Thai Basil Beef Jerky

Adam's friend, who looks a heck of a lot like Flo from those car insurance commercials, brought a packet of Thai Basil Beef Jerky back from San Fran over Christmas break. Adam shared a bit with me and I know that I could recreate this jerky. My dad does a pretty nice jerky, but his flavor is very basic. I tried my hand using my Excalibur food dehydrator. It was a really nice experiment. Here is the recipe.

Thai Basil Beef Jerky
1 cup fish sauce
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1 cup water
1/3 cup brown sugar
15 gloves of garlic
14 Thai bird chilies
1 large bunch of Thai basil
5 lbs of thinly sliced top round

Combine everything except the meat in a blender and pulse until liquid. Poor mix into large pot and layer in slices of beef. Marinate for 48 hours. Dehydrate at 115 degrees until finished.

Enjoy with a Belgian ale.

Beers from Belgum

As I have done more reading about this new experience in beer, I've come to learn that my interest lies with the Belgian beers and not just tripels. Adam and I went to Grinders the other night and enjoyed a nice selection. One of the bottles was a sour ale, which really caught my attention. Back to the liquor store where I spent...you might sit down...$24.00 on a six back of beer. This experiment is not for the casual beer drinker. In college I'd regularly buy two thirty packs for a bit less. We sampled the four bottles pictured above. The Faro and Trappist Rochefort were delightful. The flemish sour was pretty good too, but not of the same caliber as the other two. The Carowl (sp) was a disappointment. It seemed very flat by comparison and lacking in depth and flavor. I'll seek out the Faro again and enjoy it as an after dinner beer.

I tripeled and can't get up

I have always written about food, but I think it is time I devote some of my energy towards the exploration of beer. I love beer. My tendencies have always leaned towards English nut ales, but as of late I've been sampling a few tripels. This summer, while bellied up to the bar and Grinders, one one of my favorite KC establishments, a buddy ordered a tripel and gave me a taste. Banana. It tasted like a beer flavored banana, or at least had a hint of the long, yellow fruit. More recently on a trip to Rock A Belly Deli, in Manhattan, Kansas, I sampled another tripel and was lost in the flavors, which finished on a sour note. Today I went to a couple liquor stores in Kansas City and purchased $75.00 worth of different tripels. Lets see what happens.

Tonight I'm sampling a bottle from the monks at St. Bernadus Abbey. Stay tuned for a reflection each of these bottles and those which I have not yet founds. If you have information or favorites, please send it along. If I'd finish my damned dissertation, I could get busy brewing some of my own...

P.S. It is totally okay to spend $16.00 on a four pack of this stuff because one beer has my head floating and two render me unable to drive.

To read more about what makes a tripel a tripel and why a non-monk can't brew a tripel, check out the Beer Advocate.