Flying Fish Exit 6

The next stop on Flying Fish Brewery's trek up and down the New Jersey Turnpike is Exit 6 Wallonian Rye. Flying Fish released the beer last month and should still be widely available for purchase. Here is the description from the Exit Series site:

For our fifth stop, we journey to Exit 6. This part of Burlington County was settled by Dutch Walloons (now Belgians) whose first order of business was to build a fort–and then a tavern. The area has always had a rich agricultural heritage and we’re using locally grown rye as an appreciation of our farmers past and present.

Exit 6 starts out as a deceptively simple recipe–pale malt augmented by 20 percent rye, fermented with a classic Belgian yeast. But then it gets interesting with the hops: English East Kent Goldings, Slovenian Styrian Goldings and Japanese Sorachi Ace.

The result is a rich saffron color with a spicy character from the rye and lemony citrus notes from the unique Sorachi Ace hops.

The beer poured with a beautiful golden color with a small head which dissipated unsurprisingly quickly considering Exit 6 is 7.5% ABV. The beers I poured for Wifey and I stayed rather cloudy, I'm not sure if that was because of the rye or if my pour included most of the yeast used in bottle conditioning.

For taste, I did get a light citrus taste, but didn't get any of the spiciness Flying Fish described above. The most distinguishing taste characteristic we both found was a slightly sour finish. Again, not sure if that comes across normally with the beer or if my yeasty pour brought the sour to the table. Overall a good beer, and one which should pair well with summer foods.

Update August 1, 2010

I tried another bottle today and got a better pour, without any yeast sediment in the glass. The beer still had a cloudy, medium straw color and a slightly sour taste. While I like it, some people may not. I took a photo of today's pour, below, and you can see the coudiness. Also, I poured the beer so the top of the head reached the top of the glass, and I took the shot below about 90sec after the pour, so you can see how quickly the head dissipates.

What to do with all those Blueberries

I can't believe how good this year's blueberry crop has been. Big, plump, and well... BLUE. The wet, cool spring (which yielded to a balmy summer) gave us great berries. While Wifey just likes to eat them right out of the package, I had to cook with them. So far, we used over 30 pints, and here are three simple, yummy ideas.

Blueberry Vodka
As promised, I brewed up some infused blueberry vodka. I used the exact same recipe as my strawberry vodka so I won't repeat it here, except blueberries don't need to be cut so, you don't need as much prep time, but they are better after a week and a half to two week soak. For some unknown reason I seem to prefer drinking the blueberry out of a snifter over a martini glass.

Blueberry Muffins
Obviously the standard thing to cook with blueberries are muffins. I base my muffing recipe on the "Old School Muffins" in Alton Brown's baking cookbook. For today's blueberry batch, I wanted healthier muffins so I modified the recipe to make whole wheat muffins and used Sugar in the Raw instead of white sugar.

Ingredients

• All purpose flour
• White whole wheat flour
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Salt
• Sugar
• Vegetable oil
• Large egg plus one egg yolk
• Blueberries

Tools

• Regular size muffin tin (12 muffins)
• Mixing bowls
• Oven (pre-heat to 375F)
• Kitchen scale
• Pam for Baking

Muffins are one of the simplest things you can bake. Since they are chemically leavened (baking powder reaction) they don't require proofing yeast. You simply mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ones in another, pour the wet into the dry, stir, and scoop. For this and many baking recipes sugar counts as a wet ingredient since it liquefies when it gets heated. Also, only stir just enough to mix all the flour in. Over-mixing leads to flat muffins because the bubbles being formed by the baking powder/soda escape. Let the dough stand for 5 minutes before scooping into a lubed muffin pan

Dry stuff:
163 grams (1 1/4 cup) all purpose flour - The most accurate way to measure flour is to weigh it because it can get compressed in the measuring scoop and you can add too much and get dry muffins
140 grams (1 cup) whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt

Wet:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Egg and egg yolk
1 cup plain low fat yogurt
1 cup blueberries

Mix, let stand, scoop and bake for 18-20 minutes at 375F. I turn the pan around after 10 minutes to make sure the cook even. The next time I make muffins I plan to use only whole wheat flour (315g) since you don't need any gluten in the muffins.

Blueberry Sauce
Without a doubt, Bryers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream is the best ice cream you can buy at a store. The off season standard for toppings is, of course Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, or maybe Magic Shell. During berry season, I make a fruit syrup with either strawberries or blueberries (same recipe) that really compliments the already great vanilla ice cream. The syrup would also go great with some of the Whole Wheat Pancakes from Alton's baking cookbook.


Ingredients

• Blueberries
• Sugar
• Pure vanilla extract

Tools

• Saucepan
• Stovetop

Combine a pint of blueberries (or cut strawberries), a half cup of sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat. Stir until the sugar melts and the juice starts to cook out of the berries (about 8-12 min). Reserve 1/3 - 1/2 of the fruit and blend the remaining fruit/sauce in either a blender or with a boat motor stick blender. Put the liquefied sauce and reserved fruit back together in the pan, lower the heat to medium low and simmer until desired thickness.

