Mediterranean Fish on Herbed Potato Gratin

It's pretty automatic to pair wine with food, but have you considered having a beer with your meal?  Sharps Brewery, who are based in Cornwall, have designed their Connoisseur range to profile the best ingredients and be the perfect partner to quality food, and demonstrates the skill of Sharp’s head brewer, Stuart Howe, for whom innovation in brewing is perpetual. With this first vintage, Stuart has designed and brewed three very different beers, each one born out of his passion for beer and love of aroma and flavour, balance and precision. 

The Connoisseurs Choice 2011 range offers drinkers three unique beers: Quadrupel Ale 2011, Single Brew Reserve 2011 and Honey Spice Tripel 2011 (available on Sharp’s webpage, select beer retailers and restaurants now.) Quadrupel Ale at 10% ABV is dark ruby in colour with a full bittersweet fruitiness and warming finish while Single Brew Reserve 2011 at 4.5% ABV is a showcase for the noblest of hops, the Czech Saaz. The third in the range, Honey Spice Tripel 2011, at 10% ABV is an effervescent and refreshing beer with spice and fruit notes with a long dry finish.

Sharps are currently running a competition on Facebook, details below:

 

The Competition

With the help of Nathan Outlaw, Jack Stein and Alyn Williams, we’re on the search to find the UK’s ultimate beer and food connoisseur.

Watch the videos starring our celebrity chefs to discover how they’ve paired quality food with each of the three beers, and then enter the competition to create a dish yourself.

Choose your beer, try the range (or read the tasting notes), then create a dish that you believe will go perfectly with your chosen ale. Name your dish, list your ingredients and describe your method, then tell us about your dish. For bonus points, take a picture of your dish or submit a video of you preparing it (the more entertaining the better!)

The prize? Our three chefs will each choose their favourite dish and beer pairing. The three finalists will receive a day of mentoring with the chef that chooses their dish; a unique opportunity to hone your skills with one of the UK’s finest!

The three finalists will then compete in a ‘cook-off’ to be held at The Seafood School in Padstow, Cornwall, after which one winner will be crowned ‘Sharp’s Connoisseur for 2012’!

As our ‘Sharp’s Connoisseur’, you’ll be provided with exclusive first tastes of any new beers released during your winning period, a meal for two at your chef-mentor’s restaurant, a private tour of the brewery and beer tasting plus a night’s accommodation for two in Cornwall.

The competition is now open, until 15^th September 2012 

I am entering the following recipe:

Mediterranean Fish with Herbed Potato Gratin

Ingredients
4 Tilapia Fillets
2 medium courgettes
4 tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
4 large basil leaves

For the potato
800g new potatoes
100g Gruyere cheese, grated
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp mixed chopped fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, marjoram)

1. Quarter the potatoes and boil until just soft.
2. Mix one tbsp of olive oil, cheese, the herbs and seasoning into the potatoes.
3. Put the second tbsp of olive oil in the bottom of an ovenproof dish and put in the oven at 200C.
4. Press the potato mixture into the base of the dish and bake for 30 minutes.

For the fish
1. Oil four pieces of foil.
2. Place the fish fillet on the foil.
3. Slice the courgettes and divide between the four parcels,
4. Slice the tomatoes and divide between the parcels.
5. Tear the basil leaves and add to the parcels.
6. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
7. Fold up the foil into a tight parcel and place on a baking tray.
8. Bake in the oven for 15-20mins at 200C.

To Serve
1. After 30 mintues, remove the potato dish, loosen around the edges and turn onto an ovenproof plate, put it back into the oven for 5 minutes to brown. 
2. Remove the plated potato gratin and divide it into four slices.
3. Place the potato slice onto the plate.
4. Open the fish parcel and, using  a fish slice, lift the fish and vegetables and place on top of the potato gratin.

This is a really easy dish to make, it is light and fresh just like the Sharps Single Brew Reserve which I served with the dish.

Single Brew Reserve 2011 at 4.5% ABV is a showcase for the noblest of hops, the Czech Saaz. Whole cone Saaz, fresh from the harvest are used to dry hop the beer during maturation. Mid golden in colour, this ale has a fresh, herbal lemon aroma. In the mouth, light barley sugars give way to a perfumed bitterness. The finish is dry, clean and exquisitely appetising. Serve as an aperitif or pair with light dishes such as fresh salads or grilled white fish. 

Check out the Sharps Brewery website for more information about their beers and remember to enter the competition on Facebook

I'm entering this post for Herbs on Saturday at Lavender and Lovage

 Disclaimer: Sharps Brewery supplied me with a bottle each from the Connoisseur Range, I was not required to write a positive review and any opinion expressed is my own..