Posts tagged "Food & Drink"

  • Hot sauce

    I just bottled my latest fermented hot sauce. 30 bottles using Andy's recipe. Same as last year except last year I used red jalapenos and this year I'm using "long red" chillis. I have some habaneros…

    Read full post

  • Adventures in sous vide and smoking

    I did my second crack at sous vide pulled pork using Serious Eats' great recipe. First time was great though my smoker gave up soon after getting it going, so I finished it using a foil-wrapped packet…

    Read full post

  • Kristen Hersh at The Vanguard

    Last Friday night we got to see Kristen Hersh of Throwing Muses perform her solo work at The Vanguard in Newtown. I haven't been to this venue since the 1990s when it was "Top Gun". Hersh was incredib…

    Read full post

  • Cook tech: Eat Your Books

    I love to cook and so I have a lot of cookbooks. This brings about a problem. Much as I love leafing through cookbooks, sometimes you need to work out what to cook more quickly. And I'm often trying t…

    Read full post

  • A month without booze

    It's March which means my February booze fast is over. I tried a lot of alcohol free beer over February and there were some real gems amongst them. The real standouts were the Vandestreek Playground I…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Sobah Lemon Aspen Pilsener

    Sobah use bush foods as flavourings with mixed results. The Pepperberry isn't bad: an interesting flavour in the mix for a beer. The lemon aspen, not so good. It tasted like toilet cleaner, to be hone…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Erdinger Weissbrau Alcoholfrei

    When holly was pregnant we drank a bit of this so I bought a bunch more for this booze free spell. It's still good, though now that I've discovered better it's not as amazing. Styled as a wheat beer,…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Heaps Normal Quiet XPA

    This is the way. A beer without booze that is no disappointment. It's delicious. Refreshing. Full of body. I'm buying a case! Only downside: it costs the same as high-end craft beer! $80 case + $10 sh…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Hawkesbury Prohibition Pale Ale

    Ugh. This beer was just plain off. Undrinkable. And on such a hot night last night too!

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Upflow Pale Ale

    Pale Ale tends to be the most common craft beer style and so tends to be the yardstick you measure against. This was always going to be a tough one for alcohol free beer. Upflow have got damn close he…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Bakalar Non-Alcoholic Dry Hopped Lager

    Not a bad attempt at a lager. Still ends up with that unique thin flavour you get with many of these brews but this one has more body than most. The hoppiness is strong and in your face, which helps.…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Upflow Stout

    I think this one may be my favourite yet. You could easily drink this and not realise it's got no booze, which is probably only something you could get away with in a dark beer. Fortunately I love dar…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Sobah Pepperberry IPA & Big Drop Brewing Pine Trail Pale Ale

    Catching up from last night's brews that Holly and I shared. These were both excellent. The Sobah one had a bit of an odd smell from the pepperberry but that's a feature of their brews, Australian nat…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Sobah Finger Lime Cerveza

    Dry and refreshing but not much going on. I can't taste the finger lime at all. It's acceptable but nothing special.

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Nort Refreshing Ale

    Nice and crisp this one. A bit lacking in body but good flavour and certainly refreshing.

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: UpFlow Session IPA and Flint Sukareki (сухариків)

    Wow this IPA is the business! Fruity hop aroma. Deep bitterness. Body and malt. This is the benchmark now! There's a few other UpFlow brews in the cupboard so I'm looking forward to those now. Also ni…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Mornington Free

    This describes itself as a "Non-Alc Pale Ale". I'm not sure it hits the notes I'd expect from a pale ale. Not enough body. However it's quite refreshing, light flavoured without being incipid. Perfect…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Eggenberg Freibier

    This Austrian number gets the take on lager right. Heavy, metallic bittering hops and a rich maltiness. Lager is hard to get right with alcohol but without its super tough. This one nails it. I'd drin…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Big Drop Brewing Uptown Craft Lager

    Being a lager, this isn't going for the fruity delights of a pale ale or similar. To survive being alcohol free a lager has to make up for the lack of body somehow. This one tries to make do with some…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Warsteiner 0% and Budvar Nealko

    Meh. Boring and bland. You're not fooling anyone here.

