Holiday Beer Dinner – November 2012

Willimantic Brewing Company

Holiday Beer Dinner 

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Featuring Fresh Hand Crafted Beers from Back East Brewing Co.

First Course:  New England Beef Stew – Tender cubes of beef simmered with carrots, parsnips, celery, onions and butternut squash in a rich India Pale Ale, beef and vegetable stock and presented in a Brewer’s bread bowl.

~ Paired with Back East Misty Mountain IPA ~

Second Course:  Baby Pear Salad – Smokey bacon wrapped around baby pears with fresh herbed goat cheese, served over baby arugula and dressed with Winterfest sweet honey vinaigrette.

~ Paired with Back East Winterfest ~

Third Course:  Phyllo Wrapped Sea Bass – Served over mashed butternut squash folded with sweet Maine lobster and stacked with garlic sautéed red and green heirloom spinach.

~ Paired with Back East Golden Ale ~

 

Fourth Course:  Holiday Plum Pudding – Sweetly spiced steamed plum “Duff” moistened with Imperial Stout and topped with rich English sauce.

 

~ Paired with Back East Imperial Stout ~

 

 

October Comment Card Winner

Congratulations to our recent Comment Card Winner, Gina Putnam from Brooklyn, CT! Gina won dinner for two and so can you by filling out a comment card the next time you’re in!

Featured Recipe: Beef Stew with Pumpkin and Beer

By CraftBeer.com

Difficulty: Moderate
Time: 3.5 hours
Beer: ,
Beer Style: Stout
Seasonality: Fall
Serves: 2 – 3

Ingredients

1 pound beef
1 ounce butter
4 small onions
Half a medium sized pumpkin
7 ounces round carrots
12 ounces sout or pumpkin beer
5 cloves garlic
1 pice of mace or a little nutmeg
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
sugar to taste

Serve with mashed potatoes or rice.

Directions:
Cut the beef into small chunks and pepper and salt them. On medium-high, melt the butter in a stock pot. Once the butter stops foaming, add the meat. Cook the meat for about 10 minutes, until it’s browned.
Cut up three onions in rough pieces and add them to the meat. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add the beer.

Stick the cloves into the remaining onion (you can leave it whole, it will fall apart anyway) and add this together with the mace, bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, add pepper and salt and sugar to taste. You don’t want it to be overly sweet. Put a lid on the pot and simmer for approximately two hours.
Add the carrots in and simmer for another half hour before you add the pumpkin. Simmer for another half hour and check if the meat is fall apart tender and the pumpkin well done.

You can add potatoes and mix together with the pumpkin and have a one pot meal, or you can make mashed potatoes and serve those on the site. Sprinkle some freshly grated nutmeg over the mashed potatoes!

Recipe credit goes to: Craftbeer.com