Drinks of the month March 2010
 

Beers "Bavik de Brabandere"
 

Trappist Westvleteren
 

Monastery of Sint Sixtus
Westvleteren

The monastery of St.Sixtus near the small village of Westvleteren can be found in the southern part of the Flemish region of Flanders, close to the French border . This monastery is found in a very remote area of Belgium near the hop producing town of Poperinge. Thirsty visitors can enjoy the rich ales of Westvleteren in the cafe “De Vrede”.

In cafe “De Vrede” we sampled the Special, the Extra and the Abbott.

• The Special is a complex, spicy ale with an alcohol content of almost 5% by weight and 6% by volume.
   

• The Extra comes in at around 6% alcohol by weight and 8% by volume. The Extra also features a slight, warm alcohol presence.
   

• The Abbott comes in at around 8,8% alcohol by weight and 11% by volume. It is a rich beer with a delicious body.  “Westvleteren Abbott ale” is like heaven on

In the 1940’s the abbey gave permission for this monastic name to be used by the small brewery nearby. The beers from this secular brewery were known simply as “St.Bernardus”. In recent years agreement has ended, but the “St.Bernardus” brewery uses different strains of yeast and as a result their beers have a different flavor profiles. The St.Sixtus monastery is a beautiful stone building with a large stone wall between the abbey and the tiny road.

The wonderful beer in the café really to warmed up our bodies and souls…

In 1913 Philemon Vandenstock founded the brewery Belle-Vue,
the biggest Gueuze brewery of Belgium.
 

Since than they have been making the “champagnes” under the beers, near Brussels: Gueuze Lambiek, Kriek Lambiek and Framboise Lambiek.

The father of these beers is Lambiek. A natural beer with a fresh and sour taste, that can only be brewed in the Zennevallei.  Only there we have two specific yeast cells in the air.

These cells mingle with the wort (a mixture of wheat, malt, water and hop). They automatically trigger off the fermentation. This gives the Lambiek his special taste.
 

Geueze Belle-Vue

is the original beer of Belle Vue. It’s a very fresh beer

Kriek Belle-Vue

is a beer with a cheerful character. This beer has young Lambiek as a base and they add sour cherries. After six months ripening in oak wood barrels, the taste of the beer has been developed.

Framboise Belle-Vue

is made like Kriek Lambiek only they use raspberries and raspberry juice.

Cod with Witkap
 

• 2 big onions chopped coarsely

• 2 whites of leek,rinsed and chopped

• 50 gr. Butter

• Flour butter 50/50 (white roux)

• 6 fillets of cod

• Mashed potatoes

1. Heat the butter in a big bowl.

2. Add the onion add and the leek and simmer over a low fire .

3. When the vegetables are sauteed, add ½ coffee spoon of icing.

4. Mix well,  add 1l of Witkap + 1 spoon of lemon juice and flour butter.

5. Boil for 15 min.

6. Beat with a whisk.

7. Grease an ovenproof dish.

8. Put the fillets of cod in the dish so that they don’t touch.

9. Season with pepper and salt and pour over with the sauce.

10. Put in a hot oven during 20 min. and simmer slowly.

11. Add chopped finely parsley and serve with mashed potatoes.

Brewery Slaghmuylder

Brewery Slaghmuylder originally
brewed “pilsenerbeer”.
He started with brewing Witkapbeer
since 1980.
That was in the former brewery
“De 3 Linden” in Brasschaat.

Brewery Slaghmuylder constructed a museum because he was a big collector of old tools, beerattributes and old publicity in the past.

Slaghmuylder brewed a special beer:
Slaghmuylders Christmas and Easter
beer(5,5%) a round the period of
Christmas and Easter. 

He also brewed he other kinds of
beers like spices beer and pilsenerbeer.
But his speciality would always remain:
The Witkap-paterbeers.

