Beer Braised Leek with Pumpernickel & Skyr

What does food pairing mean? It is the scientifically based search for ingredients with one or more matching flavors. For example, a piece of chocolate contains not only cocoa flavors, but also roasted, fruity or others. The second step would then be to search for another ingredient with one or more matching ones. In the end, there can be compositions that may not sound so appropriate, but when you try them, you will be surprised. First, there is the leek, which in this case is strongly roasted from one side, but cooked sweet and creamy from the other. Complemented by sweet and tart black beer, two ingredients with very similar flavors thus come together.

Since leek develops a lot of sweetness after braising and rather tart malt flavors remain from the black beer, I wanted to add a savory touch to this vegetarian recipe. Pumpernickel and roasted hazelnuts worked perfectly for this. The pumpernickel, with a slightly bitter note, was flavored with some orange zest and beer, and the roasted taste of the hazelnuts enhanced the flavor of the roasted leeks. To bring it all together, I used Skyr as a sort of culinary glue, as it adds some fat as well as sour notes to the dish. I really like the local and seasonal aspect of this dish and just the simplicity of the flavor. But hey, find out for yourself and recreate it at home.