Todd English’s Olive’s to Host Beer Tasting Dinner in NYC

Posted on March 18, 2013 by

What happens when Belgian-style ales meets one of the most talked about chefs & restaurants in the country?  A perfect pairing or beer & food to make your mouth water with culinary desire. That’s what.

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On Monday, April 8th – Todd English’s Olive’s & Brewery Ommegang will host a 4-course dinner featuring Ommegang ales paired with a 4-course menu at Olive’s in the W Hotel Union Square. Brewery Ommegang brewmaster Phil Leinhart will be on hand to lead dinner-goers through the menu of pairings.

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Todd English, owner of Olive’s is not only world renowned chef, restaurateur, author, entrepreneur, noteworthy four-time James Beard Foundation Award winner and television star but an advocate for notion that Great Beer Deserves Great Food. In 1989 English opened his first restaurant Olive’s in Charlestown, MA, which quickly drew national and international applause for English’s interpretive rustic Mediterranean cuisine. Now, English has established Olive’s in New York City as one of the most prestigious names in the nation.

The evening’s menu will take event goers through 4 courses of fine cuisine, including spicy curried mussels paired with a hoppy Ommegang BPA, Za’atar spiced lam riblets paired with a spicy Ommegang Rare Vos, double cut pork cops paired with a crisp Ommegang Hennepin and finally a cherry, vanilla and chocolate crumble appropriately paired with a kriek based Ommegang Three Philosophers.

The event begins at 7:oo PM with a tasting of Brewery Ommegang beers and a seated, four-course dinner. Tickets can be purchased [$75] at Olive’s or online here. Questions? Call 212-353-8345 ext. 5911 between 11:00 – 4:00pm. Seating is limited. 

For more information on Todd English and Olive’s visit olivesnewyork.com 

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Perfect Pairings Recipe: Braised Pork Shanks with Dried Figs and Abbey Ale

Posted on March 15, 2013 by

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A hearty meal to compliment the warmth and richness of Ommegang’s Abbey Ale. 

Braised Pork Shanks with Dried Figs and Abbey Ale

Ingredients:

    • 4 pork shanks
    • 3 cups dried Porcini mushrooms
    • 4 cups dried figs
    • 2 onions
    • 2 carrots
    • 2 celery stalks
    • 6 cloves garlic
    • 5 bottles Abbey Ale
    • 2 cups flour
    • ½ cup olive oil
    • 1 qt. chicken stock
    • 3 Tbsp. tomato paste
    • 3 sprigs thyme
    • 3 bay leaves
    • 3 sprigs rosemary

Directions:

    • Soak Porcini mushrooms and dried figs in Abbey Ale for five hours.
    • Pre-heat oven to 325.
    • Strain mushrooms and figs, saving all of the liquid.
    • Cut the figs in quarters and put in the fridge.
    • Put a large frying pan over medium high heat.
    • Season flour with salt and pepper.
    • Season shanks with salt and pepper.
    • Dredge shanks in flour.
    • Add olive oil to pan and sear shanks till they have a nice color.
    • Remove shanks from pan and set aside.
    • Pour off half of the oil, and in the same pan, add chopped onions and sauté till translucent, then add chopped garlic, carrots, and celery and cook until just barely soft.
    • Stir in tomato paste.
    • Cook down a little and deglaze the pan with strained liquid.
    • Place shanks in a braising pan; pour all of the vegetables and liquid into pan.
    • Pour in enough chicken stock to bring liquid level ½ of the way up the meat of the shanks and cover with foil and put in the oven and braise until the meat is tender and just about to come off the bone.
    • When the pork is done, make sauce with liquid, and some of the vegetables pureed in the sauce for body
    • Add the quartered figs, and season to taste and serve.

Serves 4  Recipe courtesy of Eric Swart, Hoffman Lane Bistro Cooperstown, NY

Make this in your OWN kitchen and share your photos. Just tweet  or Instagram your photo to @BreweryOmmegang and use #PerfectPairings

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Chef Dean Dupuis Creates Belgian Inspired Menu for Atlantic City Restaurant Week

Posted on March 13, 2013 by

Atlantic City Restaurant Week is coming up and Mussel Bar & Grille at REVEL Resort is sure to steal the show with a Belgian beer pairing dinner on March 21.

“Let’s just say that I became a chef despite the fact that mine was a tuna-casserole kind of family,” says Chef Dean Dupuis, the man whom renowned chef Robert Wiedmaier has entrusted with Mussel Bar & Grille at REVEL, his first venture outside the Washington, DC area, where he is the undisputed king of Belgian cuisine. Chef Dupuis has crafted an expansive menu featuring staples of Belgian cuisine:  mussels, duck, crepes and more, all paired with a fine Belgian or Belgian-style Ale.

