Most craft beer cookbooks either fall into the camp of A) what to pair with beer or B) cooking with beer. But what about using the ingredients of beer in cooking, specifically hops?
That is the task undertaken by the Kickstarter funded book: Hedonistic Hops – The Hopeheads Guide to Kitchen Badassery by Marie Porter with photographs (and some commentary) from Michael Porter.
This book walks you through from growing your own hops all the way to harvesting and then the recipes that they can be used in. Of course, you can always buy hops and use those and the Porters are nimble enough to make recipes that can be used with fresh hops, pellets and even the shoots and leaves too.
The tone is genial sometimes verging on the hokey. I am still wondering about the choice of “badassery” for the sub-title but overall it is like talking to the somewhat goofy aunt or the dad with bad jokes while they are cooking. It is a welcoming tone throughout and the instructions and hop information is laid out in a way to re-focus on cooking and not brewing.
The main chunk of the book is devoted to recipes. Starting with appetizers and sides, then proceeding to Main Dishes, condiments, desserts before finishing at beverages.
For me, the section on condiments and sauces was the most intriguing. Creating a BBQ glaze or hoppy butter seems to be something that can be used in many different meal preparations and I think is under represented in cookbooks. Same goes for the beverages section. Making hop accented ice tea or lemonade are cool and quick ideas that adds something extra to a dinner.
If you cannot get enough hops and like brownies with green flecks in them, this might be the cookbook for you.