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Beyond enjoying a good beer with dinner, I’m all for enjoying a good beer as dinner.  However, having to cook for a 13 year old boy means that a beer for dinner isn’t really an option.

I surprised the Boy one night with a recipe I found online for Beer Poached Salmon, since salmon is one of our favorite proteins.  I’ve doctored the recipe slightly for taste and to better cook on a stove-top.

Beer Poached Salmon (serves 2**): Ingredients:

• 2 6oz fillets of salmon
• 2  T garlic salt (or 1 1/2 T garlic powder + 1/2 t table salt)
• 2-4 T brown sugar
• 4 T butter
• 1 small red onion (or 3-4 green onions)
• 1 12oz bottle of beer (your choice)

Directions:

Using a large (10-12″) skillet, center fish in pan.  Cover with garlic salt, then with brown sugar.  Dot the fillets with butter.  Top with thin slices of red onion.  Pour beer into skillet (not over fish) to 1/8″ below the highest point of the fillet. Cook on medium-high heat for 8 minutes or until cooked through. **When increasing the recipe to serve more, use discretion.  The seasonings and beer will stretch, depending on the number of fillets used.  Seasonings as listed should be considered a rough guide per skillet, rather than by servings. 

Any beer can be used in this recipe, and I’ve tried several, all with great success.  My favorite so far in terms of taste has been Pete’s Wicked Strawberry Blonde, which complimented both the fish and the sugar, but there was a delicious irony that I found while using Bass to cook the salmon. 

So far, I have yet to find anyone who has tried this dish and didn’t like it - even among (gasp) non-beer drinkers.  It’s more of a question of whether or not you like salmon than whether or not you like beer (or even the beer of choice).

To round out the dining experience, I highly recommend serving the same beer that you used to cook dinner.

Bon appetit!