Winter is a long, cold fact of life in Michigan…..so when the weather breaks you have to make the best of it and pull out the grill!

Dragonmead Brewery Beer tasting

at the Wrought Iron Grill.

A list of Brews and accompanying Appetizers, specifically paired to each beer.

Thursday, March 4 th at 7:00 pm

• Bill’s Witbier- Cured Salmon Sushi.
• Lancelot’s Cream Ale- Goat cheese pate’ with herbs and Almonds.
• Crown Jewels IPA- Crab cakes with a Chili Watermelon dipping sauce.
• 6T’s Dortmunder- Fleischkuechle ( Flesh-Keek-Luh)  Pan fried beef and onion in dough.
• St. Nicole’s Weizenbock- Sweet Potato tart, Maple Pecans.
• Russian Imperial Stout- Black currant and plum buns with vanilla.
• Bob’s Holy Smoke- Smoked Sausage with apples and pears.

 Gravlax or Gravadlox is a must have for any Chef’s recipe book!  Smoked Salmon as Great as it is tends to be expensive to purchase and not as easy to do yourself as Cured Salmon such as Gravlax.

  You can use Gravlax for many different dishes and presentations that will impress and WOW your guests…and the best part is the main cost is the fresh Salmon filet’s.  Gravlax is extremely easy to cure…the worst part is waiting for it!

• 2 Salmon Filet’s, I like larger filet’s myself
• 200 grams Sea Salt
• 455 grams Sugar
• 20 grams Cracked White pepper
• 2 Bu Dill, Chopped
• 2 Lemons, juiced, use the zest as well
• 30 grams Olive oil
• 3/4 ounce Aquavit (or toast 1/4 caraway seeds and steep with vodka)

Trim the Salmon filet’s of fat.  Make sure to leave the skin on!  I place the filet’s in a 4 inch deep hotel pan and drizzle with Olive oil, lemon juice, and the Aquavit.  I combine all the other ingredients together in a bowl and mix together well.  Cover the Salmon filet’s thoroughly with the curing mixture and cover with a layer of plastic wrap.  Now place another 4 inch hotel pan on top and add weight.  Bricks, No 10 cans, whatever you have available? Refrigerate.

The Hard part is waiting!  I like to give it at least 2 weeks curing time.

The term ” Gravlax” means -to put to bed.  It is an old Scandinavian preservation method for fish.  People would use this cure and wrap the fish well and bury deep enough in the ground to stay cold.  Preserved in this manner for a long time they could come back later and dig it up when they needed food!

Salmon Gravlax goes very well with many things, my favorite sauce for it is sweet mustard, kind of like Mucky Duck?

Sweet Mustard Sauce

• 1/3 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
• 2/3 Cup Whole Grain Dijon Mustard
• some Chopped Dill

Super easy just mix everything together.  I love this mustard so much I use it on lots of other things!

• 2 Lg Shallots
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 3/4 cup vinegar
• 1 Egg
• 1 1/2 cup Olive oil
• 1 1/2 cup Corn or Canola

Finely chop shallots and mix with Dijon mustard with a whip or in a Cuisinart.  Add in you egg ( yes raw), then your ready to slowly add your oil emulsifying the whole mixture.  Season well with salt and white or black pepper.

The beauty of the Vinaigrette is the endless variations.  Herbs such as thyme, rosemary, chervil, tarragon and many others.  Garlic is always a welcome addition, if you want some zing!  Your creativity can be inspired to try one of the many different types of vinegar, Sherry being among my favorites.

You can play with one of the many different nut oils such as Hazelnut or Walnut.  I personnally prefer to half nut and half a neutral corn or canola oil to prevent having to strong of a flavor.  Other ingredients that are excellant are finely chopped anchovies, horseradish, curry or even yolks from hard boiled eggs for a richer flavor.

One of my favorite Chef’s Joel Robuchon has been known to use minced Truffles!  Oh so yummy!  Another trick of his for vinaigrettes for meat and fish is to add some of the pan juices to the vinaigrette.  Definitely a Great idea in my book! 

