Beer and Food - The Maltsters' charms
Two beer dishes for the price of one this month when Keith Floyd's one-time pub, the Maltsters Arms, on a narrow creek at Tuckenhay near Totnes, prepares two rich, meaty dishes with two outstanding ales.
Owners Denise and Quentin Thwaites have followed the TV chef by winning their own plaudits for drop-dead gorgeous meals based on local produce at a pub where regulars stroll up from the village, and yachties sail in. But their last pub was a Young's house in Richmond and perhaps that's where they learned to appreciate the brewery's wickedly strong, vinous barley wine Old Nick. It is an "end of the meal, feet against the fender" tipple - so Danny Stanbridge, one of the pub's two chefs, has unerringly put it in a starter - Kidneys with Old Nick.
Danny quite rightly decided all that powerful flavour would set off the kidneys, which are a big favourite with the pub's diners. "Just pan fry off a few shallots, add the kidneys and cook them however you like them," says Danny. "Finish off with Old Nick straight into the pan and a touch of wholegrain mustard. You don't need seasoning with that spicy beer." Kidneys with Old Nick is regularly on the menu as a starter, served with wedges of locally-baked wholemeal bread to mop up all these juices. Danny has used various bitters for the next dish - Carpetbagger's Steak & Oysters with Beer Sauce - but particularly likes Adnams Broadside.
Brewed on the Suffolk coast in Southwold, afiçionados have detected a briny lilt that sits well with this "carpetbagger" dish. "Cooks often use beer to braise steak, but we decided to use it with fillet steak and include oysters as well," says Danny. He uses half and half beef stock and beer, then reduces by two thirds, whisking in a few knobs of butter and finishing with a teaspoon of sugar, to balance any hop bitterness. He pre-steams the oysters, removes them from their shells, then adds them and their juices to the gravy and serves it with a fillet steak cooked to order. "After the reduction, it should be more of a glaze for the steak than a sauce - I generally put in four oysters per portion," says Danny.
