We thought an ice cream beer float sounded like a good idea and others (notably Mark Dredge and Zak Avery) have raved about it.
As I was staying up to watch the Superbowl, I thought I’d give it a go with two of my favourite American imports, Brooklyn Chocolate Stout and Ben & Jerry’s.
And, do you know what? It was horrid.
The lovely dark chocolate roastiness of the beer became metallic and cheesy. The two ingredients cancelled each other out.
I had to pour it away.
Boak
Using rauchbier to fake barbecue-smoked meat is a clever idea. We’ll certainly be giving this a go.
Schnitzels are a real guilty pleasure of ours. Boak likes one or two a year; Bailey would eat them every night, if he could.
They’re pretty cheap and easy to make, although they’re not good for you, and do generate a lot of washing up. This recipe has been tweaked to reduce the amount of butter used and, we think, make the schnitzels crisper and less greasy than some of the oily, orange slabs you get served in German pubs.
A couple of notes:
1. We use pork rather than veal. If you use veal, you’ve got a bona fide Wiener schnitzel. German pubs tend to go for pork because it’s cheaper and describe them as ‘in the Vienna style’.
2. The origin of the schnitzel is disputed but we like the theory that it comes from Austria’s near-neighbour, Italy. Certainly, your best bet for finding a decent schnitzel in the UK is to go to an Italian restaurant and order a Cotoletta alla Milanese.
3. That’s what schnitzel means, by the way — cutlet.
Recipe after the jump.
It’s Stir-up Sunday today, and I’m having a go at my first Christmas pudding. My dad always makes puddings according to an old family recipe and I’ve been meaning to have a go for ages.
Of course, the angle of interest for the beer geek is the vexing question of what beer to use while making it. Pete Brown went for a rare beer used in the Queen’s pudding, no less. And we see that Thornbridge have supplied their excellent St Petersburg Stout to some luxury pudding manufacturer.
Now, I’m always a bit sceptical about using good quality booze in food — by the time you’ve added all the other ingredients and cooked whatever it is you’re making, I find it hard to believe that the beautiful balance and flavourings that you appreciate in your tipple are going to shine on through.
I turned to my two culinary stalwarts at this point. Delia suggests using both extra stout and barley wine (“pubs usually have it”, she says, optimistically. I wish they did, Delia, I wish they did). My dad, on the other hand, uses a tin of Guinness.
I scoured the beer cellar garage, and returned with some Coopers Best Extra Stout. We’ve had this a few times before (it seems to be a popular option in our local off licence) and find it a delicious, reliable, sturdy stout. As we’d recently bought a six pack, I had no hesitation in using a whole bottle to marinate my fruit, spice and vegetable mix.
The mix has been soaking overnight, so today it’s time to mix in the other ingredients (breadcrumbs, flour, eggs), stir it up, make a wish and then steam them for many hours. The puddings will then have a month to mature until Christmas. We always used to eat puddings that were made the year before, so I’ve made two, so I can keep one back for Christmas 2010.
Boak
While attempting to prove to Bailey that Stir-up Sunday was not some bonkers tradition my parents invented, I was pleased to note that the top Google ranking goes to this site put together by a junior school in Kent. I have added this additional link to do my bit to keep them there.
I’ve been going through my phone and reminding myself of some good beer experiences that I haven’t got round to reading about.
One of these was drinking draft Duvel Green in the Dove about a month ago. It was all over the blogoshire* last year, but this was our first go on it. We really enjoyed it finding it lighter, less sweet and spicier than the 8.5% version. It also went beautifully with mussels in a blue cheese sauce, which brought out the bitterness.
* for example… the Beer Nut reviewed the bottled version and didn’t see the point. Here’s a nice review on the draft version from Lew Bryson, who reckons it goes well with fish.
Boak
Once again, last week we found ourselves in a restaurant which had made a bit of an effort with the beer, but not quite enough.
On the up side, there was one of each colour — Hoegaarden (yellow), Guinness (black) and Innis and Gunn (brown).
