Prost to all my amazing beer-loving friends on HIVE! may you have an awesome New Years celebration with your friends and loved ones. If you're going to be drinking beer like me, make sure to do it on a full belly!
Dirty Deeds
Today, we received a pack of Dirty Deeds hazy IPA brewed at home by our friend and culinary podcaster, Christian Galicia. He does a monthly podcast called Gastro Thinkers
and today, he sent us this New Years gift to enjoy at home. This is craft beer made by a hobbyist, so it needs a little bit of tweaking. It is slightly more effervescent than I expected, almost like sparkling wine. I think with a little more practice He'll be able to get the right temperature and mixture of ingredients. The taste is delicious though. Slightly less bitter than other regular IPAs I've tried, but with a fresh citrus aroma to it.These were served ice cold too. Perfect to sit back and watch the amazing show going on in the kitchen.
First on the menu is the appetizer: snail ceviche
The main ingredient are sea snails which are now being cooked in lime juice. It's more like letting them marinade for about an hour. This process does a couple of things: It reduces the "taste of sea" from the snails, and it reduces the pH level of the protein which is very similar to cooking it. At this moment, they're waiting for the other ingredients the ladies are chopping up in the kitchen.
- Fresh cilantro
- onions
- tomatos
- and more lime juice!
look at them go!
They're also crushing some chiltepe peppers to spice up the ceviche. We're also putting some in the oven to make dry peppers for those who like an extra kick.
Once everything is mixed together, it looks like this. An incredible sea food salad in lime marinade with tomato, cilantro, onion and a bit of spicy bite!.
picture perfect!
For the grill
While we fill our tummies with beer and ceviche, the charcoal grill is outside getting up to temperature and waiting on these babies. First up is culotte, or top sirloin cap. Perhaps a slightly lesser-known beef cut, but and absolute favorite of mine.
I think it's one of the most flavorful and tender cuts of beef available. If you ever see it at your local butcher's shop, I would highly recommend you give it a try. You might find it under the name Brazilian picanha and this is where you can find it. It consists of the middle and upper part of the sirloin but excluding the tenderloin.
It looks lovely uncooked...
But when it comes off the charcoal grill, it will awaken your primal meat-eater instincts.
The color, the aroma, the juiciness ... mmmm mmmmmm
Catch of the day
We're doing surf and turf too. So we'll through in some colossal shrimp we got from the market earlier this morning. They like to pose in this most beautiful pattern for the Gram:
Once they came off the grill, they turned into this amazing orange, mouth-watering delicacy
look at them!
That's the thing with #BEER isn't it? It tastes delicious on its own, but it tastes even better with good friends, good food and good music.
May you have an amazing #beersaturday my friends! enjoy the very last hours of 2022 and have a blast wherever you are.
Let's kick off 2023 with a bang, yeah?