One of the best things about growing up in a Catholic community (besides being told on a regular basis by my Catholic friends that I was going to hell because I was a Methodist and Methodists aren’t Christians) were the Lenten fish Fridays. The political argument on the Vatican’s declaration of sustaining from meat to help the fishing industry aside, the move was brilliant. It produced some amazing varieties of fish as the good Catholics of the world put on their creative aprons to make weeks of mandatory fish dinners tolerable.
Back home in Youngstown, it seemed nearly every church, restaurant, and bar advertised some type of fish special to lure in the faithful. Given that my family were suckers for a good seafood dinner, we splashed the holy water on our face and tried to blend in. There was traditional fried, baked, francese, blackened, sautéed, and my personal favorite, beer battered. Yes, there is a difference between regular breaded and fried and beer battered. The crust is thicker with a bit of a bread or cake texture beneath the crunch. The batter also lends a more complex flavor depending on the type of beer used.
This brings me to February’s Beer Versus Wine challenge – beer battered fish. Just because the name has beer in it, doesn’t mean beer has to be paired with it. Instead of voicing my suggestions, this month I am opening up suggestions to the blogging community for a vote. Submit your suggestion and why your beer or wine makes the perfect pairing for beer battered fish in the comment sections below. You have a week to submit suggestions. Next week, I’ll open up polls. The pairing with the most votes wins the honor of coming up with March’s Beer Versus Wine challenge.
What is your perfect pairing for beer-battered fish?
Below are some rules / suggestions completely added after the fact due to my lack of clarity and the amount of questions coming in.
The Rules / Suggestions
- Write a comment with your perfect beer or wine pairing and tell us why the pairing works so well.
- Let’s keep this to beer or wine suggestions. No sweet tea or Jolly Rancher flavored vodka (that just sounds gross).
- Reblog the challenge on your blog and encourage others to participate.
- Remember to vote!
- Winner gets the honor of coming up with March’s perfect pairing to publish the fourth week of March.
The all important dates:
- Tuesday, March 4th – Deadline for submissions
- Wednesday, March 5th – Voting begins with a post summarizing the entrants and a poll
- Tuesday, March 11th– Voting ends
- Wednesday, March 12th – Winner is heralded in a victory post and a beer battered fish recipe from the kitchens of The Wandering Gourmand is posted