Sadly, the Guinness was the widgetised draught bottle (fairly bland) and Innis and Gunn’s beer is nowhere near as good as their marketing.
It wouldn’t take much to improve the beer offer here, without getting too geeky. Non-widgety Guinness Original isn’t bad; Hook Norton bottled Double Stout or Fuller’s London Porter would be even better.
And why not replace Innis and Gunn with… well, almost any bottled ale?
We guess the owners are buying what they can get at their cash-and-carry of choice, or through their wine supplier. We’d be interested to hear from anyone who knows how this works, and what would need to change to improve things.
The restaurant was the otherwise very good Eat 17 in Walthamstow, London.
This short post from Random John made us laugh.
Tonight, as my teetotal brother is in town, I’ll be pairing water with a takeaway.
Bailey
Our second attempt at a London tapas crawl was less succesful than the first, which you can read about here.
Our first port of call was Fernandez and Wells in Soho which was crammed. Nor did it seem to offer any beer, and what point is there in eating tapas without a cold little lager?
We thought we’d never find our second destination but it was worth the schlep. Iberica is pretty posh but the cheery staff made no effort to force us into a sit down meal. We sat at the bar, drank Mahou (terrible in itself, but evocative of hot Andalucian afternoons) and enjoyed a perfectly engineered Spanish omelette, some pimientos de padron and croquetas. Not cheap, but worth every penny.
Next, we headed for somewhere much more down-to-earth — Bar Gansa in Camden. The several mile walk stretched the definition of a ‘crawl’ and the English weather had us trapped under a bridge for nearly an hour while it rained and hailed with awe-inspiring ferocity. When we arrived, we were no longer feeling very Andalucian at all. Fortunately, more chilly beers and some very cheap, very decent Spanish ham put us back in the mood. There was music, there were people, they were young and alive. Good moods restored, we set out to our final destination.
Bar Camino was very trendy a year or two back and when you walk through the door, one thing is clear: no expense has been spared on decor, fixtures and fittings and staff training. Again, we sat at the bar (bucking the trend, this time) and nibbled. Sagres is Portugese and pretty boring but, on a humid afternoon, the freezer-fresh handled krugs it came in worked wonders. Tacky, we know, but very, very refreshing.
Last week, we had some raspberries and strawberries that needed earing and had a sudden hunch that they’d be really, really nice with Cantillon Iris. You put fruit in lambic beers, right? And lambics are fruity (scrumpy cider-like) and tart, just as raspberries can be, right?
We’re not always good at this food and beer matching lark, but this time, our instincts were right. It was spot on and felt very indulgent.
If you try it yourself, though, our tip is to eat fewer raspberries, and drink less Iris — a small wine glass is more than enough.
Or pig out like we did, but make sure you’ve got some Gaviscon handy…
The Charles Lamb in Islington is one of our favourites because you can get beautifully-kept pints of Dark Star Hophead and Butcombe Bitter. (As regular readers will know, Bailey is partial to a pint of foaming Butcombe. Hur hur.)
We were delighted to find that they also have the legendary Jaipur on at the moment. Do I need to rave about how lovely this beer is? It stood up very well the American ‘extreme’ beers I was drinking on Friday, not just in terms of hoppiness, but its wonderful viscous body.
The Charles Lamb has also recently replaced Amstel with Meantime Helles (great idea) and are now featuring “limited edition” specials from said London brewery. This month’s offering was the Elderflower Maibock, which was rather odd. We wanted to like it, but it was a little too sweet, and tasted a bit like a rubbish dunkles from a north German brewpub.
For more about the Charles Lamb, see their website. As well as full meals, they do a great range of bar snacks, like potted prawns and toast.
Boak
Photo from Andyrob at Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons. Thanks, Andy!
We're a pair of beer geeks who live in London in the UK. Bailey is a man, Boak is a lady. We've been writing this beer blog since April 2007 and it's taken us all over Britain and Europe in pursuit of the perfect pint.
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