Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, a day for the romantically inclined filled with roses, chocolates, candlelit dinners and the perfect opportunity to declare your love for that ‘other’ infatuation in your life – beer.
Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or a cynic who thinks Valentine’s Day is nothing more than a windfall for flower shops and greeting card producers there’s no doubt it gives us beer enthusiasts a great opportunity to bring out a few bottles of the ‘good stuff’.
This year I decided to go that little bit extra (to be honest largely motivated by the fact I’d kind of ‘forgotten’ Valentine’s Day last year) and splashed out on the wife’s favourite dish; Kalixlöjrom, served with crème fraiche, finely chopped red onion served on brittle slithers of Huså Bröd and seasoned with black pepper.
It’s a classic and very simple dish to prepare with the secret to its success entirely reliant on the quality of the ingredients used. The roe of the vendace fish found in the world’s largest brackish water archipelago between Haparanda and Piteå is known as ‘the red gold of the Gulf of Bothnia’ and for good reason. The delicate saltiness and refined minerality of this caviar makes it, in my book anyway, one of Sweden’s most exquisite foods of all time.
For a light main course I prepared a simple rocket and baby spinach leaf salad with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice on which I layered slices of Mozzarella cheese and Parma ham drizzled with Saltå Crema di Balsamico. If you’ve never tried this before you should – it explodes with rich flavours of concentrated port wine and really does give another dimension to salads, cheeses and (they say) ice cream.
So with the candle lit it’s time to consider which beer to serve first. I had two to choose from: Früh Kölsch, a very special style of beer brewed only in and around Cologne in Germany or De Ranke Hop Harvest 2011, a Belgium ‘IPA’ that promises a lot of De Ranke’s famously bitter bite.
The choice seemed pretty obvious and it was the Früh Kölsch that was opened first. This is a very welcome arrival to the Systembolaget’s range (albeit only for three months) from March 1st as Kölsch is a wonderfully refreshing beer style we haven’t seen that much of in the monopoly. Kölsch is brewed using a top-fermenting yeast but is then matured like a lager at lower temperatures.
The soft bready malt tones and delicate pear and grape skin fruitiness of this Kölsch meant it was never in danger of overpowering the delicate flavours and texture of the Kalixlöjrom. The combination of the biscuity malts of the beer and the spicy Huså Bröd was so perfect it was impossible to separate them.
Früh Kölsch is a beer I’d recommend everyone to try when it is released next month, occupying as it does it’s very own patch of territory somewhere between lager and ale.
The stronger flavours of the Parma ham and Mozzarella cheese salad topped with Saltå Crema di Balsamico could, I hope, provide better resistance to De Ranke’s Hop Harvest 2011. And put up a fight it did, as this Belgium ‘IPA’ turned out to quite a softy at heart.
Billed as the ‘hopped up version of XX Bitter’ I was expecting some tough love but got a distinct kiss of fruity yeast along with the grassy bitter hops. This actually worked in favour of my meal, softening the beer a little. A slightly citrus undercurrent found the lemon and olive oil in the salad and heightened it. Although it was no where near as bitter as I had expected I liked this beer, which in my notes I’ve recorded as ”the love child of Duvel and Saison DuPont”.
And on that romantic note I think it’s time to blow the candle out on this post.
