No Knead Bread, The Next Day

by A.J. Coltrane

The next-night-using-up-the-No-Knead-Bread dinner. Grilled steak sandwiches with blue cheese-horseradish mayo, caramelized onions and green peppers.

Messy and good.

[Product recommendation that sort of reads like a plug:] The steak was hit with McCormick’s Steakhouse Seasoning Grinder. It’s a quick and easy way to “add something” that’s tasty but still somewhat hard to define. Hands down my favorite offering of theirs. (From the website:) “A robust blend of green, black, and pink peppercorns with salt, garlic and onion. This grinder jazzes up steaks, burgers, ribs and potatoes.”

I guess I could have put actual effort into the picture, but we were hungry, and I’m not one of those bloggers to spend a bunch of time on the photo and get cold food as a reward. Those people have a sickness. (Initially the colors in the photo were really funky. I think maybe the camera was trying to normalize the yellow cutting board as “white”. Maybe. Placing a white cutting board behind the sandwich helped the camera figure out what “white” really looks like.)

Three attempts at a decent photo is plenty.

Tonight the bread “ends” are becoming garlic croutons.

Beer of the Week: Russian River Pliny the Elder

By Iron Chef Leftovers

The beer is so legendary that it has taken on a life of its own making it one of the tougher beers to find. It does not help that it is only distributed in 4 states – California, Oregon, Colorado and Pennsylvania, and only available once every six weeks or so, driving demand through the roof. It is probably the number 1 beer that was requested in beer trading that I have done. Luckily, a trip to SF a few month back involved a side trip to the Russian River brewery and the ability to pick up 6 bottles of Pliny. Most were distributed to friends, a couple were for my consumption.

The skinny from Russian River:

Pliny the Elder is brewed with Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, and Simcoe hops. It is well-balanced with malt, hops, and alcohol, slightly bitter with a fresh hop aroma of floral, citrus, and pine. Best enjoyed FRESH! That is why we make it in such limited supply. Actual bottling date is printed on each bottle!

Where did we come up with this name? Back in the year 2000, our friend, Vic Kralj, who owns the Bistro in Hayward, California, decided to have his first ever Double IPA festival. Vic invited 10 breweries, 6 of whom (including us) had to brew something special for him since we had nothing that would fall under this style category. Vinnie had made a Double IPA at Blind Pig in 1994, but was not brewing one at Russian River Brewing at the time. He had an idea for the recipe, but not a name. After much research in beer books, brainstorming, and deliberation, we came up with “Pliny the Elder”. Pliny, the man, lived in the first century- 23 to 79 A.D. According to our brewing references, he and his contemporaries either created the botanical name or at least wrote about Lupus Salictarius, or hops, currently known as Humulus Lupulus. That was a very early reference to an important part of any Double IPA! Pliny the beer has now become one of our flagship brews!Pliny the Elder was immortalized by his nephew, Pliny the Younger, who wrote about his uncle succumbing to ash and smoke during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. while rescuing people. Cheers to the scholar, historian, officer, writer, and Roman Naturalist- Pliny the Elder!

Original Gravity:     1.070

Alcohol by Volume:     8.0%

Color:     Copper

Bitterness:     High

The beer pours hazy orange in color with an off-white head. Extreme amounts of citrus and peel show on the nose and they hit you from a foot away. Upon closer inspection, orange peel, pine, resin and grain dominate the nose. This beer drinks big, a blast of grain starts you out before quickly relenting to the hops and there are a lot of them. Grapefruit and tangerine dominate before slowly bringing just a small amount of bitter orange peel and resin to the party on the finish. Those notes linger for a long time before slowly fading off after a minute. This is definitely a beer to be savored and drunk slowly to truly appreciate the complexity. Pliny is balanced and fruity with no indication of its 8% alcohol and is easy to drink for such a big beer. Pliny is a truly great beer and worth finding someone to trade bottles with if you have never had it before.
Russian River Pliny the Elder lectures the crowd with 5 history lessons out of 5.

Radishes And Mache

by A.J. Coltrane

Mache and two types of radishes – “Cherry Bell” and “French Breakfast”:

The Mache was direct seeded on January 5. I doubt that the super-early planting produced something much earlier than if I’d just waited another 4-6 weeks. It’s listed as a 50-day maturity, and we’re eating the last of them about 100 days later. The correct answer is (probably) to plant Mache in September-October or late February. Still, it was a good exercise to see what Mache would tolerate, and it survived the cold weather just fine.

