drank beer twice by accident. One time I mixed up my cider with my friend's beer. Another time some nice Scottish man offered to buy me a drink and he thought I was drinking beer. As he presented me with a big pint of what I thought was cider, I smiled and said thank you and took one giant sip.....of beer. It was traumatic but I couldn't just spit it out in front of him.....ergo another big stomachache for me.
Well, as the gluten free movement continues to march on, I'm finding my life much less suckier. Not only are food companies bending over backwards to turn every day foods into gluten free accessible foods, but so are beer companies! A few years ago, there were maybe one or two gluten free beers on the market. They typically were made with a gluten free grain like sorghum or rice and they tasted....interesting. Since I haven't tried any "good" beers, my expertise in the beer tasting department is pretty piss poor. But when I would make my non-gluten free friends try them they were mildly impressed.
A few months back I found a new gluten free beer company that peaked my interest. Omission Beer doesn't use gluten free grains. They use traditional beer ingredients; malted barley, hops, yeast, and water and are magically able to remove the gluten. Don't ask me how they do it, but in my mind I'm envisioning Harry Potter like wizards swooshing their wands over vats of gluten beer and shouting "Glutinous minimous!"
So now that I finally have something that approximates the taste of actual beer (I made my sister try the lager style and she said it tasted like Sam Adams!), my first thought was let's cook with it! I've always been jealous of people able to braise or cook meat with beer, so after a quick perusal of epicurious.com, I settled on beer braised carnitas. Conveniently, I'm also currently obsessed with pulled pork and pork tacos, so let's just say it was meant to be. For this recipe, I choose the lager style from Omission. There is also an IPA (I tried that a few weeks ago. It tasted sort of like dandelions, in a good way) and a pale ale.
Last week I did another form of braised meat - short ribs - and this is similar in the sense that you're cooking a nice flavorful piece of meat on a low heat for an extended period of time. The good thing about this recipe is that you don't need to use your slow cooker and it will only eat up about 2 hours of your life. It also has limited ingredients - which makes it fairly affordable.
I started out by trying to duplicate a recipe I found on epicurious.com, but of course I couldn't find the New Mexico dried peppers that were called for because my grocery store is incapable of ever stocking anything remotely interesting or ethnic. So I had to make do by using chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce. These peppers are great to use if you need some smokey heat and don't feel like buying lots of expensive dried spices. I also found I used more liquid than it called for. I was worried that these would get too dry, too fast, so upped the beer/liquid amounts.
I was happy about how these came out and sort of shocked that the whole process worked! I just didn't think 2 hours would be enough time to braise this meat and get it to the consistency I think of when I think of carnitas - that pull apart, stringy, yet super flavorful meat. Truthfully, this meat didn't remind me of beer or anything but it did have good flavor which I am sure can be happily blamed on the beer braise. I also made some jerk shrimp to serve with the carnitas in case the recipe bombed - and while it didn't - surf and turf tacos ain't too shabby at all.
Now that I have a decent beer to cook with - what's next? Bratwurst? Beer can chicken? Chili!? Beer battered fish and chips!?? The possibilities are endless and I am very excited about it. So don't fret, gluten free children. Beer is back for you in a big way.
Beer Braised Carnitas
Makes meat for 8-10 tacos
3 peppers and some sauce from 1 can of chipolte peppers in Adobo sauce
1 2lb boneless, skinless pork shoulder cut into 2 inch pieces
3 garlic gloves, smashed
1 bottle of gluten free beer (or obviously regular beer if you're sans allergic)
1 cup of water
a few dashes of salt
Remove 3 peppers from the can and cut in half and scrape out the seeds. If you want more heat, feel free to leave them in. Add peppers and a bit of the Adobo sauce, chopped pork, garlic cloves, beer, water, and salt to a large pot - I used my pasta pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 60 minutes with the cover on or until pork is fork tender. Remove the cover and continue to cook for 20 minutes until all the liquid evaporates and pork begins to brown. Cook an additional 10 minutes, scraping up all browned bits on the bottom and continuing to shred and break up meat with a large spoon or fork. It should start to shred easily. Once the meat is all shredded and browned, add 1/2 cup of water and stir to create a little sauce. Add more water if you feel like you want the meat to be more saucy. If you add more water, check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with corn tortillas (warmed in the oven for a few minutes), guacamole, salsa, cilantro, and sour cream.