5 Courses | 5 Beers | $65 with Chef Dean Dupuis [Photo: Mussel Bar]

First Course: Duvel, Belgium’s iconic golden ale, will accompany a dish named “Devil” to not only play on Duvel’s namesake origin, but to enliven the pallets of dinner-goers with green chile, gruyere cheese and bacon gougeres.

Second Course: ”Mussels&Grits” a concoction of Penn Cove Mussels, slow poached 62-degree egg, cloth bound cheddar and Falls Mill grits with spicy harissa oil. Pairing with this delicacy will be paired with Ommegang’s Hennepin Farmhouse ale spiced with ginger, orange peel, coriander and grains of paradise.

Third Course: Crispy chestnut flour dusted chicken livers with truffle jelly, “Schmaltz” toast, roasted grapes and watercress will accompany a Maredsous Triple: a strong (10%) golden ale with a bold yet complex character.

Fourth Course: The entree will feature a duo of magret duck molasses,  beer roasted duck breast, duck sausage lasagna with wood-fired King Oyster Mushrooms and pea tendrils paired with an Ommegang Rare Vos.

Dessert: A warm chocolate crepe served with macadamia “Nutella“, caramelized banana puree and goat’s milk ice cream pairs with an Ommegang Abbey Ale to wrap up this meal on a spirited note.

Tickets are $65 and can be reserved by calling Jen at 609-225-9851 or via e-mail at jennifer@musselbar.com. Follow Mussel Bar & Grille on Facebook for more info.  

mussel menu

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Menu: Café Ommegang’s Wild Game Dinner (Sold Out)

Posted on February 27, 2013 by

Café Ommegang and Chef Dimitrios Menagias of City Beer Hall cordially invite you to their inaugural Game of Thrones themed dinner on Friday, March 15th at 7pm.  The already sold-out evening of decadence will be filled with wild game, drunken desserts and a first taste of the Brewery Ommegang’s highly anticipated  Iron Throne Blonde Ale – the first in a series of brews and the result of a creative collaboration between Brewmaster Phil Leinhart and HBO.

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60 party goers will be presented with a 5-course meal, encouraged to imbibe and indulge in culinary delights of King’s Landing through a series of wild game dishes fit for and Lannister, Stark or Tully.

Take a look at the masterfully crafted menu for inspiration in your own kitchen:

For more information on future Great Beer Deserves Great Food dinners, keep an eye out on Facebook or call the Ommegang Store: (607) 286-4090. 

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A Look Back at Hop Chef 2012

Posted on February 25, 2013 by

Ommegang Hop Chef logo

As we gear up to announce the HOP CHEF 2013 circuit, let’s take a walk down memory lane to remember the good time we had last year…

Hop Chef 2012 came to a climax in Cooperstown this summer with a cook-off at Brewery Ommegang’s Belgium Comes to Cooperstown Beer Festival. The winners of three regional competitions, came together to face the Tommy Harder, Grand Prize winner of Hop Chef’s 2011 Mussel Tussle. The competitors; Washington, DC Champion Jeff Eng of Tower Oaks Lodge, Albany Champion Jaime Ortiz of Mazzone Hospitality and Philadelphia Champion George Sabatino of Stateside each won their individual Ommegang pairing competitions.

Hop Chef 2012 Regional Winners: George Sabatino of Philadelphia (L), Jaime Ortiz of Albany (M) and Jeff Eng of Washington, D.C. (R)

Hop Chef 2012 Regional Winners: George Sabatino of Philadelphia (L), Jaime Ortiz of Albany (M) and Jeff Eng of Washington, D.C. (R)

The Hop Chef DC competition took place in Mayat the Atlas where Jeff Eng’s winning dish was “Surf and Turf”; a plate of uni and beer braised oxtail roe that he paired with Hennepin. He followed this with his winning dessert; a chocolate hazelnut crunch bar, coke and pop rocks which he paired with Three Philosophers

Hop Chef Albany took place on June 8th at the North Pearl Events Center where over 200 attendees dined on gourmet food and beer pairings. Chef Jaime Ortiz captivated both the crowd and judges with his dish “Rare of the Dog” which featured faux egg shooters of custard and spices, in a shooter of Rare Vos with a honey thyme bacon chaser.

