My Man's Belly » Delicious Recipes and Food Ideas – My Man’s Belly

Super Bowl Drinks: The Bloody Beer aka The Michelada

Pamela — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:05:28 +0000

I posted snacks for the big game earlier in the week. In case you missed them and all of their spectacularness (sure, that's a word)...Monday was a warm tomato and olive salad and Wednesday was fried chicken skin. Both of these will definitely be a hit at your party, but the chicken skins will probably send most of your partiers into an absolute orgasmic frenzy (you've been warned) - they're just that good. Today, being Friday, I of course will indulge you with Super Bowl drinks (ok drink - singular). Since beer cocktails have really been gaining in popularity and you'll most likely have beer at your party, this cocktail just makes sense. Football parties demand a cocktail like the Bloody Beer. Oh, maybe you've never heard it called that. Have you heard of the Michelada? Pretty much the same thing. I just like the name Bloody Beer better (and I'm not the only one who calls it that, just Google it if you don't believe me). The Bloody Beer (Michelada) is essentially the beer version of the Bloody Mary - tomato juice and beer (in its most simple form). So you can see this is going to be a rather easy drink to have on hand. In fact, you can make up pitchers of the mix and allow you Puritan and/or lushy friends to mix their own cocktail. You could then be offering both the vodka and beer versions. (See how clever and efficient you are as a host?) Of course, to make this a real cocktail, I can't just let this be a mixture of tomato juice and beer. And throwing in some Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and lime isn't what I'm talking about. Why not step this up a bit (it's still easy) and make up some roasted tomatoes, onions and hot peppers to give your tomato juice a little more flavor and body? You can even do this part the day before. See, I'm looking out for you and your ridiculous schedule. Although, if you're still really pressed for time and just can't get around to roasting a pan of veggies (I might forgive you, but not if I'm at your house for the party) you could follow the basic tomato juice and beer with add ins for your cocktail. I'll be crushed and it won't taste as good, but your guests will have cocktails. I would call this a Bloody Beer, when your friends ask you what this amazing cocktail is called. Besides, it's Super Bowl Sunday...football, blood, beer...it just makes sense. And since none of your guests were harmed in the making of the beverage, it's all good. And you'll be showing your friends how cutting edge you are by serving beer cocktails, just like all those fancy bars and restaurants are doing. If they continue to rave how delicious this is and they can't believe you were able to make this at home, just charge them six bucks like they do at the bar.

Relationship Advice

Where have all the good men gone?

Recipe: Super Bowl Drinks: The Bloody Beer aka The Michelada

Ingredients

For the Roasted Tomatoes

12 Roma Tomatoes (sliced in half and seeds removed)
1 Medium Onion (cut into 6 equal pieces)
6-10 Cloves of Garlic (quantity is up to you)
2 Serrano Chilis (cut in half with ribs and seeds removed)
Olive Oil

For the Bloody Beer (Michelada)

Kosher Salt
2 Tablespoons of roasted tomato puree
1/4 Cup Tomato Juice
Juice from one half of a lime
2 Dashes Worcestershire Sauce
1 12 Ounce Bottle of Beer (I used Negra Modelo)

Instructions

For the Roasted Tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.
Line a baking sheet with foil and scatter the tomato halves (skin side down), onion, garlic and chilis on the foil.
Drizzle everything with some olive oil (don't drown it, just use enough so that the onions, garlic and peppers have a good coating so they don't burn).
Make sure everything is evenly spaced on the pan.
Roast for 40-50 minutes or until you see things beginning to brown and caramelize.
Remove from oven and let cool a bit.
Remove the skins from the tomatoes.
Throw all of the roasted veggies into a blender and process until everything is pureed.

For the Bloody Beer

Use a lime wedge to wet the rim of your glass and then dip the rim into kosher salt.
In a shaker, mix the roasted tomato puree, tomato juice, lime juice and Worcestershire sauce. Shake well to combine everything.
Pour the contents of the shaker into your salt rimmed glass.
Add some ice cubes (I know, ice and beer is kind of weird...just trust me on this).
Top with beer.
Because of the thickness of the tomato mixture, you'll need to stir things together a little bit.
Garnish with a lime.
Serve

Quick notes

It's best if you can make up the roasted tomatoes ahead of time so that they can cool completely. I found that this recipe, using 2 serrano's wasn't that spicy, so you could add more roasted peppers. Just remember, it's better to err on the not too spicy side than the too spicy side.

Variations

You could make these drinks without using the roasted tomatoes and simply use tomato juice. If you really want to take it up a notch, you could add a bit of tequila to the tomato mixture.

