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!

 

The last beer! No. 26 Batch Hack from Ignition Brewery

 I am a fan of the concept of "The social enterprise", a business run for the benefit of society. Ignition Brewery is not the only one in the Toast companion box (Tap Social springs to mind) and their specific take is that people with learning disabilities have great value ion the workplace and, "with the right support and care they can make delicious beer." It is attitude like this that gives me enormous hope in a world that appears to be going mad. Ignition are based in South East London. Batch Hack is an English Amber Ale and appears to be bottle conditioned (judging by the wedge of residue in the bottom of the bottle).

On the nose it is soft and gentle with a very traditional English malty note. the smell of this beer screams quality. In the mouth it is traditional, easy and kind. This is a beer that is worth taking a little time over. The problem is that it is also fervently drinkable. I want more of this type of company and this type of beer!

 

The penultimate beer, No. 25 - Tmave on Toast by Utopian brewery.

 Utopian Brewery is situated in Devon (Probably my favourite county). By and large they brew lagers. Tmave is a dark lager and adds to the growing belief that the term "lager" itself has been much abused over the last few decades. Utopian Brewery has an environmental approach to everything they do. The ingredients for their beers are all locally sourced, they make their own nitrogen and rely on fermentation only to produce carbon dioxide. They are hot on not using plastics too.

This beer is lovely. It has a rich amber colour and on the nose it smells malty and rich with the tiniest hint of the hopiness of an English Best Bitter. In the mouth it is rich and feels nourishing on the swallow. The finish has a very English feel to it. It clocks in at a gentle 3.9% alcohol and, to be honest, I could spend a long evening into night, with good friends, drinking a grown up amount of this beer. 

Beer No. 24. Burnt by Beavertown Brewery.

When I was first teaching (a couple of centuries ago) I was given a really good piece of advice - "Take everything you do in the classroom seriously, but never take yourself too seriously" Beavertown brewery manage to do this beautifully. They state that "there's more to get from life if you open your mind to curiosity" They clearly live up to this as apparently the mastered interstellar travel - all on a Tuesday morning ( I think they may have made the last bit up). Their beers are branded with a very distinctive 60's sci fi vibe and I have been a fan for some time. (Hint, give Neck Oil a go)

Burnt is a Hoppy Porter and is really interesting. On the pour it looks like any other Porter and then it all changes. On the nose it has a raisin almost cassis smell, it offers a hint of smoke. Then, in the mouth it really challenges norms. Woody, piney, rich and full. Then it finishes with a hop burst that is both unexpected and fabulous. Like so many other beers in this companion box I really hope that they continue to brew this into the new year.  

  

Into the last four! Beer No 23. Atlantean Hegemony BY Wild Card Brewery

 Wild Card Brewery was set up in Walthamstow in 2012. The firm was set up by three home brewers and they produce beers with powerful flavours. They are very much part of the London Beers scene. Atlantean Hegemony is full of American style hops both in the late boil and as dry hops after after the biol is over.

On the nose it is full of Citra notes - lemon, line and even orange. A subtle malt lies underneath. In the mouth it is very very drinkable. Clean malty and citrus flavours fill the mouth followed by a really clean finish. The term Juicy IPA is often used these days to describe a style of beer. This is right in the Juicy zone! Lovely and thoroughly modern.

 

 

The 22nd Beer - Classic by Hepworth.

 The weather for the last 24 hours has been horrific we are quite a long way south in the country and the tiles on the roof of Corner Cottage rattled last night causing one or two scary moments overnight. However, all is well and no damage was done.The weather today has been properly wintry and that had me craving something Old fashioned and comforting. This is where Classic Old Ale comes in. This is not a madly strong winter ale or anything like that but it definitely hits the spot. Hepworth are based in Sussex and have great environmental credentials using the likes of heat pumps to cut down their carbon footprint.

So to the beer: It is a dark brown and invites the drinker in with dark caramel notes on the nose. Malty on the palate with clear sweetness, this is the beer to drink in front of the fire whilst telling stories about the last time you got snowed in. There is a lovely bitter finish (from the Admiral Hops). This beer is perfect for those of us who grew up drinking real ale (when we could find it) and have graduated to the modern beer scene. I really like this. There is a suggestion that it could be mulled - now there's an idea!