Hop Chef Philadelphia determined the final competitor at the sold out event: George Sabatino of Stateside for his Smoked Beef Cheek Lettuce Wrap with Ommegang Abbey Dubbel BBQ sauce, watermelon rind pickle and beer boiled peanuts along with his dessert Three Philosophers with Head to Tail Cherries.

During the final Hop Chef showdown the competing chefs each created one dish to harmonize with the tasting notes of Brewery Ommegang’s core ales. The final dishes were judged by Will Blunt -Managing Editor of StarChefs.com, Todd Coleman – Executive Food Editor of SAVEUR Magazine, Jimmy Carbone – Owner of Jimmy’s No. 43 in NYC, Phil Leinhart – Brewmaster of Brewery Ommegang and Andrew Curren- Head Chef of Easy Tiger and 24 Diner in Austin, TX.

Working side-by-side under one tent during a hot July day, these chefs produced five incredible dishes for the ticket-holders and judges to determine Hop Chef 2012’s Grand Prize Winner.

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George Sabatino took home the gold with his dish edging out a very competitive crew, pairing Rare Vos Amber Ale with a a smoke capon sausage and Rare Vos mustard, white beans, and tomato-olive tapenade. The sausage, marinated in Rare Vos, was handmade in Philadelphia before taking the trip to Cooperstown for the BCTC showdown.

Look out for more news here on the plan for Hop Chef 2013.  We may just be coming to your town.

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Chef Eric Fleischer Presents Beer Dinner at Brewery Ommegang on January 25th

Posted on January 14, 2013 by

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On Friday, January 25, Brewery Ommegang will host a Great Beer Deserves Great Food dinner featuring Ommegang and Duvel beers paired with a menu created by Chef Eric Fleischer of the Red Caboose Restaurant and Bar in Oneonta, NY.

This is the sixth Ommegang beer dinner held at the café and the first one to feature a chef from an Oneonta restaurant.  Chef Fleischer earned a culinary degree from the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He has worked at restaurants all over the world, including with Chef Gordon Ramsey in his New York City steakhouse and at several other Michelin-rated restaurants in New York City and in France.  Chef Fleischer enjoys working with top quality local ingredients and has prepared five savory courses for this event.

The menu includes torchon of foie gras poached in and served with Duvel Single, diver sea scallops seared and steamed in and served with Hennepin, Hudson Valley duck breast paired with Rare Vos, hazelnut-encrusted elk loin served with Art of Darkness, and an eggnog crème brûlée paired with Liefmans Cuvée-Brut.

The event begins at 7:oo PM with a tasting of Brewery Ommegang and Duvel beers followed by a seated, five-course dinner after which Chef Fleischer will meet with guests.

Tickets can be purchased [$60] at the Brewery Ommegang Store or call 607.286.4090 between 12:00 – 5:00pm Seating is limited. For more information, click here. 

Cafe Ommegang Dinner wtih Chef Eric Fleischer.

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Perfect Pairings: Three Philosophers Sweet Rice & Apples

Posted on November 27, 2012 by

Three Philosophers Sweet Rice & Apples

Ingredients:

  • 6 oz dessert rice
  • 3 oz raisins
  • 2 sweet or tart apples
  • 1 12-oz bottle of Ommegang Three Philosophers
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 2 tsp vanilla sugar
  • 1 tsp orange zest
  • 4 tbsp sugar
  • 1 pint milk
  • 4 tbsp cream

Directions:

  1. Soak raisins in 2/3 of the beer for 2 hours. In medium pot, add rice, milk, vanilla sugar, and orange peel.
  2. Cook over medium heat until rice is done (15-20 minutes). Stir sparingly.
  3. While the rice  heats, peel apple and core. Slice into round slices 1/3’ thick.
  4. Add the rest of the beer and the raisins to the rice mix and stir. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes.
  5. Put half of the butter in a skillet and melt. Add apple slides to the pan to brown on both sides.
  6. Sprinkle with sugar and allow them to caramelize on low heat. Add the other half of butter and cream to the rice mix and stir.
  7. Plate the rice and add apples. Garnish with chopped, candied walnuts {available in the Whole Foods Market Specialty Dept}. Dish can be served warm or cold.

The Man Behind the Recipe: Joe, Prepared Foods Dept at WFM South Loop.

When he’s not at work, Joe homebrews beer and makes homemade pickles, sriracha, and giardineria. He is a volunteer at Chicago Velo Campus, C.H.A.O.S. events, as well as Green City Market. He enjoys reading, biking, and pit bulls.

For more Perfect Pairing ideas, check Whole Foods Market – South Loop out here:  Website | Facebook | Twitter

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