It’s the “Big Game” football weekend – and that calls for snacks! What better than beer-marinated chicken wings and beer-battered smoke cheese mushrooms with a lip-smacking horseradish sauce? Oh yeah, we whipped up a batch of these and they almost didn’t make it into the photo!
The beer batter was made with Laggar Falcon by Falcon Brewing and naturally, we had to have some as we made it. According to Scientific American’s Beer Batter is Better, beer makes a great base for batter because of the three ingredients beer has carbon dioxide, foaming agents, and alcohol which make the batter light and crisp and there is less chance of overcooking the food.
So it’s not just us wanting to have a beer. It’s really better batter.
Ingredients
Beer Battered Smoked Cheddar Mushrooms
- Peanut oil or sunflower oil for frying (you need enough to have about 3 inches of oil in a heavy bottomed pot for us this was about 1500 ml.
- 2 cups of flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper (you could do more if you like)
- 1 can or 473 ml (12 oz) of Falcon Brewing’s Falcon Lager
- 600-700 grams of whole closed-cap mushrooms
- Smoked Cheddar Cheese* (we used President’s Choice smoke flavour cheese 400 grams but did not use it all).
*We also tried jalapeno Monterey Jack cheese and Old Cheddar. The Monterey Jack was too subtle and the Old Cheddar was too cheddary (I know, right? How is that possible?) and we found it conflicted with the flavours.
Creamy Horseradish Dip
- 1/2 cup sour cream (we used 5%)
- 1/4 horseradish (we used Compliments prepared Horseradish)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Freshly cracked pepper (to taste)
- hot sauce such as Frank’s hot sauce to taste (optional)
Directions
DIP
- There is no beer in this dip but it is so good and so right and easy to make. Simply combine the ingredients and store in the fridge until you are ready to use.
MUSHROOMS
- Clean mushrooms. There is some controversy around how this is done. Some say use a fancy mushroom brush. If you use water, the mushrooms act like a sponge and absorb the water. We don’t have a fancy mushroom brush, and we like the idea of eating our mushrooms free of whatever it is that’s on them, so we opt for a quick rinse and allowed them to dry.
- Stir together the dry ingredients and then add the beer and combine in a deep bowl. We allowed this to sit for a bit just to allow the flour to fully absorb the beer.
- Pour about 3 inches of oil into a heavy bottomed pot and heat over medium to medium high heat. With a deep fry or candy thermometer bring to 350 degrees. The temperature will drop when you put the mushrooms in so you will need to adjust the heat as you go.
- Pull the stems out of the mushrooms and replace with a cube of smoked cheddar cheese. Ideally they fit wedged inside, but just do your best.
- Coat the mushrooms in the batter making sure not to lose the cheese.
- Gently put into the oil (you don’t want to splash yourself – that stuff hurts!) and cook in batches. Our mushrooms were fairly large and we used a medium sized pot and cooked up about 5 at a time.
- Once they are golden brown on the bottom flip them in the oil if the other side hasn’t cooked. When they are all golden brown, use a slotted spoon to pull them out and allow them to drain on a stack of paper towels.
- Put the cooked ones in the oven to keep warm until they are all cooked – if you can wait that long without eating them! 150 or 200 degrees should do it.
About the Beer
Falcon Brewing’s Laggar Falcon is a 5% Helles-style Lager. The Helles-style was originally developed around Munich in the late nineteenth century by Bavarian brewers to compete with the hugely popular Czech Pilsner. Although both beers can share a spicy hop bitterness that many associate with the classic Pils, traditionally the Helles Lager is a bit breadier and exerts more malt-forward characteristics than its Czech rival. Sometimes referred to as a “Munich Helles Lager,” this classic beer is medium-bodied, pours heady, and has a striking golden color.
Relatively young by brewing standards, the “Helles” (which means “bright” in German) Lager was championed by and evolved out of the Spaten Brewery’s marriage of British, Bohemian, and German brewing techniques and made its debut in 1894. The Helles Lager is an integral part of brewing history and a predecessor to the golden lagers that are so widely consumed around the world today.
Falcon’s Laggar Falcon is available in select beer and grocery stores in Ontario.
Falcon Brewing is located in Ajax, Ontario, and features a taproom with tasting flights, beer to go and growler fills.