HB&B Blog — Beer Lover's Table

The Beer Lover's Table: Tom Yum Pozole and Utopian Brewing Small Pils

Beer Lover's Table Claire Bullen Lager Utopian

The Beer Lover's Table: Tom Yum Pozole and Utopian Brewing Small Pils

I think about pozole a lot for someone who doesn’t eat it that often. This soup hails from Mexico and the southern US, and is notable for its starring ingredient: hominy, or extra-large, starchy, nixtamalised corn kernels. From there, its components vary. It can be made with chicken or pork or offal; it can be verde (made with tomatillos and green chillis) or rojo (made with dried red chillis).But what unites all pozoles is that irresistibly tender-chewy hominy, and their perfect balance between warming spice and citric brightness. Pozole is easily one of my top-five dishes of all time and...

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The Beer Lover's Table: Tostones (Twice-Fried Plantains) with Mojo Sauce and Indie Rabble Wet George Double IPA

Beer Lover's Table Claire Bullen Double IPA Indie Rabble IPA New England IPA

The Beer Lover's Table: Tostones (Twice-Fried Plantains) with Mojo Sauce and Indie Rabble Wet George Double IPA

Eight years ago, a friend of a friend invited me to her home and made tostones for me. I watched as she removed the plantains from their thick green peels, fried inch-thick coins of them, smooshed them flat, then fried them again. She served them with mojo – a vivid green sauce of coriander, citrus, oil, and spice – and we ate them, still radiating heat from the fryer, their dusting of sea salt crackling between our teeth. I’ve wanted to make tostones for myself ever since, but never did – perhaps intimidated by the deep-frying (which I’ve since learned is...

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The Beer Lover's Table: Pumpkin Chipotle Chilli and Queer Brewing Lay Down My Bones Brown Ale

Beer Lover's Table Brown ale Claire Bullen Queer Brewing

The Beer Lover's Table: Pumpkin Chipotle Chilli and Queer Brewing Lay Down My Bones Brown Ale

Count it as one of my controversial food opinions, but I’ve always hated the Christmas sandwich. All manner of discordant and sloppy leftovers, fridge-cold and mashed together between two pieces of bread? No thanks. In fairness, I was lucky to have better alternatives when I was growing up in the States. The “what to do with all that leftover Thanksgiving turkey” recipe is a whole genre unto itself. Every year I remember my mom making something different, from turkey curry and turkey enchiladas to turkey pho. Most memorably, there was a recipe for turkey chilli, clipped from some newspaper column...

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The Beer Lover's Table: Persian Lamb and Quince Stew with Burning Sky Saison Automne

Beer Lover's Table Burning Sky Claire Bullen Saison Sussex

The Beer Lover's Table: Persian Lamb and Quince Stew with  Burning Sky Saison Automne

I know it’s autumn, even without looking out the window or checking the forecast. My body knows, because almost to the day that the calendar ticked over to October 1, it began to crave pumpkins and sage, chestnuts and mushrooms, bitter greens and browned butter. What I want to eat right now is stew. I’ve had a recipe for this particular stew – called khoresh-e beh – open in one of my zillion tabs for months, just waiting for this time of the year to hit. I like Persian stews like this one because they go beyond mere stodge; they tend...

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The Beer Lover's Table: Green Papaya Salad and Burlington Beer Company Uncanny Valley New England IPA

Beer Lover's Table

The Beer Lover's Table: Green Papaya Salad and Burlington Beer Company Uncanny Valley New England IPA

The other evening – on an unseasonably cold and rainy August night – I found myself in Lao Café in Covent Garden, hovering over a bowl of sour pork hot pot so I could better breathe in the steam. It was my first time trying Lao food, and while there were resonances with various Burmese and Thai dishes I’d enjoyed previously, it was a thrill to taste something new – the flavours huge, pungent, umami-laced and beguiling. I haven’t stopped thinking about that hot pot, nor the fermented sausages, the pork laab and the papaya salad. I’ve had Thai papaya...

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