Week 7 - Cheddar Beer Soup with Homemade Soft Pretzels

Happy Valentine's Day! Well, almost. This week I'm posting the Valentine's meal requested by my hubby. A few days ago we were talking about what I might blog about this week, and he told me he knew just what I should make. I was a little nervous, because I'd never even looked at a recipe for cheddar beer soup or pretzels. We ended up making it a joint effort, coming up with the recipe for the soup after Brian glanced at a few just to get an idea of basic ingredients and amounts. For the pretzels I used Alton Brown's recipe. We worked together to make them both this Saturday and had an early Valentines celebration. I must say, I'm pretty impressed with our result. The soup was very good, and I couldn't get enough of the pretzels!

Cheddar Beer Soup

8 slices bacon

1 cup baby carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 white onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 stick unsalted butter

4 Tablespoons flour

12 oz. bottle beer (We used Fat Tire amber ale)

2 cups chicken stock

1/2 tsp. mustard powder

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 Tb. Worcestershire

1 Tb. dijon mustard

12 oz. half and half

12 oz. milk

10 oz. extra sharp cheddar, grated

10 oz. extra sharp white cheddar, grated

salt

pepper

• Cook bacon in large pot. I cooked 4 at a time and cut them in half so they would crisp up. Remove bacon and drain on paper towels. Crumble once bacon is cool enough to handle. Reserve about half the bacon grease.
• Add the diced vegetables (carrots, celery, onion, garlic) to the bacon drippings. Season with about 1 tsp. each salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat. Stir occasionally. Cook until vegetables begin to soften, about 12-15 minutes.
• Add butter and flour. Stir to melt butter and coat vegetables. Cook about 5 minutes, until butter and flour mixture just begin to brown.
• Add beer, stock, mustard powder, dijon mustard, cayenne pepper, Worcestershire, and a pinch of black pepper. Bring to a boil. Add milk and half & half. Simmer for 5-10 minutes.
• Add cheeses a handful at a time, stirring to melt evenly.
• Serve with crumbled bacon, a pretzel, and a beer :).

This recipe made 6 servings (for us, you could probably stretch it to 7 or 8). Next time we make this we may add either potatoes or crab meat. I think either would be delicious. Also, the pretzel made the meal, so if you don't want to make pretzels I would suggest a good loaf of crusty bread. This soup is pretty rich, so one bowl makes a filling meal. If you try it let me know how it goes!