Beer and Curry

Last weekend husband and I were treated to a home cooked Indian feast by two of our lovely Morris Dancing friends.  They slaved in the kitchen, we rocked up with a few beers - an excellent deal.  With curry on the menu an American IPA sprung to mind almost automatically as the best match.  Something bitter and refreshing, with enough body to stand up to the strong flavours and enough citrus to cut through any heat – and there must be a good reason beers made to be sent to India turned out the way they did.  But…

1000's of people drink lager with curries every week - surely they couldn't all be wrong?  Which would be better - the beer geek choice or the choice of most people in curry houses across the country?   And why did I think that any one beer would automatically match with the menu?  Yes, an IPA would work well with most spicy foods but was it the best match?  Curry is more than one hot and spicy dish – it’s a term used to generically describe a hugely varied style of cooking eaten by millions of people every day.  I wouldn't automatically match one beer with all British food or even all pizza regardless of the topping so why curry?  What had started as a simple trip to the shop suddenly needed a lot more thought.

The Menu

Bhajis, Pakoras, Chutney, Pickle and Raita

Chana Masala (Chickpea Curry), Vegetable Makhanawala (Fragrant, not overly hot), Paneer Jalfrezi (Rich with a little sweetness), Tarka Dal (hot!), Pilau rice and chapatis.

Spiced Banana Tart Tatin (our other contribution, recipe here)

The Plan

Something with a good amount of bitterness as a pre-dinner drink to get the juices flowing followed by a beer along the lines of my initial thoughts to go with the starter - something hoppy and citrussy.  For the main course I wanted to try a couple of beers designed especially to go with spicy food and to finish a wheat beer to complement the bananas, plus something with some caramel flavours. 

The Beers

After a bit of googling and reading some thoughts from Perfect Pint, Pete Brown, a prolonged glance at Garrett Oliver's brilliant The Brewmaster's Table and a drive to Tesco the choices were made.

The Verdict

Pre Dinner Drink - Shipyard IPA

A cracking beer.  It was interesting to see an American brewery using English hops as I've gotten used to the US beers I drink being loaded with citrussyness.  The beer was well balanced, distinct hop flavour without being overwhelming and a great start to the meal.  Definitely one to have again.  Hit.

Starters - Oakham Citra

Lots of people have been raving about Citra recently, with loads of mentions as the Beer of the Year in the Golden Pints.  I last drank Citra about a year ago and then, and on previous occasions, I'd been a little underwhelmed.  Nice beer, but not one I'd go back to for another pint, I always thought it lacked balance - lots of hops but not much else.  I'm glad I gave it another go.  The light carbonation lifted the hops, it but nicely through the slight greasiness from the friend food, balanced the sweetness of the chutney, cooled the spicy pickle and was all round delicious.  Another hit and a wish that we'd bought twice as much.

Mains - Simon Rimmer Presents A Beer To Go With Curry (that's it's full title, brewed by Robinsons) and Cobra.

This is where it started to go a little down hill.  The Simon Rimmer beer (now shortened to SRPABTGWC) was underwhelming to say the least.  On his website the beer is described as: 

 A UNIQUE CRAFT LAGER BREWED WITH RICE AND A FAB MIX OF STELLAR AND CASCADE HOPS, CRISP AND CLEAN WITH HINTS OF LEMON GRASS AND LIME.  A fantastic lager created by Simon that’s sure to cut through chilli heat and experience a smooth and experience a smooth and tasty lemony aromatic finish.

In reality: Uninteresting, and with a slightly musty smell, on it's own it half of us wouldn't have gone back for a second mouthful.  When matched with the food it just wasn't up to the job.  The dishes were rich and luscious, spicy and complex, and the beer did nothing to complement it.  In the words of Dylan (14, budding beer expert) "Why does it taste of soil ?".  Big Miss.

Moving swiftly on the Cobra was a welcome change.  Another beer designed to go with food, according to the Cobra website "the smoothness of Cobra makes it a great drink in it's own right. But with food Cobra's smoothness comes into its own. It doesn't clash with fiery spices but is soothing, smooth and calming, with malty sweet flavours which compliment curry and spicy food perfectly."  They were right.  Hot, rich, curry with cool, smooth beer is a winner, 1000's of people aren't wrong.  Hit.  Not an earth shattering match but satisfying and great for refreshing the palate ready for...

