We’ve known for a while that full-bodied, richly-flavored Lava is highly sought after by Scandinavian beer geeks and that Iceland’s beauty and culture are irresistible.  But did you know that Martha Stewart has also fallen for Lava and the Artic Isle?  On Tuesday, May 9, the Martha Stewart Iceland show aired on the Hallmark channel.  In addition to riding onto the set on a pony, speaking with Icelandic First Lady Dorrit Moussaieff, and contemplating waterfalls and Nordic cuisine, Martha gave Lava a shoutout – she thinks it should be a delicious addition to your your shopping list.

Also on the show was Chef Gunnar Gialason of Dill Restaurant, who prepared a delicious dish of dried fish with creamy butter and sea-salted hazelnuts.  This buttery appetizer is absolutely perfect with Lava.  But if you can’t get your hands on dried fish, Lava is also amazing with oysters, lobster and crayfish, arctic char, herring, sea urchin, halibut, gravlax, lamb, reindeer, rabbit and shark.  Add a handful of Icelandic herbs (angelica, dulse, sorrel, dock, yarrow, wild arctic thyme, juniper, crowberry, caraway, scurvywort, moss) to give your treat your tastebuds to true Nordic taste.

Stay tuned this week for more Icelandic recipes and treats!

Lambickx: excellent by itself and as exquisite accompaniment to food.  Salvatore Adamo: excellent by himself and as exquisite accompaniment to food.  Especially romantic dinners.

When it comes to beautiful lyrics and mood-setting music, you can’t get much better than Belgo-Italian crooner Salvatore Adamo.  Just as Lambickx is a blend of hand-picked young lambics that Don selects based on “complexity [and] brilliance,” so too is Adamo’s singing and composing informed by artists and styles that are complex and brilliant.  According to wikipedia:

Adamo’s early influences were the poetry of Victor Hugo, the music of French crooners such as Jacques Prévert or Georges Brassens, and the Italian canzonette. He started singing and composing his own songs from an early age. His debut was in a Radio Luxembourg competition, where he participated as singer and composer of the song “Si j’osais” (“If I dared”) winning the competition’s final held in Paris, in 14 February 1960.

And just as lambics – and Lambickx – must age and mature for optimal drinking quality, this singer has managed to age and mature gracefully for more than 40 years and enthralling audiences with his romantic style.

Adamo’s first hit: Sans toi, ma mie

Tombe la Neige

Kobe Desramaults is the head chef at In De Wulf (what a great name!), located in Danrouter, Belgium.  Lambickx pairs perfectly with his dish of lightly cured sea bass, radish, shellfish broth, and sloeberry vinegar.  But until Wendy returns to the US with Kobe’s cookbook in hand, we are recipe-less.

But in place of a recipe, I thought I’d share a few facts about Kobe’s culinary genius.  In De Wulf sits in the place of Kobe’s childhood home, which evolved from a cottage, to a brasserie, to an inn.  Kobe studied under some of the world’s best contemporary chefs - Sergio Herman and Carles Abellán – then returned home to transform his mother’s restaurant into a Michelin-star winning establishment.  In De Wulf received its first Michelin star in 2005, making Kobe the youngest Michelin starred chef in Belgium; to date, In De Wulf now boasts two Michelin stars.  Recently, Kobe has been named one of the top 100 chefs in the world, and at 31, he is among the youngest.

Kobe’s cooking focuses on bringing out the best in local ingredients, no matter the season.  In his own words:

“Every day there’s something changing. It’s to be found in some little things like the scent of the first elders bringing me directly back to my childhood, the wild dock leaves in the talus, the glance of the first blackberries…

It’s the same feeling a want to reflect in my kitchen. The menu doesn’t change every season but when the time is right. I call it ‘organic kitchen’ because I have to adjust it to the things happening around us. The menu never changes from dish to dish… I see it as a never ending project. Every day there is worked and puzzled on. Adapted but never feigned. It especially has to be ‘real’, sometimes brutal, soft, just natural. Being honest of who we are and where we are as the biggest challenge.”

In Kobe’s spirit, why not improvise a dish out of local ingredients?  Let us know what
amazing dish you have created, and since Lambickx dazzles with most food pairings, try it with your creation and let us know what you think!

