LCBO Food & Drink Holiday 2018

TWISTS  SIMPLE ADDITIONS

Fruit Beer Syrup recipe on page 214 When using beer to make syrup try a fruit beer—a great choice as it already has lots of flavour built in. There are many different styles of fruit beer with varying degrees of sweetness and hopping. Therefore you’ll need to consider what ingre­ dients are complementary to the fruit used in the beer. If it is made with pumpkin, try using baking spices, or if it’s made with berries or cherries, try some cardamom or ginger. Sweetness levels in beer can vary greatly, so using honey as a sweetener rather than sugar gives flexibility. This way you can adjust the final sweetness level by adding a little more, if needed. Just remember to allow the syrup to cool before adjusting.

In a Cocktail The vibrant colour and aroma make this syrup excellent for gin- based cocktails. Pour the gin and a drizzle of syrup over ice and top with some sparkling lemonade— or iced tea and a splash of soda. With Sweet

Use this syrup to elevate a humble pie made from berries or stone fruits such as peach or apricot. It’s also perfect simply drizzled over lemon sor- bet with fresh raspberries. With Savoury

This syrup has similarities to pomegranate syrup and rose- water, making it a natural fit for Persian food. It makes a great companion for cumin-dusted lamb. Drizzle it over the cooked meat and top with a sprinkling of crushed pistachios or almonds for a touch of luxury.

OTHER BEERS TO TRY

Replace the rosehip tea and buckwheat honey in the base recipe with the following complementary ingredients for each beer.

Hefeweizen Steer clear of hoppy beers for syrups as they will only get more bitter when reducing. The hopping on hefeweizens is low, and their yeast notes of banana and cloves make a syrup designed for crêpes and sautéed bananas. For the sweetener try an acacia honey.

Saison Saisons can vary greatly and often have some spices added to them. Depending on the beer’s particular flavours try using different dried spices and mix things up by adding maple syrup as your sweetener.

Belgian Witbier Witbiers, made from wheat, will make syrups with some tartness and lem­ ony notes. Why not accentuate those flavours with some citrus zest, coriander seed and eucalyptus honey—though any honey will work superbly.

102  FOOD & DRI NK HOLIDAY 2018