Cork that Bordeaux and pour a cold one

Most of us have long thought of beer as the ideal companion to pizza, burgers, barbecue and ethnic cuisines considered difficult to match with wine. Indian food? We go for the Kingfisher. Thai? Bring on the Singha. Chinese seafood? Tsing Tao, of course.

But with the growth of the craft brewery movement and the availability of spectacular beers from around the world comes what may sound like a radical idea: Beer is a superb accompaniment to serious food.

The idea has been catching on with a growing number of Los Angeles chefs. At the LAX Four Points Sheraton’s Palm Grill, beer dinners have become such popular events that the Sheraton is known to local beer aficionados as “the beer hotel.” At Belmont Brewing Co. in Long Beach, chef Freddy Alvarez recently matched orangy-tart Petrus Triple Ale from Belgium with lobster and snow crab soup, and complex, bitter 7th Anniversary Ale from Stone Brewing Co. of San Marcos, Calif., with buffalo short ribs and wild mushroom ragout in puff pastry.

Beer in its various guises, from light pilseners to fruity ales to rich porters and stouts, brings a wide spectrum of flavors to the table. You also can also with beer, just as you can with wine; it’s a terrific way to build bridges between the flavors of the food and the flavors of what’s in the glass.

Sang Yoon, formerly the executive chef at Michael’s, is one who recognizes the potential. Yoon left Michael’s in 2000 to buy Father’s Office, one of L.A.’s premier beer bars. Although Father’s Office’s signature dish is a hamburger (albeit a much-lauded one), Yoon also loves to serve beer with duck breast with porcini mushrooms and huckleberry reduction or pork daube braised in oatmeal stout.

“It’s not more difficult to pair good beer with food than it is wine,” says Yoon. “When you learn to evaluate wine, you consider such things as fruitiness, balance, aromatics, finish -- and it’s the same with beer.” Hops provide the “bite,” much as tannins do in wine, while malt imparts mouth-filling fruitiness.

Groundbreaking as it sounds, the carefully considered pairing of beers with cuisine is a centuries-old practice in Belgium, for example, where wild pheasant can hardly be imagined without a soft, spicy Antwerp ale beside it.

A scholarly and readable book, “The Brewmaster’s Table” by Garrett Oliver, beer maker at Brooklyn Brewery in New York, was released this year to the acclaim of beer aficionados. It seeks to codify which beers go well with which foods: spicy ales, for instance, with anything chilied, gingered or curried; and powerful barley wines (a type of beer) with lamb, venison and wild boar.

Typically, a beer dinner at Belmont Brewing Co. features a guest speaker and offers a range of beers from the same craft brewer or numerous examples from a brewing tradition, such as Belgian ales. A recent beer dinner at the LAX Four Points Sheraton’s Palm Grill honored the New Belgium Brewing Co. of Colorado. It featured a curried lemongrass-crusted swordfish salad matched with New Belgium’s hoppy, fruity Porch Swing Single Ale and a sorbet of the company’s Frambozen Raspberry Brown Ale as a palate cleanser between courses. (The New Belgium beers are available in the Bay Area but not yet in the L.A. region).

The challenge

To explore the affinity of beer with ambitious cuisine, the L.A. Times asked three esteemed local chefs to collaborate in preparing a multi-course meal and selecting two brews to complement each course. Yoon, chef at Father’s Office; Hans Rockenwagner, chef at Rockenwagner; and Dahlia Solomon, pastry chef at Campanile, took to the task with gusto.

Rockenwagner marinated black cod in beer and miso, choosing a Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse to accompany it. The beer is a prime example of a Bavarian hefeweizen: It’s a soft, delicate brew with an aroma of cloves, a hint of banana in the aftertaste and a tart finish. (This is the same beer he used to marinate the fish.) With its sprinkling of bonito flakes, the cod dish possesses a slight smokiness, “which, with the yeasty, slight sourness of the beer is a great combination,” Rockenwagner says. “This beer has almost a creamy consistency, the carbonation is so fine. You get the same thing with really good Champagnes.”

