March 26th - Roasted Chicken and NW Steam Beer

March 26th - Roasted Chicken and NW Steam Beer

I have a co-worker who’s been asking if I’ve eaten for the last several weeks because I haven’t posted an actual “what I’m eating" entry, so here goes. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of roasted chicken. Few things are as easy and ultimately as satisfying. Antony Bourdain has the best commentary about roasting a chicken in his Les Halles Cookbook. I normally brine chickens before I cook them but last night I didn’t have any time, so I just stuffed it with garlic and lemon, trussed it (you absolutely must truss a chicken) and put it in a 400 degree oven. It was a small bird; only a little more than 3 pounds. I let it go at 400 for about 20 minutes and then turned it back down to about 350 until the last 5 minutes or so and raised it back to 400 to make sure I got a crisp skin.

I had started to make stock with the neck and giblets, and used some of it, along with some white wine, to deglaze the pan to make gravy. I kept the sides simple: mashed potatoes with buttermilk and horseradish and some orange and vanilla glazed carrots. (Steam the carrots in orange juice, vanilla extract, and olive oil. When the carrots are tender and the liquid has mostly evaporated, turn the heat up high to get some color on the carrots. It smells vaguely like carrots cooked with Creamsicles, but the end result is very good. The vanilla seems to accentuate the sweetness of the orange juice and carrots.)

I had an absolutely horrid Fiddler’s Green IPA while I was cooking. Well, I tried it but didn’t really drink more than a few sips. In all fairness, it’s not the brewer’s fault. It was just old and tired and had a distinctly sharp and acidic, oxidized hop bite. Fiddler’s Green is brewed by Matt Brewing Company in Utica, NY (the makers of the Saranac brand). I’ve seen some things online referring to it as an English style IPA, but the nose was distinctly American. Again, I can’t really judge it because it was horribly oxidized and tired. It also seemed distinctly East Coast. On the west coast, it would be considered a Pale Ale because it didn’t have enough punch to be an IPA.

With the Fiddler’s Green poured out, I opted instead for a Full Sail Ltd No. 1 Lager. There’s a real knee jerk reaction to larger craft breweries amongst some beer snobs, because many seem to think you can’t be large and brew good beer. Full Sail (amongst others) disproves this again and again. This is a tough beer to nail down stylistically, but it’s a very nice beer. It’s brewed with pale malt, chocolate malt, and crystal malts, and uses Hallertauer and Styrian Golding hops. It’s dark copper and exhibits a lager-like cleanness. It’s got a restrained nose but has a distinct caramel note in the finish. It doesn’t seem to fit any historical style, but it’s a great beer. Who needs styles anyway?

With the chicken I pulled a pint of our recent Steam beer. Legally the term steam beer only refers to Anchor, who holds a copy write on the phrase, but prior to this the name referred to a style of beer brewed by German immigrants in California. Essentially, it was brewed with German techniques but adapted to new environments and conditions. Nowadays, it’s also referred to as California Common beer. The most distinctive thing about Common beer is that it’s brewed with lager yeast but at ale temperatures. As a result, it has a cleaner fermentation profile (ie, less fruity esters). The version we brewed is an updated version with a Northwest spin. We used a Munich lager yeast but fermented it around 60 degrees for the first week and then at about 66 degrees for the second week. Ours has a good malt backbone but is more bitter and has a lot more hop aroma and flavor from a hefty addition of Simcoe, Sterling, and Summit hops in the finish. It’s medium bodied but assertive. The bitterness of the beer was a nice backdrop to the sweetness of the carrots, but didn’t overwhelm the chicken. It’s still a little young, but it’s developing nicely, and may be one of our Collaborator entries this year.