Homebrew Underground

This simple spaghetti recipe is quick and easy and can be prepared in about 30 minutes. By using prepared spaghetti sauce and ground beef, you can make this delicious meat sauce fairly easily. The spaghetti sauce is tomato and basil marinara with mushrooms and meat. All you do is simmer the sauce with added mushrooms, cook the spaghetti and the meat, and then then serve.

For the spaghetti sauce, I chose a tomato and basil variety. I am adding my own mushrooms, so I chose a variety without mushrooms. Spaghetti sauce comes in 24, 25 and 26 oz sizes. Any of these sizes should do fine.

Shown below is a shot of the ingredients: spaghetti sauce, mushrooms, ground beef and spaghetti. Not shown is the seasoning and Bay leaves.

Begin by simmering the sauce. Add the sauce, mushrooms and Bay leaves to a large saucepan and simmer over a medium heat for 20 minutes.

Next, chop the garlic. It is a good idea to begin heating the water for the spaghetti at this time.

Saute the garlic in a frying pan over a medium heat.

When the garlic is softened and is a light tan color, add the ground beef to the frying pan.

Season the meat with salt and Basil, then cook it thoroughly, stirring briskly while breaking it up.

Add a little salt to the water for the spaghetti, then when it begins to boil, add the spaghetti. Boil for 9 minutes.

Below is a shot of the stove with everything cooking.

After the meat is cooked, set the frying pan on an incline to allow all the fat to separate and collect at the bottom. Remove it with a spoon and discard all the fat. We want a low fat, healthy meat sauce.

Add the cooked meat to the sauce after it has simmered for 20 minutes.

Stir the cooked meat into the sauce.

After the spaghetti has boiled for 9 minutes, drain it into a colander.

Serve immediately. Remove any Bay leaves when serviing the meat sauce.

This pizza recipe is a healthy pizza. Pizza can be healthy. This recipe uses organic pizza crust and organic Mozzarella cheese plus tomato paste with olive oil. Tomato paste is rich in the antioxidant, lycopene, which has been shown to have health benefits. Lycopene is also fat soluable. So by adding a little olive oil to the tomato paste helps increase the body’s absorption of lycopene.

You should be able to find all of the ingredients at local supermarkets and health food stores. When buying the tomato paste, be sure to read the label. Choose a brand that does not use any artificial ingredients, additives or preservatives. The brand I chose for this example was a cheap store brand sold at Von’s supermarket. I checked the labels of 2 other major brands at the time and they had additives like citric acid and HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). It is remarkable that this simple brand of tomato paste was a better choice.

Shown below is a shot of all the ingredients. Starting in the lower left corner and going clockwise: Sweet Italian Sausage, Organic Mozzarella cheese, sliced mushrooms, olive oil, tomato paste, Basil, onion and Organic Pizza crust.

Start by grilling the sausage. Remember to cook it thoroughly because it is pork. I am using an outdoor grill but you can also broil it in the oven on a broiler.

Chop the onion .

Add the chopped onion and the mushrooms to a frying pan. Season with salt and Basil (or other seasoning if you prefer), then saute over a medium flame until cooked.

Shown below is a shot of the sauted vegetables. Set aside for the moment.

By now, the sausage should be done..

Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 400° F. Shown below is a shot of the organic pizza crust.

Open the can of tomato paste and sread it onto the pizza crust with a rubber spatula. At this time add 1 1/2 tbsp of olive oil while spreading. Mix it and spread it at the same time. Work in a spiral motion from the center out.

Spread the tomato paste and olive oil mixture evenly over the crust.

Shown below is a shot of the pizza crust with the tomato paste and olive oil mixture spread over the pizza crust. It is now ready to add the toppings.

Next, add the shredded organic Mozzarella cheese.

The first topping is the sauted vegetables.

Distribute the cooked vegetables evenly over the surface.

The next topping is the cooked sausage. Dice the sausage by cutting each sausage into 3/8 inch slices, then quartering each slice.

Shown below is a shot of the pizza ready to cook. By now the oven is probably ready. Place it in the oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes.

Shown below is a shot of the finished pizza. It’s delicious and healthy. Cut into six slices and serve hot.

This is a recipe for the more traditional Mai Tai using light and dark rum that you can make with homemade Almond Liqueur and homemade sweet and sour mix.

Part IV – Blending and Bottling

Shown below is a shot of the blending ingredients – back row, left to right: clarified infused spirits, standard sugar syrup, standard caramel syrup. Front row: vanilla extract, measuring cup.

Boil down the standard sugar syrup to 90% of its original volume to thicken it slightly.

In this case we start with 10 oz of standard sugar syrup. After boiling down we have 9 oz. Add to this 5 oz of caramel syrup. It is necessary to blend the caramel syrup with the boiled down sugar syrup otherwise the boiled down sugar syrup will crystallize if allowed to cool by itself.