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Ochakovskiy kvass (Очаковский квас)

    I rode to Bondi Beach yesterday for a nice leisurely swim in the hot weather. I try to do this ride once a week leaving early on Tuesday mornings but the weather in 2021 hasn't been helpful. It's a re…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Kronenbourg Blanc

    Kronenbourg is a terrible beer that was available everywhere in the UK when we lived there. It's bloody awful stuff, but still better than the equally ubiquitous Fosters. Once we discovered Real Ale t…

    Read full post

  • Booze free beer: Peroni Libera

    There's a good chunk of middle-of-the-road mainstream beer brands in my selection and this tastes as expected. It's a lot like the Cooper's 0% beer. Lots of dry hops to give a crisp taste but not much…

    Read full post

  • Dry February alcohol free beers: Vandestreek Playground Non Alcoholic IPA

    Holly and I are having a break from booze for the month of February. It's a difficult month cos it's often got the hottest stretches of weather all year, so not having a cold beer at the end of an esp…

    Read full post

  • My daughter, the reader

    It's been amazing watching the youngest slowly get better at reading, then suddenly become hooked. The last week she's had her nose in books at every opportunity. It feels wrong telling her to put the…

    Read full post

  • Passata Day 2016

    In which we turn 215kg of tomatoes into delicious bottled tomato pulp Yesterday we did what has become an annual tradition, turning a bunch of tomatoes into passata, a tomato pulp with the seeds and s…

    Read full post

  • Awesome Q

    For Mother's Day I did some racks of ribs in the smoker. Mostly followed this recipe but used a commercial BBQ sauce for the final basting. They turned out amazing. Lip smacking good. No leftovers. Se…

    Read full post

  • 5:2: a diet for greedy people

    I've never been a skinny guy. The fittest I've ever been, playing rugby in my mid-teens, I was still chunky bloke. Helped me avoid being bullied. As an adult, my weight has gradually crept up. Finally…

    Read full post

  • No Marque, you can shove your environmental "concerns"

    "Due to environmental concerns Marque Restaurant no longer uses bottled mineral water. In this regard we have installed a chilled, filtered, carbonated water system. To support this initiative $5 per…

    Read full post

  • Our new local: Young Henry, The Cure's a Forest, brisket sandwich and a kid play room

    The Henson opened tonight in the old "Henson Park Hotel" premises around the corner, after a short hiccup with their license. They've done a great job, stripping back some of the covers over the origi…

    Read full post

  • Vodafone Foundation cooks for OzHarvest #charityleave

    We spent the day cooking for charity. Lots of fun. I helped on chicken cacciatore and another team did amazing apple calzones. Good stuff and quite fun. My wimpy office hands scored some nice blisters…

    Read full post

  • On the anatomy of thrift

    This beautiful series of instructional web videos teaches how to butcher pigs in a relaxed and fun hipster style. These guys would undoubtedly ride fixies and use Macs. Or at least their customers wou…

    Read full post

  • Chinese New Year MeatUp

    Amazing tasting menu at Bar H in Surry Hills. The pork buns were amazing and apparently on the regular menu.

    Read full post

  • Shakshuka

    I first ate shakshuka the morning after an outdoor rave near Sydney, cooked by a bunch of Israeli psy-trance types. It was the perfect refuel after a night dancing under the stars. Tomato, onion, egg…

    Read full post

  • The pig is on

    Xmas in July's main attraction is enspittened and cooking. Yum!

    Read full post

  • Meat overdose @ Momofuku Ssam Bar Title

    via eatshowandtell.com Ever since reading about David Chang and his restaurants, I've been keen to visit. The cookbook is excellent, if a little daunting. Here's some vicarious food porn.

    Read full post

  • Pork with apple and cider gravy

    Last night we had Matt & Maz around for dinner, a lovely roasted piece of pork shoulder from Urban Food Market, served with roast potatoes, onions and turnips. For a sauce to accompany the pork I'd st…

    Read full post

  • Mirragong wagyu meatup

    Sensational 7 course degustation at Cotton Duck in Surry Hills. I'm stuffed. Time for bed.

    Read full post

  • Recent reading: gambling politics, nose to tail, non-rail public transport and the Chernobyl death toll

    I've been using Instapaper to push longer articles to my Kindle for later reading. The tool isn't without some significant limitations but it works well enough for me. It's great to no longer skip rea…

    Read full post

  • Fishing, Jinja Safari and Cloud Control gig

    Last night Holly and I had a grandmother looking after Louis and tickets to a gig. Date night! Lots of fun was had. First, dinner at Arisun, the latest stop on our quest for the best Korean Fried Chic…

    Read full post

  • Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's deep-fried delights recipes

    Forget the health police for once and tuck into Hugh's yummy churros. Hot chocolate essential... Photograph: Colin Campbell for the Guardian via guardian.co.uk Phwoar! Hugh looks at the joys of deep f…

