Putting the sex back in Sussex beers

 

Inspired by a local farmshop's award-winning beers, MasterChef winner Peter Bayless conjures up a couple of delicious dishes using local ingredients

It’s odd isn’t it that when something special is right on our doorstep we hardly ever bother to visit? I live only a stone’s throw from one of the finest farm shops in the land, yet I still have to remind myself to call in. Fortunately that is not true of the thousands of visitors who drive miles to enjoy the delights of Middle Farm Shop in East Sussex.

It seems appropriate that this treasure trove of local, organic produce sits only a couple of miles from the Firle Estate, where an enlightened predecessor of the present Lord Gage was responsible for the introduction to this country of the unique and delicious Reines-Claude, better know to us of course as the ‘Greengage’ plum. Established back in 1960 on a working dairy farm, Middle Farm sells its own raw Jersey milk, about 80 different varieties of cheese, local vegetables and fruits, organic beef from their own herd, home baked produce and preserves and the finest collection of Sussex wines, liqueurs, ales and ciders.

Among its national collection of cider and perry are some exciting looking bottled beers, products of the Fallen Angel Brewery in Battle. Only a few days earlier, at the Sussex Food & Drink Awards, I watched with delight as Fallen Angel, the smallest brewer in Sussex, walked off with the prize for best drink producer of the year. With names such as ‘Karma Sumatra’, ‘Naughty Nun’ and ‘Fire in the Hole Chilli Beer’, Fallen Angel’s beers warranted closer examination - and I’m not talking about the risqué images on the labels either.

The people at Middle Farm told me I should talk to the brewer Tony Betts, who is as passionate about his beers as the farm is about Sussex produce. They weren’t wrong. Betts says all his beers are hand-crafted throughout the whole process, from initial mashing of the grains to hand bottling each batch. "We only use the very finest UK-sourced raw ingredients and stick to making small batches with a maximum of 210 litres per batch," he adds. Small beer maybe, but a lot of major brewers would find it hard to match Fallen Angel’s consistently high quality across such a wide range of beers.

The definition of real ale is that it must be live and bottle-conditioned with no added C02 which is why you get the sediment, pour carefully and it sticks to the bottom of the bottle or, if you like your vitamins you can always stir it up. Fallen Angel takes commitment to quality a stage further by refusing to add any chemicals whatsoever, not even finings, making their beers some of the few available that are genuinely vegan friendly.

Armed with this information and all fired up with Tony’s infectious enthusiasm, I returned to Middle Farm with a particular idea in mind. Sussex beer and Sussex beef, the best of the best of British produce and a marriage made in heaven. I have often thought that good beer deserves to be treated with the kind of respect we normally reserve for fine wines, and here was my opportunity to prove it. Two of Fallen Angel’s beers, Hickory Switch Porter and Gamekeepers Bitter caught my eye and I checked the tasting notes Tony had given me earlier. In this year’s Good Bottled Beer Guide this is what CAMRA had to say about them:

Hickory Switch Porter

“Smoky , hickory flavours dominate this well balanced interesting ruby beer. The taste also has both sweet and dark malt characters, with a light lemony edge from the hops, and there is a touch of liquorice on the swallow. More dark and roasted malts emerge in the bitter finish.”

 

Gamekeepers Bitter
“Perfumed, spicy and floral notes combine with bitter citrus in the complex aroma. The taste is also perfumed, hoppy and mostly bitter, with just a little malt for balance, Dry hoppy perfumed finish.”

You see, beer lovers can wax just as lyrical as wine buffs and not without justification. Laden down with my precious bottles I crossed the farmyard to the butcher’s shop where I bought a kilo of well-hung Sussex breed bladebone steak and 1½ kg of brisket from the same beast and I was well organised to get on with some serious cooking.

Here are a couple of warming wholesome dishes to enjoy while the cold nights and frosty mornings are still with us. Accompany each with a glass or two of the same beers used in the recipes.

Carbonade of beef

1 ½ kg brisket (or forequarter flank)
4-5 onions finely chopped
1 clove garlic crushed with a little sea salt
500ml Hickory Switch Porter (you can use any strong dark real ale)
500ml good meat stock
50g dark soft brown sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bayleaf, celery tops and a strip of orange peel tied up inside the outer leaves of a leek)
50g butter
50g plain flour

Cut away the larger pieces of fat from the meat and put them into a saucepan over a low heat to render down.

In a small saucepan make a brown roux with the flour and butter.

Cut the meat into thinish slices, season with salt and pepper and brown a few at a time in a little of the rendered beef dripping. Transfer each batch to a large casserole.

Add a little butter to the pan and fry the onions until beginning to colour.

Add the garlic to the onions and sir into the meat.

Bury the bouquet garni in the middle.

Add the beer to the cooking pan and bring to the boil scrapping up all the residues from the bottom of the pan. Add the stock and use the brown roux to thicken the sauce.

Finally add the sugar to the sauce and pour over the meat in the casserole.

Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook at 130? for 3 ½ - 4 hours.

Serve with mashed potatoes and seasonal greens.

Note: The use of Hickory Switch Porter in this recipe adds a hint of smokiness to the finished dish, but other real ales may be used instead.

 

Steak and Ale Pie

For the quick flaky pastry

225g plain flour
175g butter
Pinch of salt
Ice cold water

For the filling

1kg bladebone steak – cut into 2 inch cubes
1 large onion finely chopped
1 carrot diced
1 stick celery diced
2 rashers smoked streaky bacon cut into lardons
Handful of chestnut mushrooms quartered
Bowl of flour seasoned with salt, pepper and English mustard powder
500ml Gamekeepers Bitter (or other good quality real ale)
200ml good quality brown stock
Splash malt vinegar
25g unsalted butter
One egg beaten

Wrap the butter in foil and place in the freezer for 30 minutes

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl

Use a cheese grater to grate the very cold butter into the flour

Using a knife, stir the butter into the flour.

Add a few drops of ice cold water and pull the dough together with the flat of your knife

Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry off the onion until transparent.

Add the celery, bacon lardons and carrot and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes – remove and set aside

Toss the pieces of steak in the seasoned flour and in the same pan fry a few at a time until well browned all over.

Remove to a pan with the vegetables and deglaze the cooking pan with a splash of malt vinegar.

Add the beer and stock and bring to the boil.

Return all the ingredients to the saucepan, cover and simmer for at least 3 ½ hours (don’t be tempted to taste for the first 2 ½ hours because the beer will not become a good flavoured sauce until well cooked). At the end of this time if the sauce is still bitter, add a little sugar.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Place the meat mixture into a pie dish with a funnel in the middle, (an upside down eggcup will do). Paint the edges of the dish with water.

Roll out the chilled pastry to about 5mm thickness. Cut a strip and line the outside edges of the pie dish. Moisten these edges and lay the sheet of pastry over the top. Pinch together the outer edges, cut a cross in the centre to let the steam out during cooking and paint the surface with beaten egg. If you wish, use the left over pieces of pastry to make decorations for the top of the pie in the shape of leaves, flowers, animals, initials, etc. Bake in the oven at 180? for 50 minutes.

Serve with parsnip purée, greens and carrots cooked in the oven with butter and orange juice.

Peter Bayless is the 2006 winner of BBC MasterChef Goes Large and author of My Father Could Only Boil Cornflakes, ISBN 1904122140 Ptarmigan £20. www.peterbayless.com