When beer meets cuisine

Beer is an excellent accompaniment to food with its many flavours and textures. Celebrity Chef and Master Chef judge, Pete Goffe-Wood, says beer is an exciting pairing partner. “It works beautifully with food on a number of levels – everything from a flavour perspective all the way to the cleansing-mouth feel.”

The common rule when pairing beer with food (whether cooking with beer or drinking alongside a dish) is to look for common flavours between the two. For example, light beers should be cooked with light food flavours, heavy with heavy.

To help you along your way, The South African Breweries (SAB) and established South African foodies have some tried and tested beer recipes for you, including:

• Caramelised Butternut & Goats Cheese Rotolo, Crisp Sage & Pine Nuts
• T-bone with Mustard and Sun-dried Tomato Butter
• Beer-cooked Sweet and Sticky Pulled Pork
• Castle Milk Stout cupcakes
• Beer-infused Fruit Loaf

Caramelised Butternut & Goats Cheese Rotolo, Crisp Sage & Pine Nuts

Recipe by food alchemist Pete Goffe-Wood (“A Life Digested”, 2014, page 170), paired with Peroni Nastro Azzurro.
(Serves 8)

Method
1. Cut butternut into large chunks and place in a roasting tray.
2. Season with spices, sugar, salt and pepper and dab with butter.
3. Bake in a hot oven (200˚C) until the butternut has cooked and is caramelised.
4. Put cooked butternut in a bowl and add the egg, crumbled goats cheese and half a cup grated parmesan and seasoning.
5. Lay one pasta sheet on top of a clean tea towel. Brush the bottom long edge with egg white.
6. Lay another pasta sheet along that edge so that they just overlap (about 2cm).
7. Repeat this process with a third piece of pasta. You should end up with a large rectangle.
8. Spread the butternut mix evenly over the paste, leaving a 2 cm gap the length of the edge nearest you.
9. Brush this with egg white. Using the tea towel, roll up the pasta towards you into a neat roulade, enclosed in the tea towel.
10. Tie each end of the rotolo tightly with string and place in a rectangular bain-marie (it should fit in the bath with ease), filled with boiling water.
11. Poach the rotolo for 40 minutes, turning it after 20 minutes to make sure it cooks evenly.
12. Remove from the water and leave to cool. Remove the tea towel or it will stick to and tear the pasta.
13. When the rotolo is cooled, brush with olive oil and refrigerated.
14. To serve, cut the rotolo into thick slices, brush with butter and warm in a pan or under a grill until golden brown.
15. Heat a little butter in a pan, add the pine nuts and sage leaves and fry until the sage is crisp and the pine nuts are golden brown.
16. Spoon this garnish over the rotolo.
17. Sprinkle the rest of the parmesan and some rocket leaves dressed with olive oil.

T-bone with Mustard and Sun-dried Tomato Butter

Ingredients
T-Bone steaks (make sure they are thick cut with a healthy portion of meat on the fillet side)
Castle Steakhouse Marinade
Castle Braai Shaker
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flavoured butter

Method
1. Cover the steaks with marinade and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Make sure all the steaks are well covered. We find a re-sealable zip-loc bag works best for this. Just add all the steaks and marinade and shake well.
2. Braai the steak over very hot coals, about 3-4 minutes a side, turning only once.
3. Season with Texan Steak spice from your Castle Braai Shaker as you go along. Remove from the heat. Top with a dollop of flavoured butter and enjoy the flavours melting into your steak.

Flavoured Butter
Store-bought garlic butter, softened
1 tbsp grainy mustard
3 sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped

Method
1. Combine the ingredients to form a paste.
2. Refrigerate until needed.

Beer-cooked Sweet and Sticky Pulled Pork

Recipe by The Star Angela Day (www.angeladay.co.za)

Method
1. Mix all the spices together and rub into the pork. Leave for a few hours, or, even better, overnight.
2. Place the apples and onions in the base of the slow cooker and then place the pork on top.
3. Pour the beer over the meat, making sure it is all covered. Cook for 8–10 hours in the slow cooker.
4. Remove the meat from the pot and shred it, containing it in an oven proof dish.
5. Pour the barbeque sauce over the shredded meat, cover with foil and place in the oven at 180° until it’s heated through.
6. Serve on a hot, fresh bread roll with a chilled glass of Carling Black Label.

Beer-cooked Sweet and Sticky Pulled Pork

Caramelised Butternut & Goats Cheese Rotolo, Crisp Sage & Pine Nuts

Castle Milk Stout cupcakes

Castle Milk Stout cupcakes

Recipe by Diné Bennett (www.bakelovenotwar.co.za)

Ingredients
125 ml Castle Milk Stout 125 g salted butter 15 g cocoa powder 1 cup sugar	1/4 cup buttermilk 1 egg 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 160 g cake flour 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and set aside a 12-cup cupcake tray with liners.
2. In a saucepan, heat the Castle Milk Stout and butter on low heat until the butter has melted.
3. Whisk in the sugar and cocoa powder, and leave it to cool slightly.
4. Beat the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla together and pour into the stout mixture.
5. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Slowly pour the stout mixture into the flour bowl, stirring constantly.
6. Transfer the batter to a jug and pour some into each cupcake liner. (The liners should be about 80% full, as the cake doesn’t rise all that much.)
7. Bake for about 15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Leave to cool.
8. Once your cupcakes have cooled (about an hour), use a piping bag and a 10 mm star tip to pipe the caramel icing on top.
9. Drizzle with some leftover caramel sauce for decoration.

Caramel Icing ingredients
1/2 cup caramel sauce (ready-made or see recipe below) plus some extra for drizzling
3 cups icing sugar
80 g butter (at room temperature)
4 tbsp milk

Method
1. Cream the butter with an electric mixer and slowly add two cups of icing sugar.
2. Add the caramel sauce and the milk, mixing throughout.
3. Add the rest of the icing sugar, adding more milk if the icing is too thick. Continue mixing with the electric mixer until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Caramel Sauce ingredients
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup cream (at room temperature)
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. Combine the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed pan on low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Turn the heat up to medium low and heat until the sauce starts turning a caramel colour.
3. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and pour in the cream. The sauce will bubble furiously for a few seconds.
4. Stir in the butter and vanilla and set aside to cool for at least an hour.

Beer-infused Fruit Loaf

Recipe by The Star Angela Day (www.angeladay.co.za)

Ingredients
500 g mixed cake fruit 440 ml can of Flying Fish Crushed Orange flavoured beer 60 ml orange juice 10 ml orange rind 80 ml oil	2 extra-large eggs 375 ml brown sugar 4 x 250 ml flour 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. Soak fruit in the beer overnight or for at least 5 hours.
2. Combine mixture in a large bowl.
3. Add orange juice and rind, oil, eggs and sugar.
4. Sift in the rest of the flour and mix well.
5. Spoon the mixture into two 20 x 10 cm loaf tins.
6. Bake at 160°C for 1 hour, until a skewer comes out clean when tested.
7. Remove the loaves from the tins and place on a cooling rack.
8. Enjoy your fruit loaf with a cup of tea, or paired with a Flying Fish.

For the latest SAB news, follow www.sabstories.co.za/beer-culture

Beer-infused Fruit Loaf