Delaney Mes: Beer with us (+recipes)

Herald on Sunday·

29 Nov, 2014 06:00 PM3 mins to read

Cazador's head chef Dariush Lolaiy and Delaney Mes in the kitchen. Photo / Michael Craig

Think beyond wine when catering for your summer events this year.

The silly season is almost here and that means as much socialising as possible. It also coincides with the start of summer and, to complement your cooking, beer matching with food is something you can have some fun with.

There are so many great beers available. I have loved watching the craft beer industry boom and the small boutique breweries grow and push the boundaries with styles and flavours. Beers are no longer the domain of insipid lager in green bottles - we're becoming more educated drinkers, and it's now more common to know the differences in flavour that a pale ale, a pilsener, a stout, or a lager, for example, might give you.

Matching beer with food can be a bit more relaxed than a wine match, given the varieties and styles available.

I love trying new beers, especially when the sun is out. I also love having friends over on those sunny afternoons of beer drinking, and cooking or preparing something for them to eat alongside it.

Keen to learn a bit more about matching beer with food, I headed to Dominion Rd's Cazador restaurant, now owned and run by the original owner's son Dariush Lolaiy, and his wife Rebecca Smidt.

Dariush and Rebecca have been working on beer and food matching with Czech beer brand Pilsener Urquell, available widely in New Zealand.

Cazador is famed for an interesting and inventive menu focused on game and for using lesser-known ingredients. Chef Dariush is also a keen ambassador for nose-to-tail eating, and cooking all parts of an animal. I got in the kitchen with him and helped prepare these three Cazador dishes - all designed specifically to match Pilsner Urquell, which is cold-shipped to New Zealand from the Czech Republic, and is designed to be poured into a glass with a big, frothy head.

Pilsner works well as a food-match beer because it can take acidic food. The hop flavour of the beer complements the acidity of herbs like basil or oregano, therefore lending itself nicely to fresh herbs and anything with floral notes.

On beer matching generally, Dariush says a good place to start is by tasting the beer, then thinking about what flavours you pick up from it. From there, he thinks about the food flavours that will go with it. For example, if you're drinking a richly flavoured beer, perhaps you'll want to serve food that will freshen your palate in contrast. When beer matching food, you either want to counter or enhance what the beer does.

These recipes, which we cooked the day of my visit, all complement pilsner, particularly Pilsener Urquell, because it has a decent hop flavour but it isn't overwhelming. The acidic flavour of the salsa on the sardines is complemented by the beer, and the richness of the mushrooms, and the parfait, are cut through with it.

Get beer tasting and have a go at a match. The best way to learn is by trying. And lots of taste-testing.