Beer . . . Food . . .
. . . two of the great pleasures in life. But put them together in the right way and you can more than double the enjoyment.
That's the aim of this project, in conjunction with the Adur
Brewery. We're working on producing a series of recipes featuring the
brewery's beers. And we're not talking about 'beer cuisine' in the sense
in which it has recently been 'discovered' by 'celebrity chefs'. Their
take on it is to put a one-inch cube of indeterminate protein under a
small heap of 'mixed leaves' in the middle of a huge white plate, with the
rest of the blank expanse being stained with a few dribbles of 'coulis'
made from some really uninspiring beer (or even lager!) - and then to
charge you a small fortune for the privilege of consuming that single
mouthful of rubbish!
Is
the idea of 'beer cuisine' new?
Only in the sense that it has been made
to sound more mysterious with a pretentious pseudo-French title. Our
great-grandmothers (and their great-grandmothers before them) already knew
that cooking with ale was an excellent way to tenderise meats, impart
delicious flavours and create good nourishing dishes. So our aim is to
find recipes, some of them dating back to the Middle Ages, to produce good
old-fashioned hearty traditional British meals. At the same time the
recipes should be practical, easy enough to use at home, not requiring
hours of finicky preparation yet producing results which impress by their
sheer flavour.
And that's where you come in!
We have so far collected over 160 exciting
recipes featuring beer. Over the course of the next year we shall be
re-working them to include the appropriate ales from the Adur Brewery and
carrying out trials. As we get each recipe into a practical form we shall
put it on this website. We'd like as many people as possible to try
out the recipes, and let us know how you got on: Did you need to modify
cooking times or quantities, or substitute ingredients? And the crucial
question, did you enjoy it? This kind of feedback will be very useful in
enabling us to refine the recipes, and the most successful recipes will
then find a permanent place on the Adur Brewery's website - and who knows
- they may even appear in a book.
What's in it for you? We hope you will get a lot of fun and
pleasure from the experience. We have found that it has encouraged us to
seek out LOCAL SUPPLIERS of
top-quality ingredients. Going to the markets at Steyning (first Saturday
morning in the month), Shoreham (second Saturday morning) and Broadwater
(Worthing, fourth Saturday
morning) in order to stock up with Adur
Brewery ales has led us to encounter some superb suppliers of meat, veg,
cheese, bread, cooking oil etc which have become regulars on our shopping
lists. There's also the 'green' advantage that by supporting local food
suppliers you are helping to save the planet - but you don't really need
that argument to persuade you, just taste their products! When you use
first-class ingredients you can employ really simple recipes which let the
quality show through. This means you don't have to work so hard in the
kitchen but can take the credit for a successful dish.
Even if you don't think of yourself as a budding chef, do have a look at
the LIST OF RECIPES, which will also include
ideas on beer and food matching, and even simple drinks recipes.
For those of you who don't live in West Sussex,
and have not yet been convinced to move here by my panegyrics, don't
despair! It's possible to use other beers of comparable quality and you
can no doubt seek out good local food suppliers in your own area. So go
ahead and try the recipes, we're just as interested in feedback on your
experiences when cooking with beer.
Well, I hope that's inspired some of you to give it a go.
Bookmark the recipe page and check it on a regular basis to see what's
new, or use the service on that page to advise you of updates. Try the
recipes and email us through the link below to let us know how you get on.