The “Cherry Belle” radishes were direct seeded on February 10. In theory they can be ready to harvest in as little as 22 days (at 3/4″ – 1″ in diameter). It took closer to two months. They definitely didn’t like being at all cramped in the EarthBox. I think this variety is likely better suited for a container that offers more elbow room.

The “French Breakfast” radishes were direct seeded on March 7. They’re supposed to take 25-30 days to get 3-4″ long and 1/2″ in diameter. They took a couple of weeks longer than that, which I’d guess was to be expected. The nice thing about this variety is that they grow downward like carrots, rather than expanding much in width. My suspicion is that these are the better variety for limited-space situations.

If anyone has a good recipe for radish leaves I’m all ears. It looks like people either eat them raw or saute them with aromatics..

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Roggenbier Dry Hopped with Belma Cask

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Belma hops are fairly obscure around the beer world and a good number of beer drinkers probably have never heard of them. Belma brings strawberry quality to the party, but they aren’t available in huge quantities, which is why you see them more in experimental or one off beers. The guys down at Reuben’s had some Belma hops and happened to have their Roggenbier, which, in case you are unaware is a rye based hefeweisen beer, so it has a good deal of banana qualities to it. Bananas and strawberries in a cask beer? Are we about to have a chocolate and peanut butter moment?

The beer pours the color of cloudy tea with light notes of rye and strawberry on the nose. The beer starts out with a nice yeast component and a mild sweetness before bringing strawberry and rye into the picture. Those flavors linger all the way to the finish with a light breadyness and sweetness joining the party with some banana notes also. The finish is surprisingly long for a cask and the beer is layered and complex with none of the flavors dominating the beer. They all play well together, feeding off each other and making the transition from one flavor to another smooth, producing something very different and delicious. At only 5.3% ABV this one is also very easy to put back a few of.

Reuben’s Roggenbier Dry Hopped with Belma Cask produces a sweet 4 fruit bowls out of 5.

The Cold Frame, And Other Stuff

by A.J. Coltrane

The cold frame is finally finished. (I think. There are four screws left over.) It should be a good home anytime something needs a little more warmth. The lid can be adjusted to multiple positions. For reference the box is 4′ long by 2′ wide by 18″ high:

Next is a new trellis for the raspberry plants. It’s actually a remesh sheet (for concrete reinforcement.) Seven bucks at Home Depot. While I was trying to bend this into a circle it snapped back and got me in the face. I’d recommend eye protection if you decide to do this:

It’s secured with cable ties.

Pictured below is just under one ounce of romaine. It’s about 20-25 leaves — it makes for a nice little lunch salad. It’s amazing just how little leafy greens weigh. Three pounds of lettuce would make 50 of these salads:

That’s the “Winter Density” romaine. It was started indoors from seed on February 5 and transplanted outdoors on February 24. It’s still going strong, though I may start interplanting new seed around it soon.

Below is the “Little Gem” romaine. Started indoors February 16 and transplanted to the EarthBox on March 8. It’s just now starting to get up a head of steam, though it’s been in a relatively shady location in the back yard most of the time. I believe it’s supposed to have a fairly compact growing habit anyway.

Finally, a bonus boy cat pic:

A Shout-Out to bitchbeer.org

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have met and hung out with some pretty hard core beer lovers from all around the country in my various trips around the Ballard brewery scene. It has led to a pretty extensive network of people who I regualarly swap beer with. Last night I got to meet such a group of ladies who run the beer blog bitchbeer.org as they were doing a tour of the Pacific Northwest (they mostly hail from Austin, Texas). They are pretty hard core, have a great blog and, get this, collectively wrote a book about the history of the Austin Beer scene. It was a pleasure meeting all of you and I hope that you enjoy the rest of you stay and the beer in the Pacific Northwest.

For those who care, I have linked their blog in our links section. It is definitely worth checking out.

Beer of the Week: Port Brewing High Tide Fresh Hop IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It is strange that I had a bottle of fresh hop beer sitting in my fridge for several months without having opened it or even realizing it was there. That is what happened with the my 22 oz. bottle of Port Brewing High Tide Fresh Hop IPA. The beer was fresh hopped with Centennial and Simcoe hops and came in at 6.5% ABV. Because it had been sitting for a while, I figured that I would have pretty low expectations of the beer, and honestly, figured that all of the hop flavor would have been dead by this point. I am happy to report, I was wrong.