Another good choice with the dish is Hoegaarden Witbier, a spritzy, light-bodied Belgian wheat beer. It has a fetching aroma of citrus and coriander and a brisk, dry finish that nicely pierces the slight oiliness of the fish.

Yoon’s pork daube, braised in a combination of oatmeal stout, Russian imperial stout and brown veal stock and studded with large chunks of apple-wood-smoked bacon, is about as dense and savory a meat stew as you’re likely to encounter. Yoon points out that one of the differences between cooking with wine and cooking with beer is that beer is not acidic, and thus a dish prepared with it typically needs a jolt of vinegar to provide acidic brightness. In the daube recipe, Yoon includes four tablespoons of balsamic or Sherry vinegar.

The dessert quaff

To drink with the daube, Yoon loves Trois Pistoles, a powerful (9% alcohol) dark ale from Quebec brewer Unibroue. The beer has a pronounced aroma of ripe dark fruits and chocolate. “Heartier dishes,” Yoon says, “require maltiness in a beer,” and Trois Pistoles is deeply malty yet carries an effervescence that dances on the tongue.

The daube pairs nicely, too, with Anchor Porter from San Francisco. By comparison with Trois Pistoles, the Porter is silkier and has a more rounded mouth-feel. Its chocolaty aspect is more pronounced, although it finishes food-friendly dry, as does Trois Pistoles.

To some, the notion of beer with dessert may sound weird, but a wide range of sweet dishes finds apt companions in the bogglingly diverse world of beer. Solomon’s spicy, spongy ginger cake with beer-marinated dried fruit compote involves complex flavors that play nicely with a number of beer styles. Solomon suggests Negro Modelo, a semi-dark, light-bodied Mexican brew she uses in the dish.

Two more flavorful beers for the dessert are Rochefort #10, an intense Belgian ale, and Dogfish Head India Brown Ale. The Rochefort, with its wine-level alcohol content of 11.3%, is a mouth-filling brew with aromas and flavors reminiscent of stewed prunes and plums against a background of bittersweet chocolate. The India Brown Ale, at 7.2% alcohol, combines a touch of bitterness from hops with smoky malt and intimations of cinnamon and clove that suit it nicely to any sort of spiced cake.

Yoon discovered his tawny Port-and-Russian imperial stout “espresso” during a harried moment in the kitchen when he impulsively dumped a shot of the Port into a glass of stout he was sipping between tasks. He found that the port curbs the bitterness of the stout “just enough to make the coffee element in the beer pop out. It doesn’t work with any stout. It has to be a big, intense Russian imperial stout.”

Many oenophiles also appreciate fine brews. But in one aspect, wine and beer differ undeniably. Whereas a bottle of Chateau Latour, depending on its vintage, costs at least $150 in a wine shop and at least twice that in a restaurant, a bottle of the finest beer in the house -- in the world, even -- is unlikely to set a person back more than about 15 bucks.

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Brewing up a meal

What would the ultimate beer dinner be? We asked three beer-loving Los Angeles chefs -- Hans Rockenwagner, chef-owner of Rockenwagner, Sang Yoon, chef-owner of Father’s Office and Dahlia Solomon, pastry chef at Campanile -- to create a course and recommend two beers that complement it perfectly. Here’s their menu:

Appetizer (Hans Rockenwagner)

Miso- and beer-marinated black cod.

ranziskaner Hefe-Weisse (Germany) or Hoegaarden Witbier (Belgium).

Entree (Sang Yoon)

Daube de porc braised in oatmeal stout.

Unibroue Trois Pistoles (Canada) or Anchor Porter (California).

Dessert (Dahlia Solomon)

Ginger cakes with dried fruit and beer compote and whipped creme fraiche

Rochefort #10 Trappist Ale (Belgium) or Dogfish Head India Brown Ale (Delaware)

After-dinner drink (Sang Yoon)

Adult espresso nightcap, made of tawny port and North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout (California).

