Regardless of how it’s prepared, a pork loin that’s tender and juicy when first cooked tends to get tough and dry in the fridge when it becomes leftovers.  That’s where quesadillas come in.  You dice the meat, throw it in a pan with some water and taco-seasoningesque spices like cumin, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and let it simmer for a while.  It absorbs the water, making it moist and tender, and gets thoroughly coated in the spices.  Then throw in some jack cheese, cheddar cheese, and a little milk and you have a yummy, stringy concoction perfectly suited to sandwiching between a couple tortillas and frying.

I was skeptical of the beer choice tonight.  The only reason I went with SA Imperial White is that it just hit retailers in Birmingham for the first time today, and I was just eager to try it.  That’s it.  I didn’t necessarily think it would make a great pairing, but I figured it was worth a shot.

The pairing actually ended up ok.  The coriander and orange peel spices in the beer were an acceptable compliment to the various spices in the quesadilla.  Enjoyable.

Turning my attention solely to the beer for a moment, I have to say it didn’t live up to my expectations.  I was actually pretty excited about this because I enjoy a good witbier and I enjoy high gravity beers, and I thought perhaps the combination would come out really interesting.  But when you jack up the starting gravity on a beer, you typically wind up with a high finishing gravity, too.  Which means more sweetness.  And witbiers desperately need to finish dry.  This one was just too malty and sweet.  There are techniques that can dry out high gravity beers, but they weren’t employed here, unfortunately.

This year, we settled on filet mignon, roasted winter vegetables, and mixed greens with homemade Roquefort blue cheese dressing.  The dinner was actually quite easy to put together.  It required a minimal amount of prep work–cutting the veggies and blending the dressing–but was otherwise a breeze to assemble.  The difficult part was choosing a beer.  I wanted something special as it was Valentine’s day, so I pulled out a slight rarity, Opus 10 by Two Brothers Brewing Co.  Classified as a cherry lambic, it is entirely unique as it is a dark lambic with more chocolate than cherry flavors.  The result was quite fantastic.

Knowing my wife is not a big beer fan, I also opened a bottle of Kirkland Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.  I figured this was a perfect opportunity to pit beer against wine.  For those who like tannic hearty Cabs, let me say that for $16 a bottle at Costco, you can’t beat the Kirkland Cab.  Really, it is worth it.  To me it tastes like a $35 bottle (despite my affinity for beer, I still love a good wine).  But this is a blog about beer and food, and I digress.

My first comparison came with the filet.  Both the cab and the lambic went well with the meat, but to be honest, the wine enhanced the flavor of the steak and the beer did not.  My next comparison came with the root veggies–carrots, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes roasted under the broiler with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  The veggies went just fine with both the beer and the wine, no weird flavors or anything.  The most interesting pairing of the meal was the Roquefort dressing and the lambic.  If you aren’t a fan of funky beer or funky cheese you would not like this pairing.  The lambic took the spoiled flavor of the cheese and enhanced it ten-fold.  For those who are curious, I looked it up, and the flavor I’m refering to is butyric acid–common in rancid butter, parmesan cheese, and body odor!  Doesn’t sound good unless you’re into that sort of thing, right?  It is kind of like reading reviews of lambics–”horsey,” “sweaty,” “barnyard,” etc.  You have to ask yourself, “But is it good?”  Split decision.

My wife found the combination to be utterly foul.  I thought it was good if not a bit overpowering.  I’ll be honest, I like smelly cheese and all kinds of wild brews, but I actually needed to mix in other parts of the meal so as to keep from being overwhelmed.

The real surprise for the night for me was when I pitted the cherry lambic directly against the dark red wine.  The wine brought out the cherry in the lambic in a way that was quite pleasant.  All in all it was a very interesting experiment.  The only disappointment I had was that I didn’t save any Opus 10 for dessert.  Chocolate-cherry lambic would’ve been awsome with some brownies à la mode with berry sauce.

Like Guinness. Only better.

Frozen microwaved pizza.   But really heavy on the garlic, which can make anything good.

I really had no basis for choosing this pairing.  It was just a case of “I wonder how this will taste,” which is something I do quite a bit of.

Beamish is the same style as Guinness, but a bit more flavorful.  But still incredibly mild as stouts go.  I’ve had many a porter that was darker and bolder in flavor than Beamish (all the more so as compared to Guinness).  Which just serves to highlight how fuzzy the line is between porter and stout.  It’s very, very fuzzy.  But I digress.

So how was the pairing?  Meh.  Entirely pleasant, but neither the beer nor the food was enhanced by the pairing.  Very average, with no harsh flavors.

Good enough to crack one open if it’s convenient, but definitely don’t go out of your way to have this.

Curry in a hurry

I’m not sure where we picked it up, but we had a box of Thai-style infused chicken broth in our pantry.  There were directions on the back for making a very easy Thai Coconut Curry Vegetable Soup which consisted of throwing veggies, coconut milk, pasta, lime juice, and the chicken broth in a big pot and heating.  The results were phenomenal–I love easy thai-style curry dishes like this.   I thought I’d do another lager pairing as I’ve had great success with lagers and curry.  I chose Dixie Brewing Co.’s eponimous beer, Dixie, which Beer Advocate calls an American Adjunct Lager.  Yep, I wouldn’t disagree.  I was initially excited about seeing this on the shelf in Birmingham, thinking that Dixie Brewing Co. was up and running again post-Katrina.  According to Wikipedia, however, they are contract brewing with plans to reopen.  Still, it is great to support (semi) local breweries and I hope they are up and running again soon.  However, Dixie’s flagship beer is nothing to write home about.   I could see how this would be good on a hot day on the docks in New Orleans or on the beach, but here in my kitchen on a cold winter night, it was verrry subtle and not very exciting.  The Thai soup did not help bring out any interesting flavors.  I’m sure the hops and malts were used very judiciously as there was not much to either one.  I’m sure I could have done better with a hoppy lager or cream ale.  I did have a thought as I contemplated the mix of flavors, or lack thereof, that Dixie would go well with some utterly spicy cajun food as a palate cleanser.  Somehow that would just make more sense than pairing a New Orleans beer with Thai food…