Messages

4216

All Things Food / Re: Pesto Pork Chops

« on: March 16, 2010, 09:03:39 am »

Sounds fantastic!

We need some pics for our mouth watering pleasure.  

Well - no pics. I ate 'em!

Keith,  What about all that healthy eating? JK.  It sounds real good.  What kind of mushrooms did you use?  I'm thinking Crimini would be good.

Honsetly, its pretty healthy IMO. What with the olive oil and all. Maybe a bit high in calories. I served it with brown rice and broccoli. Of course, gravy is never healthy but you gotta have gravy with Chops!! OTOH I ran 6 miles and lifted weights for 45 minutes so I guess its relative to calories burned.  

I simply use baby portabello mushrooms because I buy them in bulk at costco and eat bunches of them. Not sure but they may be the same as Crimini(?)

4217

All Things Food / Pesto Pork Chops

« on: March 16, 2010, 07:06:51 am »

Founds some good pork chops in the freezer yesterday and had some Costco pesto and devised this little recipe yesterday. Damn! These may have been the best pork chops I ever tasted and the mushroom gravy was super easy but made the dish spectacular.

Pesto Pork Chops

4 pork chops (preferably bone in)
4 garlic cloves
4 tbl spoons Pesto + additional for taste (I didn't really measure, just dumped a bunch in the oil)
olive oil
italian bread crumbs
milk and egg for coating

for the gravy
additoonal pesto
mushrooms
chicken stock or broth (about 1.5 - 2 cups)
corn starch for thickening
salt and pepper

Place chops in mixture of milk and egg to soak. Bread chops in crumbs. Meanwhile fry garlic in heavy, shallow pan (big enough to hold all 4 chops) filled with a little less than 1/2 inch olive oil, when brown add 4 table spoons of pesto. Stir until fragrant and then lay chops in oil and fry on med low flipping 2 or 3 times until done. Remove,

For gravy add chopped shrooms to oil and saute while scraping browned bits of pork and pesto (the parmesean cheese from the will be very crispy and brown.) When shrooms start to brown add chicken stock or broth. Bring to boil. Mix a small amount of corn starch with warm water and add a few table spoons at a time until sauce begins to thicken. Add a bit mroe pesto, pepper and salt if needed (depending on the amount of sodium in your stock/broth you may not need any) to taste.

Serve with a side of rice or risotto and steamed vegetables.

4218

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Where are the fruity esters coming from?

« on: March 16, 2010, 05:52:36 am »

Yeah, 2L starter is about 1/2 the size what you needed for a 5-6 gallon batch. Cell growth = ester development. Next time for a 1.050 beer pitch at least the slurry from a 4L or 1 gallon starter per 5 gallons of beer. 2 vials per 3-4L even better. So for an 11 gallon batch of beer you would need at least 2 gallons of starter.

Also, don't pitch the entire starter. Decant the spent starter beer. You are carrying the esters over from the starter wort otherwise.

4219

Equipment and Software / Re: Quick Disconnect

« on: March 16, 2010, 05:44:49 am »

667! 

Haven't had any issues with mine. I ran them with the "X" in tact but when I took them apart to clean them I always noticed they were partially plugged with hops, even though I'm using pellets. I decided to dremel them out just to be safe. In my experience few things can mirror the frustration as when you are trying to move a finished wort to the fermenter and get a clogged line. Stuck sparge excepting, of course. 

That said, I guess it would be an easy thing to fix on the fly. But (in addition to 12) I am running 42 gallon batches which means a lot more hops so I decided not to take the chance.

4220

Beer Recipes / Re: Lawnmower Beer

« on: March 15, 2010, 11:26:41 am »

Sure, sub out any hops you like. I have even used Centennial before in low amounts for an interesting spin. As far as "Instant Grits", they are actually parboiled, quick dried grits aka polenta. You may have trouble finding them depending what part of the country you are in. Grits are cheap and easy to find 'round these here parts. If you can't find them, just spend the extra coin and get the flaked maize. I have seen some places sell it in 5 pound bulk for ~1.50 per pound or cheaper.

I am going to probably make this again very soon but with a lager yeast since I am getting ready to start up another string of lagers. Going to start with this and split between WLP830 and WLP833.

4221

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's your Favorite Style of Beer?

« on: March 15, 2010, 08:28:59 am »

If I "had to choose" I would say Doppelbock is my favorite style hands down. I love doppelbock. What's odd, though, is most days I would prefer to drink an IPA. I only drink doppelbock on occasion but I drink IPA weekly. But when I have a good doppelbock I take time to really sit down and enjoy it and it is always a very, very special beer.

4222

The Pub / Re: Hitting he books.

« on: March 14, 2010, 04:51:34 pm »

+1. Please remember this is a family friendly forum. Keep you proclivities to yourself. Thanks.

4223

The Pub / Re: I am bored and wish to be entertained

« on: March 14, 2010, 12:46:19 pm »

4224

The Pub / Re: I am bored and wish to be entertained

« on: March 14, 2010, 06:04:15 am »

That was one of the trial runs on our 1.5 bbl system.

4225

The Pub / Re: I am bored and wish to be entertained

« on: March 13, 2010, 05:02:15 pm »

Sorry, I just couldn't pass that up. No offense meant.

Cheers.

Absolutely none taken! In fact, I have had to put up with lots of short jokes all my like. For some reason most of my friends are 6 foot or taller. Come to think of it, I don't think I have a close friend shorter than me. That's weird. I never thought about that before until now.

These are only 6 gallon kettles. You can see how short I am. Look at those guns though.  

4226

The Pub / Re: I am bored and wish to be entertained

« on: March 13, 2010, 10:18:12 am »

LOL. Yeah, I'm not a very big guy. I'm also only 158 lbs. I work out with around 245 on bench though, if that counts for anything. 

I should add, that kicking trick, while amusing to me, is not a favorite of others.

4227

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: WLP 565 Saison fermenting temp question

« on: March 13, 2010, 07:29:41 am »

I have fermented this strain in the 60s and had 90% aa with no problems.

4228

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Best time to chuck in the aroma hops?

« on: March 13, 2010, 06:10:37 am »

I guess it depends for me. ON some beers I like to add them at WP (or, of course, dry hop, which really should be on your list). But for most of my beers I add the aroma hops at 2 minutes. I don't have any proof but I feel that boiling them for a couple minutes helps to release a little more hop character. That said, I have the ability to chill very quickly. If my chilling took longer than 20 minutes I would always hop at the WP.

4229

The Pub / Re: Dinosaurs -vs- Cattle

« on: March 12, 2010, 06:37:54 am »

I'm pretty sure homebrewers have them both beat.

4230

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Why don't more microbrews start canning?

« on: March 12, 2010, 06:24:20 am »

Not exactly microbreweries but you can buy Guinness and Newcastle in can as well as bottle.
So you could do your blind taste if you want to.

Yeah, but you could easily tell the difference between a bottle and a can of Guinness. Not sure about Newcastle, but the black stuff is remarkably different in a bottle. My experience anyway.

They have those Guinness with the nitrogen widgets too, at least in my part. I agree though, the Guinness Extra glass bottles and the Draft nitro cans will be hugely different. Still, Dean probably couldn't tell the difference. Not with that palette. He actually drank my beer once and thought it was good so I wouldn't trust his taste buds.