York Beer Festival

I spent the past week working at the York beer festival. Fool that I am, this meant camping the entire week too, (although of course it was fully made up for by the excellent beer.)
I refused to give in to the idea of spending money on breakfast at Tescos and dinner out every day - I'm a poor student, I couldn't afford to! Also, a childhood camping with my Dad and in the Guides has meant I am a somewhat proficient cook with open fire and trangia, so the trangia was again my weapon of choice for when the food tokens ran out.

Breakfast most mornings was a fry up of some variety - you need it in the cold and when you're working that hard. But Saturday's was by far the best - Bacon and mushrooms fried in an excellent draught American beer from Stone in San Diego called Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale.  Put in a bun. The beer is sweet and rich and malty, and the bacon was salty and, well, bacony, and the mahoosive flat mushrooms were meaty and earthy.There are two things to learn from this experience:

Firstly, that Americans are excellent brewers - assuming you can find the beer. (Pivni in York, the Sheffield Tap, and the soon-to-be-open Euston Tap are good bets in this country and indeed supply and manage the foreign beer bar that was where I could be found most of the week.

Secondly, that just because a drink tastes fabulous as is, does not mean that it is "wasted" by cooking with it (although care should be taken and respect given to the alcoholic beverage of choice when cooking with it.)

So, here is my recipe for the week:

Beer Bacon and Mushroom Butty

Serves 2

4 rashers bacon
1 large flat mushroom (or similar amount of meaty mushroom)
2 cheap white rolls

Heat frying pan to a medium heat. Add bacon and cook for a few minutes until it's about 2/3 original size. Add chopped mushrooms. Stir every so often, keeping bacon touching the bottom of the pan as much as possible, until most of the water has reduced from the mushrooms. Add about an inch of a pint glass of beer (if you can't get hold of Stone, and let's face it, it's going to be rare that you do, use a strong porter or stout - something like Old Tom from Robinsons would work nicely). Let the beer reduce until there is no liquid left and the bacon and mushrooms are crisping and browning nicely. Stick in a butty. No need to use posh bread - you only really want it so you can pick up the bacon.

Enjoy as a late brunch or early lunch with a couple of mouthfulls of the beer you cooked with.

I advise making enough for two - then when the other person has fallen at your feet in a haze of adoration, you can extract a promise of washing up from them.

As I have not yet sorted out a digital camera to photograph my food etc, here is a gratuitous picture of the foreign bar at the festival (with thanks to Chris who took it and hasn't yet been told I've borrowed it: