Beer and Food Make a Great Pairing!

At Betwixt we try to promote two of our favourite things - beer & food, and daringly, encourage people to combine the two in some way!

In the winter months, we have been enjoying a hearty slow-cooked Beef in Beer Casserole (an English take on the Belgian classic - Carbonnade Flamande).

Braising steak becomes meltingly tender in a rich herbal, spicy beer gravy - earthy mushrooms add to the mix and root veg and onions give texture and a touch of sweetness. Potatoes help mop up the last of the lovely beer gravy. Comfort food at its very best and so easy to cook. (recipe online soon).

Other ideas for beer cuisine include old favourites such as Steak & Ale Pie, Beer-battered Cod & Chips, or Bangers & Mustard Mash with Beer & Onion Gravy.

If you're after a classic English lunch, try a simple Ploughman's, all of the ingredients can be sourced at your local farmers' market. You could use Kirkham's fantastic Lancashire cheese, with tangy pickles from either 'Route Ginger' or Neale's farm, on fresh, crusty local bread from Kirkby or Wirral, all washed down with a cool glass of hoppy 'Sunlight' beer (or Eddisbury Cheshire apple juice for the non-drinkers).

As well as cooking with beer, pairing dishes with beer can give some surprising results, often when it is matched with foods that wine might find 'dificult' to cope with.

Beer famously goes well with curry, but replace the ubiquitous cold lager with a decent flavourful ale like our 'Sunlight' and it becomes a heaven-made match.

The hop flavour & slight bitterness of a decent golden ale cuts through both the buttery richness of the ghee and the heat and spice. With your palate refreshed by the beer, you're now ready for another mouthful of spicy curry.

A Little Light Reading

For one American brewer's take on the complexity of beer & food, read Garret Olliver's 'The Brewmaster's Table' (available in paperback from amazon.co.uk at a good price).

My favourite recipe book on the subject, (The Beer Cook Book, by UK writer, Susan Nowak) is sadly out of print - though a quick Amazon.co.uk search finds some 2nd-hand copies out there.

Thankfully Susan Nowak & CAMRA (the CAMpaign for Real Ale) have just released a new book broadly on the same subject - aimed at both those looking to find the best food pubs, and those wanting to recreate some fine beer-related recipes.

Recipes include: Seared Wild Rabbit, Welsh Rarebit with Home-grown Marrow Chutney, Cod in Honey Beer Batter. Goto www.camra.org.uk - and click on "shop" or read more about it.

A Little Light Surfing

The web also offers several good places for ideas on beer cuisine & matching food to beers, some of my favourites include -

The quality-minded supermarket chain, Waitrose has a brief guide -
(Waitrose also have some great beery recipe ideas and a brief guide to beer - search for "beer" on their site & you should find both)

US writer & beer-fan, Lucy Saunders' site is a wealth of enthusiastic information, from beery pro-chefs & amateurs alike -

A quick guide for pairing foods with all kinds of international beer styles forms part of the educational remit from another US site - www.beertown.org

A third US-based beer & food pairing site is - allaboutbeer.com

It's Official!

'Beer With Food Week' itself is supported by a pub industry newspaper & sponsored by a large brewery, and is focussed on pub chefs, not home-cooking, that said, there's still some good ideas on beer & food matching - & beer recipes

If you have any more ideas, recipes, matchings or comments, please do get in touch.
Enjoy!