Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Beer Pairing March 28, 2009

I got picked to do this month’s Foodbuzz 24 event and a beer pairing meal was on my food agenda. It’s been a few years since I did my first one so I researched around a bit to gather ideas. I kept things simple and rounded up a few of my beer loving friends and presented  a six-course beer pairing menu.

Gougeres
St. Bernardus Wit

The meal commenced with bite-sized gougeres which had just a breezy hint of cumin. Before being baked off the pate choux mounds were topped with a shaving of parmigiano reggiano. They exited the oven perfectly puffed and were expedited to the hungry diners. St. Bernardus Wit paired nicely with the gougeres with the echoing spice flavors and the nuttiness of the cheese complementing the wheatiness of the beer.

Malpeque Oysters, Meyer Lemon Mignonette
Black Velvet

Next came refreshing course of raw oysters. I served them with a mignonette, a classic condiment for raw oysters, but with a twist using meyer lemon juice and a touch of Champagne vinegar. As I was doing research for this dinner I found out that Irish stouts and oysters are a classic pairing. “Oysters have had a long association with stout. When stouts were emerging in the eighteenth century, oysters were a commonplace food often served in pubs and taverns.” [Wikipedia].

I was very intrigued indeed. I tried the pairing out at a Japanese restaurant – oyster shooters with ponzu and a Japanese stout (the name of the brewery escapes me) to the delight of my taste buds. The pairing was surprisingly harmonius, even more so than the common Champagne or sparkling wine pairing. The briny refreshing oysters and the nutty light stout really complemented each other. To get the best of both worlds though I paired my oysters with black velvet, a beer and sparkling wine cocktail. I poured Guiness halfway into a glass and then topped it off with Zonin prosecco.

Gueuze Steamed Mussels, Saffron, Fried Potato
Cantillon Classic Gueuze

I absolutely love gueuze, a lambic blend, with all its dry, sour and yeasty characteristics. I steamed mussels with Cantillon Gueuze and added a twist with saffron creating another layer of flavor and the vibrant hue. Crispy fried purple potatoes joined the steamed mussels and the broth. We drank the rest of the gueuze with the mussels trying to slurp up every last drop of the delicious broth.

Smoky Mac N Cheese, Bacon
Stone Smoked Porter

Next came the smoky mac n cheese made with smoked Holland cheese, gruyere and bacon. The mac came out great even with my average track record with this iconic American dish. It was just subtly smoky from the cheese which added just a hint of distinct savoriness that makes one’s mouth water. I paired the creamy mac with the roasty, balanced Stone Brewery Smoked Porter. It was not overpoweringly smokey which was perfect for the mac n cheese.

Homemade Garlic-Herb Sausage, Polenta
Westmalle Dubbel

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I made a garlic-herb sausage using the basic pork sausage recipe from Charcuterie cookbook. It was served very simply over creamy polenta and paired with Westmalle Dubbel. Sausages being hearty I wanted to serve a bigger beer with them. At a 7% ABV it was going to stand up nicely to the sausages. I had made a mustard relish to serve over the sausage and I completely forgot it in the fridge. There were no complaints from the diners though since the sausage itself was so juicy and flavorful. They didn’t know they were missing out. Phew.

Apple Crostada, Imperial Stout Ice Cream
Oskar Blues Ten Fidy Imperial Stout

I even made dessert. Yes, very surprising. I found out that apples pies and stouts are also a good pairing. But I was very excited to make the beer part of the dessert, an imperial stout ice cream. There are recipes for stout ice cream floating around but I wanted to up the game with an imperial stout. I used Ten Fidy which stands at a whoppin 10% ABV. This ice cream was straight up delicious. It was roasty with coffee and chocolate notes. It paired so well with the apple crostada, another surprising result.

The dinner was a hit and much fun was had among us beer drinkers. As always good food and good company makes a great night.

Turkey Meatballs with Chestnut, Sage & Bacon in Ale Sauce December 1, 2008

Once again I was faced with an abundant surplus of ingredients with only myself to blame. I overbought ground turkey when I was grocery shopping for the Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of being able to lie around being lazy all weekend I was forced to cook again. A few choices ran through my mind but I settled on turkey meatballs with chestnut, sage & bacon.

I lightly floured them before browning them in olive oil. I tried my hand at an ale sauce for kicks. I sweated diced onion in the drippings and deglazed with Chimay Premiere (the red label) and reduced the mix along with chicken stock. I seasoned them sauce with fresh sage, thyme and black pepper although I forgot to add butter at the end. I cooked the meatballs through in the sauce with the top covered.

The turkey meatballs made another comfort driven meal and thank goodness a few friends were able to come over to help out with the eating.