Tepid Chicory Salad with “St Paul Blond”

Ingredients

• 4 heads of chicory

• 100 g raisins

• 150 g young cheese
  (example: Beemster)

• 1 bottle of ‘St-Paul Blond’

• fresh by ground pepper

• salt

• chives

Preparation

1. Wash the chicory, cut them in coarse pieces and boil them in water with salt.

2. Drain the chicory and keep warm.

3. Soak the raisins in ¾ of the beer and make it heat quickly.

4. Drain the raisins.

5. Cut the cheese in dices.

6. Pour the beer in a bowl and add fresh by ground pepper, salt and chives.

7. Put the chicory in an other bowl and add the raisins and cheese.

8. Mix together.

9. Lay the salad in the middle of a tepid dish, sprinkle with chives and the vinaigrette.

Brewery Sterkens

The brewery started as a farm in the Antwerp Northern Campine region in 1731. In the beginning the brewery was also a farm and you can still find remnants of these days. Forty years ago, the family stopped farming. The brewery became known after the abbot of the St-Paul abbey handed this recipe over to the brewery in 1780. Now it is still one of their well-known beers. In the beginning the people could buy six halves and three quarter and eight jars (old weight) for 100 Belgian francs and 98 cents. After World War II, the brewery expanded rapidly.

In 1957, the Ster Ale was launched.

Since the Bokrijks Kruidenbier was being brewed, export gained more importance. Not only to the Dutch, Italian and French markets but also to the US, Japan and China. Recently the brewery started exporting brewing technology and know-how via microbreweries.

The Sterkens brewery has its own tasting room.

The beer is still being brewed in an artisanal way. The actual process has never changed, although the equipment has been adjusted partially.

The old copper kettle with wooden skin protected filtration tank is still being used. The brewing water is drawn from a 220m deep well. The beer will always have a second filtration for an exact quantity of yeast to yeast.
 

Brown beansoup with Corsendonck 

Ingredients:

• 400 g brown beans

• laurel

• 4 cloves of garlic

• a little bit of cayennepepper

• 150g boiled ham

• 200g bacon

• 2 onions

• 1 orange

• 2 spoons parsley

• 250g meat for soup

• 8 ribs

• salt

• pepper

• 1 Corsendonck Pater

Preparation:

1. Wash the brown beans and soak in 2.5l water for 1 night

2. boil the beans in that water

3. add the laurel, garlic and cayennepepper

4. boil for 1 hour

5. put the ham and the bacon in the Corsendonck

6. add the ham, the bacon, the onions and the Corsendonck to the soup and boil for 30 minutes

7. cut the orange in pieces

8. add the pieces of orange, the parsley, the meat for the soup and the ribs to the soup and boil  for 10 minutes

9. Season to taste with salt, pepper and cayennepepper

Priorij Corsendonck

This is a picture of the Hotel Priorij Corsendonk. With cooperation of restaurant “‘t Vrouwenhuys” they built an arrangement for connaisseurs.

Priorij Corsendonk is situated like a pearl in the Antwerp Kempen, in the middle of woods and grasses. This green and quiet environment is the ideal base for bicycle routes and walking routes.

The decor from the former monastery, with its basement and its monumental capital room, offers you an unforgettable stay. If you want to sleep over, you have a choice from 41 luxury standard rooms and 30 little monk rooms. For larger group we can, together with our other hotel, offer beds for 150 persons, with free shuttle service.

To give you a little more luxury,  Hotel Corsendonk Viane has decided to renovate their rooms. They are starting with the renovations this year. They welcome you as guests in one of their 84 modern rooms. They also create an excellent reception for you. By giving you a beautiful presentation with a delicious meal they guarantee a succesful event.
 

Corsendonk Support is an organisation that gives you exclusive activities on the grounds of Priorij Corsendonk. They are building a large adventure park. In the mean time we are a few years later and there are more possibilities. New locations: Knokke at Sea, Green Hotels at Kempen,... Not so long ago we became internationally active as well in the Ardéche as in France.

Everything is possible: high in the sky, on the ground and underground. A team of enthusiastic co-operators, who like sports in a creative way, are always ready for you.

BEERS

Corsendonck Pater
has a very distinctive bouquet: yeasty, fruity and slightly smoky. In palate, it has notes of port, raisins and black chocolate.

Corsendonck Agnus
It has a very big head indeed - pour it gently - and a very clean palate, beginning with a dry, lightly citric fruitiness, and finishing with a distinctive and delicate, perfumed, hop character. Very light and fluffy in texture, giving little hint of its strength.