Desert  - Innis and Gunn Original and Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier

First up was the Innis and Gunn, chosen because I hoped it's vanilla and toffee notes would complement the caramel sauce on the Tart Tatin.  It was..... odd.  It's clearly a sign of several mis-spent teenage years that, on having an initial sniff, the first comment around the table was "Why does this smell of weed?"  And it did.  And no, we hadn't been smoking, it just smelt dopey.  For an un-hoppy beer it just seemed weird.  The toffee notes did work well with the food but the whole thing was just strange.  I hadn't tried Innis and Gunn before so I will grab another bottle and try again with a clear palate, hopefully just an anomaly or something only picked up when compared to the beers we'd had before. Miss. 

Last up was the Franziskaner and, thankfully, it matched pretty well.  It counteracted the very sweet banana without removing the flavour all together and the herbal, spicy notes worked well with the peppercorns.  Hit.

So, 4/6 - not bad for my first real beer and food matching effort, hopefully I'll get more right next time.  Overall a brilliant evening of great food, conversation, laughter and some interesting beers so what more could I ask?

The Session #83 - Against the Grain

This is my first time blogging as part of The Session (Beer Blogging Friday) - I sincerely hope no one minds me joining in.

The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, this month it's the turn of Rebecca from The Bake and Brew and the question posed is this: How much is our taste or opinion of a craft beer affected by what friends and the craft beer community at large thinks? What beer do you love that no one else seems to get? Or what beer do you say “no thanks” to that everyone can’t get enough of?

I often find myself disappointed by beers that the beery Twittersphere seem to be going mad for.  Generally this isn't because they're not good, but because I tend to assume that if all these other people (many of whom I have a lot of admiration for) are raving about a beer then it must be better than good, great, amazing and in my mind the beer gets built up to be this pinnacle of wonderfulness.  Living in the sticks it's often difficult to get to try new beers and by the time I've planned a trip to Norwich or London, found somewhere with said beer on and (often) paid a hefty price for it, it's got to deliver.  Unfortunately, more often than not, I'm left thinking "All that? For this?"  Don't get me wrong, the beer is often good, but compared to what I've imagined it's fallen short.

The beers I enjoyed most in 2013 were ones that I'd never heard of.  The beers that I discovered on my own and formed my own opinions about, rather than having other peoples views already on my mind.  After a year of drinking lots of different, interesting beers, the ones that stand out are not the ones I went searching for, but the nice surprises along the way.  My first glass of Moor Brewery Nor'Hop - tried on the off chance at Tuckers Maltings Beer Festival when I hadn't heard of the beer or brewery and now one of my favourite beers; Magic Rock Salty Kiss at The Sheffield Tap, a venture into the unknown - salty?! - before everyone started talking about it and probably my most memorable beer of 2013; Spingo Middle by Blue Anchor, another new beer and brewery to me (and a beer I was wary about having had many micro brewery disappointments), and it was delicious.  

It's probably not that these beers are better, but just that they have nothing to live up to and can therefore shine in their own right.  Would I have enjoyed the Spingo as much if I'd gone looking for it?  Would I have tried it at all if other people had given it bad reviews?  Probably not.  Maybe it's the adventure and joy of discovery that's the best bit?

Crumpet Based Joy

8.30am.   Too early? Check.  Too much beer consumed?  Check.  Way too much gin consumed?  Check.  Weird pink squinty eyes and pale, sweaty skin?  Check and check.  Hangover cure definitely needed.

And what a cure.

The Dea Latis Beers with Breakfast event really is the one thing you need the morning after the night before.  Apart from possibly a very expensive facial.  Twenty or so beery ladies (and one very lucky man) gathered in the lovely surroundings of the Somerstown Coffee House for a talk from Jane Peyton of School of Booze followed by a seven course breakfast with beer matches from Beer Sommelier Annabelle Smith.

The Menu

Not being of a meat eating persuasion I did miss out on a couple of the matches, but happily I still managed to try all the beers....  Of the matches I tried tow really stood out, for differing reasons, and were memorable enough to remain clear through this weekends slightly alcoholic haze.

