For What Ales You

Gourmet dishes that will have you hopping.

What’s Cooking
By Robrt Pela

It’s possible, though not very likely, that a small bucket of beer (as opposed to a bucket of small beer, a kind of weak ale once popular in England) fell into a cassoulet just before it was baked, thus creating the understanding of beer as something other than a refreshment used to wash down pretzels.

And it would be nice to think that beer ended up as an ingredient in gourmet cooking because a sight-impaired chef misread the word beet in his list of ingredients—if only because Americans could then take credit for this culinary innovation (in French, the word for beet is betterave, which sounds like nothing you’d want to cook with). But probably it was the Germans who first added ale to their victuals, because, although historians aren’t exactly sure when beer was first made, it shows up most often in German dishes like lagered sauerkraut and bier fisch, a spicy carp dish.

Usually, the mention of food cooked with beer brings to mind crude casseroles topped with crumbled potato chips. But beer is a wonderful flavoring agent, and even a spot of flat home brew can enliven the stalest stew pot. It’s used in cooking in many countries, and several great classic recipes of the world call for some suds: Welsh Rabbit, Carbonnade à la Flamandes, and innumerable German sausages.

Though it’s a pretty safe bet that beer won’t be replacing wine as an accompaniment to an elegant dinner, beer dinners have long been popular at some of our more upscale eateries. Brewmaster dinners sound heavy on the cheese, but are in fact built on the flavor and hop of imported beers. These malty meals can each be paired with the beer used to enhance it, and can extend to the dessert tray, as well.

Forget about sitting down to a Miller Lite and a hot dog. In this age of personalized micro-brews, and with the advent of more and better beer lists at our favorite restaurants, the beer dinner—in all its foamy, gourmet glory—has arrived. And don’t worry about the alcohol content of these draughty dishes—the alcohol evaporates within the first few minutes of cooking. The only danger is that each of the recipes printed here is pretty rich. Eat too much of them, and—dare we say it?—you may get stout.

Recipes

Seared Sea Scallops in Dark Ale

• 8 large sea scallops
• 2 bottles dark beer
• 2 portabella mushrooms, cut into 8 slices
• 4 slices Canadian bacon, cut into slivers
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 fresh basil leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place beer in a saucepan. Warm over low heat, but don’t boil. Place scallops in beer and poach for about a minute. Remove scallops from poaching liquid; reserve six tablespoons of liquid. Slice scallops in thirds to create coins.
2. Place oil, mushroom slices and Canadian bacon in a heavy cast-iron skillet and sauté over medium heat until bacon begins to brown. Turn mushrooms often. Remove mushroom slices and sprinkle with basil leaves.
3. Sauté sliced scallops in the bacon oil mixture until edges turn gold; about a minute. Place sautéed scallops on top of mushrooms on plates and return skillet to heat. Quickly deglaze the skillet with reserved liquid, whisking well. Spoon onto scallops and season with salt and pepper.

Brown Ale Pizza Dough

• 4 grams fresh yeast
• 12 ounces of brown ale
• 4 tablespoons molasses
• 2 ounces olive oil
• 12 ounces high gluten flour
• 2 ounces whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

1. Prepare the dough in two batches by dissolving the yeast in warm beer for about a minute. Using a blender with a dough hook, beat in the remaining ingredients, mixing for ten minutes.
2. Turn dough out onto floured surface, and roll each of two batches into tight balls. Brush lightly with oil. Cover with plastic and let rise for one hour. Punch down and form each into 12-inch-diamter crusts, placing them onto well-greased pizza pans. Top with pizza toppings of your choice and bake at 450° for 20 minutes.

Beer-Braised Rabbit

• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 3-pound rabbit, cleaned and cut into pieces
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cups thinly sliced onions
• 1½ pounds mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups amber beer
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

1. Place flour, salt, and pepper into a plastic bag; toss to mix. Add the rabbit pieces, toss to coat with the flour mixture, and shake off excess. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until lightly smoking.
2. Sear the rabbit pieces on each side until golden brown; set aside. Pour in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and stir in the sliced onions. Cook until the onions have softened, about two minutes; then stir in the mushrooms and garlic, cooking for an additional two minutes. Add the thyme, basil, rosemary, and bay leaves; season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Place the browned rabbit pieces into the Dutch oven, and pour in the beer and chicken stock. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the rabbit is very tender, about a half an hour.
4. Stir three tablespoons of flour into the softened butter until smooth. Remove the rabbit from the simmering broth and set aside. Skim any visible fat from the liquid, then whisk in the butter paste. Simmer until thickened, then remove the bay leaves and stir in the parsley. Serve the thickened sauce atop the braised rabbit.