Salmon Fishcakes and Pilsner Urquell

 

Most of my Christmas dishes were accompanied with wine which is why this blog comes a couple of days late. On the big day myself and the Beautiful Wife had Roast duck on the big day accompanied by a beautiful 1999 Pavilion Rouge (Chateau Margaux's second wine) if you are interested.

There is time during the "in between period" for simple food which brings comfort and sustenance without testing the recipient or the cook. It is also a time for using leftovers and not wasting anything that can be saved.

Salmon fishcakes (recipe per person)

• 150 gms mashed potatoes (must be cold and as dry as possible)
• 100 - 150 gms cold cooked salmon (or any other cooked flaked fish)
• 1 egg beaten with a splash of milk
• 50 gms of flour
• A handful of breadcrumbs
• Vegetable oil for frying

Roughly mix the potato and fish with your hands and form into two or three thick patties. Coat them in the flour and then put them in the egg wash to make a glue. Finally drop them into the breadcrumbs to form and even coating. pop some oil in a frying pan, a depth of about 5 mm should be fine. Heat up the oil and fry the fishcakes on both sides, gently splashing a little of the oil up the sides to give and even fry. Serve with chips or just a nicely dressed salad.

A couple of additions, if you fancy: You could add a few sesame seeds to the breadcrumbs, you could change some of the fish for smoked salmon off cuts, you could also add in some dill or parsley to the mix, etc.

The Match

Pilsner Urquell literally translates as "Original Pilsner" it was the first lagered beers of this type to use pale malt and thus, in many ways invented the idea of the modern lager. It is, without doubt, a classic beer. A grassy, herby nose gives way to a soft malt body on the palate ending with a dry crisp finish. A measured bitterness means that this beer is perfect with the richer oily fish. The Breadcrumbs are perfectly echoed in the malty body of the beer. If you had not tried Pilsner Urquell yet I strongly urge you to do so, it may be the start of an education of lagers beyond the usual macro brewery fare.       

  

    

Bangers and Mash with Timothy Taylor Landlord

 Bangers and mash comes squarely from the Pub Grub school of cooking. It is filling, tasty and rich whilst being simple enough to be produced in quantity. Incidentally, this simplicity allows the cook to add their own twist elevating it to the level of "Gastro pub" food. 

The name "bangers" comes from a time when there was too much water added to the sausage meat mix. (The other ingredients are: Minced meat, spicing and bread or rusk all popped into a natural hog casing). More water meant a greater weight and thus more profit. This was certainly done during the rationing of the second world war, but may well have been happening both before and after. This meant that when the sausages were heated in a frying pan the steam meant that they were very likely to blow up in the pan. This lead to the mistaken dogma of pricking the sausages with a fork before cooking. Please do not do this, all the fat will run out, leaving you with a dry sausage with the texture of cous cous.

Buy the best sausages you can afford, a decent butcher will take pride in their traditional sausage. Start them in a frying pan with a little oil to get a little brown on them. Then put them in a medium oven for about 25 minutes, they should still have a distinct snap as you bite through the skin.     

I served the sausages with buttery mash and an onion gravy. Peas, as a vegetable, just seemed right. 

The Match

For many years, Landlord has been the last word in classic English Bitter. It is consistently good, one of the most reliably good beers in the UK. This example was from the bottle and was delicious, however, if you can find some from the cask in a pub, you are in for a real treat! The balance between hops, yeast and malt is nearly perfect. It drinks very easily with just a hint of fruit, a smart but balanced lick of hops and all based out with malt. Needless to say, it was an excellent match to the bangers and mash. The only problem with Landlord is that it is far too easy to drink - one pint is never enough!

Crab croquettes and Brewgooder New England IPA

I am a huge fan of crab. In truth, I think I prefer it to lobster. It is expensive but nearly always worth it. As with a lot of food, the more you pay the better the product. I tend to go with UK caught, unfrozen crab for most dishes. A crab contains two types of "meat": The Brown and The White. White crab meat is mild and sweet and turns into tiny flakes, the brown is more liquid and full of rich crabby flavour. This recipe uses both. If you are buying a whole crab then you will need to follow instructions from the many offerings online and split it into the two types of meat. Alternatively just buy them separately or buy a dressed crab and break it down.

These croquettes are a bit of a hybrid but perfect for a starter or a light lunch.

• 150 gms Plain flour
• 50 gms Butter
• 50 - 150 ml milk
• 120 gms white crab meat
• 120 gms brown crab meat
• a handful of btreadcrumbs
• 2 eggs
• 2 tblsp mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp of Old bay spice or paprika 
• 500ml vegetable oil.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan until it just starts to foam, add 50 gms of the flour and mix to form a roux. slowly add about 50-100 mls of the milk to form a very stiff paste. Place a sheet of cling film on a small baking tray and spread the paste on it. Place another piece of cling film on top. allow this to cool and then place in the fridge to chill.