For me, one match really didn't work - Wells and Youngs Banana Bread Beer with a Banana and Strawberry Smoothie.  The beer was light and delicious, with an aroma of foam banana sweets (in a good way) and the smoothie was thick and luscious and full of wonderful hangover curing things.  However when tasted together the smoothie completely overwhelmed the sweetness of the beer, leaving it tasting unbalanced and bitter.  Not great for me in terms of a match, but the most extreme example of how beer and food can change and influence each other that I've experienced. 

Banana Bread Beer and Strawberry and Banana Smoothie
 

Pancakes with Dark Chocolate Sauce and Blueberries, matched with W&Y Double Chocolate Stout - a much needed sugar boost
 

Although the group chose Eggs Royale with St Austell Clouded Yellow as the best match of the morning my standout favourite was the Welsh Rarebit Crumpets matched with W&Y Bombardier.  It was delicious, and the best post drinking snack I've found.  So good in fact that I recreated it today to clear the last fog following the CAMRGB twissup yesterday.

Felicity Cloake from the Guardian had already done the hard work finding the best Rarebit recipe so swap the toast for crumpets and stout for Bombardier and the jobs a goodun'.  With a glass of Bombardier, ultimate crumpet based joy.

A fantastic way to spend a morning - I can't wait for the next event.

Rock Stars

'Tis December, time of Christmas parties, Christmas drinks, and dull industry awards.  Across the world people are gathering to celebrate the best in Local Business Banking (as I know from my past life), Toner Sales (why isn't it called ink?), Refrigeration Engineering and Beer Writing.  Except beer writing isn't dull, it's brilliant, and thought provoking and exciting, and the British Guild of Beer Writers annual awards bash is one of the highlights if my year.

I was lucky enough to attend this event for the second time on Thursday.  An event where the great and the good of the beer industry gather.  Brewers, writers, bloggers, thinkers.  These people are my rock stars.  

I get just as excited about the chance to talk to a brewer for a while and spend time with beery types as the chance to stand in the front row of a Greenday gig.  That's pretty excited.  I know that's not normal, and will freely admit that my beer geekery may be getting a little out of hand, but it's true.  Sitting in a room with the likes of Roger Protz, Pete Brown, Adrian Tierney-Jones and many others was brilliant, and inspiring.  And listening to speeches about particular writers and the things they had done or written about wasn't dull, it was wonderful.

From a slow start my short blogging life has fizzled and died, one New Years resolution, a total of three posts, it's definitely not setting the world on fire.  On Thursday, sitting surrounded by members if the British Guild of Beer Writers I was inspired to write about something that I (along with them) get excited by.  Beer.  Not to copy, or for praise or acknowledgement (although of course those things wound never be turned down!) but because if I don't put my beery thoughts somewhere they would never be heard (plus my husband will eventually get sick of me wittering on about new hop varieties) and the thing that stuck with me from the other night is that spreading the beery message is a great thing to do, and if I can spread some beery love to just one person, that's pretty cool.

So that's my toe in the beer blogging water, making a tiny ripple rather than a big splash.  But, I hope, a tiny ripple is better than nothing at all.

Gin Cake

That's right. Gin. And Cake. Gin sponge, gin syrup, gin icing - this is boozy baking at it's, well, booziest.

The idea for this bake was sparked by a Facebook comment from my lovely friend (and baking advisor) Nick.

Him: Have you got cake?
Me:  No. I may start getting a complex that you only like me for my baking.....
Him: Baking AND gin.

Hhmmm, there's an idea.  A little research bought up this recipe from How Sweet It Is which has had several rave reviews from cake type bloggers, and here it is, in all it's gin soaked glory.

The cake, which contains a 1/4 cup of gin (60ml)

The glaze, which contains 5 tablespoons of gin.

The icing, which contains 3 tablespoons of gin.

The verdict?  I am drunk on cake.  The house is smells beautifully of sweetness and juniper and I don't mind that the cat is licking gin filled icing off the kitchen floor.  Add a lovely sugar high and it's turning in to a brilliant night.

