Setting the clocks back, and watching the leaves turn as the temperatures drop, means it’s time for some heartier food and drink.
For anyone who loves beer, that means darker, more robust styles, such as English porter and stout, and Belgian dubbel and quad, paired with dishes that feature seasonal flavors.
With that in mind, I asked chefs at three beer-oriented metro Atlanta restaurants to share a recipe for a dish to make this fall, along with a beer to drink with it.
On his fall menu, Brick Store Pub executive chef Eric Ottensmeyer has been making a Belgian-inspired root vegetable dish he calls Sausage and Mash.
“It’s kind of a Belgian peasant dish called stoemp,” Ottensmeyer said. “And it’s kind of a ‘clear out the root cellar’ farmer’s dish, so you could use any number of things in it. The first one we did was with celery root, but parsnips brought out a lot more floral flavors and went well with the carrots.”
Ottensmeyer serves the mash topped with a large link of the Whole-Hog Sausage from Pine Street Market in Decatur.
“It’s a classic smoky sausage, and the mash has a little sweetness from the parsnips and carrots,” Ottensmeyer said. “We added some horseradish to the mash, which gives it a little more punch, and just made it come together. The garnish for the dish is pickled mustard seeds.”
For the pairing, Ottensmeyer and the Brick Store team tried a lineup of Belgian beers, tasting from the lightest to the darkest, before landing on Westmalle Dubbel — a dark reddish-brown Trappist ale with complex malty and fruity notes.
“In our tasting, it was kind of in the middle,” Ottensmeyer said. “We thought that really made the dish sing.”
Credit: Mia Yakel
Credit: Mia Yakel
Jeff Sellers is the executive chef at Leon’s Full Service, where he’s making what he calls “classic American food” with seasonal produce and proteins from local farms.
Recently, Sellers created a pork loin dish with sweet potato puree, roasted turnips and red cabbage, bok choy, and a pistachio cranberry crumble.
The pairing for the pork is a rich amber Coconut Porter from Cherry Street Brewing in Cumming. It’s served on nitrogen at Leon’s, which creates a creamy carbonation, with notes of bittersweet chocolate.
Brian Crain is the executive chef at Good Word Brewing and Public House in Duluth, where he oversees a menu pitched to the beers made on-premises by brewer Todd DiMatteo.
“We always want to have dishes on the menu that are going to pair well with beer,” Crain said. “We make a lot of English-style beers, so we try to do some approachable things, because people come to a brewpub and expect that.
“But we try to put as much technique and thought behind it as we can. And we try to get as much local and farm-fresh seasonal vegetables as we can.”
With that, though, Crain offered up a decadent Chocolate Lava Cake as his fall feature dish.
“We paired it with an English-style porter called Quantum Immortality,” Crain said. “It’s only 4%, so it’s kind of a light-bodied porter. We did the Lava Cake with espresso whipped cream and candied walnuts. It’s something that rounds the beer out with a little creaminess. But chocolate and darker beers are a pretty standard pairing.”
RECIPES
These dishes from three Atlanta chefs explore the flavors of fall, pairing food and beer for the season.
Credit: Mia Yakel
Credit: Mia Yakel
Root Vegetable Mash (Stoemp)
Eric Ottensmeyer, the executive chef of Brick Store Pub, pairs this elemental root vegetable dish with a hefty local pork sausage topped with pickled mustard seeds. But you can use any type of sausage you like, including vegetarian sausage.
Credit: Mia Yakel
Credit: Mia Yakel
Pork Loin With Sweet Potato Puree, Roasted Vegetables and Pistachio Cranberry Crumble
Jeff Sellers, the executive chef at Leon’s Full Service, adds a lot of flavorful touches to this brined pork loin recipe. You can roast the pork in the oven or grill it. Either way, it’s a decadent fall dish.
Credit: Mia Yakel
Credit: Mia Yakel
Chocolate Lava Cake With Espresso Whipped Cream and Candied Walnuts
Brian Crain, the executive chef of Good Word Brewing and Public House, created this gooey chocolate treat to go with the brewery’s English porters. And cheers, each cake is enough for two.
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