Have you ever wondered which craft beers go best with which foods?
A new cookbook has the answer for you, and it has a local flavor to it.
John Holl’s “The Craft Brewery Cookbook,” out Tuesday, features more than 70 beer recipes and pairings from chefs and brewers across the country, including one from Lincoln.
Lincoln’s entry in the book is a spicy shrimp cocktail paired with American sour beer.
Sam Riggins, owner and brewer of Cosmic Eye Brewing, said he was inspired by the recipe after trying different versions of the brewery’s Bloody Mary mix and realizing something was missing.
“After eating a Mexican shrimp cocktail at El Chaparro, the flavors clicked and I knew what changes to make to the mix,” Riggins said.
He said that when Holl contacted him about the book, he reached out to Mike Vandenberg, executive chef of the restaurant Course, which is part of the Great Plains Culinary Institute on the Lincoln campus of Southeast Community College, to offer his own recipe for a Mexican shrimp cocktail.
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“It was a no-brainer to get Mike involved,” Riggins said. “He’s a great chef, a good friend, and the restaurant is just down the street from the brewery.”
Vandenberg said he had never made a Mexican shrimp cocktail before, but enjoyed the challenge and was happy with the result.
“I’m not only very proud of how this dish turned out, but also very honored to be published in a cookbook with Cosmic Eye and many other talented brewers and chefs,” he said. .
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Cosmic Eye will host a tasting of the final recipe on Saturday at its bar at 6800 P St. Tickets for the tasting, which are available at cosmiceye.beerwill include an 8-ounce serving of the Spicy Shrimp Cocktail featured in the book and a Cosmic Eye beer.
Riggins said the cookbook only contains beer types and not those from specific breweries, but Cosmic Eye has three different sour beers to pair with the dish.
“Or it would also work with our premium American lager – Dead Man’s Run and Dead Man’s Light,” he said.