As my housemate very kindly offer to cook me tea the other  night I decided to repay the favour by making a big old chocolate sponge for us all to have after. The recipe is really simple and takes minutes but the results are fantastic although they do come with the warning that this is a really filling chocolate pudding, not a  light ‘posh’ dessert.

Chocolate Pudding, Brilliant, Sweet, Cold Weather Stodge

Ingredients (My Nan gave me this recipe so it’s in oz – I make my apologies to the EU!)

6oz – Self-Raising Flour

2oz – Cocoa Powder

8oz – Butter

8oz – Castor Sugar

4 – Eggs

1 Packet Chocolate Chips

Method

The method really is easy, the first bit being the most labour intensive. Cube the butter and castor sugar together in  a bowl with the back of a metal spoon. Crack the eggs into the bowl and stir in until the mixture is smooth then sieve the flour and cocoa into the bowl and stir that in too!! Finally chuck the chocolate chips into the mix and give it one final stir. The mixture should be smooth but not too runny and, although my Nan tells me off for doing it, should taste delicious if you put a finger in!!!

Pour it into a greased oven proof dish (for a ‘pudding effect a deep dish is best but the same mixture can be used to make small single cakes in cake cases – half of the listed amounts will make about 12 small cakes) and put into a pre-heated oven at 18o° C. Cooking time will depend on what tin you’re cooking in, small cakes about 20mins but this big bad boy took about 45, if you’re trying to find out if it’s cooked tap the top – if it’s soft and wobbly it’s not done if it gives a little but springs back it’s cooked.

I served it piping hot with Custard and a Wheat Beer called Moosbacher. I had toyed with using a dark Ruby Ale or a Chocolate Stout but I thought that they would offer too similar tastes and wanted to juxtapose something lighter – having the beer similar to the  custard!

I think the food pairing went well with an understated wheat beer such as this. A Blue Moon
or something equally bursting with flavour would be too much but the wheaty hopped flavour is just enough to fight with the chocolate-fest but not enough to beat it. The beer itself is smooth and the 4.9% abv means that you could probably stretch to more than one with dessert without getting bored, bloated or Bamboozled!

Potted Cheese with Toast

Like me, you are probably more familiar with the phrases Potted Beef or Potted Shrimp than Potted Cheese. ‘Potting’ ingredients is a traditional way of stretching ingredients with butter while adding flavours and it can be  done with a good cheese in the same way as it can with meat or fish. These days it is a great way of doing  something different with your cheeseboard and also linking the beer you’re drinking to the food you’re eating.

Ingredients

350g Yorkshire Blue cheese (Stilton or any other strong, crumbly cheese can be used)
75g unsalted butter (at room temperature and cut into cubes)
½ teaspoon ground mace
3 tablespoons Beer

Method

Ingredients

Crumble the cheese in a mixing bowl before adding the butter and spices and creaming with a spoon until the mixture is fairly smooth. Gradually add the beer, beating in each addition, until the mixture has the texture of a thick paste. This paste should be spooned into your serving/storage pot and smoothed off. The mixture needs to be left for a good few hours in the fridge before being served. The longer you leave it the more the beer will infuse with the cheese and the flavour will develop. It can be stored for a couple of weeks by sealing the top of the pot with some melted butter although these days there’s little reason to do this and making it with fresh ingredients on the day is probably the best course of action.

Mixing it up

I originally used Chimay Red in making this dish but did further tests with Old Hooky and Orval. I do think it lends itself quite well to Trappist beers and the Orval was the best in my opinion. You could equally use your own favourite ale and see how it goes, another one that I would like to try would be Badger’s Poacher’s Choice.

Serve by placing the pot in the middle of the table with some plain crackers, toast (as pictured) or some crusty bread and of course a glass of whichever beer you have chosen to make it with.

Old Hooky and Fruitcake

I have always said that Old Hooky, probably my favourite beer, reminds me of the fruitcake that my Nan bakes. The dried fruit flavours are noted by Zak Avery in his notes for the recently published top 50 beers as listed by The Independent newspaper. I am not going to regurgitate Zak’s comments but rather identify a food pairing which I have been dying to try for some time now.