Follow Kobe on Twitter (@kobewulf) and prepare to be tantalized, scintillated, and culinarily inspired by both his tweets and this beautiful video of In De Wulf’s offerings:

Lambickx™ is Vanberg & Famille’s brand of hand-selected and blended lambics. Every Lambic with the Lambickx™ name is made from casks personally tasted and chosen by Don Feinberg, one of the first importers of Belgian beer to America and founder of the first Belgian-only brewery in the U.S. Don chooses his Lambics for their complexity, brilliance and drinking excellence both by themselves and as exquisite accompaniments to food.

Luckily for stateside lambic-lovers, Don and Wendy were just at Brouwerij De Troch (the source of the traditional lambics used in Lambickx and Lambrucha), blending new editions of both Lambickx and Lambrucha.  According to Wendy, the newest batch of Lambickx “demonstrates how very complex, aromatic, delicious, and different almost all lambics can be”; Lambickx’s Ratebeer reviewers seem to agree.  Shipping soon from Belgium and coming to the West Coast for the first time!

The first time I tried Contessa, I was eating dinner at the Farmhouse, happily munching on cheese curds and salad in between sips of this refreshing Italian Pale Ale.  “Crisp, floral, good beer,” I remember thinking to myself, followed by, “could use some chicken.”  Unfortunately, my stomach was too full to make use of my latter insight, but I went home very full and very happy with my first Italian beer experience.

During the next few weeks, I didn’t think much about Contessa – other than wanting more of it – until Wendy told me the story behind the label.  And since then, I haven’t come across a beer label with such a romantic, sad, and poignant story.  The short version: star crossed lovers forbidden to wed, secret trysts in a meadow, the woman forced to marry against her will, the heartbroken man driven to join and ultimately die the Crusades, the heartbroken woman fleeing to a convent to spend the rest of her days.  I do the story a grave injustice by summarizing it so curtly; you can read the full version on the Contessa page.

This story brings me to this week’s music and beer pairing: Contessa and Giusy Ferreri.  This Italian singer-songwriter – and the runner up in the first Italian edition of the X Factor – is a powerful, soulful vocalist who transitioned from television celebrity to pop diva with her single, “Non Ti Scordar Mai Di Me” (“Don’t You Ever Forget About Me“).  Judging by the music video, the motivation behind the song -  a jilted lover – is certainly different from story behind the beer label, but the sentiment is certainly the same.  And though the song is, ultimately, a sad one, the accompaniment is deceptively upbeat; it is as if the backdrop to Giusy Ferreri’s is full of “sugary caramel notes” that “yield to [the] sweet bitter” of her voice.

Oh, and to bring everything full circle: toward the end of the video (around 2:52), an angry Giusy Ferreri digs into a chicken dish (the kind I wish I had eaten at Farmhouse) meant for two.  Giusy, I agree – breakup chicken is much more fulfilling than breakup pizza and ice cream.  But just think about how much more delicious that chicken would have been with Contessa.

Non Ti Scordar Mai Di Me (Don’t You Ever Forget About Me)

More music videos for your viewing and listening pleasure:

Novembre

La Scala

Spéciale Belge, Brasserie Dupont’s first collaboration in its 166 year history, is the featured beer of Philly Beer Week.  It will debut during the Opening Ceremonies at Independence Hall on June 1, 2012 in the presence of Mayor Nutter; starting June 10, the beer will be available coast to coast.

But how did this momentous collaboration come about?

For those of you who do not know Philly well, Tom Peters is one of the nation’s leading publican proponents of Belgian beers and is the proprietor of Monk’s (and several other notable spots).  In recognition of his contributions, he was inducted into the Belgian Brewers’ Guild in 2004 (Don and I were the first Americans ever inducted… a decade earlier).