Mix all of the white meat with 2 tblsp of the brown crab meat and pop in the fridge. Mix the remaining brown meat with all of the mayonnaise and pop in the fridge too

After about an hour place three bowls on the work surface. In the first bowl place the remaining flour, in the second break the egss, add the milk and beat to create an egg wash. The third bowl is for the breadcrumbs.

Take the white meat and the paste out of the fridge and mix them, this should form a very thick paste.

Here comes the tricky bit. split the paste into 6 equal lumps. With slightly damp hands form one of the lumps into a barrel shape. (You will have to work quickly but without hurrying) Pop your first croquette into the flour and make sure it is totally coated. (This is a good chance to ensure the shape is perfect). Move the Croquette into the egg wash, again ensuring an even coating. Finally roll the croquette in the breadcrumbs to coat. When they are all done put them back in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.

Heat the oil in a large pan. (The oil should not be more than one third of the way up the inside of the pan). It should be hot enough so a small piece of bread fizzes on the surface and brown in about 90 seconds.

Fry the croquettes in the oil for a couple of minutes and lift out onto kitchen paper. Retrieve the brown meat mayo from the fridge and smear a generous amount across two plates. Place the croquettes on top of the brown meat mayo and serve with a wedge of lemon and a sprinkling of old bay or paprika.   

The Match

Brewgooder is a brewery that is determined to make the world a better, fairer place. They have B-Corp status and they are involved in many projects around the world, they also brew really lovely beers! This dish calls out for a dash of citrus and this beer definitely provides it. It is a classic sessionable New England IPA. It feels like a very drinkable beer with no real harshness on the finish. There is just a hint of malt to stand alongside the breadcrumbs. However, it is those lovely citrus notes that win the day in this match. 

 

   

Chicken thighs with garlic and thyme butter with Northern Rock Faith

It is said that we all "stand on the shoulders of giants" and this is never more true than when looking at cooking. Those of us who take ourselves a little too seriously in the kitchen find ourselves looking at the same gods and goddesses of the culinary arts for inspiration. If you are a Brit of a certain age who likes to cook its hard to find yourself going much beyond the genius that is Nigel Slater.

The dish below is very firmly based on one of his earlier acts of genius. This is not a  perfectly produced copy of what Mr Slater wrote but it is so close that I am not taking any credit for its invention.

• Chicken thighs (enough for two each, make sure you have the skin on)
• Butter
• Crushed garlic
• Dried thyme

The first thing to do is to take the bone out of the thighs. This takes a bit of practice but pretty soon one becomes quite good at it! You should now have lovely flat pieces of meat with skin on one side. heat a tiny bit of the butter in a frying pan. When the butter is foaming add the thighs, skin side down. Fry until golden and crisp then turn over. In the mean time, mash up the rest of the butter with the crushed garlic and thyme. Make sure that the chicken is cooked through then pop on a plate smothered in the butter. 

I served it with dauphinoise potatoes and Brussel sprouts with bacon and chestnuts. These will appear in later matches around Christmas and New Year.

The Match

Northern Monk produce great beer. Faith is one of their classic brews. It is a genuine Hazy IPA coming in at 5.4%. It matched the, garlic heavy, dinner beautifully. With a solid malty spine topped off with an American hop finish it made all the ingredients sing a little. Its rich mouthfeel even worked well with the buttery fattiness of the dish.

Just as an aside, Northern Monk produce a superb lower alcohol IPA called Striding Edge (2.8% alcohol). It's perfect for a midweek beer followed by a morning with no consequences.   

Baked potato and Chiltern Brewery Session IPA

Sometimes life comes down to a few ingredients and a nice beer. This is an extreme version of that sentiment. Please do not think that this dish, however humble, is anything other than heroic. There are occasions when a potato "baked in its jacket" is the only answer. Hearty, filling, comforting and full of memories, this is home cooking at its most kind. The only problem with a baked potato is the fact that it is very difficult to get a really good one if you eat out. Ever since the demise of "Spud you like", it is almost impossible to get a decent jacket spud to eat outside the home. This is nearly always a dish that is best served sitting on your own sofa. Of course you can baked beans, chilli or, if you are a bit misguided, coleslaw but I have decided to go with simple butter and cheese. I'll leave the volumes up to you.

 Baking a potato

• Large fluffy spuds
• Salt
• Butter
• Cheese (Entirely your choice)  

Wash the potatoes in cold water and through some salt over then so it sticks to the skin. Make sure you piece the skin of each potato a couple of times (you do not want one of them to blow up in your oven, or worse, in your hand. I carry the scars still).

Put the potatoes on the bars of your oven at a medium hot level until they are clearly done. 

