If you have never tasted fine cuisine with beer you cannot imagine
the tremendous wealth of flavour and colour it offers! This hearty
and generous style of cooking is both discreet and refined, but
at the same time it brings out the gourmand in you, arousing all
the rich and evocative flavours of the rural heartland of Belgium.
You will appreciate the surprising but harmonious combination of,
for example, a velvety cream sauce with the bitterness of hops.
St-Feuillien is a pioneer in this field and, already in 1960,
won the Prosper Montagné Prize for its succulent preparation of
Ris de veau à la St-Feuillien (veal sweetbread with St-Feuillien),
which has since then been a classic recipe in the renowned Devos
Restaurant in Mons (Belgium).
Fine cuisine, without a doubt, is one of the great festivals of
life. We have taken great pleasure and pride in selecting each
month for you one of our favourite recipes with St-Feuillien beer.
It is therefore our pleasure to present these recipes containing
the fruits of the skill and imagination of our great chefs for
you to savour.
Escavèche
à la Saint-Feuillien
Ingredients
- 1
kg freshwater eel
- 1 small bottle of Saint-Feuillien blonde
- 1 bottle of white
wine
- 3 dl white vinegar
- 300 g carrots
- 300 g onions
- juniper berries
- 1 garlic clove
Method
Flour the pieces of eel and seal in oil.
Place the pieces on a deep baking tray.
Cook all the vegetables with the wine, beer and spices.
Add the vinegar and bind with corn starch.
Pour the sauce over the eel.
Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes.
(Recipe by Véronique
Roisin)
Fish Festival à la
St-Feuillien
Ingredients (for 8 persons)
- 700 gr turbot fillets
- 700 g sole fillets (+ heads and bones)
- 100 g shelled prawns
- 6 scallop centres
- 1 bottle of St-Feuillien blonde (25 cl)
- 60 cl of chicken stock
- 4 celery ribs
- 4 carrots
- 4 leeks
- 30 cl fresh cream
- 2 tablespoons rice cream
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives
- 50 g butter
- salt, pepper
Method
Remove the strings from the celery ribs, peel the carrots, clean
the leeks keeping only the white part, wash and cut these vegetables
into pieces, then into small strips. Melt half of the butter
in a frying pan, add the vegetables and cook for about 3 minutes.
Do not allow them to brown. Add half of the chicken stock, season
with salt and pepper, bring to the boil and leave to simmer gently
for 5 to 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Rinse the fish fillets. Do the same with the scallop centres
which are cut into thin strips. Rinse the heads and bones of
the soles (trimmings) under cold water. When the vegetables are
cooked, remove them from the pan using a skimmer. Keep them hot.
Place the fish trimmings in the pan with the rest of the stock
and the beer.
Season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, add the turbot
fillets and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes.
Drain them with a skimmer, taking care not to break them. Continue
in the same way for the sole fillets and scallops. Bring the cooking
liquid to the boil over a high heat and reduce to 2/3.
Melt the rest of the butter in a heavy-based pan and add the
rice cream. Stir and leave to cook for one minute.
Do not allow to brown. Remove from the heat.
Filter the reduced stock, pour into a pan, add the fresh cream
and leave to thicken for a few minutes stirring over a low heat.
Add the prawns to heat them.
Divide the vegetables and fish among preheated deep plates. Drape
with sauce and sprinkle with chopped parsley and chives. Serve
immediately.
(Recipe by Françoise
Descamps)
Saddle of veal à la St-Feuillien
Ingredients (for
8 persons)
- loin of veal for 8
- 400 g sweetbread
- 3 bottles of St-Feuillien blonde (33 cl)
- 6 dl of crème
fleurette (whipping cream)
- 300 g fresh butter
- tarragon
- vegetables for mirepoix
- 8 tomatoes
- hop sprouts
- 8 pea barquettes
- 8 spinach timbales with diced Ardennes ham
Method
Trim the saddle of veal, season and brown well in the oven. As
soon as the colour is obtained, place in a pan on a thin bed
of mirepoix of vegetables, thyme and bay leaves.
Moisten the saddle with a bottle of St-Feuillien.
Cover and cook slowly. Gradually add the second bottle of beer.
During this time, blanche the sweetbreads, cool them and place
them in a pan on a thin bed of mirepoix of vegetables sautéed
in butter without browning.
Season well and leave to sweat for a few minutes. Next, moisten
with the third bottle of St-Feuillien and braise gently. When the
saddle is cooked and the sweetbreads are braised, remove them and
keep hot. Mix the two cooking stocks, filtering them through a
chinois sieve. Remove the fat and add 6 dl of crème fleurette.
