Beef in a Beer Sauce

If there's one thing I love just as much as food and drink pairing, it's cooking with alcohol, as well. The flavour from cooking with alcohol is in a class of it's own. It's amazing how adding such a simple ingredient to your pot or casserole can bring your dish to new life.

Of course, the OCD part of me took over when it came to choosing which beer to use so I researched beer that goes with beef or steak. Porter and IPA were my first choices but I could only get AndUnion's amber ale as second best option. I wasn't disappointed, luckily.

For someone who is still learning to drink other bitter alcohols like beer, whiskey and brandy, this beer was quite an easy drinker for me. But I can still only do small amounts before the taste gets unbearable. Baby steps and I'll be a pro beer/whiskey/brandy drinker just like I drink my wine.

Oil for frying

550g-1kg minute steaks, sliced into strips, however chunky you like them

Steak spice

30ml butter

2 onions halved and sliced

1 heaped tablespoon of flour

300ml beef stock

200ml beer

Thyme

Mashed potatoes and a vegetable of your choice, to serve.

(Chad made us his tomato and French bean stew. It's amazing)

• Heat a frying pan over high heat. Once it's hot, add a little oil and fry the meat, coating it qith the steak spice. Stir-fry until browned and remove from the heat. Set aside. 
• Heat the butter in the same pan and cook the onion over slightly lowered heat until golden brown. Stir in the flour.
• Add the stock gradually, stirring continuously then add the beer and thyme. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until thickened. stirring periodically.
• Add the meat to the gravy and season to taste. Serve with mash and veggies. 

LadiSmith Cellar 2012 Towerkop Sauvignon Blanc

Sometimes there's more to life than just choosing the right wine to go with your meal. Sometimes it's really fun to choose a wine and then let the entire meal revolve around that. It first started when I wanted to go back to basics and do a simple wine and cheese pairing; a sauvignon blanc with feta. It all snowballed from there.

So, when I said this to Chad he went into feta mode. About a year ago we had dinner at Il Gusto for our anniversary and he had squid tubes stuffed with feta. Ever since then he's been obsessed with making that at home and half a year later we finally did.

Of course, never having made this before I automatically assumed the responsibility of resident recipe researcher and took to Pinterest for inspiration. Naturally, the recipes for on the braai is what stood out. We basically just looked for cooking methods rather than fillings as Chad was already dead set on a feta stuffing. But just feta is rather bland so we zazzed it up a bit by adding olives to two and sun-dried tomatoes to the other two and with squid tubes not being enough for a meal we added a lemon and herb haddock in foil to the menu.

As we waited for the coals to reach optimum braaing temperature Chad prepared the squid and haddock. He melted butter and added to it lemon and herbs and basted the haddock with it. 

After putting the squid and haddock on the braai we sat outside and enjoyed a light snack of ciabatta bread dipped in lemon oil and some of the left over feta with the wine. 

Dinner is served and we learned a lot from this meal. Like letting them go not quit as long next time as the tubes were just slightly rubbery and next time using danish feta or any other mushy filling as all the juices seeped out of the tubes during the braaing. I also made roast potatoes and a green salad as a side but the meal is so rich and filling that we can cut out the potatoes and have a completely carb-free meal next time round. 

All in all it was a successfully delicious meal and we are very much looking forward to perfecting it.

Robertson 2014 Gewurztraminer & Pear and Ginger Cheesecake

It’s interesting how unique all of our bodies are, especially our palates and food tolerance levels. Chad has been training me for about a year now to tolerate spicier foods and I’ve got to say it’s been paying off nicely. I’m always pleased as punch whenever I can add more food options to my diet.

The irony of this is when I made this cheesecake. I was happily scoffing down bite after bite when Chad put his plate down unfinished and stated that the ginger was burning his throat. Given the fact that he isn’t exactly fond of ginger, I just found it funny that it was burning him ut not me. I was fine. I actually paused for a minute when he said it so I could feel if it was burning me as well,but I felt nothing.

I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. Chad, the king of spice, defeated by a ginger cheesecake. Michelle, his apprentice, victorious over the master.

Pear & Ginger Cheesecake

400g Bakers Gingernuts, crushed              125ml caster sugar

125ml butter, melted                     1 egg

1 can pears, diced                               250ml sour cream

250g creamed cottage cheese                   15ml lemon juice

15-30ml ginger powder

          Heat the oven to 150C. Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter and press into a greased cake tin. Place the pears on top of the crust and set aside.

          Beat the cottage cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the egg and process again. Add the sour cream, lemon juice and ginger powder and process to combine.

          Pour the filling over the pears and crust and bake for 1 ½ hours or until the filling is set. Chill well before serving.