Take the potatoes out of the oven and lay a tea towel over them. Tap each one with your hand, just hard enough to break the skin. remove the tea towel. Break open the the spuds and slide in quite a bit of butter. Pop them on the plate, open them a bit and pour on the grated cheese. 

Add salad or any other stuff you want -Cold cuts, preserved meats, and smoked fish all work well here.  

   The match

Chiltern Brewery is my local micro. They have been brewing traditional beers in the shadow of the Chiltern hills for over 40 years. They set out to be part of the movement to save cask conditioned ale. This is a beer unique to the UK and thanks to the work of the guys and girls at CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) and a few breweries that held the line, it is starting to thrive again. They have always supplied pubs and done bottles and recently have become a bit more experimental. They tend to do small batch beers in amongst their regular beers. These often celebrate an event or historic moment.

Last year they popped a Session IPA in a can and I loved it. This year they have repeated the deal and its just a touch more hoppy. Make no mistake, this is a really well made beer and coming in at a very low 3.4% abv. It punches seriously above that weight and manages to seem modern but also has its feet firmly in the tradition of English beer making. Its bitterness nicely cuts through the cheese and butter, its malty spine matching neatly with the lovely potato skin.  

Meat Balls and Czech Mates (Budvar and Thornbridge collaboration)

Meat balls turn up in all sorts of cuisines, from Italy to Sweden rolled balls of minced meat are the choice of the frugal chef with a gang to feed. This is real home cooking. You can use all sorts of different minces and, indeed, mix them up. I chose pork for these because it has a large fat content, this means that the meat balls will remain moist on the plate. I decided to make them a bit of a homage to Ikea with a creamy gravy.

• 500 gms of Pork mince
• One small onion, finely diced
• Dash of oil
• 30 gms butter
• 30 gms flour
• 250 ml of rich vegetable stock
• 75 ml of double cream
• Boiled new potatoes and peas to serve
• Redcurrant sauce    

Gently fry the onions in a little oil until they start to soften. Place the cooled, cooked onion in a bowl with the mince. Season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the mix with your hands, making sure its all fully amalgamated and sticky. Divide the mix into 10  and roll into balls. Oil the frying pan and seal of five meat balls at a time, Place all of the meat balls in a roasting dish and pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes until cooked.

In the mean time melt the butter in a small saucepan until foaming. add the flour to create a roux. Slowly add the stock to create a thick rich gravy. Add the cream and bring to the boil. 

Serve the meat balls with the boiled potatoes and peas. Pop a teaspoon of the redcurrant jelly on the side.

The Match

I am quite cross - Nobody told me! When two of your favourite breweries in the world come together to create a great beer, and you completely miss it, you need somebody to blame! 

This beer is lovely, a Czech style premium larger, complete with decoction mash finished with English hops. I purchased mine in Lidl at a price which was very low for the quality of the beer.

As it sat somewhere between Czech larger and English Pale ale it stood up to the meat balls really well, The grassy woodiness of the beer sat with the rustic nature of the meat. There was just enough bitterness from the hops to cut through the creaminess of the gravy.     

Braised Lamb Shanks with Titanic Plum Porter.

• 2 Lamb Shanks
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1tbsp plain flour
• 1 glass red wine (rough as ya like!)
• Lamb or beef stock
• 1 handful of small onions (peeled)
• 1 handful of small button mushrooms
• Mashed potatoes

A few years ago it was possible to pick up lamb shanks for a very little money but now they are a staple of the gastro pub, they are somewhat more expensive. However, they are worth every penny.

Pour a little oil into a medium saucepan with a lid. Brown off the lamb shanks, ensuring that all sides are thoroughly browned. Remove the shanks from the pan and pop on a plate. Add the chopped vegies and brown them too. Add the wine and allow it to reduce by half, throw in the flour and stir. Pop the shanks back into the pot and pour in enough stock to come about 3/4 of the way up the shanks. Put the lid on and boil gently for 90 to 120 minutes, turning the shanks once in a while.

In the meantime pour a little oil into a roasting tin, and put the onions in. roll them about a bit then put in an oven at about 170 c for about 30 minutes.

When the shanks are nearly falling off the bone, lift them out of the liquid and put them on a warm plate, cover with foil. strain the vegies from the gravy and return the liquid to the pan. Add the button mushrooms whole into the liquid. The roasted onions and the shanks can now be added back to the gravy and warm through.

A quick word about mashed potato: Mash the cooked spuds with some butter and some milk or cream. consider how much butter you want to use then double it! I tend to whisk mine a bit at the end.

The Match

If I were matching a wine with lamb I would tend to start with Bordeaux as it's a classic pairing. However, we are matching a beer so, on the basis that a good claret will give flavours of blackcurrant and other red fruit I decided to go with a beer that also offered fruit. Titanic Plum Porter has rapidly become this breweries best seller. For those of us who occasionally like our beers on the dark side this is a superstar! The plum in the mix gives both flavour and sweetness. The match worked very well with the limited bitterness backing up the richness of the gravy.

