Ale & mustard potatoes

Ingredients 1 King Edward potato, 50 ml Hobgoblin ale, 1 tbsp butter, 1/2 tsp grainy mustard.

Serves: 2 Preparation: X

Coming as I do from the right side of the Pennines, I must of course deny all knowledge of what a Lancashire hotpot is *narrows eyes* but allowing potatoes to cook in delicious liquid and then crisp up doesn't half make a cracking dish. I invented this quick, simple side as part of my vegetarian alternative to the potatoes I had cooked in the juices of a roasting chicken and it's returned time and time again to my table.

1) Finely slice your potato (I don't bother to peel it - half the flavour's in the skin!) with a mandolin, food processor attachment or a good knife and add to a pan with enough ale to just submerge the potatoes. Parboil for 5 minutes, allowing the ale to reduce and soak into the potato a little, then drain away the excess ale.

2) Add the butter and mustard to the potatoes and stir through, then layer in a baking dish.

3) Roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the skin just begins to turn golden, season and serve.

Pasta with spinach & ale sauce

Ingredients 1/4 cup Hobgoblin ale, 300g spinach, 1/2 tsp grainy mustard, 1 tbsp buttermilk, 150g gruyere, pasta.

Serves: 2 Preparation: 20 minutes

I am a spinach junkie. I cannot get enough of it and it's such a great ingredient - so quick and satisfying and gloriously healthy. This dish is a little more indulgent given the cheese and beer content but it's magnificent nonetheless.

1) Bring the pasta to the boil in a pan of salted water and simmer for 8-10 minutes.

2) Reduce the ale in a milk pan and stir in the spinach, mustard and the buttermilk, then remove from the heat once the spinach has wilted.

3) Grate the gruyere into the pan and stir through until a completely smooth, elastic sort of fondue has formed. Strain the pasta and stir into the spinach sauce.

Welsh rarebit

Ingredients   Bread, Newcastle Brown Ale, lancashire cheese, double cream, english mustard.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 10 minutes


This is a dish of division. The division between people who call it Welsh Rarebit or Welsh Rabbit. The division between people who use Cheddar and those who use Lancashire cheese. The division between people who use stout versus ale, sourdough bread versus seeded wholemeal... the list is endless! I have spent the majority of this week perfecting this recipe - I used different cheeses, different ales and stouts and I can confirm with absolute confidence that you will not find a better Welsh Rarebit sauce than that made with Newcastle Brown Ale and Lancashire cheese. Cheddar is too oily, too sharp tasting - the piquancy here comes from the mustard. I also prefer to serve this on seeded wholemeal bread, but watch out for my bacon bread recipe coming later today!


1) Reduce half a cup of ale in a milk pan, stir in a teaspoon of English mustard, a tablespoon of double cream and remove from the heat.


2) Grate the lancashire cheese into the pan and stir through until a completely smooth, elastic sort of fondue has formed.


3) Toast the bread on one side before spooning about 4 tablespoons of sauce, bit by bit onto the bread, allowing it to soak up the sauce as you spread it out.  When a layer of sauce about 1/3 of a centimetre high has settled on the bread, it's ready to grill.


4) I like to grill this until the cheese has begun to form a crisp brown layer, and run down the sides of the crust - this leaves a melting, soft centre of cheese but has a wonderful flavour on the top.

Steak and ale pie

Ingredients 1 white onion, 1 carrot, 1 potato, 800g beef stewing steak, 1 pint Hobgoblin ale, thyme, Jus-Rol™, plain flour, butter.

1) Ordinarily I make my own pastry but it was 2 for 1 on Jus-Rol™ in Tesco so I cheated today. To make puff pastry yourself - I swear by Gordon Ramsey's recipe. Line an oven-proof dish with the pastry, prick the bottom and bake it in the oven for 12 minutes.

2) Finely dice the onions, carrots and potatoes and sautee in butter just until the onions are soft. Add the pint of hobgoblin ale to the pan and stir through.

3) Coat the beef in plain flour and drop into a hot frying pan to sear the outside of the meat. (please note - this does not seal the juices inside the meat, it merely ensures that your meat will be more tender and taste better. As you will see from the picture above I did not use stewing steak because I only had finely diced steak suitable for stir-frying. Small pieces of meat do not require searing in the same way that mince does not). Stir the meat in with the vegetables and simmer gently as the gravy thickens, adding thyme to taste.

4) Sprinkle a fine layer of flour onto the pre-baked pastry in your oven proof dish and spoon the meat and vegetables into the dish.

5) Lay a sheet of pastry over the top and press down, pinching the top crust to the sides. Prick the top with a fork, bake for 30 minutes and serve.