Festive holiday red and green meal with Imperial Red Ale

Festive holiday red and green meal with Imperial Red Ale.

Organic grass fed, grain finished sirloin steak. Spiced with red chili pepper powder and ground organic green peppercorn.

Served with red and green vegetable medley of pan-fried organic red potatoes, caramelized organic red onion, and sautéed red and organic green peppers.

Meat and medley toped with organic parsley.

With a side of toasted organic baby asparagus and organic tomato.

Beer pairing: YuleSmith (Winter). Imperial Red Ale. AleSmith. San Diego, CA.

Selected this beer because thought IPA would pair well with hearty steak and the sharp hops would help balance the robustness of the meat. Furthermore, to balance out any potential excessive hoppiness of a pure IPA, selected an Imperial Red Ale (which in terms of this particular beer is like a hybrid red IPA [ie, delicately balanced hoppiness with caramel maltyness]). The hoppiness of this beer paired well with the steak, with the red aspect of the ale making the beer much darker than a typically golden color IPA and the pairing even better. The caramel malt flavor also went fantastically with the caramelized organic red onion flavor notes in the vegetable medley.

The red and green colors on the logo of the beer bottle provided inspiration for the red and green theme, despite my agnosticism.

Happy holidays.

12/18/10.