Rack of lamb with onions, raisins and Special Palm

Ingredients

• 1 rack of lamb

• 60 g. onions

• 30 g. yellow raisins

• 3 spoons sunflower oil

• 2 spoons butter

• 2 spoons strong poultry both 

• 0,5 teaspoon coriander seeds

• 15 cl Special Palm

• a branch of rosemary

• pepper and salt

Preparation

1. Soak the raisins during two hours in the beer

2. Clean the onions.

3. Heat two spoons of sunflower oil in the pan. 

4. Fry the onions around and around until they are light brown.

5. Add the raisins, the beer, the both and the coriander seeds and let stew for 7 to 10 minutes.

6. Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius.

7. Heat a mixture of spoonful sunflower oil and the butter in the pan and fry the lambs crown in it until all sides are light brown.

8. Wrap up the lamb in aluminum foil with a branch of rosemary.  Put it on baking tray and put it during five minutes in the preheated oven.

9. Divide the lamb and the sauce over preheated plates.

10. Serve with fried potatoes and fine carrots and drink cool glass of Special Palm with it.

Brewery Palm

As most important independent family brewery in our country since 250 years Palm did its utmost to preserve the unique Belgian beer culture.

Palm did this especially for its own beer 'Special Palm' which is one of the most important 'Brabant Specials’ of high fermentation.  This beer is well known in a lot of countries and very much appreciated for its good taste.

But Palm is not only promoting its own beer.  It's the total beer culture, the complete patrimony of local beers and ferment cultures that have to be preserved and honored.  This is Palm's mission!!
 

   The symbol of Palm is the Brabant Horse.

 Brands :           Special and Double Palm

Fillet of Cod in the way of Rodenbach

Ingredients (4 persons)

• 8 fillets of cod (2 of +/- 100g a person)

• 2 giant onions

• chives or chopped parsley

• 1 bottle of Rodenbach

• 250g butter

• flour

Preparation

1. Cut the onions finely and stove it with a little bit of butter.

2. Put the fish on top of it and simmer for 2 minutes, season with pepper and salt.

3. The fish will stay white with a little brown tan.

4. Put 1 bottle of Rodenbach Klassiek and poach the fillets.

5. When they’ve been poached, keep everything warm on a plate and boil down the stock till ¼ .

6. Check the taste and bind the sauce with a mixture of butter an flour.

7. Pour the sauce over the fish and garnish with chives or chopped parsley.

Serve

• Serve with pasta or with pommes duchesse.

Brewery Rodenbach

In Roeselare, the heart of West-Vlaanderen we find the almost 3 hectares long buildings of the company Rodenbach along the banks of the river Mandel.
Rodenbach was and still is the baken of the noble art of brewing tradition and quality.
It’s a unique story that goes back till Andernach on the banks of the Rijn, the birthplace of the Rodenbach family.
Already in the Middle Ages there was a Knight Von Rodenbach whose castle is in the forests of the Odenwald in the Grand dutchy of Hessen.
The Rodenbach family from Roeselare are descendants of this German knight.
In 1820 the 4 Rodenbach brothers had invested in a small brewery in the Spanjestraat in Roeselare at the time this brewery was run by a certain lord David Norbert who soled it to them.
The brothers started a co-partnership for 15 years and still now the brewery is in their family.

Ferdinand - Gregoire
Rodenbach

Alexander
Rodenbach

Constantijn
Rodenbach

Pedro
Rodenbach

Fillet of duck with “Kapittel” sauce

Southern potatoes and “Kapittel” pears

Ingredients:

• Sugar-candy

• Kapittel-'double'

• Fillet of duck

• Water

• Potatoes

• Pears

• Olive oil

• Dairy Butter

• Red paprika

• Flour

• Strong thyme

• Poultry broth

• Garlic

Preparation:

1. We put the sugar-candy and the kapittelbeer in the casserole with a double quantity of water.

2. Boil down for a while. 

3. Meanwhile peel the pear and cut it in two pieces. 

4. When it’s been boiled down considerably, add the pear and simmer over low heat. 

5. Fry the meat first on the fat side.

6. When the meat is blue, add the fat in another casserole together with some melted dairy butter. 

7. Make a white roux with the flour, the duck's fat and the dairy butter. 

8. When the pear has rested long enough, we take it out of the liquid and put it down on a warm spot. 

9. Add the pear liquid by drops to the roux and mix it. 

10. To give a specific taste, add some poultry broth to your own taste. 

11. Add a little bit of shredded thymus. 

12. Mince the red paprika and the garlic. 

13. Bake the potatoes in the oven together with the garlic, the paprika, and the olive oil.

Finish:

• We dress the pear by cutting some slices in the round side. 

