College Cuisine: Bière Toast

I used to think that being a good cook meant having quality ingredients, long-wearing cookware and a cookbook full of recipes.

That is, until I made beer-battered French toast.

A few weeks ago, I spent a weekend with some friends at one of their lake houses. The next morning, we woke up hungry.

There was plenty of bread and eggs left, so my boyfriend and I decided to make some French toast for everyone else.

As I whisked the eggs and dipped the bread in the batter, I suddenly remembered what my friend had said the day before.

“The gas isn’t turned on yet,” he told us, explaining why there was only cold water in the bathroom.

My boyfriend and I didn’t know what to do. We had already used up all the bread and half the eggs to make our now soggy yet-to-be-made French toast. We then looked outside and saw our solution.

We would grill them.

The house had a cast-iron skillet that we could use to put on top of the grill and cook the French toast.

But apart from there being no gas in the house, there was also no butter or oil. It was Paula Deen’s worst nightmare.

My boyfriend came up with the idea of using beer to lubricate the pan before we added the bread.

“Beer-battered French toast?” I thought to myself.

After the grill warmed up, I placed the cast-iron pan and cracked open a High Life. I poured some of the beer on the pan and watched it slowly evaporate.

Because the bread we had was thin, it soaked up the egg too much to flip on its own. After a few mushy pieces, I doubled up the slices, making a more substantial French toast that was easier to cook and eat.

After a few more pieces, I realized that our French toast was cooking well, but there was no sweetness.

I added some white sugar to the French toast on the grill, hoping the caramelization
process would enhance the bread’s flavor.

The addition helped, and the rest of the pieces passed the taste test of our group made up of recent college graduates.

No gas, no butter, no oil. I would love to see them tackle this dilemma on “Top Chef.”
It’s the exciting part of cooking, the part that stimulates your brain. We had a problem and instead of dumping the bread in the trash and heading to the local diner, we made an new interesting dish.

I still prefer making French toast in my kitchen with my fresh French loaf and gas stove, but anyone can make it taste good with the right materials. Knowing that I can fashion a decent breakfast out of a boy scout’s supply of food made me feel like a real chef.