IT GOES WITHOUT saying that beer is its own reward. So I will say it, with the addendum that beer has other uses than simply being swilled, though that is a fine use. I have often used beer, for instance (along with chopped onions), to parboil bratwurst before grilling them. And I have eaten (though never made) beer-batter cod, oblivious to the unlikely juxtaposition of beer and seafood. When one thinks of seafood, prepares seafood, eats seafood, one generally thinks of (white) wine, as both accompaniment and sauce base.

But it need not be so, as an Austrian friend – husband of a daughter of a neighbor – recently demonstrated. I arrived one evening a few weeks ago for dinner and, amid the usual chitchat, was told that the principal course would be haddock in beer sauce. My eyes widened in what I can only describe as sheer dread. Haddock! The fish that looks like tofu. Beer sauce! It would be bitter, surely. The menu, then, was to be bland fish with nasty sauce. I drank wine and waited in convivial gloom, feeling as if I were four again and condemned to eat some dour, elderly relative's dreadful food. From the kitchen came the portentous sounds of sizzling and hissing as a series of ingredients I could not bring myself to imagine found their way into the pan.

There is of course only one possible outcome to my chilling account, and that is that the dish was stunningly good. The fish, having been seared and then braised in the beer, was raised to moist flavorfulness. The sauce was quite savory but surprisingly mild mannered, the garlicky lentils on the side nicely absorbent.

As witness to a miracle, I naturally sought an explanation and got a recipe. To wit: mince a shallot or two, a clove or two of garlic, and sauté in oil in a skillet large enough to hold the fish (I think boneless chicken breasts would also work) along with some chopped green bell pepper and jalapeño. When all that has softened and mellowed, add the fish and turn up the heat to brown it a bit on both sides. Then add the beer (a single bottle proved enough for four of us – a miracle, truly), cover, and let the fish braise a few minutes. Dark beer or ale is preferred for its mellow richness.

To finish the sauce, swirl in some sour cream (our man used 1/3 cup), along with some capers and salt and pepper. Plate the fish and spoon the sauce over, letting it pool a bit. And have some bread on hand for sopping up remnants, for doubtless you will want to.

Paul Reidinger