• We press the cut side a bit together and we put the pear on the plate. 

• We cut the fillet obliquely and dress it on the plate like a half moon.

• Arrange the potatoes on

Brewery Van Eecke

The brewery in Watou had of course also its own pub, but it also offered room for travelers. Not understanding the French wordplay, the local farmer called his establishment in Dutch the "Gouden Leeuw", as he must have seen so many such names in France, but ruined the wordplay at the same time.

Through marriage the Van Eecke family became the masters of the brewery in 1862, where they brewed top fermenting country ales. The brewery had only a local significance until well after WW II. With the revival of the authentic local ales in combination with TV and modern marketing in the 1960's, the beautiful delicious beers of the brewery became a hot commodity in bars and fine restaurants all around Belgium and Northern France.

The most famous beer brewed by the Van Eecke brewery is the POPERINGS HOMMEL ALE, but they also have their own wheat beer and a range of excellent Abbey ales, known under the KAPITTEL label.   

The village of Watou is today part of the city of Poperinge, the heart of the last remaining area in Belgium where hops is cultivated. In the previous centuries, up until WW II, hops from Poperinge were known very well and in high demand. The hops-festival, held every three years, makes Poperinge a travel destination for beer-lovers from all over the world.

Mushrooms ragout with Rochusbeer

Ingredients

• 85g butter

• 2 onions in fine slices

• 300g fungi

• 200ml Rochus

• 300ml cream

• pepper and salt

• 300g puff pastry

• 8 slices Orval cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat the at 220°C

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the onions and sauté for 5 minutes over a low heat.  They should not have turned brown.

3. Add the mushrooms and simmer for 5 minutes, add the beer and the cream, then season to taste with pepper and salt and simmer again for 20-25 minutes.

4. Roll out the puff pastry until it is 5 mm thick

5. Cut out 4 quadrangles.

6. Put them on a moistened baking tray and bake for 10 minutes until they are brown.

7. Put them for some minutes on a wire rack.

8. Cut the quadrangles horizontally and put them on ovenproof plates.

9. Divide the mushrooms ragout on the bottoms and put 2 slices of cheese on each bottom.

10. Put the plates under the grill.

11. Cover the other halves of the quadrangles and serve at once

Brewery De Ryck

History

De Ryck is a brewery that pays a lot of attention to its beers and handles them with a lot of care and affection.  Brewery the Ryck has been a family brewery for several generations.

The leadership of the brewery is collaborated by a young woman.  Their beers are sold in more than 70 cafés, but they are all in an area of 100 km.

Their beers are all typically Belgian. The family De Ryck knows tricks of the trade and they are very proud of this.

Beers

• De Ryck Special; 4,2%, Blond ale

• De Ryck Christmas pale ale; 4,7%, Amber

• De Ryck kriek; 4,7%, Extra Fruit beer

• Molenbier; 5,3%, Extra

• Rochus;  4,7%, Double dark

White salmon with a creamu Oerbeer sauce 

Ingredients (Serves 4):

• 4 salmon fillets of 200 gr.

• Vegetable broth of:

• a twig of thyme

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 onion,

• 1 garlic clove

• A twig of celery

• Some stalks of parsley

• 2 bottles of Oerbeer

• Pepper and salt

• Water.

• Garnish:

• 1/2kg  julienne carrots

• julienne 2 stalks of parsley,

• 1 kg fresh mussels prepared in water
  with a good dash of Oerbeer

• 1/4l cream.