    Read full post

  • Busy weekend

    We had a very busy weekend. Saturday Linn, Sean, Cam and I put up plasterboard in the shoffice (shed/office). Lots of hard graft all day and much much appreciation for my helpers who slogged long and…

    Read full post

  • Serious barbecue

    The Serious Eats Barbecue Style Guide Posted by James Boo, February 24, 2011 at 4:15 PM via seriouseats.com This slideshow of amazing barbecue is very inspiring. I'd love to do a road trip through the…

    Read full post

  • Yay for babysitters

    We got to have an adult night out thanks to Grandma. Dinner at Spice Temple then Holy Fuck at Sydney Festival's Becks Festival Bar. Spice Temple was fantastic. The only baseball bat in the arsenal see…

    Read full post

  • Beers with Hanesy in Shellharbour

    Read full post

  • Pulled pork

    This weekend I made pulled pork again. It's such a great treat and uses insanely cheap meat. I pretty much followed this recipe from Kidspot, with about $15 worth of pork shoulder and a bit of a mixtu…

    Read full post

  • Woolworths gaming unit pricing

    In the ethnic food section paprika is priced per 100g. In the spice section, per 10g. Slimy.

    Read full post

  • Sun, beer, friends

    We had a wonderful afternoon down at the Concordia Club, drinking German beer, eating schnitzel and pork knuckle, hanging out in the sun. A fantastic, lazy Sunday. In the photos are Matt's pork knuckl…

    Read full post

  • Malt whisky ginger cake recipe

    via guardian.co.uk I made this over the weekend with some of the lovely Bruichladdich "Peat" multi vintage whisky that Louis received for his first birthday. It was amazingly light, with a very comple…

    Read full post

  • Seaside afternoon

    The weather started out bad so we headed to a fantastic kid-friendly pub. Afterwards we took a drive around the coast and the sun came out at Eastborne so we were able to add another leg to our NZ pla…

    Read full post

  • Baking with hefeweizen yeast

    Wheat beers such as hefeweizen, weissbier and wit are all light beers made from a mix of malted barley and wheat. In southern Germany the typical hefeweizen is fermented with a non-flocculating yeast,…

    Read full post

  • Malt Shovel Brewery tour

    Matt and I just did a tour followed by beer and food matching. First taste is the new Noir Stout with a hint if licorice. Delicious!

    Read full post

  • Fat Man in a White Hat

    I discovered Bill Buford having watching Fat Man in a White Hat, a seemingly-truncated BBC4 series broadcast earlier this year. It featured a passionate and highly-articulate American guy who'd thrown…

    Read full post

  • Uncle Arch's Cookbook

    One for the breakfast menu: Banana Rolls Cut bananas and peel, wrap each in a piece of bacon and dip in eggs and crumbs Cook in a quick oven for 10 minutes. From a sister housewife in NZ. via unclearc…

    Read full post

  • To Enhance Flavor, Just Add Water

    Just to see what spirits themselves are like with no alcohol burn at all, I diluted a number of them with plain water by three to one, to cut their alcohol levels to the equivalent of a low-alcohol wi…

    Read full post

  • Babi Guling: Balinese suckling pig

    We finally made it beyond the immediate surrounds of the hotel and out to Ubud where we visited the legendary Ibu Oka for Babi Guling, roast suckling pig. it was... sensational!

    Read full post

  • Bacon & egg pie with chilli jam

    At the little cafe on Unwins Bridge Road around the corner from Sydenham Station. Louis had mashed banana, prunes and yoghurt. I had the amazing bacon and egg pie, fresh from the oven. Wow! Cafe sound…

    Read full post

  • Just spent up big on Mexican & Indian food

    Read full post

  • Breakfast at Martini's

    Louis and I have done swimming, now brekkie at my fave Newtown cafe. I've been coming here for, I think, at least 13 years.

    Read full post

  • Food: Have you...

    Just discovered a really interesting food blog, STUDIOKITCHEN, written by chef Shola Olunloyo. It's got lots of cool technical experiments, and good ideas. Most interesting post I've found so far is t…

    Read full post

  • Smokey lamb

    On the weekend I finally got around to trying out the new smoker box I bought for the barbecue. It's just a small stainless steel box designed to hold some wet wood chips, with a couple of holes to al…

    Read full post

  • Pea Pretz!