Back in the early winter of 2011, Tom  - a co-chair of Philly Beer Week (PBW) – called us to ask a “spéciale” favor.  He had a fond wish to convince Olivier Dedeycker, of Brasserie Dupont, to brew their first ever collaboration beer for this year’s beer extravaganza in the City of Brotherly Love.  Dupont is one of Tom’s favorite breweries, and he considers Saison Dupont to be the absolute benchmark of the saison style.  Additionally, he’s a fan of spéciale belge, a Belgian amber beer style that dates back to 1905.  He asked us to help make the case to Olivier – which we were happy to do – as well as that  a smoky version of spéciale belge be brewed.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2012.  Each year,  PBW holds a contest in which home brewers buy a raffle ticket in hopes of winning a free trip to the brewery where the PBW collaboration beer of the year will be brewed.  In addition, contest winners get to choose a local brewer to accompany them on the trip.  This year’s winner was Joe Masciandaro, a member of the Barley Legal Homebrew club.  His local brewer of choice was Chris Lapierre (Lappy), a well regarded brewer who operates out of Iron Hill’s brewpub in Maple Shade.  Iron Hill has won many medals in US competitions and was a worthy honoree.

Don and I arrived in Belgium in mid-February, and within a few days, the PBWdelegation made their appearance for the brew day at Dupont. We met them there at the crack of dawn. Literally (see left). All was ready for the big day. This year, PBW had a wonderful writer and the Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic in tow to chronicle the delegation’s entire voyage, and especially the Dupont brew day.  We absolutely urge you to read writer Craig Laban‘s article on brew day and stay tuned for more of his writing when the beer arrives in Philly; a few tidbits of his brew day observations are excerpted below:

“Tradition and history – and simplicity in recipes – are the philosophy of this house,” says Dedeycker. As proof, he brings out two frayed brewing logs, elegantly scribed 110 years ago by his grandfather, Sylva Rosier. Dedeycker turns to these first whenever he needs inspiration for a “new” beer. His excellent Monk’s Stout is a prime example. As is the Spécial Belge, the collaboration that is simmering away next door. Coordinated by Dupont’s pioneering importers Don Feinberg and Wendy Littlefield of Vanberg & DeWulf, it is the product of two years of conceptual discussions with Peters, and LaPierre offering fine-tuning input, too.

“I already have a test-batch here, do you want to taste?” says Dedeycker, who holds up a glass with an amber brew. It will be darker once made against the caramelizing heat of the larger copper kettle. The smoke will be dialed-up an extra notch, too. Peters chimes in swiftly: “It’ll be my first beer of the day!”

After touring the brewery, having a tasting of Dupont beers, a lunch at La Forge (where Olivier’s elementary school classmate in Tourpes mans the stove), and a visit to the local malterie that supplies the barley (smoked and not), the crew piled back into the brew house to witness the ceremony of adding hops. This was performed by Lapierre and Masciandaro. We apologize for the crappy photo, as the lens got steamed up:

We will let Craig’s evocative reporting take it from here:

The finishing hops

It was just after 3 p.m., and the group had returned from a tavern lunch of braised rabbit and a field trip to the local maltery, where toasty puffs of roasting-barley smoke streamed into the sky.

The collaboration beer is roiling inside the kettles, a rich and biscuity foam rising nearly to the top. It is time to add the finishing hops so this Spéciale can begin to cool and start its fermentation. About 200 kegs and 1,300 bottles are to be shipped in time for a June 1 debut at Philly Beer Week’s Opening Tap.

While the rest of the crew gather around the kettle for the finale, Reed sneaks up creaky wooden stairs to the attic, where the kettle’s vent pipe opens up in the floor. As LaPierre and Masciandaro in tandem grab buckets of English Bramling Cross hops and slowly dump them in below, Reed reaches his hand to cover the hole.

As green hops hit the brew, a gust of beer steam billows into the room around Reed, with the vivid smell of black currants, hay, and lemon. Slowly, it evaporates through the gaps and holes in Brasserie Dupont’s terra-cotta-tiled roof and drifts across the frigid Belgian countryside, west toward the Atlantic.It was just after 3 p.m., and the group had returned from a tavern lunch of braised rabbit and a field trip to the local maltery, where toasty puffs of roasting-barley smoke streamed into the sky.

The collaboration beer is roiling inside the kettles, a rich and biscuity foam rising nearly to the top. It is time to add the finishing hops so this Spéciale can begin to cool and start its fermentation. About 200 kegs and 1,300 bottles are to be shipped in time for a June 1 debut at Philly Beer Week’s Opening Tap.

While the rest of the crew gather around the kettle for the finale, Reed sneaks up creaky wooden stairs to the attic, where the kettle’s vent pipe opens up in the floor. As LaPierre and Masciandaro in tandem grab buckets of English Bramling Cross hops and slowly dump them in below, Reed reaches his hand to cover the hole.

As green hops hit the brew, a gust of beer steam billows into the room around Reed, with the vivid smell of black currants, hay, and lemon. Slowly, it evaporates through the gaps and holes in Brasserie Dupont’s terra-cotta-tiled roof and drifts across the frigid Belgian countryside, west toward the Atlantic.

I am posting this little travel update from Livorno. Our room at the NH Grand Hotel Palazzo overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Livorno

We lunched at Ristorante Miramare in Marina di Castagneto Carducci, not far from Bolgheri (about 50 km from Livorno). Incredibly beautiful day and magnificent lunch of pasta with shellfish and salad. It is warm enough that people are swimming in the sea. We had to have a glass of Bolgheri, the famous local white wine so we could better appreciate the splendor and particularity of Doppia Vecchia Bastarda, Birra Amiata‘s vintage heirloom chestnut beer aged in Bolgheri barrels. We learned that the chef has consulted with Lidia Bastianich about Liguria’s cuisine, a cuisine we will come to know better when we have dinner with our friends Claudio Cerullo (one half of Amiata’s brewing brother duo) and his wife Patricia. They have promised us a Livornese fish feast!

Working backwards, we reached Italy and the village of Arcidosso on Monday. We have been spending time in the company of the very loving, talented, hardworking and thoughtful Claudio and Gennaro Cerullo and their families, eating together, visiting the brewery, touring the little hill towns on foot, and of course drinking the local wines and beers!  It poured rain when we lunched at the Cerullo house on European Labor Day (May 1) but that did not put the slightest damper on a great meal prepared by Carla and Sophia. 

We stayed at a sweet little inn: Locanda del Prete which the owner (Carlo Innocenti) renovated himself. 

He is a former adman, cameraman, and he even ran a discoteque. Now, in addition to the inn, he operates a cooking school in his 25 room house near the castello of Arcidosso. His wife Pascale is an architectural designer from Paris – a former model for Armani and Versace. That is a picture of our lunch below – not Pascale!

Carlo gave us a little recipe book from the cooking school. The recipe and sentiment come from him, the beer pairing from us.  Because the Crocus beer from Amiata contains saffron, we thought it would be delightful paired with risotto.  Crocus will be coming in later in the year.  In the meantime, substitute a glass of Contessa or a Montepulciano wine.

Risotto a Funghi Porcini (Risotto with Porcini mushrooms)

During the spring and fall in Tuscany and Arcidosso, people venture out into the woods of Monte Amiata in search of the rare to find and prestigious porcini. In order to preserve the mushroom for the rest of the year, many dry them, then use them to prepare pasta sauces and risotto.

INGREDIENTS

17 ounces of Arborio rice
2 handfuls of dried procini mushrooms
1 chopped onion
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Warm water
Salt & Pepper

PREPARATION

Place the dry porcini mushrooms in a bowl and cover with warm water. Let them soak for at least 30 minutes. Using a strainer, get rid of all the sediment in the water.  Do not throw away the water since you’ll use it in the risotto.  Using your hands, squeeze the mushrooms to get rid of the excess water. Meanwhile, finely chop the onions and place in the medium sized pot with some olive oil. Add the mushrooms with a little water. Cook at low to medium heat stirring continuously. Add the rice and then some more water. Keep stirring the rice and adding warm water to the pot. Add salt and pepper.  Once the rice is al dente, the risotto is ready. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

The team at Ristorante Miramare in Marina di Castagneto Carducci

Savory, sweet, and succulent, roasted chicken pairs well with a range of beers, and especially well with Contessa.  Contessa’s sweet and bitter American hops complement the savory herbs, and the beer’s sugary caramel notes add dimension to this simple, flavorful dish.  And if you pick up an especially plump chicken, Contessa’s carbonation and hops will help cleanse the palate of chicken grease.

