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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Sausage and Bean Stew & Pelforth Brune

Christ, where did that sun go? Yorkshire's been battered by winds, rain and the air has turned almost Autumnal; fresh, crisp and decidedly chilly. Pavlovian, almost, thoughts turn to heartier fare than I should really be eating at this time of the year.

To whip up a quick Sausage & Bean Stew, begin by sweating down a large onion in some Olive oil and a knob of butter to avoid burning. Add to that some lardons or chopped, smoked Bacon. When the bacon has cooked a little, add a touch more oil and some Sausagemeat. I recommend popping two types out of their skins; a rough-textured, herby one - such as Lincolnshire, and then a spicy one; any Tuscan, Merguez or Chilli sausages will do. Split out into little balls, and cook them until they brown. Finally, add some chopped Mushrooms.

When the Sausage is cooked, add a couple of tins of Chopped Tomatoes, 2 tins of Butter Beans (or indeed any beans you like) and stir well. Add 5 large cloves of minced or pressed Garlic, a squeeze of tomato puree, salt, black pepper, and some chopped Sage. Simmer until the sauce has thickened to your liking and serve with some suitably Rustic bread.

To drink, we put away a couple of bottles of Pelforth Brune (6.5%abv). Pelforth were founded in 1914 in France, but now resides comfortably in Heineken's stable, alongside the likes of Affligem and Zagorka. Get past the impossibly-cute 25cl bottle and the even-more-impossibly cute Pelican label, and you've got a sweet Belgian Brown ale, with Vanilla, Oak and Roast coffee on the nose. It's a smooth, very sweet beer, with the same hints of oak in the taste but with a slightly drying, black-cherry note at the end of the sip. It's not massively refined by any means, but a pleasant enough beer and more than a match for the robust flavours of the stew. There's a Blonde in the range too, but I found that incredibly thin and bland; not The Good Stuff at all!

7 comments:

Ghost Drinker said...

Something tells me the bottle sizes let them down a slight. The first time I tried the blond and the brune they were in some impressive looking 66cl (or 50cl I think) bottles and were very tasty - and as we know the bigger the bottle the better the beer. If there's any non-believers out there of this - try a 33cl Chimay Red side by side with a 75cl Chimay Red.

Leigh said...

Interesting point, dude!

arn said...

Pretty much an identical recipe to the one i do, (minus the mushrooms = satan's snot balls!)-
must put it on next weeks meal list i think. Yum.

Leigh said...

Arn - mushrooms rule! And yes, it's a simple, basic recipe. And I've actually featured it a couple of times before in various guises....

Karen said...

I had a similar effort last week: http://idontjustmakesoup.blogspot.com/2011/05/feeding-post-holiday-blues.html

More veg and less sausage though - as I'm constantly trying to save money!

Mark, Real-Ale-Reviews.com said...

If the weather is even vaguely autumnal, actually, just not-tropical, then I'm making this at the weekend. Beer Ritz, here I come for Pelforth (a great garden beer and impossibly cute, indeed)

Leigh said...

thanks Mark; let me know how you get on!