    One of the good things about working in the CBD is the Asian food. At the bottom of World Square, where I work, is an Asian supermarket. I'm enjoying finding all the weird and wacky snacks. Today's di…

    Read full post

  • Great food, I won't be back

    Le Pain Quotidien, corner of Fitzroy and Bourke Streets, Surry Hills Holly, Rachel and I popped into this restaurant a week or so ago before heading up to the football stadium for a dismal Sydney FC m…

    Read full post

  • Comfort food: ramen

    I've had an upset stomach the last few days, even had yesterday off work. Not very pleasant, and I missed the Melbourne Cup festivities. To help recover, I've been eating quite bland food, without spi…

    Read full post

  • Bibimbap!

    My work moved into the city today, after a year or so in Forest Lodge. The really big advantage is that I can get bibimbap for lunch from my favourite little Korean joint which is just across the road…

    Read full post

  • Dining with food bloggers

    I really enjoy Grab Your Fork but gee, going out for dinner with her must be a bit annoying. Those gorgeous photos of the food don't take themselves! In this post she records a Yum Cha with a bunch of…

    Read full post

  • Kidneys in sherry and cream

    I've got some mates coming around tonight for offal, beer, wine, whisky and poker. A boys' night, with SWMBO banished for the evening. I've just bought some lamb kidneys, sherry and cream, and plan to…

    Read full post

  • Oscillate Wildly review

    As mentioned yesterday, Holly and I managed to get a booking at Oscillate Wildly for last night, our ten year anniversary. I'd attempted to book back in May, but they were already booked out. Fortunat…

    Read full post

  • Oscillate Wildly for dinner

    Just got a call to offer me a table at Oscillate Wildly tonight. I'd attempted to book months ago for tonight and it was already booked out. Yay! I've wanted to eat at this place for ages. Review some…

    Read full post

  • Good beer, bad chicken

    A few weeks ago I got an email from the Malt Shovel Brewery about a beer and food tasting at their brew pub on King Street Wharf. Best thing, of course, was the price: free. I signed myself and Holly…

    Read full post

  • Mmmmm KFC

    Helen Yee reviews Dashi Korean Cafe and Restaurant and its Korean Fried Chicken. Yummy! Definitely have to check this one out. Our favourite Korean in London, Bi Won on Coptic Street just off New Oxfo…

    Read full post

  • Rotisserie chicken, by necessity

    Last night we had a few mates around for dinner to celebrate the bathroom being done, and thank our hosts who put us up while our house was without a toilet. I planned to do a roast chicken with all t…

    Read full post

  • Barons Lemon Myrtle Witbier

    Pretty much every time I see a new wheat beer I haven't tried, I buy it and give it a go. Barons is a pretty new little brewery in Sydney but I've been very impressed with their pale ale and ESB, both…

    Read full post

  • Simon and Holly: greengrocers to the stars

    We're in this little fruit and veg co-op with a bunch of mates. Our turn to head out early in the morning to Flemington came up, and here's all the veg divided up. It's a great time for produce, with…

    Read full post

  • Un-big-worded milk

    Shopping late on Friday night, the only light milk available was this organic brand. Now organic milk is the only organic product that's been shown to have health benefits. The animal husbandry advant…

    Read full post

  • Puy Lentils

    I've been hunting for decent lentils since returning to Australia. In London I used to buy the lovely Puy Lentils (lentilles vertes du Puy) which are amazing green lentils. The key is that, unlike oth…

    Read full post

  • $5 steak!

    Now this makes being back in Sydney quite worthwhile. Last night we went for dinner at The Lansdowne and I ordered a $5 steak. Could you imagine what a £5 steak would be like? Well the $5 steak was de…

    Read full post

  • Fajita

    Last night I made fajita for dinner. Apparently it's supposed to be the diaphragm muscle of a cow, but we had some rump steak in the freezer that needed using, which I cut into strips. I marinated the…

    Read full post

  • This is just nuts

    My colleague just pulled out one of these health food bar things called Just Nuts. I was skeptical as it looked like more than that. When I turned over the package, the first item on the ingredients l…

    Read full post

  • Bulk egg poaching: success

    Yesterday I asked about this bulk poaching method in McGee. No responses so I had to go with it anyway. Turns out I was cooking Eggs Benedict for eleven people. The bulk method worked beautifully, as…

    Read full post

  • McGee's bulk egg poaching method

    I'm cooking breakfast for our little food co-op tomorrow. Once a fortnight, we send someone out to Flemington to buy fruit and veg for the 11 households. This means we get a staggering quantity of stu…