Toad in the Hole with London Pride

For me, one of the greatest of British comfort foods is Toad in the Hole. Opinion is divided as to what should be in the perfect toad and there is considerable evidence that this dish was originally made with all kinds of meats. Lamb cutlets. beef topside, pork cheeks and, of course, sausages. In essence, as with everything that involves Yorkshire pudding batter, it was a way of making an expensive piece of meat fill more bellies than it probably should.

For those of you who are reading from outside the UK a little explanation on Yorkshire pudding is required. It is actually a very simple flat pancake batter; the sort you would use for Crepes. Just a simple mix of eggs, flour and milk. This is then added to a hot deep roasting tray (one could use the tray that the meat has been roasted in as it rests on the side) or a muffin tin for individual Yorkies. Either way the fat has to be fearfully hot before the batter is added. Traditionally Yorkshire pudding was served only with beef and also sometimes as a starter with gravy to lower the appetite for the expensive meat mail course.   

This is a classic, and with all classics, less is more! Don't mess with near perfection.

Toad in the Hole. (Serves 2)

• 4 good large Butcher's Sausages. 
• Plain Flour. 
• Milk. 
• 1 egg. 
• Salt and pepper

Sieve about 200 gms of flour into a bowl and add enough milk to make it the consistency of single cream add the egg and beat in - DO NOT OVER WHISK - its not a meringue!

Gently fry the sausages, just to seal them then pop them in a high sided roasting tin with a little nugget of lard, dripping, or oil with a high burn point. Pop them in a hot oven and let them sizzle for about 5 minutes. The fat in the tin needs to be really hot, almost smoking. Pull out the tin and pour in the batter so that the edges sizzle and bubble a little. Then its back in the oven and enjoy the magic of a rising Yorkshire pudding. Serve when it is crisp on top and has a bit of fluff underneath. Make sure there is something green and squeaky to go with it and lashings of onion gravy.

For the Toad in thepicture has some streaky bacon wrapped round the sausages, this is not a necessity but I had some spare. I also served it with peas as I didn't have any greens. (I have lifted a lot of this recipe from my previous post of this recipe)

The Match

A British classic dish deserves a classic British beer. I decided to match this dish with another British classic: Fullers London Pride. When I first moved to London for University in 1987 you were either A Young's fan or a Fullers drinker. They were the two largest independent breweries in London. Youngs in Wandsworth and Fullers in Chiswick.

Only Fullers remains and it is now owned by  Asahi, but still brrewing in the same manner. London Pride is named after a little flower which is the first to grow in ruins or land broken up with bricks and rocks. It was particularly important during the Blitz for obvious reasons. It was also the first beer I ever pulled from the cask with a beer engine.

It is a classic "Best Bitter". It is tawny in colour and on the nose it gives clear malt spine with a subtle English hop herby high notes. On the palate it has a sweet maltiness balanced with bitter hops. Nothing about this beer is overdone, all is in balance.

It was a super match with the toad; the malt matched the savour of the batter with just enough hop edge to cut through the fattiness of the sausages. the gravy sat up with the sweetness and reclined with the malt!  

Chicken liver parfait and Toast / Coop Hazy Pale Ale

 Parfait is a pate that is blitzed up after having been cooked, it is very smooth and packed full of livery flavour. I always like to think of this as a dish to make for a lazy lunch before a Six Nations decider! I have also made a Youtube video of the process. (link below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH0BW5zkZwI&t=533s400gms Chicken Livers

20 gms Butter (cut up into cubes) 50 gms Butter 20 gms Butter Small glass of booze (Sherry, Madeira, Whisky, Rum, Brandy)(optional) Salt Ground Black Pepper Black Peppercorns Pop the 20gms of butter into a hot frying pan. Melt and allow the butter to start foaming. Add the chicken livers and fry (they will spit and bubble) until they are completely cooked on the outside but still a little pink in the middle. Deglaze with the booze (if using) and allow the alcohol to burn off. Add the livers, the cubed butter and the pan juices into a blender and blend until it is smooth (go a little bit longer than you think). Divide up the parfait up between a handful of bowls or ramekins and smooth the surface down. Pop in the fridge for 20 minutes or so. Remove the parfaits from the fridge and cast a few black peppercorns over the top of each one. Melt the remaining butter and pour over the parfaits. Return to the fridge for 24 hours and serve with toast. The toast was made from a raisin and walnut loaf which I made with this particular pate in mind, the recipe will be part of a later post.