SF – Beer Day March 19, 2008

ANCHOR BREWING

Boy’s and my second day in SF was full of beer and fun. It started at 11AM at Anchor Brewing where we went on their popular brewery tour. The brewery has history way back to the late 1800’s which is pretty amazing. It’s been through a list of different owners and in 1965 it was purchased by Fritz Maytag (of the Maytag appliances family) who saved it from going under. We even saw Fritz working in his office!

The tour was informative and fun as we got to walk through the whole brewery checking out each process in the beer making. And it ended with the highly anticipated beer tasting. I was surprised at how generously they were pouring their pours. Six beers about 8oz each. I didn’t get through all six – it was too much. The first beer poured was Anchor Steam and man was it good. So cool and fresh straight from draft. It was definitely a nice morning treat.

CITY BEER STORE

After our fun little brewery tour we were off to our lunch destination and Boy suggested we stop by City Beer Store saying “it’s on the way.” Beer establishments are often “on the way” it seems. Anyhow I’m glad we stopped by because it’s a cute little store with over three hundred beers for sale along with a few beers on tap for you to sip on while persuing their selection. An ingenious idea. I had a glass of Marin Brewing’s White Knuckle from their draft while gathering a bundle of lambics and gueuzes not readily available in LA. White Knuckle is Marin’s double IPA and we were pretty lucky to come across because Marin Brewing is distributed only in a few places these days. It was so frickin good and now I’m sad we can’t drink it in LA.

TORONADO

After lunch we had to stop by at Toronado, possibly Boy’s favorite beer bar ever. A few years ago when we were hanging out here sippin on our La Folie we witnessed the awesome beer drinking dog. I was hoping we’d see him this time around but no such luck.

However we drank some quality beers. I had a glass of Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, one of my favorite beers, and Moonlight Brewing’s Reality Czeck. Pliny the Elder is a double IPA. I’m a big fan of IPAs and DIPAs. I was hoping Toronado would have Pliny the Younger which is a triple IPA (although generally catergorized as DIPA). Both the Elder and Younger have an intoxicating hops aroma, floral and piny. The Reality Czeck was great too – nice malt flavor. It really reminds me of Victory Brewing’s Prima Pils, an excellent pilsner.

SF – 21st Amendment Brewery March 15, 2008

While I have my food needs Boy has equally important beer needs. After Manresa (my need) we stopped by 21st Amendment Brewery for a beer (his need). They are the brewery that makes that not so tasty watermelon lager. However they brew some damn good IPAs too which are right up my alley. I went with their double IPA, Hop Crisis. It’s got hops and it ain’t shy about it.

It’s also got some alcohol. At 11.8% ABV it was going to put me over for the night. I couldn’t finish my glass. After all I did have a few beers and twelve courses of wine beforehand. The Hop Crisis was tasty but I wouldn’t recommend it as a night cap.

It’s hard to believe now but having the Hop Crisis at the end of the night kicked up both Boy’s and my appetite! Unfortunately at that hour we could not successfully locate anything good to eat. Or even anything bad to eat. But it was a fun end to our first day in SF!

Abbot’s Pizza & New Belgium Mothership Wit July 4, 2007

bbq chicken

After venturing out to Santa Monica Farmer’s Market Boy and I headed over to Venice for Abbot’s Pizza. We got there at 11, their opening time, but they didn’t unlock the door although I could see all the employees inside. So I stood right in front of their window and stared at them not moving at all. It took a few minutes for someone opened the door. Probably got creeped out by me. Hehe. We put our orders in – bianca and bbq chicken. My mouth is watering just thinking about these two.

bianca

I always get Pizza Bianca when I am there. It’s a white pizza that uses a base of garlic pesto, then it is topped with tomato, red onion, basil and dollops of ricotta. It is truly heaven. Super garlicky, creamy from the ricotta, juicy from the fresh tomato slices, and freshness from the red onion slices and basil.

This is was exactly what I was waiting for. And when you are lucky enough to get a slice of a pizza that has just come out of the oven you are in for a real treat. Crispy crispy crust. This crispiness won’t quite return even if the heatlamp slices are toasted in the oven. It’s hard not to daydream about the first of a fresh pizza.

But 15 minutes was the wait we were given. We were parked across the street and luckily right next to a liquor store. Hey, why not?

It was a hot day so I wanted to step down from the heavier beers they had there including some Belgians. Then the Mothership Wit from New Belgium caught my eye. New Belgium also makes the popular and widely available Fat Tire and more importantly their delicious and successfully sour Flanders red, La Folie.

The Mothership Wit sounded perfect for a hot day. We picked up a six-pack and I asked the cashier if he had any cups. He had styrofoam, a big no-no for beers or any drinks for that matter but drinking out of beer bottle in public is also in the same category of no. But having a cold beer while waiting for our hot and delicious pizzas screamed yes-yes.