Preparation time: 45 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 12

Culinary tradition: Mexican

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Super Bowl Snacks: Crispy Fried Chicken Skin

Pamela — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:22:17 +0000

Tick tock, tick tock...that's the clock ticking down to Sunday's big ~~game~~ party. Are you ready? Have you been clearing room in your refrigerator for the dips? Have you loaded up your cart with large quantities of dipping implements (corn chips, potato chips and tortilla chips are standard)? Have you been stretching your stomach so that you can eat the enormous amounts of 7 layer dip, hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, wings and nuts? More importantly, have you been prepping your liver? Bacon is soooooo last year. Seriously, when you find an ingredient shoved into every food out there, I think it's time to declare that it has jumped the shark. Do we really want bacon in our cupcakes and booze? Really? I'm here to declare fried chicken skin as the successor to bacon. C'mon, just admit it. You might be all hoity toity about eating boneless skinless chicken breasts, but you know (deep down inside) all you really want to do is peel the skin off a freshly roasted chicken and devour it. The skin is what has all the flavor in a chicken. Fried chicken skin has been slowly creeping onto restaurant menus for a little over a year now. Crispy chicken skin is adorning the tops of salads (world's better than croutons), it's being made into tacos and a chef in NY is wrapping it around gravy and deep frying it into a chicken skin gravy ball. There's even a restaurant, here in LA, that has stopped making his blt with bacon and replaced it with crispy chicken skin. I made my first crispy chicken skin last year as a part of my chicken and waffles ice cream. If you haven't made this yet...get on it. It's really good. The concept of popping pieces of fried chicken skin into your mouth really shouldn't sound so weird, considering we've been throwing back fried pork skin forever. There is, and there isn't, a chicken skin recipe. You can fry the stuff in oil, in its own fat or oven fry it. I prefer to make my fried chicken skin like I make my bacon - I fry it in the oven (I also think this makes less mess). I'll actually post a chicken skin recipe, below, so that you can make these up for your next tailgating or white trash party. Just like potato chips, you can flavor your fried chicken skin with just about any seasonings. I flavored half of mine with sea salt (my favorite) and the other half with a barbecue dry rub. You could get fancy by using some herbs de Provence or garlic powder/salt. Pretty much any dry seasoning can be used on the skins to flavor them.

Relationship Advice

In a bit of surprising research, it appears that we women like to see our men in pain. Huh? Who knew that the guys have been right all this time (don't they regularly accuse us of liking to see them suffer)? Well, that's not quite the case. According to researchers, when a woman offers a man physical comfort in his time of need (no, not that need), the reward center in her brain lights up. Using couples in good relationships, they hooked the guy up to a machine that would shock him and the woman was hooked up to an MRI. While the guy was being shocked, the woman was physically touching him. Not only did her brain register her rewarding feeling, the women also said they felt closer to their significant other. There was also a group of women that were not touching their men while they were shocked. No surprise, these same regions of their brain showed no activity. They didn't report if the women felt bad about watching their guy go through the pain of electrical shock, nor did they report if the women felt happy about it. They just didn't show any rewarding feeling. They also hooked up a group of women and men, didn't shock the men but the women were still physically touching them. Again, their reward center didn't register anything and they did not report that they felt any closer to their guy. What's to be learned from this study? If your guy is in a bad mood, had a rough day or isn't feeling well, both of you would benefit from a little touch. Rub his back, give him a little massage or a nice big hug. Who knows, that might lead to something a little more exciting (no electrical shocking required).

Recipe: Super Bowl Snacks: Crispy Fried Chicken Skin

Ingredients

Chicken Skin (cleaned of excess fat and any stray feather stuff)
Sea Salt
BBQ Dry Rub

Instructions

Lay chicken skin between 2 layers of paper towels and roll up to remove as much moisture as possible.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.
Cover one rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Remove chicken from paper towels and lay out chicken skin as smooth as possible.
Lightly sprinkle each piece of skin with some of the sea salt or bbq dry rub.
Cover the skin with another sheet of parchment paper and lay another rimmed baking sheet on top.
Weigh the whole thing down with a cast iron skillet and slide into the oven.
Bake for 20 minutes. Check for doneness by lifting up top pan. Skin should be crisp. You may need additional 10 – 20 minutes depending on how thick the skin is that you use.
Drain off the fat and lay out fried chicken skin on a paper towel lined dish.

Quick notes

You can use breast or thigh skin, it doesn’t matter. Once these are made, you can also crush them up and top salads or soups. It’s an addicting little snack.

Using a rimmed baking sheet is important because there is quite a bit of fat that will render out of the skin. If you use a regular baking sheet you run the risk of the fat dripping down onto the floor of your oven and making a real mess.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s) Cooking time: 20 minute(s)

Diet tags: Gluten free

Number of servings (yield): 12

Culinary tradition: USA (General)