The Match

Toast Beers grew from a pressure group / charity called Feed Back. This was the brain child of Tristram Stuart. It was set up in order to encourage people and companies to stop wasting food. His TED talk of 2012 is still very much worth watching to gain some perspective on the level of food waste globally.

https://www.ted.com/talks/tristram_stuart_the_global_food_waste_scandal?language=en

After realising that a great deal of bread was being wasted the team at Feed Back realised that it could be used as an adjunct in brewing and thus fed back into the system.

The mantra that if you want to beat those who are trying to destroy the earth, you have to throw a better party than they are has never rung more true!

This is the gang that were responsible for the Cop 26 box which I blogged about a couple of years ago, they are the kings and queens of collaboration. They have worked with bread producers, other breweries and in this case. high street retailers.

So, to the beer itself: This is a bit of a juicy one very much like a tuned down New England IPA. A citrusy, almost tropical nose gives way to sensible malt backbone. A neat finish with a clean dry edge makes it a lovely match for the parfait. The citrus notes cut the fat of the butter and the richness of the pate giving a clean finish. The malt spine matches up with bread and draws the whole dish together.

Cheese board and Westmalle Dubbel

 Your dinner has been a screaming success, the meal you spent hours on has been greeted with the right amount of "oooohs, argghs" and "how did you make the sauces?". The only thing left is the cheeseboard and what to serve with it!

Before I go on I must put a point of view out here. Traditional French cooking is my usual start point for all things food related and in France they would generally have the cheese course before the pudding and in many ways this is a good idea. However, I think this is one of those things that we Brits get right. A good cheese board is the perfect grazing plate and, when served at the end of the meal, allows everyone to relax and chat on into the small hours whilst helping themselves to little mouthfuls.

Let us first deal with what a good cheeseboard looks like: Primarily, you do not need 14 cheeses on your board. A maximum of 4 different cheeses is all that is required. This will not only make your shopping simple but also mean that you can buy large enough lumps of cheese to make for good keeping. 

Moving on to the carbohydrate: Bread or crackers are both fine. Normally I would make the decision based on what has happened in the meal previously. Balance is everything here. For this board I chose crackers, specifically, Stockan's Oatcakes and Miller's elements Ale (which contain hops). Again, don't feel the need to put 25 different types of crackers on the board, you will simply end up with 25 stale half packs three weeks later.

The other bits on the board are really up to personal choice; though classics would include dried fruit, celery sticks and nuts.  

The cheeses I chose were as follows

• Snowdonia Black Bomber
• St Marcelin
• Highmoor

The Match

It is very easy to fall back on old friends like Port and Madeira though be careful around red wines as often they are a poor match for cheese ( I promise you this is the case). However, this is all about beer so to beer we must look.

Trappist beers are are made within monasteries. Not only do they have to be made in specific holy places but the Monks must be involved in the brewing. This is monitored very strictly and often producers are removed from the list, so it is very difficult to give an exact number of Trappist breweries at any given time. Suffice to say, it's around 15. I must also emphasise at this point that "Trappist" isn't a style of beer it simply denotes the location and the manpower involved.

Westlmalle Dubbel is one of the more available Trappist beers with quite large production. It is very dark brown with a reddish tint. It kicks in at 7% so its not for the faint hearted. It uses secondary fermentation in the bottle and produces a light brown head of foam. On the nose it has a lot of fruit and spice with herbal hints. (almost a dandelion and burdock smell, honestly). On the palate it is rich and sweet with more dried fruit flavours. There is a very clear malt spine in the beer, rich and like wholemeal bread. The finish is both bitter and dry without being too much.

I was very pleased with how it matched the cheese and would happily do this match again.  

Pub Lasagne and Hacker Pschorr, Oktoberfest Marzen

It's controversy time. Not only is Lasagne itself controversial, but one of its ingredients, the Bolognaise sauce, is its own controversy too. Let's start with the sauce:

Bolognaise does not really exist. It's a made up name for a meat and tomato Ragu for pasta. We Brits have taken the idea of a beef and tomato sauce added spaghetti and created a meal that has graces dinner tables all over the country. It has become the ultimate student dish owing to the fact that it can be made reasonably cheaply and batch cooked to gain economies of scale. The interesting thing about this sauce is that so many people claim to have the authentic recipe leading to all sorts of weird arguments and complaints.

Should I use pork and beef mince? Or even veal? Should I use red wine , white wine or just stock? Onion? Garlic? Both? Fresh tomatoes or tins? Beef stock or chicken or even vegetable? There is a plethora of choices and questions on route to the perfect bolognaise sauce. 

Dear reader, let me assure you that it simply does not matter. There is no authentic sauce here. This is, in effect, peasant food, Cucina povera, so work with what is in your fridge. You can go quite light on the meat and bulk up with vegetables and add all kinds of bits and bobs you find. In the past I have added bacon (often), chopped up black pudding (you must try this) and even leftover steak (so very good). As long as the sauce is based on tomato and is thick enough to coat pasta then all is good. By the way, it tends to be much better if it is served with ribbons (taggliatelle, linguine, etc) rather than spag.

