Tricks of the trade
How do you use beer as an ingredient?
David Edwards, head chef, Three Fishes, Mitton, Lancs. "For our steak and kidney pudding, we use Bowland Brewery's Chipping Steamer beer, which is a very light, malty ale. The meat is cow heel and cow kidney and the pastry is suet. It's cooked for around five hours using a very traditional method. "We always recommend drinking the very dark Moorhouse Black Cat ale with our fish and chips, and during Beer With Food Week we'll probably be adding some beer to the batter, too."
James Roeves, owner, Cross Keys, Great Missenden, Bucks."We use Fuller's London Pride in our beef, ale and smoked oyster pie because it has a nuttiness to it that really brings out the flavours, although we do put red wine in it too. "We also make all our Yorkshire puddings with a couple of pints of beer. "In the restaurant, we have a board displaying tips on what beer goes with what types of food. For example, we suggest Guinness with oysters and seafood, and Italian beers such as Peroni with chicken dishes. Then there's ESB which goes really well with red meat and heavy foods. We make all our food from fresh and change the menu every month, so if something goes with it, we try to get the right pairings."
Dominic Goodyear, head chef, Hop Pole, Bath."We use Bath Ales' Gem beer in our steak pie because it's really flavoursome and compliments the beef, and we also sometimes make an organic steak pie using Wildhair organic beer. Bath Ales' Spa goes into making the beer batter for our cod. "I don't think beer goes with everything but it does compliment some foods and we try to use it as much as possible in the cooking because we are a Bath Ales pub. "We used Festivity beer to make chocolate for truffles. It goes really well because it's got 'chocolatey' undertones. We're going to try to experiment a bit more with things like that this year."