Reduce to the desired consistency and add fresh butter to the sauce
(not too hard). Keep the sauce hot.
Garnishing
- Tomatoes stuffed with hop sprouts and baked;
- Puff pastry cases
of buttered peas;
- Spinach timbales topped with diced Ardennes
ham, first sautéed in butter.
Presentation
Slice the saddle fillets and the sweetbreads into escalopes. Insert
alternately the pieces of saddle and the escalopes of sweetbread.
Reconstitute the saddle. Place the garnishing around the saddle.
Finish off the sauce by adding chopped tarragon and adjust the
seasoning. Dribble the saddle with sauce and serve the remaining
sauce in a sauceboat.
(Recipe by Paul Dandoy)
Sweetbread gateau à la St-Feuillien
with Malines asparagus and potato galettes
Ingredients (for
4 persons)
- 400 g sweetbread, blanched and trimmed
- 200 g mushrooms
- 1 shallot
- 1 leek
- parsley
- 5 dl fresh cream
- 1 bottle of St-Feuillien
blonde (33 cl)
- 100 g butter
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 to 2 celery stalks
- thyme
- 12 Malines asparagus
- flour
Method
Chop the mushrooms into small pieces, thinly slice the white of the
leek and chop the carrot and celery into small cubes. Chop up the
shallot and parsley.
Melt 30 g of butter in a frying pan. Add the mushrooms, leek, carrot,
celery, onion, shallot and thyme; leave to cook gently until the
water has evaporated. Finally, add the chopped parsley. Season with
salt and pepper.
Keep hot.
Take the whole sweetbreads. Season with salt and pepper and coat
in flour. In a hot frying pan, melt the butter and add the sweetbreads.
Brown well on each side and add the vegetable mixture.
Cover and leave to cook over a low heat for 15 minutes. Glaze with
half a bottle of St-Feuillien. Reduce to 3/4, add the cream and leave
to cook for a few moments. Filter the sauce through a chinois sieve
and add 50 g of butter. Keep hot.
Presentation of the sweetbreads
Cut the sweetbreads into thin escalope slices.
In individual ramekins, first place a layer of sweetbread followed
by a layer of vegetables and ending with a layer of sweetbread.
Keep hot. Cook the asparagus.
Potato galettes
Cut the potatoes into thin julienne strips. Wash them and dry well.
Shape into small galettes. Cook them in oil in a non-stick frying
pan, turning them so that they are browned on each side.
On preheated plates, arrange the sweetbreads in the centre, place
a potato galette on top, surround with sauce and lay the asparagus
in lines at the side.
(Recipe by Joseph Eeckhout,
Devos Restaurant, Mons)
Poulard à la St-Feuillien
Ingredients
- One poulard (fatted chicken) (1_ kg)
- 2 bottles of St-Feuillien
blonde (25 cl)
- 50 g butter
- flour
- 1 large onion
- 3 carrots
- thyme
- 1/4 l fresh cream
- 1 chicken stock cube
- salt, pepper
- hop sprouts or green beans
- chopped chervil
Method
Cut the uncooked poulard into 4 or 5 pieces, season and lightly flour.
Brown the pieces with butter in a pan.
Remove them and replace with the vegetables.
Lightly brown for a few moments. Remove the butter.
Put the chicken pieces back again, moisten 2 or 3 times with the
2 bottles of St-Feuillien and leave to cook very gently.
When the chicken pieces are cooked, remove them. Filter the cooking
stock through a chinois sieve, remove the fat again and add the cream.
Next, strain through muslin. Adjust the seasoning of the sauce.
Presentation
Top the chicken pieces with the hop sprouts or green beans. Coat
well with sauce and sprinkle with chopped chervil.
(Recipe by Paul Dandoy)
Veal breast à la St-Feuillien
Ingredients (for 4 persons)
- 4 thick slices of veal
- 4 dl fresh cream
- 75 g butter
- 1/2 bottle of St-Feuillien blonde (25 cl)
- chopped tarragon
- vegetables for mirepoix: 2 carrots, 1 onion,
1 celery stalk
- green beans or chicons (endives)
Method
Salt and coat the veal breasts with flour.
In a frying pan, melt the butter, add the veal breasts and leave
to brown lightly; next, add the vegetable mirepoix and continue
to cook. When the breasts are cooked, remove them and keep hot.
Remove the fat, moisten with the beer and reduce gently.
Add cream and leave to cook until the desired consistency is obtained.
Then strain the sauce crushing the vegetables well.
Finish the sauce with a little chopped tarragon and adjust the
seasoning.
Presentation
Heat the plates, place the breasts in the centre and pour over
the sauce.
Place the green beans (or chicons) in the sauce.
(Recipe by Paul Dandoy)
