beer

Nourishing Stout and Oat Drink

1st May 2013 by Regula 24 Comments

My mother always told me she and my grandmother loved drinking a Trappist beer when they were breastfeeding, she said that it was nurturing for new moms and that in the old days the nurses would actually bring a beer to the mothers to stimulate the lactation process.
But it isn’t just a myth, if a nursing mother drinks a good old pint of beer, the yeast and hops in it will help increase her milk supply. Hops are also calming, so good for the new mom. Brewers yeast is also taken as a supplement to boost the milk supply by mothers who do not enjoy the taste of a lovely beer.

Trappist is a Belgian beer but I think Stout is the prefect beer for this recipe as I’ve heard stories about mothers receiving a Stout when they have given birth, a Nourishing Stout would have been better but sadly those haven’t been brewed commercially for decades. Milk Stout is called that way because it used to contain lactose, a sugar derived from milk. Lactose doesn’t only add sweetness to the beer, it also adds calories which is why together with the yeast and hops in the beer it was given to lactating mothers. Although Milk and Nourishing Stouts only became popular after the First World War, the usage of lactose and the mentioning or illustrating of it on the beer labels was forbidden after the Second World War due to rationing.

The only surviving Milk Stout is Mackeson’s, I came across it by accident when I was at Tesco’s a few months ago, the can still shows a milk churn that has been Mackeson’s trademark since it was first brewed in 1907 at the Mackeson’s brewery in Hythe, Kent. Mackeson’s is now brewed by InBev so I doubt that there is still any lactose in the beer today.

As I am creating this concoction for my friend and fellow blogger Zita who gave birth to a healthy little boy a few hours ago, I am going to make it as nutritious as I
can.

Now luckily I know Zita does like an occasional beer so I’m not
bringing her anything she wouldn’t like to drink. I am including a way to remove the alcohol from the beer in the recipe, so it is ‘safe’ to drink for those who are worried about getting their newborn drunk. This drink isn’t
solely for nursing mothers, it is also for the dad, the friend, the guy
in the street and the health food lover. It is packed with nutrition.

To go with the Stout I’m making my own Oat milk.
Oats have a low glycemic index, which can help to regulate blood sugar
levels and make you feel fuller for longer. They also contain lots of vitamins,
minerals and antioxidants, are a good source of protein and complex carbohydrates.
You can use 3 types of oats for this recipe, the groats which are the oat kernels with the hulls removed, rolled
oats which are steamed groats that have been rolled out and flattened and steel
cut oats which are the oat groats chopped up. Steel cut oats are therefore the
best choice as they contain more of their original nutrients but they are not as easy to find as rolled oats.

To break down the phytic acid content which makes the oats more digestible and reduce anti-nutrients so your body can soak up a lot more of the nutrients, I soaked the oats with cider vinegar. You can also use live yoghurt as lactic acid fermentation.

This drink is for all those who love Stout, if you don’t care for Stout I don’t recommend you try this drink as it is quite bitter. The bitter Stout works perfectly with the sweet oats, and even has notes of a coffee with lots of milk.

Before you skip to my recipe, have a look at our feast for Zita!
Maybe you remember the Virtual baby shower we did last summer, today were are back with a whole new table of food, follow the links to the blogs to read the other ladies recipes:

Our Menu
Giulia: Scarpaccia
Regula: Nourishing Stout & Oat Drink
Beth: Moghrabieh Salad with Preserved Lemon and Coriander Pesto
Jasmine: Whole Wheat Flour Cocoa Cookies
Artemis: Kasopita – Cheese Pie from Εpirus
Sarka: Kiwi Carpaccio with Pecans and Manuka Honey
Emiko: Ricotta and Dark Chocolate Cake
Sneige: Pomegranate Curd with Seedy Pine Nut Crust
Simone: Pistache Raspberry Cakes
Karin: Fresh Pea Souffle with Goat Cheese

Nourishing Stout and oat drink

What do you need

Start the evening before, or in the morning.
To prepare the oats:

Steel cut or Rolled oats, 1 cup (you can use the groats if you can find them)
apple cider vinegar (or live yoghurt), 1 teaspoon
water, 2 cups

For the drink:

water, 2 cups
1 date, stoned (2 if you like it sweeter) and cut finely
Stout or Guinness, 1 cup
a fine sieve
a blender or food processor

Method

Combine the oats, cider vinegar (or yoghurt) and water in a bowl, cover loosely and leave to soak for at least 8 hours.

