Susan Nowak looks at beer matches for a classic pub favourite, the pie
What could be simpler or more satisfying than a pie and a pint? And as autumn sets in, how about re-inventing this comfort food as a dish to electrify your menu - especially if you team it with a beautiful beer.
Let your imagination roam far beyond the ubiquitous steak and kidney to create spellbinding combinations ready to wow diners when they break that crisp, golden crust.
Down in Cornwall, Tim Briggs is more than a simple pie man. Taken on as joint chef at the Blue Peter in Polperro partly for his pukka pastry, Tim is working on a repertoire of new pies for winter - and planning to match them with beer. I was bowled over by his beef and damson pie. It's deeply flavoured, almost gamey steak from a local herd, complemented by dark plums, simply stoned and added to the stock.
Tim makes proper shortcrust to produce proper pies with pastry top and bottom, glazed to a burnished gold. "I recommend St Austell's Tribute to drink," he says. Fruity hops and malt pick up the plums with a drier finish for the beef - a good choice.
He's working on a chicken pie to go with a honey beer, and pork with apricots - though co-chef Becky Steadman reckons the drink for that is their scrumpy cider.
At the Sweeney & Todd in Reading, Berk-shire, you eat anything but humble pie. Dozens of different fillings have included buffalo cooked with beer and bacon, lamb with cherry and mint (raspberry beer would make the perfect tipple), goose and gooseberry (try bottled Grozet gooseberry beer from Scotland), venison and wild boar (O'Hanlon's award-winning port stout is my choice), pigeon and peach (again, a big beer such as Worthington White Shield) or Christmas pie combining turkey, sausage, bacon, vegetables and cranberry sauce. Accompany with Christmas ale.
Here are a few of my own pie suggestions with accompanying beer - although feel free to pour some in the filling as well:
l duck with dried cherries steeped in port; serve with cherry beer
l pheasant with venison sausage, barley wine
l beef and smoked oysters, with oyster stout
l rabbit with pickled walnuts and prunes, with a dark, malty Scottish ale
l blue Stilton with chestnuts and leeks, with a fruity bitter
l minced lamb mixed (sparingly) with sultanas, ginger and cinnamon. Drink Daleside's spicy Morocco Ale, made to an Elizabethan recipe, with the original 'mince pie' from that era.
Lastly, experiment with pastry. As well as shortcrust and puff, there's wholemeal, suet crust, and hot water for raised pies. Perhaps flavour it with chopped herbs, grated cheese or lemon zest. Or just add beer. Charlotte Blomeley, licensee/chef at the Kean's Head in Nottingham, part of Castle Rock Brewery group, uses their Harvest Pale Ale in the pastry for a harvest pie of celeriac, sweet potato, fennel, swede, turnip and Colston Bassett Stilton.
She says the result is delicious and the beer definitely enhances the texture. "When I roll
it out, it is really elastic to work with and,
even though it is quite a thick pastry, it rises really well."
Gordon pairs up with Gordon's
Chef Gordon Ramsay has teamed up with Diageo to promote its gin brand Gordons.
The chef appears in the brand's latest advertising campaign.
Ramsay says: "The key to success lies in focusing on doing things to the highest standards and paying close attention to detail. The brand has the same standards and dedication to quality that I adhere to in my own professional life."
Gordon has also developed recipes featuring gin, including a gazpacho soup with gin and tonic ice cubes, gin and tonic icecream and a gin and tonic marinade.
Following the success of the Narrow,
in Limehouse, London, Gordon plans to open 10 more pubs in 2008.