The beer pours golden in color with a hint of orange and an off white head. There is significant hop character on the noes with strong notes of citrus and citrus peel with light notes of grain and resin. A major citrus bomb on the palate – the beer starts off with a slightly tannic dryness before quickly switching to hops, and lots of them. There are strong notes of citrus peel and grapefruit before finishing off with more citrus peel and a pleasant lingering bitterness on the front of the tongue that keeps going for quite a while. Well balanced and higher alcohol than most fresh hops, it goes down smooth while displaying nice character.

Port Brewing High Tide Fresh Hop IPA cycles in with 3 ebb tides out of 5.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Challenger IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It is almost suicide for a NW brewery to not have an IPA regularly on tap, just because it seems to be the default beer of a number of NW craft brew drinkers. Because of that, there is significant pressure on breweries to not only produce the style, but to do it well so they don’t get lost in the shuffle. For the early part of its existence, NW Peaks did not have an IPA on regularly, but that changed about a year ago when one of their regular commercial customers asked them to brew one, which lead to the Challenger IPA.

From the NW Peaks site:

The name. The mountain. Mt Challenger anchors the NW boundary of the Picket Range, arguably the most remote, inaccessible area of the N Cascades. The main feature of Mt Challenger (maybe besides its jagged, rocky summit and sub-summits) is the Challenger glacier – the largest in the area spanning nearly 2 miles and about 3000 of vertical feet. It’s a great climb, with a long approach (which many might consider a climbing excursion in itself), fun glacier slogs, and a nice rock pitch at the end. A truly great mountain and great back country climbing excursion. A perfect namesake to our traditional NW IPA.

The Beer. We tried to emulate the stunning features of Mt Challenger in the IPA. We started by selecting 7 varieties of hops, each used at 1 specific time during the process to bring out a unique flavor and bouquet that had both the traditional citrus notes as well as other complementary notes, in this case stone fruit. The malts were chosen to support the hop character, add a little complexity, and give Challenger IPA a nice balance, one that would feature, but not owerwhelm with, the hops. The result is a nice drinkable hop forward IPA featuring citrus and stone fruits on a solid, medium bodied backbone.

ABV: ~6.5%

The beer pours hazy golden orange in color with a nice citrus and grain nose. The beer starts out with a pleasant amount of citrus before shifting into a slightly floral sweetness, lingering for a few moments before bringing a mild bitterness of resin and citrus peel. The beer finishes long, bringing all of the flavors together with hints of grain tying everything into one cohesive unit. The beer has plenty of character and a nice balance between bitter and citrus, making this a pretty easy beer to drink with a great lingering finish. The different variety of hops bring a nice layering to the beer and the 6.5% ABV is not at all perceptible.

NW Peaks Challenger IPA rises to the occasion and accomplishes its task with 4 double dares out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Boundary Bay Imperial IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Boundary Bay up in Bellingham, Wa, makes some of the finest IPA’s in the country. So much so that in a blind tasting a couple of years ago, their REGULAR IPA actually beat Pliny the Elder. So needless to say, I was excited when I came across an Imperial IPA by Boundary Bay, which I had no idea they made. I picked up the beer in a 22 oz. bottle for about $9. From what I have been able to gather online, the beer was actually pretty low in alcohol for an imperial, coming in at just 8.5%.

From the BB website:

A full bodied, copper colored India Pale Ale. Strong alcohol content and an agressive fresh hop finish. Only in the great Northwest can you find such a well balanced, over the top, highly hopped draft ale. Original Gravity 1.086

The beer pours orange in color with a light cream colored head. There are significant hop notes on the nose with hints of grain and citrus supporting. The beer starts off with a touch of malt sweetness before quickly transitioning to a pleasantly bitter component with touches of hop resin and citrus before finishing long with pleasant burnt citrus peel and juicy citrus, which linger for quite a long time. The balance is nice and layered with no alcohol perceptible on the finish. The beer is slightly fruitier as it warms with a touch more burn from the resin, but still nicely balanced and very drinkable for an Imperial IPA, but with enough hop character to let you know this is a hop monster.

Boundary Bay Imperial IPA hoists up the mainsail with 3 Sloop John-B’s out of 5.

Jamie Oliver, Culinary Linguist

By Iron Chef Leftovers

It is a good thing Jamie Oliver can cook and knows how to run a restaurant empire because he would be starving in the streets if he relied on his “mastery” of the Cantonese language.