Putting together a beer dinner..

[andy77]

Putting together a beer dinner for friends. A couple beer people, a couple not. They are, however, all foodies. I'm stealing shamelessly from Sean Paxton...wouldn't you? My idea is very small plates with 4oz beer pairings. Please offer help on recipes, pairings, comments on what a pretentious ass I am, etc. etc...


1: Butter Poached Lobster, thinly sliced, over Baguette french toast, with Tripel Karmeliet garlic Alioli and drizzled with an EVOO herb oil.
Beer Pairing: Affligem Blonde, Homebrewed Classic American Pils

2: Mixed green Frisee micro salad with Belgian Candi sugar candied bacon bits under a fried quail egg.
Beer Pairing: Affligem Trippel

3. Pan seared duck breast with wild mushroom, shallot and Delirium Nocturnam demi-glace (sauce) on a small plate.
Beer Pairing: Delerium Nocturnum, Stone Levitation

4. Sour beer and mixed cheeses. I plan to select several heavy, aromatic cheeses for this course to balance the sourness of the beer pairing.
Beer Pairing: Russian River Supplication.

5. IPA Shrimp & Scallop stack: Medium shrimp and scallops sauteed with tomatillos, habanero and IPA over jasmine rice. This is a standby beer recipe since I heard about it on Basic brewing, and might not fit in this menu. What do you think?
Beer Pairing: Firestone Walker Union Jack, FW Pale Ale 31

6. Kreik/Lambic brown sugar and whole fresh cherry (butter) sauce over vanilla ice cream.
-or-
Spaten Optimator, brown sugar and raisin (butter) sauce over vanilla ice cream
Beer Pairing: Three Philosophers or Spaten Optimator.

[CaribouBill]

One of my favorita Paxton dishes was the Pan Seared Scallops.

2 or 3 Large Scallops, seared in butter (I think it was butter, but duck fat would work) until about med-rare.
Served on a Parsnip/DeRanke XX Bitter puree and sprinkled with Fennel Pollen. I think there were slices of
sauteed fennel as well. Garnished with edible flowers.

Served with XX Bitter.

Sean....correct me if I did not recall correctly....I was a bit drunk at Eb's

[andy77]

First off: Bill, F-you that you got to go to that great dinner at Ebeneezer's that I only got to read about.

I like the look of that scallop recipe, but a guest for my dinner is allergic, so scallops are a no go.

I did a dry run last night with the lobster course, the salad and dessert. The salad didn't work so well, so will probably be replaced, but the lobster course was just great. As it stands now, I'm going to stick with the lobster course as an appetizer, followed with a heirloom tomato, mozzarella and avocado stack drizzled with a Belgian Candi sugar and balsamic reduction. I'd follow with a heavy cheese course paired with Rodenbach, and then the duck under mushroom sauce in the orig menu. Followed with the doppelbock recipe with ice cream also in the orig menu. There's pics of that, too, and it was really great.

My wife was sober enough to take pics for our dry run last night. She got pics of the lobster and the dessert. Both were effing great.

[dale]

This dinner may be over, if not, I would consider, for dessert, more of a foster style dish. Try melting 1/3 stick or so of butter in a saute pan, peel and slice bananas the long way, saute a couple minutes, sprinkle your brown sugar over the top, sautee a minute or so, add 1/2 cup of good rum, preferably dark, bring to boil, REMOVE FROM HEAT, and put a match to it (be careful) wait for flameout, add a little good quality vanilla, serve over icecream. Pair it with a warm chocalate or oatmeal stout.
I know you said you tried the raison sauce and it was good, but raisons and ice cream seem like to much of a texture contrast

[bcmaui]

Things certainly change in 22 years - Bakersfield was not a culinary hot spot back in the 80's when I lived in California, at least not that I was aware of.

You have a much better beer selection there than I do at the moment.