Patrick Rue

 

After tasting Patrick Rue’s beers at GABF, I was inspired to think of ways to pair foods that would complement The Bruery’s unique and food friendly brews.  Hearing Patrick on The BN, I invited him over to share some of my food thoughts with him.  The following recipe would go great with their Trade Winds , a Tripel style ale infused with Thai basil.

 

Thai Inspired Pumpkin Coconut Holiday Ale Soup

With the time change of Fall, hard squashes, holiday ales and lots of spices enter our kitchens.  Bringing these different ingredients together creates a soul warming soup that captures the time of year was the goal of this recipe.  Taking an unorthodox approach to season this soup, I created a Thai paste brings heat from chilies, spices like kafir lime leaves, nutmeg, cumin and coriander, plus ginger, garlic, shallots and white peppercorns.  These flavors work to add lots of character to this soup that can be used as a starter or served as a main course.

Serves: 10 as a starter or 4 as an entree

Ingredients:
    
2          tablespoons     peanut oil
2          each                   yellow onion, medium sized, peeled and sliced    
4          each                   shallots, peeled and sliced
¼ - ½   cup                     Thai paste (see attached recipe)
29        ounce                 pumpkin puree
12        ounce                 coconut milk
32        ounce                 Anderson Valley’s Winter Solstice
1          each                    tangerine, freshly juiced
        
                                         Toasted pumpkin seeds for garnish
                                         Anderson Valley’s Winter Solstice Foam
                                         Cyrus Black Flaked Salt


Directions:

In a medium sized pot over medium heat, add peanut oil.  Once the oil starts to ripple with heat, add onions and shallots, stirring often too lightly caramelize, about 7-9 minutes.  Add the Thai paste (or store bought version to your tastes.  If using a store version, add only a few teaspoons as it is usually stronger in flavor and has more heat), stirring to combine and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the pumpkin, coconut milk and ale, bringing to a simmer.  Cook the soup for 15-20 minutes.  Purée soup with either a hand blender (for a more coarse consistency), food processor or a blender (for a very smooth texture).  Adjust seasonings with either more Thai paste for more spice/heat or salt and pepper and add tangerine juice.  Serve into bowls, and garnish with pumpkin seeds, ale foam and Cyrus Black Flaked Salt. 


Finish Soup   

 

To make the foam, add 4 ounces of beer to a container that is wide enough to fit a hand blender into the base.  Add 1 teaspoon of Lecite from El Buli Texturas line or Will Power LECITHIN.  Both are a soy lecithin powder that will create a stable foam.  Using a hand blender, froth for 1-2 minutes to create foam head, similar to Belgium lace.  Let mixture sit for 1 minute before serving, to let any liquid in the foam fall out of suspension.  Spoon on top of each bowl.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        
Sean Z. Paxton is The Homebrew Chef. For more information, questions, comments or suggestions, please contact Sean at sean@homebrewchef.com or visit www.homebrewchef.com.