Last night, Chris and Grace came down to RI for our second stab at a beer and food pairing dinner. We did one last Fall where I gave Chris the menu and he paired each of the menu items with two beers. This time around, he bridged some menu items with the same beer and he also brought some of the beer he made himself…here’s what we ended up with:
“Beer Quiz”: Chris has recently taken his Beer Judge Certification Exam (and passed!)…and I’ve been studying up on the styles as well. Ingrid thought it would be fun to administer a quiz on Belgian Strong Ales before we began the dinner. There are 5 styles of Belgian Strong Ales, so I bought one of each style and two of one style- six beers in all for the five categories. Ingrid served them to us in a blind tasting and it was up to us to figure out which beer goes with the appropriate style. This was a pretty tough category- Chris got the most correct- and we were all tricked at least once!
So…after the quiz, we moved onto dinner…the first two courses were condensed into one…we had cheese filled crackers and parmesean crisps with goat cheese mousse. Chris paired this with a Saison- I had brought one back from Italy, so we ended up having Dau Saison from Troll Brewery.
Course 2: this was a surprise course that I decided to do…we did the Oyster, Ginger and Ale Foam again (see previous post)…this time I used Anchor Steam’s Liberty Ale.
Course 3: Mozzarella ravioli with assorted salts served with Chris’s Dortmund Export.
Course 4: Potato Blini with Eggplant Caviar and Roasted Red Pepper…served with the Dortmund.
Course 5: Chris made a spicy lentil salad served cold paired with Rock Art Brewery’s Hell’s Bock.
Course 6: Onion Tart with Wild Boar Bacon served with the Bock.
Course 7: Citrus Braised Endive with Seared Scallop paired with a Spring Ale (Kolsch) from Otter Creek Brewing.
Course 8: “Clam Chowder”- deconstructed clam chowder with seared cod and cod cake paired with the Otter Creek.
Course 9: Braised short ribs with polenta- Chris served this with his own Beglian Dubbel- the ribs were also braised with the beer as well.
