Kris : I thought Van Dieman’s Jacobs Ladder would be the perfect beer for this recipe.Tomatoes and the forward malt character in English style Amber Ales work really well together.

Kris: Albondigas, are a classic spanish tapas dish. I decided to add a beery edge to this recipe, by creating Ale-bondigas!!!!

It also contains three of my favourite ingredients to cook with: beer, saffron and smoked paprika.

Caroline: Three of my favorite ingredients too!

Ale – Bondigas

500 g organic minced beef or lamb

100g almond meal

1 large brown onion

1 egg yolk

30 g butter

olive oil

2 cloves garlic (peeled and crushed)

1 jar passata

1 Tbs smoked paprika

1 tsb ground coriander seed

saffron

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

150ml Amber Ale

1 red chilli

salt and pepper

Method

Grate half the onion into a bowl

Add mince, almond meal and egg

Combine and season with salt and pepper

Make small balls out of the mixture

Brown meatballs in some olive oil on all sides on medium heat

Remove from the pan and place on paper towel

Add butter and a little more olive oil

Add the other half of onion(sliced) and fry until transparent

Add paprika, garlic, finely diced chilli and coriander seed

Fry for a few minutes

Add beer to the pan and continue to simmer for a few minutes

Add a few strands of saffron to a Tbs of boiling water in a small bowl(see above). This helps to extract the flavour from the saffron. A little goes a long way.

Add saffron water and the tomato passata

Let this simmer for a few minutes

Season with salt and pepper to taste

Add the meatballs and continue turning them so that they heat through and soak up some of the sauce.

After 5 minutes they are ready to eat

Serve with fresh, crusty bread

Kris: The amber ale added a depth of flavour to the sauce and a little bit of sweetness. The malt in the beer matched really well with the tomatoes in the sauce and took a bit of an edge off the chilli. Overall I think it was a success.

 Caroline : I really enjoyed this dish. It was exactly the lunch time snack I was after. I love Amber Ales and the beer matched perfectly with the Ale-bondig’as!