Dutch Oven and Craft Beer Dinner

Dutch Oven Craft Beer Dinner With Local Foods

We love good food and drink and jumped at the opportunity to raise money for one of our favorite local non-profits, Salmon Valley Stewardship, by offering a Dutch oven craft beer dinner using local foods for auction. Chris and I teamed with Jeff and Gina Knudson and Kristin Troy to produce a feast for the auction winners.

Jeff is our local king of charcuterie, the craft of salting, smoking and curing meats. I have tried cuts of meats at his house that I would try nowhere else. He is a food magician and willing to go where no palate has gone before, at least in Salmon…

Gina shares our love of locally grown and produced food and drink and promotes it through her work as the Executive Director of Salmon Valley Stewardship. She and Jeff hosted the dinner at their home and Gina provided herbs, garlic and rhubarb from her garden.

Our food stylist extraordinaire, Kristin, also runs a local non-profit, the Lemhi Regional Land Trust, an organization that is dedicated to preserving local landscapes and fish habitat. She arrived with bunches of fresh herbs and flowers from her garden.

Jeff made the first course, a Tongue-n-Cheek Blini, using his cured pork. Chris paired this course with the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel.

For the second course, Jeff baked a Savory Bleu Cheesecake served with his candied citrus peel and rhubarb relish. The pairing for this course, Bertram’s Wolfgang Dakota’s ESB, came from Salmon’s local brewery.

The mixed green salad included dried baby tomatoes from Mary’s garden, goat cheese and a dressing made with wild cherry balsamic vinegar and farmhouse ale. The beer pairing? The Goose Island Pepe Nero Belgian Style Farmhouse Ale.

A watermelon lime sorbet followed to cleanse palates for the main course.

Chris made the entree, a Silver Cloud favorite: mesquite rubbed pork sirloin with Scotch Ale raspberry chipotle sauce. We served it with grilled asparagus and Jeff’s Vienna barley risotto. Two beers were paired with the entrée, KettleHouse Cold Smoke Scotch Ale and  Snake River Lager.

We finished with a double feature: chocolate cocoa mole cake with raspberry sauce and Russian Imperial Stout shake shooters. Chris made the cake with New Belgium Cocoa Mole Ale and he and Jeff brewed the Russian Imperial Stout for the shakes. It was a dramatic finish to a wonderful meal!