VeggieDag Thursday: 12 'Beer' Books for Christmas #5: beerbistro cookbook

The 5th Book for Christmas

the beerbistro cookbook
Brian Morin, Stephen Beaumont
Key Porter Books: 2009
ISBN: 1-55470140-6

Like 2007's The Best of American Beer & Food —by chef Lucy Saunders— this year's the beer bistro cookbook (lowercase, à la e.e. cummings) —by beer writer Stephen Beaumont and chef Brian Morin— is less a book of recipes with beer as an ingredient than a book of recipes to enjoy with a beer.

Morin is chef at beerbistro in Toronto, Canada. Beaumont was instrumental in its creation.

At its most basic, beer cuisine is any dish that uses beer in its creation, from full-bodied chili to foie gras pate spiced with blonde Belgian ale. <...> Brian and his staff go out of their way to develop new and delicious ways to highlight the myriad flavors found in the taps and bottles at beer bistro.

There are expected chapters on what beer is, how to taste it, etc. Beaumont and Morin also offer a unique but elegant manner by which to categorize beers, which might be especially useful to other-than-beer-geeks who might otherwise be befuddled by the arcana of beer styles (currently 140, as listed by the Brewers Association):

• Appetizing (tart or dry)
• Sociable (well-balanced and not high alcohol)
• Satisfying (gently bitter or roasty)
• Bold (bitter with yeast-derived fruitiness)
• Smoky
• Spicy
• Robust (malty)
• Soothing (robust but with a "profound depth of flavor")
• Contemplative (full-bodied lagers)
• Fruity

Then, there are eleven chapters of recipes, including desserts. For example, there's an entire chapter on mussels: not only recipes, but a buying and preparing guide. And, there's a very helpful chapter on beer and cheese:

Forget all that talk you've heard about wine and cheese. The real partner for everything from cheddar to stilton is beer. But don't take our word for it —ask a sommelier! Any honest wine professional will admit that the motto in the grape trade is "taste with bread, sell with cheese," primarily because the fats in cheese wil help blot out the tannins that my show up in youthful or aggressive wines.

This is a gorgeous coffee-table book —or would that be beer-table book?— filled with what others might refer to as beer and food porn: photographs that excite the juices ... in an epicurean way. The recipes ain't bad either. The book begs for a field trip to Toronto.

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With this post, worlds collide, or at least, blog posts do. It combines two different series.

First:
VeggieDag is an occasional Thursday post. Why the name? Here.
Suggestions and submissions from chefs and homecooks welcomed! Here.

Second:
12 'Beer' Books for Christmas: This is another in a a series of 12 recommendations for beer-themed books —one per day, until the Winter Solstice, 21 December.

This is not a Top 12 list. It's my list of 12 books, personal delights. On Christmas Day: put your feet up, pour yourself a good beer, and read a good book. Better yet: give a friend the gift of a beer and a book. The entire list here.