Spiced Beer Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream

This cake is the first of my trial bakes to decide what to make for the Great Suffolk Bake Off.  The competition has a Suffolk theme so I am planning to use Suffolk ingredients (as my sugarcraft skills aren't up to creating a cake reincarnation of Southwold Pier) so local flour, butter, milk and eggs are in, but unfortunately coffee, chocolate and citrus are out.

For me the first obvious choice of Suffolk ingredient to try as a star ingredient was beer - according to Suffolk CAMRA the county has 27 breweries.  The limited choice of other ingredients did make the search for a potential recipe a little tricky but I was really inspired by the great recipe from Joy the Baker and the idea of a spiced Broadside cake from The Caked Crusader.  With a few tweaks the recipe for my cake is below:

Spiced beer cake with Italian meringue butter cream

For the cake

Ingredients 

2oz butter (I used lightly salted)
110 g golden caster sugar 
50g dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon each of mixed spice, ground ginger and nutmeg (these were the only suitable spices I had in the cupboard - I'm sure ground cloves, cinnamon or similar would work well)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
2 eggs
220g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
6 fluid oz beer - I used Adnams Southwold Bitter (this handily gives you a good sized glass of beer left).

Pre-heat the oven to 180 oC and line a 7 inch square or 8 inch round cake tin.

In a stand mixer or with an electric whisk beath together the butter, sugars and spices for 3 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

Mix the flour and beer in to the butter/sugar mix, alternating between the two.

Pour the mix into the tin and bake for about 45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle come out clean.  Then it's on to...

The un-iced cake - would be great on it's own.

The Frosting

Since receiving my KitchenAid I have been itching to try making Italian meringue and this seemed like the perfect excuse.  I used a recipe from Cakelove who have a really handy video with very easy to follow instructions.

Pouring the sugar syrup in to the egg whites was horribly nerve wracking but it felt AMAZING when the egg whites stayed nice and thick and shiny.  The mixture did collapse a bit when I added the butter but it whipped up again quickly and you end up with absolutely loads (I have a full piping bags worth in the freezer).  This recipe calls for 1lb (1LB!) of butter - I'm trying not to think about how much of that I have already consumed.

The Result

The beer makes the cake really moist but it doesn't come across in the flavour as much as I would like.  Next time i'd like to try a beer with more citrussy hops to cut through some of the sweetness.  If I wasn't trying to use Suffolk ingredients I'd add the juice and zest of a lemon to add some freshness.  Husband loves the sweetness but it's a bit much for me.  Not the one for the bake off but worth repeating.

Some Resolutions

At the beginning of each year when other people are busy planning diets, exercise regimes, quitting smoking and polishing CV's I tend to bundle together a slightly more random group of plans for the year. These have varying degrees of success (last years included learning to make meringue - successful; having more manicures - questionable; and setting up a twitter account for FiFi the Fiat - fail).  This year I have decided to blog my progress as well as other projects and adventures which will probably translate as "things I have baked", "things I have drunk" and "places I have drunk them".

Resolutions 2013

Start a blog - here goes

Drink more beers - that's beers rather than beer, although the second could be a happy by-product of the first.

What? More?

Go to The Euston Tap, The Craft Beer Co, a BrewDog bar, The White Horse and The Norwich Tap House - It's all in the name of research.  Honest.

Learn more about Spirits - in an alcoholic sense rather than the ghostly, otherworldly sense. 

Stop buying "plastic" bread - my lovely husband was kind enough to buy me a KitchenAid (christened Nellie) for Christmas so I now have no excuse for spending money on and consuming mass produced naff bread when I could be making and eating yummy home made bread.  This links nicely to.....

Me with beautiful Nellie

Master enriched doughs - following the success of last years "Master Meringues" project, next on the list are enriched doughs - brioche, buns, doughnuts, Danish pastries etc.

Appreciate my surroundings - I'm lucky enough to live in a beautiful part of the world where thousands of people flock every summer - this year I plan to make the most of it (and reduce day dreams of  Westermill Farm to a couple of hours a week).  This should be helped by....

Get out more - not in a get fit way, just in a get off your lazy arse, get out there and see how nice the world is kind of way.  This should also help to counteract the effect of the vast amount of bread products I will be consuming.