And now another controversy: The other sauce. This should probably be a bechamel, made with infused milk, however, I tend to go with a cheese sauce albeit made from scratch. 

You can buy posh fresh pasta sheets or even roll your own but my recipe uses dried.

Pub Lasagne (for a large bunch of people)

• 1kg meat (mince, cooked roast leftovers, little bit of bacon, black pudding)
• Glug of oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, finely chopped
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 3 to 6 garlic cloves very finely chopped
• 2 tins of plum tomatoes
• 2 beef stock cubes
• 1 small glass of dry sherry
• Salt, pepper, thyme, Oregano.
• 1 large squirt of tomato puree
• 60gms plain flower
• 60gms butter
• 500ml full fat milk
• 200gm mature cheddar
• Dried pasta sheet.

The ragu - Add the oil to a large saucepan ans place over a high heat. when the oil is hot add all of the chopped veg except the garlic. Cook until the tiniest amount of brown is appearing. Remove the veg and pop in a bowl. Now add the beef in batches to brown off, adding the browned meat to the veg. When all the meat is ready add all the meat and veg to the pan with the garlic. Throw in the sherry and allow it to boil for a couple of minutes, then add the tomatoes and stock cubes and a little water. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and leave on a low heat, gently simmering for a couple of hours, topping up with water if necessary. Add the herbs after about an hour.

The cheese sauce - Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add the flout. thoroughly mix these with a wooden spoon to form a roux and cook for just two minutes. Add a splash of milk and mix like crazy, then another splash slightly larger, again mixing vigorously. ( You may want to switch to a whisk at some stage) Keep adding more and more milk until you have a smooth sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Add the grated cheese stir it in to melt and season with pepper.

Construction - In a huge tin, layer up the lasagne with alternate sauces and pasta sheets until it is full. Make sure your last layer is the cheese sauce. If you have any cheese left sprinkle it over the top then put the whole thing in the oven for 20 minutes. Place in the middle of the table with a big bowl of salad and allow your friends to tuck in.

The Match 

Hacker Pschorr Marzen Oktoberfest is a version of the original beer of the Oktoberfest. Around 1990 the beer of Oktoberfest became the light strong lager we know today as Festbier. However, before that time the beer of chpice for this event was Marzen. It is much more amber than the straw colour of the Festbier, much more like a Vienna lager. It has a lovely nose of nettles, mild spices and herbs. On the palate it is biscuity and doughy but quite rich too. It has a lovely clean finish and despite an abv of nearly 6% it is very drinkable. I chose this beer to match the lasagne because it will cut through the richness of the cheese and pasta whilst matching up to the meaty fullness of the ragu. It also has the feel that you cuold be in a pub with a really solid meal and a pint!

Tri tip steak and Hop Back, Summer Lightning

 The cooking of steak is a subject that is full of controversy. I am not going to dictate how anyone should cook their steak because it will inevitably just lead to an argument, Suffice is to say that you need to please yourself on this issue. Just do it the way that makes you happy!

However, I am here to tell you that there is a lot more to steak than the usual Fillet, Sirloin, Rump, Rib eye hegemony. So here are the instructions:

a) Buy your meat from a butcher who can tell you how long the meat has been hung.

b) Talk to you butcher about the less expensive steaks: bavette, onglet, feather, tri tip etc

c) After you have cooked it to your liking, leave it alone for a surprisingly long time before you serve it. This is science not affectation!

Tri tip comes from the front end of the Sirloin and is sold a triangular looking lump, it is, halfway between a steak and a roasting joint. One side of the steak usually has a layer of fat across it. Consequently I cooked it partly on the hob and partly in the oven. I must stress again, this is the way I like to cook a tri tip, perfectly reasonable people can have other opinions, especially about things such as salt.

Tri tip Steak

• 1 tri tip steak
•  High quality salt
• Ground black pepper
• Oil or dripping with a high burn point.
• Aluminium foil

First and foremost make sure that your steak is taken out of the fridge long before you intend to cook it, I cannot stress how much difference this makes. Turn on your oven and set it to 240 degrees centigrade. Pop a heavy frying pan on the hob and get it "smoking hot". Rub the steak with a little oil, sprinkle with salt and lay it in the pan, fat side down. Leave it alone for 2 or 3 minutes, then turn it over for 2 minutes more. Lift it and seal the edges one at a time for a minute or so. You should now have a lump of beef with a lovely salty bark on it

The steak now needs to go into the oven for between 8 and 12 minutes depending on your preference. Just before you put it in add a twist of pepper. Now remove the steak put it on a board and cover with the foil. Leave it alone for 10 minutes - I mean it, a full ten minutes!

Carve the steak into thick slices and serve with a salad or chips!

For the record, I had this with salad only simply didn't need the chips.

