Beer and Brewer Magazine

People everywhere lately have been asking about beer and fondue, so here's Neil Miller's twist.

Fondue and I have the same relationship with fashion. We each bump into fashion every couple of years - usually by accident - before drifting apart for extended periods of time.

The humble fondue is alternatively derided as a laughable 70s throwback and then acclaimed as the next great leap forward in up-market gastronomy. Despite the vagaries of fashion, there has always been something very sociable about sitting around a warm pot eating melted cheese. That is perhaps why virtually every household in Australasia will have owned a fondue set at some time. Personally, I still have six.

The national dish of Switzerland, cheese fondue was born out of necessity. When Swiss towns in isolated valleys became trapped by deep snow in winter, they had to improvise dishes from the ingredients available - usually home baked bread, local wine and dry cheese.

Being clever folk, the Swiss quickly found that dry cheese tastes much better melted with a dash of alcohol. While the cheese fondue is the most famous version, fondues can be made with chocolate, vegetables or even meat cooked in oil. Fondue gets its name from the French word ‘fonder' meaning melting or blending. This describes the common cooking characteristic of all the different fondues.

There are a number of arcane traditions and rituals infamously associated with eating fondue. Most of these involve ‘forfeits' when a person drops their chunk of bread into the cheese. Indeed, the very first time I ever read about fondue was in that classic historical tome Asterix in Switzerland. The severity of the forfeits in that story put me off fondue initially. It took a few years for me to realise the authors were using satirical exaggeration and that whips and wild horses were not actually involved in the eating of fondue. Well, not in middle-class Wellington suburb of Tawa anyway.

However, even the real forfeits can be a bit worrying to the modern mind. In her now-kitsch classic book Fondue Cookery, Alison Burt described the best ‘forfeit' system of 1970: "If a man drops his bread in the fondue he must either buy the next bottle of wine or hold the next fondue party. If a lady drops her bread in the fondue, she must kiss all the men at the table".

Traditionally, fondue is made and served with wine and kirsch (strong cherry brandy) but equally beer can be an ingredient and accompaniment. Though it may shock many, I do not recommend the use of heavily hopped beers in fondues because the cooking process will tend to exaggerate the bitterness. In this instance, more moderately hopped beers will produce better tasting results. That is not a sentence I write very often.

To make the world's simplest beer fondue, start by rubbing the inside of the fondue pot with a clove of garlic. Pour a cup of lightly hopped beer into the pot and gradually heat. Add two cups of mixed cheddar and gruyere cheese and stir slowly until it melts. Next, add half a teaspoon of dry mustard for flavour and sift in cornflour slowly until the mixture is suitably thick. Mindful of those forfeits, eat carefully using cubes of French bread on fondue forks.

A mild pilsner such as James Squire Pilsener or Limburg Czechmate would go brilliantly in fondue. Alternatively, a chocolate fondue could be made with a dark, decadent beer like Leffe Brune or Invercargill Pitch Black.

The best idea is dust off a couple of fondue pots, invite around some friends and start cooking beer and cheese. That way, you can fondue party like it was 1979!

Haiku

Noted poet Captain Hops from www.beerhaikudaily.com captured the appeal of this culinary combination perfectly in just 17 syllables:

Method

1. Rub the inside of a heavy based saucepan with the garlic; discard or leave the garlic in (optional).
2. Add beer and heat slowly. Gradually whisk in the cornflour, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly. (Do not allow mixture to become too hot.)
3. Add the grated cheese and stir to let it melt until bubbly.
4. Transfer to a fondue pot; place over fondue burner.
5. Serve with French bread pieces.

James Mussak
Chef, catering consultant and author, James is currently preparing a new book: Great Chefs of Australia - Cooking with Wine, Beer and Spirits.
 

Just because the calendar says it's Autumn doesn't mean you have to prepare for hibernation just yet...in this sunburned country there are plenty of warm days left to enjoy summer's last hurrah.