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Black cod marinated in miso and beer

Total time: 45 minutes plus 16 hours marinating time

Servings: 6

Note: From Hans Rockenwagner. Black cod also is known as sable fish or, if filleted, as butter fish. Serve with Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse or Hoegaarden Witbier.

1 cup red miso paste

3/4cup water

1 cup Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse beer

1 scant cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

6 (3 1/2- to 4-ounce) pieces of black cod, cleaned

12 medium shallots, peeled

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter, melted

2 cups frisee (yellow part only), cleaned

2 tablespoons bonita flakes

1. Whisk together the miso, water, beer, sugar, salt and pepper in a large nonreactive (glass or porcelain) bowl. Place the black cod in the miso mixture, making sure all sides of the fish are well covered with marinade. Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 16 hours.

2. Pan roast the shallots in the olive oil over low heat until browned and caramelized, about 20 minutes. Set aside.

3. Remove the cod from the refrigerator. Heat the broiler on high. Line a saute pan with aluminum foil and generously brush the foil with butter. Place the cod on the foil, skin side down, making sure not to remove all the miso marinade. The cod pieces should have a light coating of marinade all around and not touch each other.

4. Place the pan directly under the broiler. There should be about 1 1/2 inches between the fish and the heating element. Broil the cod for 7 to 10 minutes or until browned and cooked (the fish will appear flaky and soft). If the fish browns too fast, either reduce the temperature or, even better, lower the pan so it’s farther from the heating element.

5. Serve the cod immediately with the roasted shallots and frisee for garnish and texture. Sprinkle the finished dish with bonita flakes.

Each serving: 499 calories; 22 grams protein; 48 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams fiber; 24 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 61 mg. cholesterol; 2,262 mg. sodium.

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Ginger cakes with dried fruit and beer compote

Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Servings: Makes 14 little cakes

Note: From Dahlia Solomon at Campanile. Serve with Negro Modelo Dark Ale, Rochefort #10, or Dogfish Head India Brown Ale.

Compote

2 1/2cups plus 2 tablespoons Negra Modelo Dark Ale, divided

1 tablespoon whole yellow mustard seeds

1 cup sugar

1(1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled

1 vanilla bean

4 cups mixed dried fruit, sliced thin, any combination, for example:

1/2cup Calimyrna figs

1/2cup apricots

1/2cup peaches

1/2cup Italian prunes

1/2cup cherries

1/4cup each of currants and blueberries (leave small fruits whole)

2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Have the beer at room temperature. In a small saute pan, lightly heat 2 tablespoons of the beer plus the mustard seeds. Bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat and set aside.

2. Place the sugar and ginger in a 2-quart risotto pan. Open the vanilla bean pod and scrap out the seeds. Add the pod and seeds to the sugar and ginger. Add a bit of water (about 2 tablespoons) to moisten until the sugar mixture is the consistency of wet sand.

3. On high heat, cook the sugar mixture until it is a medium caramel color, tilting and swirling the pan to ensure even color. Once a medium caramel color is reached, take the mixture off the heat and carefully add the rest of the beer. Return to high heat, and cook to melt the sugar.

4. When the sugar has melted and the mixture begins to boil, start adding dried fruit one at a time, beginning with the firmest first and cooking each until slightly fork-tender, stirring carefully and making sure that each time a fruit is added to the pan, the mixture is returned to a boil before another is added. After all the fruit has been added, remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Remove the ginger and the vanilla bean pod. Add the mustard seed and the beer in which they were steeped. Set aside.