Mothership Wit is a Belgian style ale known as witbier (also called white or wheat beer) which have aromas of coriander, spice and citrus. The most popular of this category is Hoegaarden. Motherwhip Wit is more similar to Wittekerke though in its light straw color, carbonation and lightness in flavor but MS is also New Belgium’s certified organic beer.It poured a creamier head though with miniscule bubbles which felt quite delicious on the lips. Not a destination beer but it was quite a pleasure to guzzle in the warm weather.

When the fifteen minutes was up and Boy was I were super hungry we walked over to Abbot’s and enjoyed a cup of the cold wit with our fresh hot pizzas. It was a good day.

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New Belgium Brewing Company

beer advocate rating

Abbot’s Pizza

Bloggers ‘N’ Beer June 14, 2007

I attended the very delicious Bloggers ‘N’ Beer event at Library Bar with the tasting menu created by beer sommelier Christina Perozzi. The beer choices were excellent and the menu came in these little library cards, all in order from lightest to strongest. Ok, I’m a sucker for cute things and the library card menus were brilliant!

Back to the beers.. here was the menu:

1. 1903 Prohibition Lager – Craftsman Brewery (Pasadena, CA)

2. Blanche de Chambly – Unibroue (Chambly, Quebec)

3. Saison Dupont – Brasserie Dupont (Tourpes-Leuze, Belgium)

4. Maudite – Unibroue (Chambly, Quebec)

5. Inversion IPA – Deschutes Brewery (Bend, Oregon)

6. Black Butte Porter – Deschutes Brewery (Bend, Oregon)

7. Road Dog Porter – Flying Dog Brewery (Denver, CO)

8. Westmalle Trappist Tripel – Brouwerig Westmalle (Province of Antwerp, Belgium)

I think Boy and I have tried all of those before, except the Road Dog Porter. My beer memory is not so good as Boy’s but why do I need beer memory when I can just turn to him and say “hey, did we try this before”? I know, so lazy of me. Hey it’s equal exchange – he provides beer & beer knowledge and I provide food and somewhat truthful food knowledge.

I really gotta give it to Boy though for introducing me to quality beer and really piquing my interest in this delicious drink. Before I was just a beer drinker, and now a more discerning beer drinker. Seriously I’ve never met anyone who was so into beer as he is. To my dismay his fridge is always packed with beers and no food. I practically forced him to start this blog beerblahblog.blogspot.com telling him that only cool people blog. Hehe.

The menu actually had one of my favorite beers ever – Saison Dupont from Brasserie Dupont. I have hailed Brasserie Dupont as my favorite while sipping on some delicious Saison Dupont from Boy’s living room at least a few times while raising my chalice up and admiring the beautiful lacing. I can’t get enough of that yeasty character, a reason why I also really love Brut Champagne. There are only two alcohols that ever make me really swoon – that is a really good saison and really really good dry Champagne. Ok, and maybe a really piney floral double or triple IPA.

Christina on the right with friend

Christina came over and talked to us for a bit about the beers we were drinking. She’s so knowledgeable and easy going too. Very cool that she is considered one of the top beer experts on the West Coast. Go grrls! All I know is imma be drinking more beer and try to learn more too.

Check out her blog www.christinaperozzi.com.

Pics from the event (not taken by me) HERE.

Library Bar

Beer Pairing Dinner for Birthday Boy March 1, 2007

Back in the middle of December Boy added another ring to his tree trunk. We usually take each out for birthdays but I wanted to do something a little bit more special, something a bit more tailored to what he loves.

To put it simply, the Boy loves beer.

Hmmm, at first I thought about getting him a case of Westvleteren Trappist ale which is not available in the states but I decided against that when the mailing seemed a bit dodgy. What if it never showed up? (Which has happened to Boy before with international purchases). So instead I got him a case of delicious domestic beer. Now this is not just any domestic beer, but Stone Brewery’s 10th Anniversary IPA. Only a limited batch was released and lucky me, I picked up the last full case of these at Beverage Warehouse.

But the real gift was a dinner – a five-course beer and food pairing dinner plus the addition of a special pre-dinner nibbly. Here’s the menu:

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Zonin Prosecco & Iberico Bellota Lomo

I got the lomo from the first batch of em (after FDA approval) that was sent over to the U.S. back last summer. It is seriously stupendous. I love pork. Especially the cured kind.

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Marshmallow-Stuffed Sweet Potato Croquettes with Cranberry Chutney – Kiuchi Brewery Hitachino Nest White Ale

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Bacon Croque Madame – Ommegang Witte

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Roquefort & Roasted Garlic on Charcoal Cracker – Moylan’s Old Blarney Barleywine Style Ale

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Skirt Steak with Arugula, Harissa & Ricotta Salata – Alesmith YuleSmith
Sorry, I forgot to take pics for this one!

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Ricotta Fritters with Prosecco Berry Compote – Girardin 1882 Gueuze Black Label

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Overall the dinner went really well and Boy proclaimed “This is the best meal I’ve ever had!” Of course we know what really won him over is the overflowing of all sorts of delicious beers. And the croque madame.