Tempura Oysters with a Stout Shot

Richard Fox
British chef personality, broadcaster and author of The Food & Beer Cookbook
Serves 2

Ingredients
1 egg
25ml fridge-cold stout or porter (Coopers Best Extra Stout, Sinha Stout, Mountain Goat Surefoot Stout, Bridge Road Robust Porter)
50m1 ice water
70g sifted plain flour
12 live oysters

Method

1. To make the batter, gently beat the egg and add the stout and water, lightly whisking with a fork. Add the sifted flour, and very gently mix, making sure you keep the mixture lumpy.
2. Shuck the oysters with an oyster knife and drain off the liquid.
3. Ideally use a thermostat-controlled deep fat fryer between 175ºC and 195ºC. Failing this, heat a pan of oil to this temperature. Make sure sure the oil doesn't come more than three-quarters of the way up to the pan. It is up to temperature when a cube of fresh bread browns in 1 minute.
4. Dip the oysters into the batter and very carefully lower them into the hot oil. They will be ready in approximately 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
5. Serve with one on top of a shot glass of porter or stout of your choice.

Carbonade Australien

Garrett Oliver
Brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery, author of The Brewmaster's Table and the United States foremost authority on the subject of traditional beer.
Serves 4

Ingredients
1kg boneless leg of lamb, cut into 1" cubes
3 large yellow onions, sliced
650ml Belgian Dubbel Ale (Chimay Rouge, Corsendonck Brown, Westmalle Dubbel)
30g butter
30ml peanut oil
3 cups beef, veal or lamb stock
6 fresh thyme sprigs, bound with string, or 1 bouquet garni
2 Tbs sugar
3 Tbs all-purpose flour
1 Tbs tomato paste
1 Tbs nutmeg
½ cup golden raisins
1 large Granny Smith Apple, peeled and sliced into a dozen pieces
salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat the oil and butter in a large, heavy skillet over high heat. When the skillet is very hot, add the meat with some salt and pepper, stirring frequently until well-browned on all sides. Using a slotted spoon, lift the meat from the skillet and set it aside. Turn the heat down to low, and stir the flour into the remaining fat and cook until smooth and golden. Set the mixture (roux) aside.
2. To a heavy pot, add the lamb, then the onions. Add the stock, herbs, nutmeg and sugar. Add beer until the meat is entirely covered. Bring to a boil, then add tomato paste. Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour.
3. Remove the lamb with a slotted spoon, and set aside. Using a chinoise or other strainer, strain the sauce into another pot.
4. Place the meat in the pot with the strained sauce. Add the roux and the raisins, continue cooking for 1 hour. Add the apple slices, and cook for a further 10 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
5. Serve with mashed potatoes or frites.

Prawn & mango salad

Bill Taylor
Chief Brewer for Lion Nathan and author of Beer and Food - A Celebration of Flavours.
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 cups mixed salad leaves
12 large green Tiger prawns peeled, deveined
250g mango pieces
15ml juice & zest of ½ lime
10ml light olive oil
20ml white vinegar
50ml ale (James Squire Golden Ale)
1 tsp honey

Method

1. Peel the fresh mango. Slice from one half approx 125g thin slivers and retain for the salad. Coarsely chop another 125g of the flesh and place a food processor. Add the lime juice, finely grated zest, ale, vinegar and honey. Blend until mango has been pureed. While the blender is still running drizzle the olive oil slowly into the mix.
2. Mix the salad greens and mango slivers and lightly mix through some dressing. Prepare a bed of the salad on each serving plate.
3. Preheat a sizzle plate or the BBQ and cook the prawns, turning only once. Season with pepper as they cook. Place 3 prawns on each plate, spoon a little of the mango dressing over each prawn and finish with a touch of coarse sea or river salt for texture and taste.

Bitter Chocolate Mousse with Pale Lager Jelly and Raspberries

Ed Halmagyi
TV Chef and presenter on Channel 7's Better Homes and Gardens
Serves 4

Ingredients
350ml Hijos de Rivera Estrella Galicia, or other pale lager such as Scharer's lager, Abbots lager or Cascade premium
4 Tbs caster sugar
3 gelatine sheets
400g bitter chocolate, chopped finely
350ml cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
250ml mascarpone
3 Tbs icing sugar
2 Tbs raspberry jam, warmed and sieved
1 punnet raspberries
1 Tbs blackcurrant liqueur

