The kitchen beer campaign
A group of beer enthusiasts and bloggers have decided to put pressure on the popular Saturday morning programme Saturday Kitchen to feature beer as well as wine with food by posting their own recommendations on Twitter. You can follow them by checking out the hashtags #beer and #saturdaykitchen
This morning, for example, @HardKnottDave, the brewer at HardKnott brewery who has spearheaded the campaign, is recommending a best bitter with a gumbo while blogger @ZakAvery, who also runs the Leeds store Beer-Ritz champions German wheat beers with eggs.
It will be interested to see if it has any effect. My bet will be yes if they manage to keep it up and more beerlovers get involved. You can see how the campaign came about on David Bailey's beer blog here. There's also a Facebook page you can follow if you'd like to see more beer in the media called Libeeration.
I confess I haven't made the contribution I might, having done a book about beer and food in the past so will endeavour to get this section of the site updated more regularly. I'm also planning a column on beer in my regular column for the Guardian next month once I've been to the Great British Beer Festival.
So what would my beer matches be for today's dishes?
Surf and turf with wilted spinach watercress and mustard sauce
Not a recipe that hugely appeals to me, I must admit. I don't know why steak and lobster need a creamy tomato sauce but I'd probably go for an oaked beer like Innis & Gunn or a saison.
Razor clam gratin with sauce vierge
Another recipe with an ingredient or two too many though I think a witbier or light wheat beer would probably hack it. In this instance though I'd probably go for the wine option (Picpoul de Pinet)
Sweet pumpkin pastries
Wrong time of year but I'd be tempted to drink a pumpkin ale with this. Beer is better than wine when it comes to mirroring the flavours in a dish with your drink. Or maybe a stout?
Mackerel, tomato and samphire salad
Someone suggested a gueuze with this which I think would work really well but if it's not your bag try a crisp Kolsch.
Chicken with chorizo, peppers and sage and spiced aubergine
Quite a lot going on in this punchy dish. I think I'd go for the Spanish beer Alhambra Reserva 1925 or a bier ambrée.