This herb roasted chicken and roasted baby root vegetables recipe is from Emeril Lagasse.  Photo credit goes to Food Network.

Ingredients

Herb Roasted Chicken:

1 (3 1/2 to 4-pound) whole chicken
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon chopped thyme leaves
1/2 tablespoon chopped sage leaves
2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves (reserve the parsley stems)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 lemon, quartered
2 bay leaves


Baby Root Vegetables:
1/4 pound baby turnips, peeled and stem ends trimmed
1/4 pound baby red carrots, peeled and stem ends trimmed
1/4 pound orange carrots, peeled and stem ends trimmed
1/4 pound baby golden beets, peeled and stem ends trimmed
1/4 pound baby beets, peeled and stem ends trimmed
1/4 pound fingerling potatoes, halved
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

Contessa is an “Italian Pale Ale” that evokes “summer in Tuscany under a full moon.”  It features herbal, floral and citrus aromas of tangerine and grapefruit. The sugary caramel notes yield to sweet bitter American hops. There is a subtle lilt of chestnut and the finish is attenuated.  It is made with water from the aqueduct of the Fiora, which springs from volcanic origins and passes through porous rock.

The lovely Contessa on the label is The Countess of Prato, a tragic figure in the history of Tuscany and legends of love. Prato (translation: the lawn of the Countess) sits on a large plateau on the slopes of Mount Amiata, for which the brewery is named. Prato is surrounded by majestic beech woods, heirloom chestnut groves, and fragrant pine forests.

In the Middle Ages, Count Aldobrandeschi fell in love with the Contessa.  As with Romeo and Juliet, their romance was star crossed. Forbidden to wed, the two young lovers would secretly meet in her meadow, embraced by the boughs of beech trees, and shielded from prying eyes. But the boughs could not protect them forever, and the countess was forced to marry against her will. The heartbroken count joined the Crusades, roaming lands far and wide in an attempt to forget his beloved.  But each night, until his death on the battlefield, he dreamed of her.  When the countess learned of her lover’s death, she took refuge in a convent until the end of her days.  Although their story ends unhappily, their love was so strong that some claim on warm summer evenings, you can see the ghosts of the two lovers traversing the “Lawn of the Countess.”

Great with Food

We love Contessa with spit roasted lamb and chicken, rustic soups, artisan cheeses like Taleggio and Pecorino, and citrus sorbets.

About the brewers

A fortuitous encounger with Amiata’s brewer at a Lambic café in Eizeringen, Belgium in February 2011 sped Wendy and Don to Tuscany and led them to import Vanberg & DeWulf’s first Italian artisanal beers.  Birra Amiata’s brewers – brothers Claudio and Gennaro Cerullo – are making beer in an adorable brewery in the poetic setting of Arcidosso near Monte Amiata amidst chestnut forests and vineyards. The Cerullo brothers are producing exceptionally balanced Belgian-influenced beers with a rare Tuscan delicacy of spicing that puts focus on local and indigenous ingredients — Amiata heirloom chestnuts, Marruca honey, Maremma saffron, and even local crocus.

Wendy and Don have just arrived in Italy – expect updates from Il Belpaese soon!

Among other things, Binche, located in the Belgian province of Hainut, is famous for their local pancakes, known as doubles.  Made with both flour and buckwheat flour, as well as a dash of Binchoise beer (or, in this case, Pêche Mel) the pancakes are stacked and filled with a strong Belgian cheese.

Double Binchoise pancakes

Recipe and photo from the Belgian Tourist Office

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes

Ingredients (serves 6; yield: 12 pancakes) 
400g buckwheat flour
250ml blonde Binchoise beer or Pêche Mel
300ml milk
1 ripe Boulette or Herve Piquant cheese
100g butter or lard
6 eggs

Preparation

Make the pancake batter by beating together the buckwheat flour, eggs, beer and 25g of melted butter or lard in a bowl.

Let the batter rest in the refrigerator for 30 mins, then make the pancakes in a frying pan coated with melted butter or lard.

Spread a pancake with the cheese, then make a sandwich with another pancake on top and fry these double pancakes until the cheese melts.

Serve the double pancake on a plate and place a knob of butter on top to melt into it. Season sparingly with salt and pepper.