Method

1. Warm the beer and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
2. Soften the gelatine in cold water then dissolve in the warm beer mix.
3. Pour the jelly into a lined cake tin and refrigerate for 2 hours to set, then cut out 5cm discs using a biscuit cutter.
4. Boil the cream and vanilla and whisk into the chocolate until smooth.
5. Set aside to cool stirring occasionally.
6. Whip the mascarpone and icing sugar to soft peaks and fold into the chocolate mix with a spatula.
7. Line the base of four 1¼ cup ramekins with baking paper and grease the sides with butter. Half fill with the chocolate mix, then place a disc of jelly in the centre and top with more chocolate mix, smoothing the surface flat.
8. Refrigerate the mousses for at least 1 hour to set. Let them sit for 10 minutes before turning them out onto plates (or eat them straight from the ramekins!)
9. To serve, paint a series of parallel lines with a small brush on each plate using the jam, then place a mousse off-centre, topped with the berries that have been tossed in the liqueur.

Serve with: a sweeter style lager like the Estrella Galicia or Bintara lager from Rutherglen, Victoria.

Why is an article on whisky interrupting your reading about beer? B&B's resident spirits geek and whisky connoisseur Sven Almenning explains...

At first glance, or perhaps I should say, first sip, beer and whisky might seem like two very different beasts. Beer is largely a thirst quencher, drunk on hot summer days, while whisky is perceived as a slow sipping drink, designed for cold winter nights. Beer is often quite light and refreshing, whisky strong and soothing. However, upon closer inspection beer and whisky share a number of similarities, from how they are made to how they are enjoyed, and perhaps most exciting of all: how they are creating excitement amongst connoisseurs of good food and drink.

As with beer, whisky is made from grains, predominately barley (Scotch and Irish whiskies are made from barley while American uses various combinations of corn, rye, barley and wheat). And as with making beer, yeast is added to turn sugars into alcohol. Once the fermentation is done we're left with a very crude form of beer often referred to as mash or wash. So far the production methods are very similar to that of beer, although of course a lot less refined as only a small percentage of a whisky's flavour comes from the fermentation process itself. Where beer is fermented and filtered, whisky is fermented then distilled and aged in barrels for a number of years.

How whisky gets its flavour:

• Malting:The level of peat used (if any) during the kilning process where the starch found in the barley is turned into sugars. A high level of peat (traditionally found in whiskies from Islay), results in a smoky whisky.
• Fermentation: The length of fermentation and the yeast used influences the strength of the mash, as well as the flavour of the final spirit.
• Distillation: A number of factors come into play here such as the temperature and speed the distillation runs at, the shape of the still and how the spirit is condensed. All distillers argue that their still has an impact on the final flavour.
• Ageing: Some experts say that more than 80% of a whisky's flavour comes from the wood it's aged in, yet there are many mysteries surrounding this process and many factors that come into play. The type of wood - American Oak (former bourbon barrels) and Sherry casks are the most common - play a part, as does the size of the barrel and where it is aged (the temperature, the moisture in the air etc).
• Water: Water plays an integral part of the production process as it is used both in the fermentation process as well as to cut the whisky down to bottling strength.

Scotch Expert 101

When people talk of Scotch whisky being ‘peaty' or ‘smoky' this refers to the flavour impacted by the peat fire over which the barley is dried during the malting process. A single malt whisky is a whisky that comes from one distillery and is made using only barley malt.

It must be distilled in a pot still and of course be distilled and matured in Scotland. A blend is a combination of malt whiskies and grain whiskies and aged for at least three years. A deluxe blend will usually contain more than 45% pot still malt and will show an age statement of 12 years or more.

The age statement on a blended whisky refers to the youngest whisky in the blend. A blended malt (formerly known as a vatted malt or a pure malt) is a blend of single malts from a number of distilleries - it is a blend using only single malts and no grain whiskies. A single cask whisky is a single malt taken from one specific cask at one distillery. In general a single malt whisky is a blend of a number of casks from the one distillery, something which allows the distiller to maintain a consistent style.

Coffee and beer are two of Australia's favourite drinks. As Matt Kirkegaard discovers they don't need to be drunk at the opposite ends of the day.

Claudia McIntosh has travelled the world tasting, learning about and sharing her passion for cheese. She has come to the conclusion that beer beats wine hands-down as a match for fromage...