Beer played a key role on the menu at two annual awards meals. Susan Nowak reports
The run-up to Christmas saw two major bashes where the gourmet menus were cooked with beer and served with beer - one created by celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, the other in the rarefied echelons of a London guildhall.
Michelin-starred chef Novelli devised the menu for the Campaign for Real Ale's annual awards lunch. His brief was to create an original and inspiring menu to showcase some of the UK's finest beers, and demonstrate how well they accompany great cuisine. A tall order for a man normally more into vintage wine?
"I have always been interested in beer cookery," says the chef proprietor of Auberge du Lac at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire,and Novelli in the City. "I grew up in Northern France where there is a great beer tradition, and one of the first places I worked over here was Keith Floyd's former pub in Devon which always had several ales on handpump." Novelli used cider in the starter of parsnip, sweet potato and Dragon's Breath Cider soup, in tribute to the national winner of this year's Camra cider awards.
For the main course - a French peasant dish you could serve in the public bar - Novelli called for a dark malty beer. So the lamb in his confit with Beaufort cheese and potatoes boulangère wrapped in pig's cawl was marinated in Pitfield 1824 Mild from the Shoreditch microbrewery. Accompanying tipple Kelham Island Pale Rider - Camra's 2004 Champion Beer of Britain - was chosen for its golden fruitiness, strength and complexity, making it a perfect foil to the strong flavours in the lamb dish. It also drank quite happily with the vegetarians' steamed lettuce and carrot gateau served on a beer hollandaise.
Norfolk microbrewer Woodforde's treacly barley wine Head Cracker was an ingredient in ice, which was served with meringue and praline floating islands.
In the imposing splendour of Ironmongers' Hall, the British Guild of Beer Writers' annual awards night presented a daunting prospect for banquet creators Chelsea Catering chief executive Veronica Goff - but the company certainly rose to the occasion.
The 2004 feast began with Lanarkshire Blue tomato rarebit tart flavoured with Fraoch Heather Ale on honey-dressedleaves, a take on the classic cheese on toast.
"The sweetness and floral flavour in the heather beer went really well with the Lanarkshire Blue, which is a very strong cheese - I used it in the pastry as well and it made a lighter tart," Goff said.
Main course was "quite a gutsy peasant dish" - cassoulet of hops, rosemary and roast garlic rump of lamb, with flageolet beans, spicy Merguez sausage, and Charles Wells' Bombardier bitter in the marinade/stock.
Perhaps the most unexpected match of the night was Mackeson's milk stout sipped alongside the dessert of Lindemans' peach beer soufflé with Enville Ale and honey cream. Jeff Evans, one of the beer selectors,said they'd tried all sorts of beers with the pud and this was the perfect match. "We wanted something not too bitter and with a complementary flavour profile, and Mackeson's is a chocolatey, caramelly beer - the dessert did have chocolate flakes on."