Ale & Hearty

When winter hits, indoor sports begin and big beers collide with rich food. So clear the couch, crank the oven and ready the remote control for a day watching your choice of a) TV or b) an oven cooking this delicious trilogy

BASIL BEER BREAD

Ingredients

3 cups self-raising flour
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 1/2 cup warm beer

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180C. In a large bowl, mix flour and sugar.
2. Stir in basil, then the beer.
3. Mix until thoroughly blended, then pour into a butter-greased longneck-sized loaf pan.
4. Bake 50 minutes or until a broomstraw or toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Turn bread out of the pan and cool on a rack. Slice thinly and butter with hommous, quince or salsa.

serve with...

James Squire Hop Thief
Victoria Bitter Original
Little Creatures Pale Ale

Beer & Brewer's classic STEAK & KIDNEY PIE

This hearty is a classic comfort cuisine, an archtypal winter warmer and perfect for a chilly day welded to the sofa watching the footy with the fumes of this hearty feast on the breeze. As sweet in the belly as it is easy on the hip-pocket, the pie can take any stout as the gravy agent - Guinness, Carbine, Cooper's Dark even an Amber Ale (if you like a bit more citrusy hop). Either way you're conjuring a malty, peppery pleasure parcel.

Ingredients

1kg chuck or blade steak, cut into 3cm cubes
1 calf kidney or 3 sheep kidneys
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp flour and extra
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme and parsley plus 500ml of ale
1 tbsp of Worcestershire
1 tbsp tomato sauce
2 anchovy fillets, chopped
125g mushrooms, sliced
... and for the pastry crust
1 x 375g thawed puff pastry
1 egg, beaten with water to glaze

serve with...

James Squire Amber Ale
Moo Brew Dark Beer
Barons Black Wattle Superior

Directions

1. Crack an ale. Sip. Remove fatty white bits from kidneys with a sharp knife and slice roughly.
2. Sprinkle the meat and kidney with flour, salt, pepper and herbs. Sip from the beer again.
3. Heat some oil in a heavy saucepan and fry a chopped onion until soft. Remove and set aside.
4. Throw the meat and kidneyin and brown. Now throw the onions back in followed by the Worcestershire and tomato sauce, the mushrooms and whatever herbs are on the kitchen counter.
5. Pour half a bottle of beer over the stew. If you must cry, do it into the pan to sweeten the meat.
6. Cover tightly and simmer gently over a low heat for about 2 hours OR in a preheated slow oven at 160 degrees celcius for about 2 1/2 hours or until the meat is tender. If necessary, add a little more ale (to the stew, not you). In fact, grab yourself another while you're at it. You deserve it.
7. When the meat is cooked, stir in the anchovies (don't get squeamish - these will dissolve and salt the pie). Then allow the whole shebang to cool. Not so the beer though. Take another sip.
8. Once cool, spoon it all into a pie dish to the brim, piling it up in the centre (to hold pastry lid up).
9. Roll out the pastry dough on a lightly floured board to about 3cm larger all round than the top of the pie dish. Cut a couple of strips and, after brushing the dish rim with some beaten egg mix, stick the strips on firmly followed by the pie lid itself, pressing down. Brush the lid with the remainder of the egg glaze and cut two slits in the top to let the steam escape.
10. Bake the pie in an oven preheated to 200 degrees celsius for 20-30 minutes (if the pastry browns too rapidly cover it with foil) and remove when golden brown. Serve with salt smashed spuds and more beer.

Carbine Stout Mocha Freeze

Ingredients

1.25l of ice-cream
375ml of stout
100g grated chocolate

Directions

1. Soften ice cream in microwave for 15-30 seconds.
2. Place in bowl of a large stand mixer. Mix in stout and grated chocolate until it's all soft.
3. Pour into 1 cup ramekins and freeze until firm - about 4 hours. Serve with more stout.