Tylor's First Recipe

This is Tylor's First Recipe, Orange Sesame Chicken with steam white rice, and our second dish prepared just for you. This is the only meal that Tylor has talked about making since we first started the blog. He seems very driven to make this dish and I imagine a great meal will be the result. Although Tylor is making the meal I have decided to have a beer tasting. I have picked a local brew from Augusta Brewery (http://www.augustabrewing.com/Our%20Beer.s).

It's the Belgian Style Saison, which is a bottle conditioned farmhouse ale(French in Origin). I wanted to get a beer that matched the spiciness of Tylor's Orange Sesame Chicken, but instead I took a chance on matching different flavors. I wanted to match the orange in the sauce with the fruit esters in the Saison. A safer pick for spicy foods would be an IPA or a light lager. We shall see....

Beers,

Cole

Orange Sesame Chicken with Belgian Style Saison

Tylor did a great job with this dish. The orange glaze provides a sweet base before the spiciness come through. Only one thing wrong with this meal: No chopsticks or fortune cookie! Just kidding. Job well done!

The Belgian Style Saison was a nice refreshing late Summer beer. I noticed a slight clove and mellow fruit ester. However, this did not pair well with Tylor's dish. An India Pale Ale would have provided the hop bitterness to mellow out the Sriracha spiciness. The beer was still enjoyable and I recommend it for the harvest season.

Beers,

Cole

Here's a link to the video of Good Eats host Alton Brown making the quick rice recipe


http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/how-to-cook-rice/36904.html

FIRST RECIPE

Ok fans, here's my first recipe post. This is one of my favorite sauces and the best orange chicken i've ever had. I came up with this recipe while at work actually. I will also show you a fool-proof way to make steamed rice. Ill post pictures of me making this recipe soon. Here it is...

Orange Sesame Chicken with Steamed White Rice


Chicken Breasts
Milk
All Purpose Flour
Orange Marmalade
Sriracha Chili Sauce (a must have)
onion powder
tabasco sauce
honey
salt
pepper
Sesame seeds
white rice (jasmine or basmati)
butter
Vegetable oil (for frying)

In a sauce pan, over medium low heat, combine 1 cup marmalade, 1/2 tablespoon Sriracha chili sauce, 1/4 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon honey, a dash of tabasco, and salt and pepper to taste. Allow to warm and mix well. Add about a half inch of vegetable oil to a large pan and heat to medium high heat. Next, set up a dredging station. Fill a small bowl halfway full of milk and another half full of flour. Season the flour with salt and pepper. Mix to incorparate. Cut 4 chicken breasts into large pieces ( I usually use chicken tenderloins because they're easier to work with, but most people have chicken breast already handy). Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour, then into milk, and back into the flour. Fry the chicken on each side until golden brown. Season with salt immediately after removing from oil. In a large mixing bowl, add half of the marmalade sauce. Add fried chicken and mix to coat the chicken. Add excess marmalade sauce as desired. Add half a cup 1/4 cup of sesame seeds and mix to coat. Serve over rice.

This is the easiest and quickest way to make rice that I've found. It only takes 15 to 20 minutes compared to the usual 45 minutes. Begin by bringing 3 cups of water to a boil. In a separate medium sauce pan, add 2 tablespoons of butter over high heat. Yes, I said high heat. Once the butter begins to turn light brown and stops foaming, add two cups of rice and one teaspoon of kosher salt. Stir the rice until it becomes just aromatic and nutty (you'll really be able to smell the rice while stirring it). This is when you add your boiling water. Adding hot water to the hot pan causes the water to bubble vigorously. Don't be alarmed, it won't boil over. Quickly cover the pan and turn the heat to low. Allow the rice to cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, kill the heat and uncover the pan. For sticky rice, serve immediately. For light fluffy rice, allow the rice to sit for another 5 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork and serve.

The Start....

(TYLOR & COLE)

Finally, we've found a place to showcase our dedication to brewing beer and cooking gourmet food! Here is a little background for Me(Cole):

I've been brewing small batches of beer since I was a Senior in high school. I started cooking when I was eight, even before I managed to burn half of my parents kitchen down. I'm now a Senior in college that has experienced internship opportunities for leading craft-breweries. In 2008, I assisted the Brewmaster at Prison Brews(Jefferson City, Mo), where I got a taste of brewing on a pub-size scale. In 2009, I was picked to intern with Dogfish Head Craft Brewery(Milton, DE);http://www.dogfish.com/. Here I was shown basic tasks of a mid-production brewery(100,000+ BBL's/yr). This Summer I put to work my previous experience at Long Trail Brewing Co.(Bridgewater Corners, VT);http://longtrail.com/

Tylor and I both have the desire to start a brewpub some day and this is the place to show our progress. My goal is to have at least four beers on tap at all times and to cook one dish a week this entire school year. I also want to enter my homebrew into the National Homebrew Competition next spring.

Beers,

Cole

Cole and I have decided to start this blog not only as a place to express our passion for food and drink, but as a foundation to begin building towards our ambitions and goals. We hope this blog proves helpful and entertaining for our readers and is the first stop to successful career in food. Now, the 411 on the other half of this blog.

I've been cooking for as long as I can remember. I come from a very large family which is still very much in touch with its Italian heritage. I was never taught how to cook. I learned by watching my father prepare dinner in the kitchen, helping out with different tasks on occasion. Both of my parents worked during the day so I would be home by myself after school or during the summer until late afternoon. If I was hungry, it was up to me to make something. Trial and error would be the best way to describe how I learned to cook. After a handful of fires, a few cuts, and a lot of terrible combinations, I became obsessed with food. I worked at the Star Dinner Theatre for 5 years where I learned the in's and out's of the restaruant and catering business. The kitchen was run by a mother and her daughter. Yelling matches often erupted during the middle of service between the two and I was often dragged into the middle of them. I loved every second of that job and I'll never forget my time there. I spent three years of my college career studying Chemical Engineering and doing research. After careful consideration I changed my major to Food Science. Sophomore year I met Cole and we have been good friends since. He introduced me to the wonderful world of Brewing and I've been hooked ever since. Cole and I plan on taking our hobbies to the next level and open our own brewpub. Soon we will be posting recipes for food, beer, and wine. We will also upload pictures and video to go along with the recipes. Please post your own recipes for us to try and any helpful hints you may have.

Bon appetit,
Tylor