10 great beer and food matches for summer

We all know a beer goes down well with a ploughmans and that it’s a great drink to wash down a barbecue but here are 10 more unusual pairings which should liven up your summer drinking.

Crab and witbier
My own favourite, I confess. Doesn’t matter if the crab is simply dressed or gussied up Thai-style, it works brilliantly though I prefer the Belgian style to the more banana-y Bavarian one with seafood.

Ham and parsley paté with English bitter
Cold ham and English bitter is a classic but this gives the pairing a bit of a twist (and is a great way to use up some leftover ham into the bargain). You simply cut up about 140g of cooked ham (smoked is nice) and whizz it in a food processor until finely chopped. Add an equal amount of unsalted butter and a couple of tablespoons of water, whizz until smooth then season with 1 - 2 tsp of English or Dijon mustard and fold through some finely chopped parsley and chives.

Kebabs and lager
What else do you drink with a kebab? Make your own straight off the barbecue, stuffed into warm pitta bread with lettuce, onion, houmus and a good squeeze of lemon juice and accompany with a good pils or Kolsch.

Prawn, fennel and leek risotto with wheat beer
A summery seafod and herb (dill) risotto which we found went really well with Colomba, a light, aromatic Corsican wheat beer. Would also pair well with a witbier or bière blanche

Joloffe rice and IPA
Joloffe rice is a spicy West-African rice dish that’s a bit like a paella and makes great outdoor eating. I’ve successfully drunk a light English bitter with it but would usually go for an IPA or an amber ale.

Beer-can chicken and amber lager
Yes, you may cook the chicken on a bog standard can of lager but the finished dish deserves something better! With its spicy dry rub and accompanying BBQ sauce or salsa you’ll find it goes really well with a Viennese-style lager or amber ale.

Chicken Caesar salad with a blonde or golden ale
The creamy, tangy sauce makes this much-loved salad a great match with a golden ale or lager such as Duvel or Schiehallion.

Cheesecake and cherry (or raspberry) beer
A fantastic match so long as you top the cheesecake with similar berries to the ones in the beer. (The great thing about matching beer and food is that you can mirror the flavours in the dish. That doesn’t work with wine where the food tends to strip similar flavours out of the wine)

Bakewell tart and raspberry beer
Similar thinking. You pick the fruit flavour - in this case raspberries - out with the beer. If you live in the states there’s a wonderful one called Raspberry Tart from the New Glarus Brewing Co in Wisconsin but Lindemans Framboise will do nicely

Blueberry and peach beer jellies
A bit of a cheat as the beer is actually in the dish rather than paired with it but fruit beers make absolutely knock-out jellies that are perfect for summer desserts (find the recipe here.) Try two or three different kinds such as blueberry and peach beer, raspberry and cherry beer and mango and passionfruit beer - a real showstopper.

What wine - and other drinks - to pair with cheesecake

The most useful clue to the kind of wine that works with cheesecake is to think of the toppings and flavourings that are used in cheesecake recipes rather than the base.

You also need to take into consideration what type of cheesecake you’re dealing with - a classic New York cheesecake or a light, ricotta-based one (I’ll leave savoury cheesecakes for the moment)

Beer and spirits or liqueurs may be as good as wine. Nigella for example has an apple cheesecake with butterscotch sauce in her book Feast that is made with apple schnapps and suggests drinking the same liqueur with it. Here are some other ideas:

Plain cheesecake

Sweet riesling or a late harvest sauvignon blanc are pretty reliable choices

Honey cheesecake

A great discovery last year at Honey & Co - a marvellous pairing of Canadian Vidal ice wine and honey and feta cheesecake I made my match of the week.

Lemon or orange cheesecake

Lemon is always a bit tricky because it tends to knock the lemony flavour out of any accompanying wine. If the lemon’s not too pronounced - say in an Italian-style ricotta cheesecake - try a moscato d’Asti or an 'extra dry' (ironically medium-sweet) prosecco. If it’s more powerful try an icewine again shot of well chilled limoncello. With orange-flavoured cheesecake an orange muscat like Andrew Quady's Essensia would be better.

Berry - and cherry - topped cheesecake

Again late harvest riesling will probably cope but to be honest I prefer Belgian-style raspberry or cherry beers. I suspect also that the Cabernet Franc ice wine I found such a good match a couple of years ago for a rhubarb cheesecake would work with a raspberry or strawberry-topped cheesecake too.

Toffee, caramel or maple-flavoured cheesecake

If you like this style of cheesecake you almost certainly have a sweet tooth so a Australian-style ‘sticky’ liqueur muscat would probably suit you down to the ground. A glass of tawny port would be a slightly drier option. For a pumpkin cheesecake I’d go for something a bit lighter - a muscat or moscatel like Torres’ Floralis Moscatel Oro, for example.

Chocolate cheesecake

Sweet red wines generally work with chocolate and cheesecake is no exception though you might be able to get away with a lush dry red as I did in this surprising match. I suspect one of the new wave of sweet reds like Apothik would work too. Having less of a sweet tooth I’d personally go for a madeira or an oloroso sherry - also a good match, I reckon, for a Nutella cheesecake.

Which foods pair best with tawny port?

We rarely think of tawny port as a flexible pairing for food. We serve it with stilton, obviously and with hard cheeses like cheddar, with nuts and dried fruits and over Christmas with fruit cake and mince pies but that’s usually as far as it goes.

True, its sweetness suggests desserts and cakes rather than savoury dishes but like other strong dessert wines it can do sterling service at the start of a meal, particularly if it’s - as is increasingly fashionable - lightly chilled. And even with sweet things you should ensure - as is the case with other dessert wines - that your dessert is not far sweeter than your port.

On the spot
A Portuguese favourite with tawny port are the rich eggy pastries that you find in the pastelerias (patisseries) and creamy desserts such as crème caramel. Figs and (elvas) plums are also considered good matches. (According to Christian Seely of Quinta do Noval tawny is superb with fig tart) My own star match, improbable as it might sound, is bread pudding, a brilliant combination I came across on a visit to Lisbon a few years ago.

Sheep's cheeses also work well especially what is by common consent one of Portugal’s finest, the rich creamy Queijo Serra - highly prized by cheese connoisseurs

Why not try:
10 year old tawnies with:

• sherry-style with salted roast almonds

• chicken or duck liver parfait or other meaty pâtés and terrines

• presunto (Portuguese air dried ham) or Spanish jamon iberico

• pecan, almond or walnut tart or cakes

• apple, pear or banana tatin

• a compote of dried fruits

• crème brûlée

• cheesecake (without red fruits)

• ginger-flavoured cakes and puddings

See also my post on caramel-flavoured desserts and tawny port

20 year old tawnies with:

• foie gras - a rich, nutty alternative to Sauternes, it will pick up on a sweet accompaniment such as balsamic vinegar or prunes

• roast lobster (according to Calem)

• feathered game such as pheasant and partridge

• hard sheep's milk cheeses such as Ossau Iraty and Manchego, mature Gouda, parmesan

• dark, bitter chocolate and chocolate truffles (Valrhona’s Caraibe and Choua are recommended by the Chocolate Society)

• biscotti

• panforte di Siena

• roasted chestnuts (a great suggestion from Jose Carneiro of Wiese & Krohn)

In the kitchen
Tawny port is a useful ingredient for any cook to have to hand, especially for deglazing pans. It works particularly well with chicken livers, lambs liver and kidneys and will also add richness to slow-braised meat sauces.You can also use it as a base for a sabayon or zabaglione

A version of this article was first published in Decanter magazine

Image ©anna_shepulova at Adobe Stock.