Chocolate Stout Spoon Roast

Last Friday, we attended what may be the best party (at the best price!) in town: the Thomas Hooker Brewing Company Open House. Happening on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month from 5-8, this happy hour shindig takes place right in the brewery in Bloomfield, Connecticut and costs a mere $10. In exchange for your tenner, you get a little plastic cup and access to two bars, with four taps each, flowing freely with the freshest beer around. There are pizza slices on sale (proceeds go to charity) for when you need sustenance, and oh, did we mention you get to take home a souvenir pint glass? Hollah!

On this particular Friday, the beer everyone was buzzing about was Hooker's brand new seasonal brew made with another Connecticut favorite, Munson's Chocolates. Hooker is using Munson's proprietary cocoa blend to create a smooth, luscious "Chocolate Truffle Stout" that is a dark, delicious, easily drinkable beer with hints of chocolate and coffee and a surprising lack of bitterness. We loved it so much, we purchased a growler ($11 new, $8 to refill) with every intent to use it in our cooking.

Wash, slice and dice the veggies. Aren't those purple carrots gorgeous?

Season, flour and brown the roast

Let the roasting magic happen

The very next morning it was starting to snow. Undeterred, we carefully drove to the nearest market where we picked up a 4-pound spoon roast (a top sirloin cut) and some vegetables. That afternoon, we seasoned, seared and cooked the roast and veggies in a cup of the chocolate stout and served it with creamy mashed potatoes (with a pint of stout to wash it down with, naturally). While the wonderful chocolate flavor of the beer wasn't very pronounced in the dish, the meat was especially tender and the carrots, celery and onions had a dark flavor and color that we could only attibute to the stout. Now what to do with the leftovers? Check back in a couple of days for our own "Chocolate Stout Chili."

Hooker Brewer is located at 16 Tobey Road in Bloomfield, CT. They also have tours and tastings on Saturdays. Their Chocolate Truffle Stout should be hitting grocery and liquor store shelves in the beginning of February, just in time for Valentine's Day. Drink local!

 

Chocolate Stout Spoon Roast

Ingredients:

1 3-4 lb. spoon roast

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 sweet onion, chopped

3-4 cups vegetables (we used celery and carrots), chopped

1 cup Hooker Chocolate Truffle Stout

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Season the roast with salt and pepper and sprinkle it all over with flour. Heat olive oil in a roasting pan and sear the roast on all sides until nicely browned. Remove roast and set aside. Place vegetables in the pan and saute for a minute or two, until onions start to caramelize. Return the roast to the pan, on top of the vegetables. Pour the stout into the pan. Cook at 425 for 15 minutes. Turn heat down to 325; cover or tent pan with aluminum foil and continue to roast at 325 for one hour, or until internal temperature reaches 130 for medium rare. Remove roast from pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. In the meantime, stir the vegetables and stout and continue to cook to reduce and thicken slightly. Serve vegetables on the side of slices of roast topped with "stout gravy."

Roast Wild Boar

"Meat from feral swine." That's what it said on the package of the D'Artagnan Wild Boar Mini-Roast we picked up a couple of days ago at our favorite supermarket. That awful scene from the movie Hannibal aside, there was no way we weren't going to buy it after reading that. That's practically a double-dog-dare!

We've had boar in the past, particularly in Tuscany where it is commonly served roasted, in ragus, and in sausages. And although we've never made it, we decided to treat it essentially like a little 1.5-pound roast pork, which in many ways, it is.

We made a bed of vegetables (namely onion, garlic, fennel, celery, and carrots) tossed in olive oil and placed in a small roasting pan. We seasoned the meat with salt and pepper and seared it on all sides in a cast-iron pan on the stovetop. After it was nicely browned, we rubbed the boar with an herb-garlic-and-olive oil paste, set it on top of the vegetables with a bundle made from the remaining herbs, added some water, covered the pan and roasted it for a half-hour at 375.

We used oregano, thyme and rosemary, and those flavors were prominent in every bite of meat and vegetables. The vegetable mix was the perfect accompaniment to the boar, particularly the sweet, flavorful fennel. It was a lot like roast pork, except the meat is much leaner and richer tasting. We will certainly make this dish again, or come up with other ways to use this exquisite, novel product.

Ingredients:

Note: for vegetables, we used 1/2 fennel bulb, 1 white onion, 2 cloves garlic, 2 large carrots, 2 celery stalks

Note: for herbs, we used a bundle of thyme, 3 sprigs of rosemary, and a handle of fresh oregano leaves

approximately 3 cups of roughly chopped vegetables (see note)

1/2 cup olive oil, divided

salt and pepper to taste

1.5-lb. wild boar mini-roast

fresh herbs (see note)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup water

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Toss the chopped vegetables in 1/4 cup of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Lay them in the bottom of a small roasting pan and set aside. Heat a skillet on high heat until very hot. Season the roast with salt and pepper. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet and sear the roast on all sides. While the meat is searing, take about half of the amount of fresh herbs you have and chop them finely. Tie the remaining herbs together with butcher's twine and throw into the roasting pan. Place the chopped herbs in a small bowl, and add the minced garlic and the remaining olive oil; stir to form a loose paste. After the boar has been seared, rub it all over with the paste and set atop the vegetables in the roasting pan. Add the water to the pan, then cover the pan and roast for 1/2 hour, or until internal temperature reaches 155-160 with a meat thermometer. Allow to rest before slicing and serving with the vegetables. 

Mom's Chuck Roast

While it's true that there isn't much "gourmet" about mom's chuck roast, it's also true that on long, cold wintery weekdays when we just want to get something in the oven to make the house smell good, this is a go-to dish. With a prep time of, oh, about two minutes, this roast is an easy, delicious, belly-warming meal that reminds us of home. Perfect for a stress-filled workday or a Sunday dinner. Could we fancy it up a bit? We're sure...but we choose not to mess with the original, which is wonderfully comforting. We like it best with mashed potatoes and canned (that's right) baby peas. Judge us all you want.

Ingredients:

1 2-to-3-pound boneless chuck roast

1 packet dry onion soup mix

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can water

Place the roast in a foil-lined roasting pan. Sprinkle the meat with the onion soup mix. Pour in the cream of mushroom soup. Fill the can with water and pour that in as well. Seal the meat inside the foil and roast at 325 for 2-2 1/2 hours. Remove from pan and allow to rest. Pour the remaining liquid into a gravy bowl and serve with mashed potatoes.