In addition to the fruit flavours, which are deep and rich rather than sharp and  citrusy, there is a mild spiciness that brings a little warmth to the back of your mouth when drinking. These are the reasons why it reminds me of the fruitcake that my Nan has been feeding me on Saturday afternoons for as long as I can remember.I have categorised this post under beer recipes because I think that this is a delicious beer/food pairing although I am not publishing the fruitcake recipe just now. Firstly because I need my Nan’s permission but also because it takes quite a bit of time to bake.

My recommendation would be to nip out to a good cake shop (there’s a great stand on Morley Market selling cakes and jams, presumably there’s one in Leeds City market too) and pick up a nice rich fruitcake. Buy a few bottles of Old Hooky and keep them somewhere cool but not cold (I leave my beers for the week ahead by our back door and they are always ready at the drop of a hat). You will then have a perfectly paired slice of cake and drop of ale to serve to any unexpected yuletide visitors.

As I was back down in Oxfordshire last week visiting my parents I decided to take a trip over to Hook Norton to pick up some ales. Tuesday was a crisp, sunny morning and I felt invigorated flying down the country roads with my sunglasses and coat on, the window open and the Kings of Leon blasting out of the Megane’s old stereo. I’m pretty sure I looked like a prick but I didn’t care.

Before I’d even arrived at the brewery I’d decided that I was going to spend the afternoon working on ‘Beer-ising’ a recipe that I’d had in mind for a couple of months. I knew the type of beer, well stout to be precise, that I needed and knew that Hooky Double Stout would be just the ticket.

Hook Norton Visitor's Museum

So, after picking up a few bottles and a quick tour of the museum (see picture…well worth a visit if you’re ever in the area), I headed home to the kitchen (well – my parents kitchen, and I already had this in mind for and excuse if it went wrong). The following is what I came up with…

Ingredients (Serves 2)

2 x Chicken Breast
4 x Bacon Rashers
A Generous handful of Grated Cheddar Cheese

(For the BBQ sauce)
1 Tblsp Olive Oil
4 x Garlic Cloves (Crushed)
3 x Tblsp Tomato Puree
2 x Heaped Teaspoon of Mustard Powder
4 x Tblsp Soy Sauce
2 x Tblsp White Wine Vinegar
150g Molasses
Ground Black Pepper
Chilli Flakes
Worcester Sauce
Tobasco Sauce
¼ Pint Hook Norton Double Stout

Method

Heat the Olive Oil in a small saucepan and gently fry the crushed Garlic for a couple of minutes. Once the garlic is soft, add the tomato puree and mustard powder, stirring constantly to avoid the puree burning on the bottom of the pan. Next, one at a time, throw in the soy sauce, white wine vinegar and Molasses, You can slam them all in at once if you want but I find it easier to add each one, give it a good stir and move onto the next. The mixture should thicken with the Molasses and, when it returns to a good temperature, will bubble a bit like lava. Don’t have it too hot or it will go everywhere (as a guide I can usually dip my finger in mine to see how the flavour is coming along).

Next add the Worcester and Tobasco Sauces, Black Pepper and Chilli Flakes to taste. Obviously this will depend how spicy you want the sauce and I recommend that you add them a little at a time, employing some finger dipping to taste as you go and adding more if you think it’s required, don’t forget your Mum’s old saying…’you can add more, but you can’t take any out..’. Finally add the stout (again tastes will differ so add it a bit at a time, also the amount of stout will dictate how thick and sweet the sauce is so, if you don’t want it too runny, don’t add too much). You now have the Stout BBQ sauce that will form the basis of the dish and the hard bit is over.

In a shallow, heavy based pan cook the 2 chicken breasts, brushing them occasionally with the BBQ sauce. If you have had time beforehand you can marinate them in the fridge but this isn’t essential. Once the chicken has cooked through place it in a deep ovenproof dish, cover with the BBQ Sauce and stick in an over that’s been preheated to 180 degrees. In the same pan as you’ve cooked the chicken fry 4 rashers of bacon until they are quite crispy, place these over the top of the chicken and leave in the oven for a further 20 minutes. Finally remove from the oven, throw the grated cheese on top and place under a hot grill until the cheese has melted golden.

I served mine with homemade potato wedges and peas, I think it would go easily as well with salad and chips. Oh, and of course a bottle of Hooky Stout!!!

Hooky Hunter's Chicken