Beer and Food - Lamb and Hen
Beer Cook Book author Sue Nowak examines how pub chefs are using beer as an ingredient. Here she takes a look at lamb pie with Old Speckled Hen.
Heather's 'most gratifying' pie Heather Humphreys has long been an advocate of beer cuisine. When she and her husband ran a pub in Berkshire, she devised and cooked an annual beer banquet for her local branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, coming up with some irresistible dishes. Around seven years ago Heather and her husband bought a rambling freehouse in Devon called the Rising Sun at Woodland, just off the A38 near Ashburton. Heather's cooking skills and commitment to local products were good enough for her to win the title Taste of the West Pub of the Year 2003 which covered a region stretching from Wiltshire to Cornwall.
Her speciality has always been pies, some of which contain beer, such as venison with stout and juniper, or steak and Jail Ale brewed at Princetown. Indeed, thanks to her dedication to this kind of dish, the Rising Sun hosts a pie club.
But a long-time favourite with regulars is lamb pie with apricots and Old Speckled Hen. In fact, demand for this pie spread all the way to Australia in the days when she ran mail orders, which have now been killed off by health regulations. Once produced by Morlands, Old Speckled Hen is now brewed by Greene King, and the tasting note in the new Good Beer Guide shows exactly why it is perfect in a lamb pie. "Rich and cloying in both nose and taste. An intense malty nose with plummy overtones. The flavour spectrum matches this with a rich, spicy maltiness overwhelming the latent bitterness." Says Heather: "There is a malty sweetness to the beer that is perfect with both the lamb and the apricots, and it has plenty of body to make a hearty stock. Flaky pastry is the best topping - I make my own, but you could use shortcrust."
To make the pie, Heather simmers cubed leg of lamb in a pint of Old Speckled Hen with chopped onion, a dash of ground ginger and fresh mint, stock and dried apricots. When the meat is tender, she thickens the filling with a little cornflour. She then lines a pie dish with pastry, pours in the meat mix, tops it with pastry and uses the trimmings to make a hen as decoration. The pie is then baked at 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark six until golden brown - for around 30 minutes.
