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Have Your Beer and Cook With It, Too

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Brad Gobright, Renowned US Rock Climber, Falls to His Death in Mexico

Record-breaking California mountain climber, Brad Gobright, has died after plunging at least 600-feet while descending the side of a Mexican cliff face, civil defense officials in northern Mexico confirmed. Gobright, 31, was rappelling with a 260-foot rope on the El Potrero Chico peak in the northern state of Nuevo Leon with fellow climber Aidan Jacobson, 26, at the time of his fatal fall on Wednesday. Gobright was renowned for being an accomplished free solo climber, or climbing without safety gear. The method requires two climbers to act as counterweights during a descent using opposite ends of the rope, which is attached to an anchor. The technique is often described as one of the leading causes of deaths in climbing. However, Gobright and Jacobson reportedly chose not to tie knots on…

Beer-braised leeks with lemon and Parmigiano-Reggiano vinaigrette. (Jacquelyn Dodd)

Jacquelyn Dodd, the recipe developer and beer enthusiast behind award-winning website The Beeroness, has a new cookbook all about cooking with—not just drinking—craft beers. The 80 recipes in “Lush” match seasonal brews with seasonal produce. In this excerpt, Dodd provides a primer on cooking with beer, plus three comforting cold-weather dishes to get you started.

Why would you cook with beer? Why not just drink it like a normal person? Great question—I’m glad you asked!

Cooking with alcohol isn’t new. From the wine in coq au vin to the sweet liqueur in cherries jubilee, cooking with booze is a time-honored tradition. But why beer instead of wine, rum, or liqueur? Let’s dive in.

Unlike most varieties of alcoholic beverages that contain only one or two ingredients, beer offers you at least four. Each ingredient lends something different to your dish, qualities you’d be hard-pressed to find with any other liquid.

The hops act as a mild preservative as well as a unique and powerful flavor, the combination of the yeast and carbonation serves as a mild leavening agent that lends an extra puff to your baked goods, and the malted barley is a beautiful flavor that complements everything from pizza dough to chocolate cake. These ingredients come together to make a super liquid that’s perfect for baking and cooking.

The flavor of beer shouldn’t be overlooked as a main factor in pouring a pint in your pot. It can deglaze your pan as well as add a nice malty note to your chili.

But if you find that the beer flavor is too present, use a beer that is less hoppy next time. The hop flavors can be overwhelming in a highly hopped beer like an IPA, so switch to a pilsner or a kolsch for something more mild. Or, in a savory dish, replace half of the beer with something else, like broth or water.

If, on the other hand, the beer flavor wasn’t as present as you’d like, try the opposite. Replace an English brown ale with an American brown ale, as they tend to be far hoppier. Or use a double IPA (DIPA) instead of a pale ale. You get the idea.

RECIPE: Beer-Braised Leeks With Lemon and Parmigiano-Reggiano Vinaigrette
RECIPE: Butternut Squash and Roasted Garlic-Gruyère Gratin
RECIPE: Brown Ale Baklava With Baked Brie and Figs

lush cookbook cover

Excerpted with permission from “Lush: A Season-by-Season Celebration of Craft Beer and Produce” by Jacquelyn Dodd, Agate Surrey, October 2019.

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Taliban ‘Ready to Restart’ Peace Talks After Trump’s Afghanistan Visit

Following a surprise by President Donald Trump to visit troops, the Taliban said Friday they are ready to restart peace talks with the United States amid the 18-year-long conflict in Afghanistan. “The Taliban wants to make a deal. We’ll see if they want to make a deal. It’s got to be a real deal, but we’ll see,” Trump said after he arrived in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving. The Taliban, he said, only want to resume peace talks because American troops are “doing a great job” in the country. President Donald Trump and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani speak to American soldiers during a surprise Thanksgiving day visit at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan on Nov. 28, 2019. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)“That’s the only reason they want to make a deal. So I…