8 hours later …

Drain your oats by straining them through a fine sieve, discard the soaking water
Rinse the oats gently to remove the starch
Put the oats and the date into the food processor (I used my Vitamix) and blend

To make this drink with alcohol free stout:

add one cup of stout to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes then let it cool. (the drink will taste less bitter with this method)
Add two cups of water and one cup of stout and blend again until creamy
At this point you can strain your oat milk through a fine sieve again to remove any of the oats, I choose not to, to keep the drink smooth and a little thicker. Discarding the oats is trowing away nutritious food.
If you want to strain, you can keep the leftover oats to make cake or pancakes.

Leave the drink to rest for 30 minutes – 1 hour before use

Enjoy!

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Strawberry and Pimm’s Granita
Drunken cherries
Cobnut Brandy
Sloe Gin

Wheaten Soda Bread with Stout Beer, Oats and Molasses for St-Patrick’s day

15th March 2013 by Regula 10 Comments

A lucky shamrock scarf for your bread, to keep your hands flour-free. It’s been years since I crocheted!

I was asked by Honest Cooking online food magazine to share a St-Patrick’s day recipe with them. I’ve never been in Ireland so therefore St-Patrick’s day is something I only know from visiting the Irish pubs that used to be plenty in Antwerp. The day would be advertised on the pubs blackboards weeks in advance offering live music and a Paddy’s special menu. When the day finally came, the Irish folk living in Antwerp and the Irish sailors who were docked at Antwerp port with their ships would gather at the pubs to enjoy a pint and a meal, you would hear the traditional Irish folk music from behind the corner along with loud and often drunken sing-alongs. In Antwerp you most certainly knew when it was St-Patrick’s day … But as the Irish pubs started to disappear, the St-Patrick’s day celebrations and the taste of Irish food went with them.

Wheaten Stout Beer, Oats and Molasses

What do you need
•   500g/17oz. good quality – organic wholemeal wheat or spelt flour
•   1/2 cup / 4oz.rolled oats
•   2 teaspoons of baking soda
•   1 teaspoon of sea salt
•   3 teaspoons of molasses
•   200ml/6.7 oz stout beer and 200 ml/6.7 oz live yoghurt
•   some extra flour to dust

Method

Preheat your oven to 190C/375F
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt well in a bowl.
Add yoghurt and stout and mix with the dry ingredients.
Quickly form a wet dough – it is important to get the bread in the oven as quickly as possible and not to overwork it – if the dough is too wet dust with flour until you can shape it.
Dust it with flour and cut a cross in the dough half way down the dough.
Put on the baking tray in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes.
The bread is ready when it makes a hollow sound when you knock on the bottom.
Cool on a wire rack

I like to place a small container of water with the bread in the oven, the moisture will help the bread get a tender crumb.
Best eaten when still slightly warm, spread with butter and with a piece of bitter dark chocolate …

The Irish Times pub in Antwerp, is no longer. There had been an Irish pub on this site since the 40’s

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Soda bread – a loaf in 45 minutes

Poverty and oysters … Beef, stout and oyster pie

4th March 2013 by Regula 10 Comments

As Dickens’ Sam Weller remarks in the Pickwick papers:

‘Poverty and oysters always seem to go together’.

Oysters have been savoured in Britain since Roman times. Shells have been found at many archaeological sites, with the Roman fort and Amphitheatre in Richborough as the most symbolically important one, and stretching as far north as Hadrian’s and the Antonine walls. Before the Romans came, the Britons regarded shellfish as something to eat when there was no fish or meat to be had. The little molluscs weren’t sought after until the Romans started to farm them and even export them live to Rome, where they were considered a delicacy.