Preparation

1. Cook the portions salmon filet for about 10 minutes in the vegetable broth.

2. Take the fillets out of the vegetable broth and keep them hot on a saucer.

3. Meanwhile prepare the mussels to garnish the dish,and take them out of their shells.

4. Boil down the mussels’ liquid to half its volume

5. Cut the vegetables julienne and stew them until tender.

6. Make some white roux with 1 spoon of butter and 1 spoon of flour.

7. Moisten with the boiled down fish broth;

8. Cook it while stirring well until it’s thick enough

9. Season to taste with pepper and salt.

10. Finally add the cream, the vegetable julienne and the mussels.

11. Arrange the salmon filets in the middle of a plate and sauce the creamy Oerbeer sauce around them.

12. Put a circle of duchesse potatoes and sprinkle the dish with chopped parsley.

13. You can replace the duchesse potatoes by boiled potatoes

De dolle brouwers

In their youth some of the brothers Herteleer experimented in a washtub with their own brews.  With their 33^rd test (1979) they were satisfied; this would be their beer a brew that beer lovers now know as Oerbeer. 

The following year they could get going on as real brewers.  They bought a house the brewery Sint-Henricus in Esen, a couple of months after that the ex-brewer filled his last bottle of beer. 

This brewery was built on a long tradition.  In 1842 there was already a beer brewery.  In that time there were more than 7 breweries in Esen.  Not that all those brewers only lived from the brewery.  Often the job of the brewer was combined with other jobs.  So there is a case knew when the brewer was also a hairdresser and a pub owner. 

The Dolle Brouwers (the mad brewers) find a couple of elements very important: hygiene, time and good ancient materials.  The Dolle Brouwers don’t want to be economical with their materials.  The Esense brewers also want to stay small-scale: with yearly sales of forty browses of each 3000 l.  These artisanale browses don’t contain chemical products (pigments, foam stabilisers) and the beer isn’t filtered or pasteurised

  Fishbeignets with Satanbeer 

Ingredients

• 600 gr fish filets

• 1 dl Satanbeer

• 150 gr flower

• 4 spoons mayonnaise

• 4 spoons quark

• 1 spoon fine cut capers

• 2 spoons fine cut parsley

• oil to frie

• pepper and salt at taste

Preparation

1. Mix the mayonnaise with the quark, with the fine cut capers and with the fine cut parsley.

2. Bring at taste with pepper and salt.

3. Cut the fish filets into slices and sprinkle with pepper and salt.

4. Make with the flower and the beer a so smooth as possible dough.

5. Heat the oil up to 180° degrees Celsius.

6. Cover the slices of fish with the dough and fry them until they are gold-brown.

7. Serve with the sauces and a slice of bread

Brewery De Block

History

Brewery De Block is an independent Brewery and was founded in 1887 at Merchtem. This is an agriculturical municipality in the province of Brabant with almost 9500 inhabitants.Paul Sarens, the big chief, used to be a lawyer but is now a succesful brewer. He made the brewery to a well running brewery because this brewery was in danger to get lost. Further more he was the only brewer in the region who made his beer according to traditional methods. His beers are sour beers with high fermentation

The best ones

This brewery has got 2 excellent beers: Satan Gold and Satan Red. Satan Gold was the beer of the month January 2001 while Satan Red was the beer of the month in March 1999. Both beers are sour and have a high fermentation. The beers of brewery De Block are only known locally so only in Brabant. You have to be a real “beerfreak” to know these two beers. The name is derived from the word “devil”. It is said that someone cold it “devilishly” good beer. Hence the name Satan

Poached Peers with a sauce of Sherry Beer St Louis
with raspberries and a peach sorbet
in a tullip shaped pastry
 

Ingredients (4 pers.)
 

poched pears

• 4 pears

• 2 bottles Cherry beer St.-Louis ( each 25 cl.)

• 200 gr. sugar powder

• 2 cinnamon sticks ( or just a snif of moulded cinamon )

• 250 ml single cream

• 4 teaspoons of sugar powder

tulip shaped pastry 

• 5 eggwhites

• 140 gr. sugar powder

• 50 gr. sifted pastry flower

• 50 gr. cleared butter

the peach sorbet

• 200 gr. fine sugar

• 150 ml. concentrated peache-juice
  (available from the cans where they sell the peaches in)

• 50 ml. crushed peaches

Preparation

• Poched pears in cherry-beer (St.-Louis)

• Peal the pears. Cut them in four pieces and remove the core

• Put the pears, the 200 gr. of sugar powder  the cherry beer and cinnamon in the saucepan

• Leave it to simmer for about 20 minutes until the pears are done.