Allow the blending stock to cool completely before adding it to the infused spirit. The point is to avoid the possibility that any of the alcohol will evaporate if it were mixed hot. Shown below is a jar with the blending stock.

Add the blending stock and vanilla extract to the clarified infused spirits according to these proportions: 4 parts infused spirit, 6 parts blending stock, 1/4th part vanilla extract.

Shown below is a comparison shot of real Kahlua next to my homemade Kahlua.

Part III – Filtering and Clarifying

Allow the infused spirit to clarify and settle for about 3 to 4 weeks, then setup 2 clean Mason jars side by side. Place a paper coffee filter in a coffee filter funnel over the other jar. Slowly and carefully rack off the clarified part into the first jar …

… then pour the remainder through the paper filter in the other jar. You do this to be able to continue pouring slowly without tipping the jar back and mixing up the sediments. If you were to pour straight into the filter, you would have to wait for it to clear to pour the rest out of the jar and there would be too much of a chance you would tip the jar back and mix it up.

Allow all the spirit to completely filter into the jar.

There should be a little sediment remaining in the original jar. Discard it.

Shown below is a shot of the clarified infused spirit combined into one jar. It is now ready to blend and bottle.

Continue to Homemade Kahlua Recipe – Part IV

Part II – Straining After Maceration

Shown below is a shot of the jar after 4 weeks. Don’t shake the jar during the final week of maceration to help rack off the clarified part.

Strain the infused spirit by CAREFULLY pouring it though a metal coffee filter. Pour slowly to rack off any clarified part first.

Allow to strain for about 15 – 20 minutes to collect as much infused spirit as possible. Set aside for about 3 to 4 weeks when done.

Continue to Homemade Kahlua Recipe – Part III

There are many recipes for homemade Kahlua® on the Internet. Some are simple and can be made very quickly using instant coffee and others require more time to make. I decided to make Kahlua (coffee liqueur) and tried a few of the available recipes. I discovered in a very short time that in order to make a good quality coffee liqueur I would have to figure out how to add the coffee flavor without the coffee becoming bitter or without the liqueur becoming too watery. These were the first obstacles to overcome.

The finished liqueur must be of a certain viscosity and alcohol content. If coffee is brewed in water, then the liqueur will be watery and will have a low alcohol content. You can get around this problem by using instant coffee. I tried several different instant coffees – some freeze dried and others heat dried – and I found that all instant coffee is bitter. There is just no way around it.

I had the idea that I could simply infuse ground coffee directly into spirit – totally cold – and that was the breakthrough. It worked. By infusing ground coffee directly into the spirits I was able to use any commercially available coffee. Real Kahlua is made from 100% gourmet Arabica coffee beans. I felt that it was necessary to use 100% gourmet Arabica coffee in my recipe as well so I found an online source at Dr. Soda.

Real Kahlua also has a unique aroma that comes from cane spirit, which is a cousin of rum. You don’t find cane spirit in too many liquor stores, but Bacardi rum is widely available. I found that Bacardi Superior rum does impart an aroma and flavor that is very close to real Kahlua so that is my first choice for the spirit used to make this liqueur.

Real Kahlua is also made with some caramel so my recipe uses standard caramel syrup along with some standard sugar syrup. Real Kahlua is a fairly viscous liqueur so it is necessary to boil down the standard sugar syrup to 90% of its original volume to obtain the desired viscosity. If you use too much caramel, the liqueur will have an undesirable, lingering aftertaste. This recipe calls for the making of a blending stock with the right combination of caramel and sugar syrups to obtain a smooth tasting finished product.

Part I – Infusing the Coffee

Shown below is a shot of the ingredients and 2 Qt. Mason jar. Bacardi rum will impart a better aroma (shown below: back row, middle), but you can use a cheaper brand of rum (e.g. Ron Caballero – shown below: back row, right).

Measure and add the coffee to the jar, then measure and add the rum.

Here is a shot of all the ingredients shaken up and ready to set aside for maceration. The ratio of rum to coffee is 4 to 1. In this case I added 5 cups rum and 1 1/4 cups of coffee.

Continue to Homemade Kahlua Recipe – Part II

This is a variation of the traditional Mai Tai that you can make with homemade Almond Liqueur and homemade sweet and sour mix. It is made with light rum only (a traditional Mai Tai is made with light and dark rum).

This is a variation of the Black Russian with the addition of cream (half and half). It can be made with real Kahlua or Homemade Tropical Coffee Liqueur or Homemade Kahlua. The proportions are very simple: 2 parts Vodka to 1 part Kahlua plus 1 part cream served over ice.

This very basic cocktail can be made with real Kahlua or Homemade Tropical Coffee Liqueur or Homemade Kahlua. The proportions are very simple: 2 parts Vodka to 1 part Kahlua served over ice.