Table of Contents

Intro

Have you ever had some flavors that just somehow get their hooks into you, and they just never come out? Such as that single restaurant entree or sauce that rents free lives in your brain? In my case, it is the obsession with that taste, the Mellow Mushroom Beer Cheese Recipe.

It’s oozy. It’s tangy. It has that magic whisper of the beer that is malty and with a smear of cheese, it literally creeps around your taste buds like an old friend.

My initial experience with it was that the entire world became half its speed in that clumsy food-advertisement manner, where everything was suddenly focus-softened and choirs could begin singing.

Well, perhaps so, but you know what I am talking about–it is addictive in the very best sense! And though I could continue the defense of treat-yourself trips to Mellow Mushroom, I felt in my heart that somehow I could find some way of transporting this corny nirvana into my own kitchen.

It was at that moment that I began to assemble a home-style, Mellow Mushroom Beer Cheese Recipe, and now, since friends do not keep treasure to themselves, I would gladly share it with you.

What Is the Mellow Mushroom Beer Cheese?

Imagine it as the Pizza-house wizard, pub-grub comfort, love child. The Mellow Mushroom Beer Cheese Recipe is, in essence, a creamy cheese and beer-based dip that has been seasoned to the perfect level to make the flavours feel layered instead of heavy-handed.

It is no radioactive beer cracker-no, it is oily and smooshy, it is to be dipped in, slathered on, and swooned over. It is the beer element and does not serve to put you on your side, but rather on your palate, which is to give the cheese its ground, a sort of earthiness and savor.

And the “cheese” part? That is the star of the show, then. When served this way, it is often accompanied by pretzels, bites of garlic bread, or virtually any starchy food that one can spoon up sticky stuff.

But when you are my age, you will soon find that what you can order to serve you is reduced to almost anything edible that can be reached within reach.

Equipment List

You will not have to run to the store and buy fancy kitchen gadgets–calm down. It is a low-maintenance, high-reward recipe. Here’s all you’ll need:

Medium saucepan
Whisk
Measuring cups & spoons
Cheese grater
Rubber spatula
Serving bowl

Ingredients

Here is what comprises this Mellow Mushroom Beer Cheese Recipe:

1 cup lager or light beer
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese.
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese.
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Step 1

Melt in your saucepan on medium heat. When melted and foaming, add the flour, beating at all times. Here you are making a roux, which is nothing but an allegro word to refer to the paste that makes the sauce thick. You want it smooth, not clumpy.

Step 2

Pour beer slowly, whipping it like you are going to contest the universe itself on smooth sauce. The beer will froth and then settle when it is mixed with the roux into a smooth foundation.

Step 3

Add in the Dijon mustard, garlic powder, paprika, and cayenne (unless you are a wuss). Whisk again. Your kitchen, as of now, already has a warm pub smell in the most idyllic sense.

Step 4

Reduce the heat to low and pour in small handfuls of your grated cheeses, slowly stirring them every time until they melt beautifully. Don’t rush this. When you put it all in at once, you run the risk of clumps–and clumps are the devil. Be respectful: cheese is worth your time.

Step 5

Add salt and pepper, give a final shake, and pour into your serving bowl. Take anything–anything–that will support itself as a scoop, and you are off to cheesy heaven.

Add-Ons, Twists, and Serving Ideas.

Today, this is served in the usual manner with warm soft pretzel bites. But (and now the rebel spirit comes in) you need not stop there. This is the beer cheese–it would like to become your new BFF in the kitchen.

Pour it over roasted broccoli–you will then have thrice the pleasure of veggies.
Apply it in a grilled cheese sandwich to be meta-levelly delighted by cheese.
Sprinkle burgers or hot dogs with a drizzle, and you will set off jealous glares.
Eat as a pizza topping since that is whole circle Mellow Mushroom thinking.

You may even play with the cheese blend-in- replace some of the cheddar with Gruyere, or you can add some pepper jack to get a snap-on.

The reason this Mellow Mushroom Beer Cheese Recipe is so addictive

It’s not just the cheese. It’s the balance. That faint malty support of the beer slices at the fatness of the cheese, the spices develop the taste, not screaming but creating it, and the entire composition is velvety, warm, and slightly tangy. It illuminates all of your palate with the Christmas lights of a night.

And, the truth be told, there is something emotional going on here as well. There is something primal in a bowl of warm, melty dip. It is sensuous and communal, and strangely stabilizing–as though it holds a whole society together.