His Excellency Aethien wrote:
On a sidenote, I ate a late lunch at Kafe België today and I got a Rochefort 8 to go along with it, that was one magnificent beer. And I also picked up a bottle of Rochefort 10 and I'll figure out a good meal to go along with it on Monday. But if it's as good or better than the 8 it'll be worth the price and I've got a brilliant beer to look forward to.
Edit: I'm thinking of trying to get a good piece of meat for monday, probably with mushrooms as well. Not sure whether I'll go with rice, potatoes or pasta though.
Xsarus, give me some good ideas!
(here's a link to reviews of the beer) 1) Coffee crusted steak. Mix Coffee with some salt and ground pepper, adjusting the amounts per taste. Mostly coffee though**. Rub this mixture into the steak so it gets a good crust. When the steak is done, let it sit for 1/2 hour or so. Heat up a heavy pan with butter and some canola oil. (this lets you get butter flavour but keeps the butter from burning. cook the steak*** Let this sit for 10 minutes before eating. Taking the steak out of the pan and putting it onto another plate to rest allows you to fry your mushrooms in the pan which will let them pick up all sorts of flavour. This is a good time to add some of the beer, or some wine to help dissolve the flavours off the pan. Not too much though, you don't want a gravy.
2) I'd suggest serving this with a simple mixed green salad with a vinaigrette dressing to set a lighter contrast while maintaining the bitter note. A balsamic reduction would work well here.
3) this is a really good but fairly simple potato that would go nicely http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/garlic-hasselback-potatoes-with-herbed-sour-cream-recipe/index.html
You could also eat this with other starches, but I think a nice roasted potato would work best.
The coffee will go well with the chocolate and dark fruity notes, while giving a bitterness to the dish that will contrast nicely with the richness of the beer and keep it from being overwhelming.
** a decent way to do this would be to lightly salt and pepper the steak (more pepper if you're a pepper fiend like me) then add as much coffee as the steak will hold. You also have the option to rub the steak beforehand with olive oil, this will allow the crust to be thicker.
*** You can cook it in the pan entirely at a slightly lower temperature, or sear it at a higher temperature and finish it in the oven. I don't know how much experience you have cooking steaks.
Another option is to go with a spicy pork dish. Give it quite a bit of heat so it competes with the beer. I think I'd go with the first though, and mushrooms wouldn't work at all with spicy pork.
You could also do a coffee crusted roast, if you wanted to make more meat at once. If you're interested in this I can give details on how I'd cook it if you want.
Edited, May 7th 2011 11:35pm by Xsarus