Hope this helps you find new, fun, and creative uses for such an easy sauce.

Asparagus salad Titantic Dinner, originally uploaded by Jake on Food.

http://wroughtirongrill.com/ on Feb. 4, 2010 Feature the Beer from Arcadia Brewing in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Food and beer pairings:

1) Cereal City Beer-Straw yellow/slight gold in color, flavors of grains, breads, spicy/earthy and sweet malt with aromas of golding hops.  4.2% abv, 32 IBU’s’s

Food Pairing-Parmesan encrusted whole grain bread filled with gruyere and grilled

2) Extra Special Bitter-An English Style ESB deep copper color with ruby undertones.  Full bodied, caramelly toasted malt character finishes slightly sweet and is balanced by a solid hop bitterness.

ABV 5.5% IBU’s 30

Food pairing-Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe

3) Sky High Rye(12^th Anniversary Ale)- In honor of our adventurous friends at Sky Dive Inc. in Hastings, Michigan, we crafted a truly adventurous brew in Sky High Rye.  A West Coast-style Pale Ale with rye malt, Sky High Rye boasts a massive floral aroma of resinous hops.  The hops contribute flavor notes of lemons, peaches, and pine needles, combined with the sweet, malty flavors of toffee and bread.  Rye adds a pleasant peppery, spicy note like a fresh slice of pumpernickel bread.  Very well-rounded and very drinkable, Sky High Rye will surely inspire adventure in all who taste it. 6.0% ABV, 5 IBU ’s

Food Pairing-Poached Alaskan Cod with grapefruit buerre blanc atop a corn tortilla

4) Coco Loco-A truly one-of-a-kind brew, we like to call this our Triple Chocolate Milk Stout.  A combination of three different chocolate malts, cocoa nibs and 63% cacao bittersweet chocolate make this a sinfully delicious brew.  The addition of lactose lends the beer a creamy quality- not unlike a milkshake- while the Blackstrap Molasses adds rich, burnt, syrupy flavors.  Flavors of baker’s chocolate and espresso dominate, while rich malty flavors and a subtle kiss of hops add nice balance.    7% ABV   39 IBU’s

Food Pairing-Espresso rubbed bbq beef atop bibb lettuce

5) Hop Rocket-After 11 years of brewing beer with balance, our Brew Crew took a left turn with Hop Rocket Imperial IPA, a massive Imperial that focuses on the hops!  At 111 IBUs, this huge ale Rockets off the charts with a massive nose of sticky, resinous hops and flavors of grapefruit, lemon peel, spruce, earthy mushrooms and dew-covered grass.  While the focus truly is on the hops, a pleasant, sweet malt base backs the beer and balances it to a delicious level of drinkability with notes of toffee and freshly baked biscuits.   9% ABV   111 IBU’s

Food pairing-Applewood bacon wrapped jalepeno filled with citrus and scallion cream cheese

6) Cereal Killer-Brewed in the traditional English style of Barleywines, Cereal Killer is an explosion of full-bodied, malty goodness.  Huge syrupy flavors flow over caramel, toffee, molasses and toasty notes.  All these rich malt flavors are balanced out nicely by just the right amount of citrus-like hoppy bitterness.  A high alcohol content makes this a beer for the cellar.  As this brew ages, it will continue to develop more sherry-like flavors and aromas similar to a cask-aged port.  9.1% ABV   45 IBU’s

Food Pairing-Grilled duck and fois gras salad crostini

7) Shipwreck Porter- This beer was aged in 10-year old whiskey barrels. A very dark brown, nearly black beer with a thick cafe au lait head. A bit of lace. Sweet chocolate aroma, and noticeable whiskey. Mostly tasted of sweet chocolate, some vanilla.  13% ABV

Food Pairing-Beef tips rubbed with green peppercorns, almond encrusted, skewered, baked and served with rosemary hollandaise