• Take the pears out of the liquid and leave them to cool down.

• Boil the liquid, until it's a thick syrop and then cool this of to .

• Cut the pears in a fan shape.
   

• tulip shaped pastry

• Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix … but do not whip .

• Leave the dough to rest for an hour.

• Spread the dough in a circle shaped form with the help of a spoon on a baking plate.

• Bake the dough 4 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 180° C.

• Take the pastry of the baking plate and shape it into a tulip while it's still warm
   

• Sorbet of peaches

• Put the sugar in a pan with 200 ml. of water.

• Bring to the boil for about 2-5 minutes.

• Let it cool down.

• Mix the cold syrup with the fruit juice and the fruit pulp

• To make the sorbet, put the mixture in the ice machine.

• When ready, place the sorbet in the freezer.

Brewery Van Honsebrouck

History

It all started in 1900… Ingelmunster. Emiel and Louisa Van Honsebrouck bought a small farm and started a brewery.

In 1922 joined Paul and Ernest (their sons) the family business. 31 years alter, in 1953, it's Luc Van Honsebrouck's turn, engineer brewer.  A new generation is ready to follow…

Thanks to the new and progressive ideas of Luc Van Honsebrouck specialised the brewery in beers of high quality.

Rising export numbers and a firm position on the home market are guarantee for a golden future.

Thanks to hard work and creative ideas , we can embrace the 21st century without any worries

The Castle of Ingelmunster

In 1705 gave Robrecht de Fries, count of Flanders the order to build a castle on top of the ruins of a convent that was inhabited by 640 English monks . The Medieval basements still are the foundation for the castle that was rebuild in 1736. It's a quiet witness from an age when castles weren't build for military purposes, but just for luxury and where hospitality and good taste was the code to act like. The brewer family Van Honsebrouck bought the castle in 1986 restored it and opened it for public

Sorbet with Bosbier

Ingredients

Sorbet

• cassis (berries) 400 gr

• water 200 gr

• sugar 300 gr

• bosbier 1.5 dl

Sauce

• cassis (berries) 200 gr

• bosbier2dl

Oublié cookies

• flour 30 gr

• flour sugar 30 gr

• butter (melted) 15 gr

• vanille 1 drup

• white of an whole egg

Preparation

Sorbet

• Boil the sugar and the water

• Add the cassis

• Pass it trough a sieve

• Add the Bosbier

• Go trough a sorbetière

Sauce

• Warm the cassis and the bosbier

• Let it boil for a minute

Oublié cookies

• Sift the flour and the flour sugar

• Add the buute, milk and vanille

• Spread it on a plate and bake it on 180°C

Brewery St Jozef

The first beer of the brewery was the pax pils (1937). The beer is as old as the brewery. This beer has been praised by Michael Jackson.

Afterwards they created the Ops-Ale. It has won several medals on the world section.

Bosbeer was launched in 1989. This beer was also awarded with a golden quality medal. The base of the beer is the pax pils which is very unusual.

Sint-Gummarus Tripel was the first of the Limburg Triples. It’s a maltbeer with 8% alcohol and it has a fresh fruity taste with a hoppy aftertaste.

The Sint-Gummarus Dubbel is the newest beer of the brewery. It has a spicy smell and aftertaste with 7% alcohol.

Limburg has a tradition of fruitproduction. So there’s also a Kriekenbier (cherry beer). This beer has also the base of the pax pils just like the bosbeer. It has been awarded a silver quality medal.

The Limburgse Witte is a beer brewed by NV Duo-Brouw. It’s a partnership between Sint-Josef and Martens. It’s a beer of high fermentation and a slow brewing procedure. The ingredients are wheat and several herbs.(no taste or additives). The brewing and the filling of the bottles is done in the Sint-Jozef brewery and the distribution is the work of both breweries.

The Bokkereyer (6% alcohol) is an amber tinted beer. This is the result of the lightly burned malt. In contrast of what most people think, this is a beer of low fermentation with also a few golden quality medals.