BEER NUT BRITTLE: Beer is an ingredient in Chef Anthony Endy’s recipe for beer nut brittle, made with Shanty Irish micro-brewed beer from the kitchen of Rooney’s Irish Pub. He was kind of enough to share the recipe with Sun readers: Ingredients • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar • 3/4 cup dark beer, Rooney’s Shanty Irish Oatmeal Stout or Guinness • 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup • 2 teaspoons pure Madagascar vanilla bean extract • 1 cup roasted and salted Spanish peanuts • 1 cup Rooney’s potato chips • 1/2 cup pretzel pieces • 2 teaspoons fleur de sel, flaked sea salt Directions Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking oil. Combine sugar, beer, light corn syrup, and vanilla bean extract in a heavy bottom saucepan. Combine the peanuts, pretzels, and potato chips in a separate bowl. Bring the beer-sugar mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then simmer until a candy thermometer reaches 305 degrees. Take the mixture off the heat and add the peanut mixture to the syrup. Then you may carefully pour your candy onto the greased baking sheet. Allow the brittle to cool completely at room temperature, then break into pieces and enjoy! “This is a great recipe to make for your loved ones around the holidays,” Endy said. “It’s a wonderful contrast of salty and sweet, with a touch of beer. You can even add a dash of cayenne pepper for something surprisingly different. It’s best enjoyed with family and friends in front of a fire either playing games or watching movies.” The beer nut brittle is available for purchase at Rooney’s Irish Pub, 241 S. Broadway St., Orcutt.

More than any other time of year, Christmas tends to tap into one’s desire for tradition. This weekend, hundreds of millions of people around the world will celebrate Christmas with their favorite family traditions.

BEER NUT BRITTLE: Beer is an ingredient in Chef Anthony Endy’s recipe for beer nut brittle, made with Shanty Irish micro-brewed beer from the kitchen of Rooney’s Irish Pub. He was kind of enough to share the recipe with Sun readers: Ingredients • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar • 3/4 cup dark beer, Rooney’s Shanty Irish Oatmeal Stout or Guinness • 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup • 2 teaspoons pure Madagascar vanilla bean extract • 1 cup roasted and salted Spanish peanuts • 1 cup Rooney’s potato chips • 1/2 cup pretzel pieces • 2 teaspoons fleur de sel, flaked sea salt Directions Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking oil. Combine sugar, beer, light corn syrup, and vanilla bean extract in a heavy bottom saucepan. Combine the peanuts, pretzels, and potato chips in a separate bowl. Bring the beer-sugar mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then simmer until a candy thermometer reaches 305 degrees. Take the mixture off the heat and add the peanut mixture to the syrup. Then you may carefully pour your candy onto the greased baking sheet. Allow the brittle to cool completely at room temperature, then break into pieces and enjoy! “This is a great recipe to make for your loved ones around the holidays,” Endy said. “It’s a wonderful contrast of salty and sweet, with a touch of beer. You can even add a dash of cayenne pepper for something surprisingly different. It’s best enjoyed with family and friends in front of a fire either playing games or watching movies.” The beer nut brittle is available for purchase at Rooney’s Irish Pub, 241 S. Broadway St., Orcutt.

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For me, it’s a mix of old and new: sharing with my children the fond holiday traditions I remember as a child—frosting cookies, Christmas carols, the Christmas Eve candlelight church service—while adopting new traditions for the 21st century, like putting up an artificial tree, giving to toy drives, and attending Christmas parades.

Another person embracing the past while creating new traditions for his young family is Anthony Endy, the chef at Rooney’s Irish Pub in Orcutt. I asked him to tell me about his traditions and what he serves at home to eat and drink on Christmas. 

His love of working in the kitchen was likely born while helping his mother and grandmother during the holidays, and someday his infant son, Henry, may carry on this multigenerational joy of cooking.

Chef Endy comes from a family that believes “food brings everyone together.”

“My grandmother does the traditional tamales on Christmas Eve, which are always great,” Endy recalled.

His mom, a talented baker, made homemade bread from scratch, even milling her own flour. That’s a tradition Chef Endy will continue in his home. It’s worth the time and effort.

“That’s where my passion lies,” he said. “These are your loved ones. You can buy cheaper things that are pre-made, [however] you want to give them something special. There’s always an easier way of doing things, but it brings together the family and this is a craft I love.”

A new tradition the chef and his wife will start for Henry’s first Christmas is making bread and candy together at home to give as gifts to family and friends.

“This year, we’ll be making a beer nut brittle made with our microbrew here [at Rooney’s Irish Pub], with peanuts and salted caramel,” Endy said.

Endy, who worked at Los Olivos Café for more than a decade and for Chef Rick Manson for a couple of years, will be working at the pub this Christmas Eve, but will be home for Christmas Day. His family’s holiday menu is all planned out.

He’ll make his persimmon and pomegranate salad: “Really seasonal this time of year: wild arugula, toasted almonds, and a red wine vinaigrette. A pretty salad—it looks great. It’s got the sweetness, the tartness, nuttiness to work really well, and [it’s] refreshing in the same right.”

While Endy says Thanksgiving is all about turkey, Christmas is beef: “So we do a nice prime rib of beef, and I usually am in charge of that.”

Side dishes will include potatoes au gratin and Brussels sprouts: “I like them fried when they’re crispy and soft in the middle. [They are] classic with bacon.”

Which beverages will he be pouring for himself and his guests on Christmas with dinner?

“I’m a big fan of microbrews, craft beer, so me personally, this time of year, I like Sierra Nevada Celebration beer, as well as Firestone’s Anniversary Ale, which is always one not to miss,” he said. “I’m a big fan of local wineries as well: Flying Goat Cellars’ sparkling wine and Fiddlehead Pinot Noir.”

Rooney’s new winter microbrew is oatmeal stout, brewed on Dec. 7 and now available at the pub.

Sun wine and food writer Wendy Thies Sell wishes you a merry Christmas and happy holidays. Contact her at wthies@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in Dec 22-29, 2011.

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