Intensifying food experience with the right beer By Roger Mittag |
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If you’ve read this column before, you know that one of my deepest passions is the pairing of beer and food. Recently, at one of my beer events, one of my clients asked me whether this ever gets boring. Are you kidding? I have the good fortune to be able to travel the country, meet fantastic people and enjoy incredible food and beer. Man, it just doesn’t get any better!
I think a lot of people often give lip service to matching the right food with the right drink, but it actually works. Case in point; I had lunch a couple of weeks ago with a local brewery representative, after we did some draught troubleshooting. We were enjoying a lovely glass of Blanche De Chambly and each of us ordered something for lunch. I ordered a crab burger that came with a spicy salsa made with cilantro (a perfect match, I might add) and he revelled in the locale’s Bison Burger that came fully equipped with cheese, bacon and a fried egg. We talked about food pairings and I suggested that the best match for his lunch would be an Okanagan Spring Pale Ale. The Pale Ale arrived about halfway through lunch and when he chased a bite of the burger with a generous sip of Okanagan Spring, his eyes lit up and the epiphany came. “I can’t believe how much better the burger was with the right beer,” he exclaimed. This is the kind of statement that just turns my crank.
The good weather brings a lot of benefits – entertaining on the deck, grilling with friends and just an overall satisfaction of being Canadian. Summer, food and beer … My wife found a recipe called Adobo Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Black Bean Pico De Gallo. This godsend comes from a book called Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Rena and it totally blew me away. The original recipe comes from Jim Gallivan from Red Mountain Spa in St. George, Utah. Stay tuned for my beer choice.
Ingredients:
Pork
- 6 tbsp paprika
- 2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp coarse salt
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 pinches cayenne pepper
- 24 oz pork tenderloin, trimmed, cut into 3- to 4-oz pieces
- 1/2 cup arugula, loosely packed
Pico de gallo
- 2 cups cooked black beans
- 4 medium tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 cup diced red onion
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tbsp minced jalapeño pepper
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Preparation:
Pork
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In small bowl, mix paprika, black pepper, salt, chili powder, sugar, and cayenne.
- Rub both sides of each tenderloin piece with spice mixture.
- Preheat oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat and pan-sear pieces until golden brown on both sides.
- Transfer to oven until done (6 to 8 minutes for each inch of thickness).
Pico de gallo
- To make pico de gallo, mix all ingredients.
- Serve 1/2 cup over tenderloin.