(If you are making a sauce for this pour any juices from the board into it)

The Match

I first encountered Summer lightening on Cricket tour in the late 90's, and I have always had a bit of a soft spot for it ever since. It is not an over statement to suggest that this beer started a new beer style, Summer Ale. It comes in at a punchy 5% so it is not to be taken lightly. On the nose it has an almost lemony hit (but not in an American IPA way). On the palate, the lighter malts used hold their own and give the beer great balance. The finish is clean but not overly sharp or astringent. It manages to be both light and very much an English Ale. This is not just for summer drinking.

A darker, richer beer might have been more obvious, but I was serving this with a salad in a citrus dressing and the match up seemed perfect. Even if you were to build it up with chips or mash the malty body of the beer would be perfectly comfortable with the dish 

"Silly chilli chicken Thai noodle soup" with Hoegaarden

 This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an authentic recipe. This grew out of a desire to produce a light supper with some punch that felt like it was doing you some good. In essence it is a simple, spicy noodle soup with caramelised chicken on top!

Before you do anything you need to bone out and skin your chicken thighs. (You could buy these already prepared but you will miss out on a couple of things: Bones for the stock and skin to garnish. However, these are not critical to the recipe). This will take a little more time than you think but you get much quicker with practice.

This is one of those dishes that can simply make you feel a bit better. The name grew over a couple of drunken discussions about what this delicious soup should be called.

Silly Chilli chicken Thai noodle soup

• 4 Chicken thighs (boned and skinned)
• 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
• 3 tsp soy sauce
• 1 ltr vegetable or chicken stock (made with cubes is fine)
• 2 red chillies
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 or 4 coins cut from from a ginger root
• 2 slices of lime zest
• 1 bunch leaf coriander
• 2 or 3 spring onions
• Two "nests" of dried noodles (you can use fresh ones too)

Cut the thighs into pieces about the size of the last knuckle on your thumb and pop them in a bowl with the sweet chilli sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce and soy sauce. If it looks a bit dry, add a tiny bit more of all the sauces. pop this in the fridge for at least an hour, though it wouldn't hurt if it was overnight.

put the stock into a large saucepan and bring to the boil (you can add the bones to this is you have done the hard graft!). Roughly chop up the chilli, and garlic. through them with the ginger bits and lime zest into the hot stock, skins an' all! Cut the stalk of the coriander about two cm from the bottom and add them too. Keep this broth at a simmer for an hour or so.  

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions and refresh under a cold tap until there is no warmth left in them. Split the noodles between two bowls and leave aside.

After an hour or so, strain the broth into another saucepan and keep it hot on the hob. 

Grab a frying pan and get it really hot before adding a tiny amount of neutral oil. Pour in the chicken. I will spit and fizzle. Do not panic, this is good. Cool the chicken until all the marinade is starting to caramelise around the pieces. Be brave here, the coating should be a deep mahogany in colour.

Pour the broth over the noodles so that they are just peeking out and share the chicken over them so that it appears to be floating. Chop up the spring onions and sprinkle over the top with a small handful of the coriander leaves. Serve with soy sauce.

If you have the skins, sprinkle a little salt over them and roast them in the oven until they are crisp. Either add them as garnishes or secretly eat them in the kitchen and tell nobody, your secret is safe with me.

The Match

Hoegaarden is a Belgium wheat beer. This means that around half of the grain bill in production is wheat rather than malted barley. Unlike German wheat beer the wheat is not malted but goes into the mash tun simply dried. This means that the beer is very pale hence the generic name "wit" or white. Again the Germans are very strict about adding anything strange to their beer (since 1516!). The Belgium approach is a bit more lax so they often add interesting flavours. In the case of Hoegaarden, coriander and orange zest are added and a clearly there in the flavour profile. Further to this, owing to the yeast used there are some lovely spicy phenols present which match up well with South East Asian flavours in the soup. There is a very low level of hop flavours which can cause the heat of chilli to be ramped up, so there will be no 3rd degree burns here. The beer is very highly carbonated which can have a similar effect but the carbonation here is so soft and fluffy that is should cause no problems.

Pork Schnitzel and Camden Pale Ale

 Nobody would be surprised if a blogger decided to write about matching food with wine. The joys of matching Cru Classe Pauillac with roast rack of lamb or a Sancerre with a Friuts de mer are obvious, but when it comes to beer, there are very few people who will confidently say that they matched their dinner with lovely Gose or their pudding worked really well with a Wee Heavy! There are, of course exceptions to this: Garrett Oliver's book "The Brewmaster's Table" being a notable example. However, there are also some who believe that food and beer is not an idea that needs any consideration, these are the people who believe that the matching of food and drink starts and finishes with the question "cheese and onion or salt and vinegar?"