Ginger cakes

2 1/4cups pastry flour

1/2teaspoon salt

1/2teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2teaspoon ground cloves

1/2teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1/4cup granulated sugar

1/2cup melted butter, plus 2 tablespoons for brushing molds

3/4cup molasses

1 tablespoon coffee extract

1/2cup dark brown sugar

1/2cup milk, at room temperature

1/2cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1 large egg, at room temperature

Dried fruit compote

Creme fraiche

1. Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cocoa powder and sugar into a medium bowl. Make a well in the center.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together half a cup of the butter, plus the molasses, coffee extract, brown sugar, milk, buttermilk and egg. Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients, and whisk together, starting from the center and working your way out, until smooth.

3. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Using small fluted brioche molds (or substitute muffin tins), lightly brush each with the remaining melted butter. Using a one-third cup measure, fill each mold with cake batter. Place the filled molds on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet to ensure even baking. When the cakes are done, allow them to cool in the molds, and then simply tap them out of their molds.

4. Serve hot with fruit compote and creme fraiche.

Each serving: 460 calories; 5 grams protein; 84 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams fiber; 12 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 46 mg. cholesterol; 164 mg. sodium.

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Oatmeal stout-braised pork daube

Total time: 4 hours

Servings: 6

Note: From Sang Yoon of Father’s Office. Serve with Trois Pistoles or Anchor Porter.

3 1/2pounds pork cheek meat or pork butt

Salt and black pepper

Flour

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 large carrots, chopped

1/2medium brown onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

3/4 cup diced apple-wood-smoked bacon (preferably dry-cured)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

18 ounces (2 1/4 cups) Young’s Oatmeal Stout

8 ounces (1 cup) North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout

2 cups brown veal stock

3 bay leaves

1 sprig fresh thyme

4 tablespoons aged Sherry or balsamic vinegar

6 cloves garlic, smashed

2 tablespoons honey

4 tablespoons ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1. Heat the oven to 275 degrees. Season the pork with salt and black pepper and lightly dredge in flour (if using butt, cut into 3-inch cubes). In a hot skillet, sear the pork pieces in 1 tablespoon olive oil until light brown on all sides and reserve.

2. In a large ovenproof cast-iron casserole or saucepan, saute the carrots, onion, celery, bacon and tomato paste in olive oil until the onions begin to turn translucent, about 4 minutes. Add both beers and bring to a boil. Add the veal stock and bring to a simmer.

3. Remove from the heat. Add the bay leaves, thyme, vinegar and garlic. Add the pork pieces and cover loosely so that steam will escape and the liquid will reduce while cooking (one technique is to cover the pan with a piece of parchment paper with a vent cut into it). Bake for 3 hours.

4. Remove the pork and bacon pieces and reserve (pork should be falling-apart tender). Strain the remaining liquid (there should be about 1 cup) through a fine-mesh sieve. If you have more, reduce the sauce over medium heat until you have 1cup. Cool. Everything up to this point can be done 1 day before serving.

5. Before serving, bring the sauce to a slow boil and reduce by one-third. Add the honey and salt and pepper to taste to the reduced sauce. The sauce should coat a spoon.

6. Add the reserved pork and bacon pieces to the sauce and reheat for about 7 to 8 minutes over low heat, covered.

7. Add the butter and allow it to incorporate in the sauce by swirling the pan just before serving. Serve with wilted greens such as chard, kale, escarole or Tuscan cabbage as well as mashed potatoes or creamy polenta.

Each serving: 751 calories; 54 grams protein; 17 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 46 grams fat; 17 grams saturated fat; 199 mg. cholesterol; 490 mg. sodium.

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Adult espresso nightcap

Total time: 5 minutes

Servings: 1

Note: From Sang Yoon of Father’s Office.

1 1/2 ounces good-quality tawny Port

9 ounces Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout (cold)

1. Pour the Port into a 10- to 12-ounce white wine glass or snifter.

2. Add the stout. If using bottled beer, pour it into the glass at least 4 inches away from the lip to form a creamy head, thus simulating the crema of an espresso.

Each serving: 185 calories; 2 grams protein; 15 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 0 fat; 0 saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 8 mg. sodium.