Strawberry Infused Vodka

I'm not a fan of cold rainy weather in the spring, but it has one benefit: great berries. A couple weeks ago, Wifey went to the local farm stand and brought home some of the best looking strawberries I've seen since, well, last year. Large, plump, and juicy, the berries worked great in my first attempts at strawberry vinaigrette, and strawberry syrup (Bryers Vanilla anyone). I may have issues, but I had to make some strawberry infused vodka for chilling on the hot summer days.

Strawberry infused is the second of the three infusions I ALWAYS make each year, apple cinnamon and blueberry (in a month or so) are the others. Like the apple-apple I often drink strawberry in a martini glass, but a snifter's worth after dinner is really nice.

Ingredients

• Strawberries
• Sugar
• Water
• Vodka

Tools

• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Infusion Jar
• Pan
• Stovetop

Infuse It
I use the same basic process as the Apple-Cinammon infusion: clean and cut fruit and fill jar with fruit and vodka. To enhance the strawberry flavor, I add a little simple syrup to the jar with the berries and vodka.

Simple syrup is, unsurprisingly, simple to make. For my 204oz jar, I make about 3/4 cup of syrup. Bring a quarter cup of water to a boil in a small pan, then stir in a half cup of sugar and stir continuously until the mixture is clear. That's it; let it cool a little and pour the syrup over the berries with the vodka.

Let the mixture sit for at least a week, then strain and serve. Keep any extra in the refrigerator so it stays fresh and can be served at a moments notice.

Finger Steaks with Jalapeno Mashed Potatoes

This is another “stolen recipe" which also happens to be from Graiziano’s. They serve it as lunch, dinner, or as an appetizer without the potatoes. I like to make it on Sunday’s with fresh bread and meat, and also because it takes a little more time to cook than I have after work.

Ingredients

• Baking potatoes
• Jalapenos
• Butter
• Milk
• French bread
• Steaks
• Mushrooms
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Paprika
• Seasoned Salt

Tools

• Pot for boiling potatoes
• Grill or oven safe pan for cooking steaks
• Oven or toaster oven
• Torch?
• Knives
• Cutting boards
• Insta-read thermometer

Hot Pepper Mashed Potatoes

The mashed potatoes take the longest to cook. Peel the potatoes, cut them into chunks and place them in a pot of cold water. Try to make the potato chunks the same size so they will cook at the same rate. Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender and drain them.
While the potatoes are boiling, roast the peppers. I prefer jalapenos, but you could use any pepper, or use crushed red pepper flakes, which is what the restaurant uses. Coat them in oil and either put them on a grill, directly on a gas burner, broil them in an oven, or torch them. I used the broiler setting in the toaster oven this time. Cook the peppers until the meat is tender. Jalapenos have a thin skin which will blister and may black. Peel off the skin and dice the peppers, discarding the stem and seeds.

Mash or whip the peppers into the potatoes with butter, milk, salt and pepper. Use just enough milk and butter for the potatoes to be fluffy. I made three pounds of potatoes and used about 3 tablespoons of butter and ½ cup of milk.

Finger Steaks

Mushrooms

Chop and sauté mushrooms in butter (tastes better) or oil (better for you). I season my mushrooms with salt, fresh ground pepper, seasoned salt, and garlic powder. I often cook the mushrooms first, leave them in the pan, and heat them right before serving.

Garlic toast

Like the potatoes, the garlic toast takes a while to make, and like the mushrooms, they can be made early and set aside. Cut a loaf of French bread into slices about a half inch thick. I cut mine on a bias to get a slightly longer piece. Butter both sides of the bread and season both sides with garlic powder and paprika. Similar to roasting the peppers, there are multiple ways to toast the bread. I put them on a sheet pan and into a 350 degree oven until they are browned, and turn them over to brown the other side. You could also put the pieces in a toaster oven, or toast them on a grill.

Steak

I’ll go into my theory of steak making later this year in another post, but the bottom line reads: simple is better. You can use almost any cut of boneless steak. I use NY Strip steaks, but filet works well, and London Broil could be wonderful. Prep the steaks by seasoning them on both sides with salt, fresh ground pepper, and season salt. Normally I grill my steaks, but it was raining so I pan seared and oven finished the steaks, which uses a similar heat profile to how I grill. Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees and heat a cast iron or other oven safe pan on the stove over medium high heat. Grease the pan with butter or oil and cook the steaks for 1-2 minutes per side, then put the pan and steaks into the oven (if your pan isn’t oven-safe use a separate baking pan). Bake the steaks for about 8-10 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads the temperature you prefer your steaks. I like medium rare or medium which is from 135 – 145 degrees. Remove the steaks from the pan and allow them to rest on your cutting board for 3-5 minutes. The rest period is important for the steak to be more flavorful, and to prevent the juices from running out of the meat and soaking the garlic toast. Slice the steak, on a bias again, and place each slice on a piece of garlic toast.

Serve and enjoy.