For the next year I am going to attempt to match a beer with my dinner for one day every weekend. The idea is that I will produce a recipe and its beer match, with a rationale for my choices This may not work every time and I will try to be honest about my mistakes. This starts today. 

I have been making Schnitzel for many years, the dish originates in Austria (though the Germans dispute this), and is really some meat beaten flat, bread crumbed and fried. It is very seldom served with noodles (extra points if you get the reference) The classic schnitzel is made with veal but mine is made with pork tenderloin. Incidentally, veal in the UK is no longer the ethical nightmare it was thirty years ago. No calves are kept in crates and their life is much longer and more pleasant. From the best producers is now reared outdoors when possible and actually makes the dairy industry much more ethically sound and profitable.

Pork Schnitzel

• One Pork Tenderloin
• Two Eggs
• Dash of Milk
• A handful of Plain Flour
• Bread crumbs (Plenty)
• One Un-waxed Lemon
• Salt and Pepper
• Neutral Oil for frying

Carefully slice of the silverskin membrane of the side of the tenderloin, then slice the tenderloin into 8 discs. place each of the discs between two pieces of clingfilm. Beat the meat pieces flat with a meat mallet or a rolling pin until they are 6 or 7 mm thick. 

Time for bread crumbing. Take three wide bowls. In bowl number one place the flour, seasoned with salt and pepper. Bowl number 2 has both of the eggs beaten with a dash of milt and a twist of salt. Finally in Bowl number three place the breadcrumbs and grate the zest of the lemon over and mix.

Carefully, unwrap your little fillets and pop then, first into the flour (making sure they are coated) then into the egg (to produce a flour and egg glue on the surface of the meat) and finally into the breadcrumbs to coat.

Schnitzels ready to fry.

Place them on the side for a few minutes to ensure that the breadcrumbs have properly attached themselves!

Pour a slick of the oil into a frying pan and fry the Schnitzels in batches of two or three. 

In the frying pan.

Serve with coleslaw or new boiled potatoes (not noodles).

The Match.

I decided to pair the Schnitzel with Camden Pale. This beer is fast becoming a modern classic. It is clearly inspired by modern American Pale ales and IPAs. However, despite the use of American hops (Citra, Simcoe and Perle) it is quite restrained and not at all piney or full of resin on the nose. There is also a light malt backbone which seems to bring us safely back to its UK roots. 

I felt that the citrus from the lemons would resonate with the the same flavours in the hops and the fried breadcrumb coating would match the maltiness in the beer. I took the beer down to fridge temperature and served it in a stemmed tulip glass.

 

  

Beer tastings one of lockdown's gifts!

My lockdown was nowhere near as bad a some people's. I had the Beautiful wife for company and, as a teacher, I was working throughout, though in a somewhat different way to normal classroom teaching. I got back into exercise losing 3 stones in weight (over 40 pounds if you are in the US) and I grew a beard! I am aware that the 3 years of on/off life were hellish for some people and I am grateful that I came through unscathed.

In finding different ways to do things we moved, as a secondary school, to online learning where our students were in a meeting room (google classroom to google meets) with us while they learnt. It was far from perfect but even further from the disaster of no "taught" education at all. It did, however, lead to an idea that has taken hold with the staff at my school: Online tastings. Now before I go on I must stress that this was not a school event. The only aspect of school was the fact that it was available to staff members.

The process was simple. The people who took part picked up a bag of beers sourced by me and took them home with a bag of nibbles (matched to the beers) and logged on a Friday evening so that I could chat them through the beers and we could all engage with each other (something that was very sadly lacking during lockdown). 

The first tasting was "Beers of the Vales of Aylesbury and the White Horse". I purchased 7 beers and everyone took their bag home. The tutored part of the tasting lasted about 1 hour, by which time I was really quite tired! I logged off and left those still in the room to it! Checking the log the following day, several of the participants had not left the room until the small hours, one writing in the comments box "Best night of lockdown" 

Oh how we missed the ability to just chat over a beer with our friends and colleagues!

Since that first tasting there has been one every half term. we have tasted beers from around the world and gins (decanted into 50ml double shot bottles) with tonics and bitter lemon.

 The joy of doing it online is that there is no need to find a venue, and nobody has to drive home and thus, miss out. 

The last tasting was entitled "But I don't like lager". It was an attempt to turn over the inbuilt prejudice we have in the UK against this very broad genre of beer. (There were some particularly tough nuts to crack amongst my colleagues). Starting with Bud light (largely for comparison) we moved though classic German pils, Czech pilsner, Dunkel, and finished with Heller Ruachbier (just to surprise a few people!). Many of the beers split the vote but much fun was had by all.

The next tasting will be of fortified wines with cheese - I can't wait!

Postscript - I have recently been studying beer in a more serious way than propping up a bar and my next post will be about courses in food and drink and how they are always fun and sometimes life changing!