- Date Published:
- 15/11/2007
Former chef and British dessert enthusiast, George van den Bergh is inspired by autumnal and northern French food
As the new Eurostar terminal opens at St Pancras, I thought of the few months I spent working in Lille and the strong, gutsy flavours of food from the north of France, Flanders and the Pas-de-Calais. In particular I remember an interesting soupe a la bière (beer soup) and I cast around in my files to find this recipe. The flavour of the beer is greatly accentuated and you certainly don't need to use the best quality ale for it to taste great. This is a punchy soup and should only be served in small quantities to authentic beer-lovers.
How to make beer soup
- 1. Make a roux by melting 30g of butter over a low heat and then sift over 30g of flour, mixing till you have a thick, creamy paste.
- 2. Take the paste off the heat and allow to cool. Meanwhile, heat up about 500ml of beer. Watch out for it coming to the boil and bubbling over.
- 3. Once the beer has heated up stir it into the roux, little by little, making sure you get no lumps.
- 4. Now add 25g of brown sugar, a pinch of ground cinnamon, a pinch of ground nutmeg and plenty of salt and pepper.
- 5. Using a whisk bring the mixture up to the boil and then turn down the heat and let it simmer gently for half an hour.
- 6. Finally, just before you serve it, whisk together 1 egg yolk with 50ml of crème fraiche and mix this into the soup off the heat. Do not reheat and serve immediately with some good quality bread which has been toasted or grilled twice to give a properly crunchy texture.
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