Category: Blue Cheese

2014, Blue Cheese, Brews and Food, Bru Brewery, Burkes Ice Cream, Copper & Spices, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Whole Hoggs

Boyne Valley Food Series – Brú Brewery – Beer & Food Night May 10th

by irishbeersnob2 Comments on Boyne Valley Food Series – Brú Brewery – Beer & Food Night May 10th

Beer, and Food. In a brewery. What’s not to love.

This past weekend, Paddy & Daire opened up their brewery to hold a Beer & Food evening, where Bru Beers were either ingredients in the Food or matched to the food on offer. Boy was there a good crowd there. Great to see!

The event was organised as part of the Boyne Valley Food Series www.boynevalleyfoodseries.ie where there are lots of foodie events taking place in the Boyne Valley region over the next couple of months. It was great to see so many local people out celebrating local food and produce.

Shiny steel and a packed brewery.

It was a who’s who of local artisan and quality food, on the cheese side we were represented by Sheridan’s Cheesemongers, and Boyne Valley Blue. There were some nibbles provided by The Central Navan, and Vanilla Pod. There was also bread that was baked with spent grain from the boys brewing exploits.

Then hot food wise there was offerings from local Indian Restaurant Copper & Spices, and cooking up Whole Hoggs fine pork products on the BBQ was Daire’s mammy, Mrs Harlin! Fair play for sticking at it all night.

A wheel of Delicious Boyne Valley Blue, flanked by Bru!

Dessert on the night came from Burke’s Ice Cream, infused with Brú Dubh. It was delicious, but it was ramped up when we made Brú Dubh floats with some and added some grains also. Yum Yum 

Aside from the cracking beers, including a newly tweaked Rí recipe which is much more hop forward now, and I loved it. The stars of the night were the curry offerings from Copper & Spices, i’d tweeted earlier in the week that Chicken Balti would be great with a Brú, and Carmel matched the two and it was a match made in heaven. The lamb curry was also fantastic. It’s great to see that in keeping with their local ethos Carmel will be getting a tap of Rí into her restaurant this week, and more and more punters will get to taste this great food and beer combination. It was great to meet Carmel & Nitin, and i’m looking forward to picking up some food for a Beer & Food matching article i’ve got to write.

Advertising, that hits the nail on the head

Also stars on the night were the amazing pork from The Whole Hoggs of Slane. Bru Rua infused Sausages, and Bru Marinaded Burgers. However what sent them over the edge, was the Bru Rua ketchup, and Rí IPA Mustard that came from Ian Bergin, the man behind the 11pm Somewhere podcast. Just like his podcasts, these things packed a punch.

Its been a busy time for the lads in Bru, picking up new accounts, but also new beers coming. A Belgian Saison will be winging its way to us just in time for the summer, weighing in @ 7% this isn’t going to be for the faint hearted. It’s called Bru Mor. There is also a Hefeweizen on the way, and this weighs in @ 5%. Lastly, what i’m looking forward to the most. Bru Dubh is already an awesome stout, the lads are ageing some in Whiskey Barrels and is due for release later this year. 

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Chicken Wings – nom nom nom

by irishbeersnobLeave a Comment on Chicken Wings – nom nom nom

In keeping with one post a week minimum, i’ve decided this week to share my recipe for making homemade chicken wings. Buffalo Style.

The humble Buffalo Wing – its origins from upstate NY – is a world renowned snack, and synonymous with Beer. Infact these things are fantastic with a few cold ones, watching the match with the guys, or a film. I love these things. I very much judge a place sometimes by its chicken wings.

Now, its not some KFC secret blend of herbs n spices, or the special sauce that goes on a Bigmac. The key here is Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. Not the Franks Red Hot Wing Sauce, the original. The wing sauce has an artificial butter flavour in there. Like this;

This is the one, in Ireland we only get this, the wing one, and sometimes the extra hot one.
Our lucky American cousins get more flavours naturally.

Now i’m going to talk about wings, but this also works very well with thighs and drumsticks also. The chicken wing, often a by product from whole chickens that are butchered into convenient portions. You should be able to pick them up prepacked in your local supermarket for appx €3 per kilo. 

So what do we need?

  1. Chicken Wings
  2. Bottle of Franks Hot Sauce
  3. Plain White Flour (1 1/2 Tbsp)
  4. Seasoning for the Flour (Salt,Pepper,Paprika, Cayenne)
  5. Nob of Butter
  6. Optional for the Sauce (Sriracha Hot Sauce, Minced Garlic)
Ok, so to prepare the wings, cut off the little tips, and half the wings, seperating into the Drumette, and other wing. 

Season the flour, obviously only add cayenne if you like it hot. Mix it all around and now to keep things clean, put flour into a tupperware dish or ziploc bag. Introduce a few wings at a time, shake em around to coat in flour. Get an even coating, and tap off any excess flour.

Put the wings in the fridge for 30 mins or so to help prime the flour to the wings.

Now, you can if you want deep fry these if you like, pre heat the oil to the desired temperature, and fry in batches for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and crispy. When done, hold in the oven, this will help the grease drain, and crisp up a little further. I usually cook em in the oven. Personally, just as tasty to me anyway, I bake them in the oven. Pre heat the oven to 200C and place on bottom shelf of oven. Cook for 45-50 mins total, turning half way through. Another reason I like the oven method, is all in one. Unless you have a professional size fryer its going to be difficult to do a batch up.

Now the sauce. In a sauce pan pour in a good glug of sauce, and slowly heat, add the nob of butter, you’ll notice the sauce goes from red to orange in colour. Now if you want to cool it down more, add more butter. Add the minced clove of garlic, to add more overall flavour. If you like em hot, add a squirt of Sriracha. Let the sauce come to a simmer. Simmer for a minute or two and take off the heat and let cool down.

Once the wings are cooked, put into a bowl and toss with the sauce til the wings are nicely cover.

Go great with a blue cheese dip, or ranch style dip. I made a blue cheese dip using Boyne Valley Blue Cheese, Sour Cream, Garlic, Lemon Juice, and little bit of milk. 

I enjoyed mine with Flying Dog Doggy Style Pale Ale

Yum, enjoy!