When the Romans withdrew and the Saxons invaded in the 5th century, so a rich culinary culture disappeared, which included the oyster farming. It would take centuries for the oyster to become popular again and the first recorded appearance is to be found in a 14th century cookery manuscript by the Master Chef of King Richard II.

Throughout
the Medieval period the church imposed a number of days where one
should eat fish rather than meat. In fact, for a third of the year,
eating meat was forbidden. Therefore the mixing of fish and meat in
dishes only became popular later in the 16th century and an early 17th
century cookbook gives the recipe for roasting mutton with oysters.

By the end of the 18th century the industry had become highly regulated and although oysters had been the delight of the rich for a very long time, industrialisation cheapened them, making oysters one of the staples of the diet of the poor.

Beef
and oyster pie is a classic Victorian dish; it was the food of the
poor, and the poorer you were the more oysters you would put in your
pie. Oysters were plenty, the smaller ones sold as fast food on the
streets of London or pickled to keep, while the bigger ones were put in
stews and pies to make up for the deficiency of meat. It was a cheap
source of protein.

Oysters were also a typical food to be found
in public houses, where they were most commonly served with a pint of
stout. Stout beers were popular because of their strong flavour, higher
alcohol content, longer shelf life and because they were cheaper than
other beers. The claims of Stout being a nutritious drink made the
pairing with oysters the perfect cheap meal for the working class on
their way home with their wages.

Demand for oysters was high,
with as many as 80 million oysters a year being transported from
Whitstable’s nutrient-rich waters to London’s Billingsgate Market alone.
In the middle of the 19th century the natural oyster beds became
exhausted in England. As the oyster beds further declined, what had
previously been the food of the poor became a delicacy for the upper
classes once again.

This pie is wonderfully succulent; once a poor man’s dinner, it now graces our tables with elegance. The beef, oyster and stout or porter beer are a perfect pairing together with a rich suet crust – just like your nan used to make but let’s kick it up a notch and put some effort into the decoration of the pie! It’s fun to let your children have a go with the leftover pastry; you will have leftover with this recipe. Keep in the freezer until needed, defrost the evening before in your fridge.
This recipe works just as good as a stew, feeding 4 hungry mouths.

What do you need
For the stew

1 large carrot, quartered and cut into 2 cm long pieces
3 medium onions
500 g chuck of beef, diced
flour to dust the meat
1 pint of stout, Guinness or porter beer
1 teaspoon of mushroom ketchup (if you don’t have it, leave it out or use 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar)
2 bay leaf
thyme
pepper and salt to season
water
6 oysters, cleaned.

For the pastry

300g plain white flour
100g unsalted butter
100g Atora shredded suet
a generous pinch of salt
125 ml icecold water
1 egg, beaten

Method
for the stew – filling

Preheat your oven to 160C
Add the carrots and onion to a cast iron casserole and color them over a medium fire.
Dust the meat with the flour and add it to the vegetables.
Immediately pour in the stout, mushroom vinegar and herbs.
If the meat isn’t completely covered in liquid, add some water or extra stout until it’s just covered.
Bring to the boil without putting on the lid.
When boiling, put on the lid and place in a lower part of the oven for 3-3,5 hours.
It depends on the animal used, the quality of the meat and how lean it is to know when the meat will be done. Check on it regularly so you don’t end up with dry meat. The meat is done when it is about to fall apart.

for the pastry lid
Combine the flour, butter, suet and salt in a large mixing bowl and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour. Keep on doing this until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Pour in the water and start pressing the liquid into the breadcrumb-like mixture. Be gentle as you must be careful not to overwork the dough.
When you have created a rough dough, wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for an hour or more. You can prepare the pastry the day before if you’re feeling organized.
Preheat your oven to 180C
Ladle the stew into your shallow pie dish and place the oysters neatly so everyone will find some in his plate.
Use the beaten egg to eggwash the edges of the piedish.
Take your pastry out of the fridge and place it on a floured work surface. Now roll out the pastry about 1 cm thick and make sure it’s larger than your pie dish.
Now carefully pick up the pastry and place it over the pie dish. Trim off the edges of the pastry so you get a nice lid. Now crimp the edges by using your thumb or a fork so the pastry lid is closed tightly.
Decorate the pie lid if you like and eggwash generously before putting into the oven on one of the lower parts.
The pie should be nice and golden after 40-45 minutes.Serve with peas and carrots because you got to have peas and carrots with pie …

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Sussex stewed steak >
Jo’s Hotpot >
Chicken & taragon pie >

Sussex Stewed Steak on a wet winters day

13th January 2013 by Regula 24 Comments

Eight in the morning, a wet winters day in the Sussex countryside. The sun is rising over the marshes and fields but the pink glow is quickly washed away by grey clouds of rain …
I walk trough a typical crooked path where the tops of the ancient trees lean towards each other creating an archway over the road, nature’s chapel.
Blissfully relaxed I listen to the bustling sound of busy birds in the hedges. Holding my breath, counting robins, coal tits and wrens. They don’t even seem to notice or care that I’m standing there.
Then it quiets down, the moment has passed and I walk on.

When I am at home but I have lots and lots to do during the day and not enough time to prepare a lovely meal, a Sussex Stewed steak is my dish of choice.
It really is the easiest dish you can imagine and it comes out of the oven as a warming meal with elegant flavors to enjoy with guests or just for your own family with plenty of leftovers for the next day. The Stout, port and mushroom sauce used, create a mahogany sauce with a deep flavour sometimes – depending on which Stout you use- you find some chocolate notes, and however a humble dish it turns out to be a feast for the palate every time.

For this dish you should use the chuck of beef, an economical cut of meat that has a deep flavour after slowly cooking it for a few hours. It is one of my favourite cuts of meat, it doesn’t cost the earth so I go for the best quality meat I can find. I buy grass fed Black Angus but I would love to try it with Sussex Longhorn beef one day. I suspect the Sussex Longhorn or the Sussex Red, will have been the kind of breed used for this dish decades ago.

I couldn’t find when the recipe first came to be but it is has been cooked in Sussex and beyond by generations of women. The most famous of women connected to this dish must be Elizabeth David who featured her recipe for the Sussex Stewed steak in her book Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen.
All the recipes I found were all very similar, did they all originate from David’s recipe or is this a far older recipe. Why is it called Sussex Stewed Steak? Is it because David gave the dish its name while she was living is Sussex? Or is it named after the breed used to cook this dish, the Sussex Longhorn or Red … Jane Grigson features her version of the dish in her book ‘English food‘, although similar it explains more how to prepare this recipe.
I cooked four different -although all very similar- recipes over the months, and this is the one I feel is the best, adapted from David’s and Grigson’s recipe.

David as well as Grigson suggests to serve the Sussex stewed steak with mashed potatoes and large field mushrooms. After trying a few other vegetable sides and potatoes, I agree the ladies are of course right.
The Sussex Stewed steak indeed pairs wonderfully with creamy mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms.

Sussex stewed steak

What do you need

1 kg of chuck steak in one piece
Flour to dust the meat with
1 large onion, sliced in rings
half a cup of stout
half a cup of port
2 tablespoons of mushroom ketchup*
freshly ground black pepper

To serve
Mashed potatoes, nice and creamy
sauteed mushrooms, a large variety.

* You can buy Mushroom Ketchup from Budgens, if you can’t find it you can substitute it with red wine vinegar.

Method

Preheat your oven to 160° celsius
Dust the meat with the flour and place in a baking dish that is just a little larger than the meat. If your meat has some fat, place in the dish with the fatty side down.
Place the onion rings around the meat and a few on top.
Pour in the Stout, port and mushroom ketchup, you might think it is not enough liquid but don’t add any more than instructed. Trust me.
Season with freshly ground pepper
Cover the dish with tin foil
Put in the lower part of the oven for 3 hours then take off the tin foil leaving just a bit behind to only cover the top part of the meat. If your meat had a fatty side, turn it around now with the fat facing up this keeps the meat from drying out.
Let simmer in the oven for another hour, this gives the sauce a chance of thickening slightly as you will see it is very runny, it will also color the onions.

Enjoy with a good pint of Stout, Porter or Ale!

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Jo’s Lamb Hotpot >

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