    Read full post

  • Brewing again

    Now that the weather has cooled down to reasonable levels, I put a brew on yesterday. Nothing spectacular, a Cooper's Mexican Cerveza kit with a kilo of Cooper's "Brew Enhancer 1". I'm planning to put…

    Read full post

  • The Beer Box

    Last night I finished my woodworking course at Sydney Community College (old Leichardt High School). My project was to make a box that will keep my beer fermenter cool, as our house gets to very high…

    Read full post

  • Homebrew shop in Newtown

    I've just paid a visit to my homebrew shop in Newtown and I'm quite impressed. They're very nice guys and very knowledgable. Served me a lovely example of their brews too. Just about to put a wheat be…

    Read full post

  • Cooking books are not for bedtime

    I read some of In Search of Perfection as described yesterday before going to sleep last night. Not a good idea. I woke up craving fish and chips. Not really breakfast food now, is it?

    Read full post

  • In Search of Perfection

    I've been working my way through Heston Blumenthal's book In Search of Perfection, which accompanies the TV show of the same name. Blumenthal is something of a food obsessive, to put it lightly. His t…

    Read full post

  • They're a weird mob

    These Australians are a bit weird. Just got back from the supermarket and nearly all the sausages are beef sausages. That's just wrong! Especially when they say things like "traditional" on the packag…

    Read full post

  • 1999 Peter Lehmann Grenache

    Back in 1999, we were drinking the fantastic 1998 Peter Lehmann Grenache. It was in our price range ($12 at the time) and very tasty. We kept going back to the bottle shop and buying more until they r…

    Read full post

  • Summer Lamb Couscous Salad

    This is a quick and easy summer salad that I've been making for years. It's tasty, healthy and dead easy to make. I find it's particularly suited to those long, hot summer evenings when you don't want…

    Read full post

  • Crown Seal Longnecks

    Coopers have gone back to using crown seal caps for their longneck bottles. This is a real boon for homebrewers, who for some years haven't been able to buy anything but imported beer that can be refi…

    Read full post

  • Quick and easy fish

    Holly has recently discovered she likes smoked mackerel. I've been eating it for years because it has many advantages: cheap, not endangered, tasty and being an oily fish it's got lots of the good stu…

    Read full post

  • Slow cooked chicken

    Yesterday we had Scott and Katie around for late lunch. I cooked up some chicken I had in the freezer. This was an old bird I'd bought for coq au vin, organic but old so it had used those muscles. Chu…

    Read full post

  • Moblog

    Not sure if the steam comes out but here's Hanesy at lunch. Having a ball but could use some snow.

    Read full post

  • Moblog

    I went out this morning but came back in before lunch. Too sore from all my stacks on icy runs yesterday. Snow has improved things overnight and there's more starting now. Gonna go hard tomorrow on th…

    Read full post

  • Store cupboard sausage and cider casserole

    There is one consolation to the weather getting cold: I get to make more delicious but ridicuously easy casseroles thrown together with whatever I have lying around. Last night was one such night. Mos…

    Read full post

  • River Cafe

    Holly took me out to the River Cafe for dinner tonight. Absolutely brilliant feed. I had squid with chilli and rocket, Holly had prosciutto with charantais melon for entrees. Mine was perfect, not so…

    Read full post

  • Katsu!

    A discussion on london.food about katsu gave me the idea of making a katsu curry tomorrow night when Scott and Katie come around for dinner. These are the ingredients I bought from the Japanese and Ko…

    Read full post

  • I made sushi!

    Well it's not going to win any awards, but my first attempt at sushi worked alright. Certainly tasted good. The wasabi I bought turns out to be insanely hot. Nose tinglingly.

    Read full post

  • Sushi!

    After sushi for dinner last night at the excellent Yoshi Sushi, I realised how much I miss good sushi. It's rare and expensive in this town. Yoshi is probably the best price/quality balance I've found…

    Read full post

  • Sushi!

    After sushi for dinner last night at the excellent Yoshi Sushi, I realised how much I miss good sushi. It's rare and expensive in this town. Yoshi is probably the best price/quality balance I've found…

    Read full post

  • Regrowth Blonde

    Just brewed a quick-and-dirty beer for my birthday party keg. Cooper's Canadian Blonde kit, 350g wheat malt, 350g dark malt (what I had already opened in the fridge), 300g glucose, Brupaks Flavapak be…

    Read full post

  • Amazing chocolate cake

    On the weekend I made this amazing chocolate cake from Nigella Lawson's site for Fiona's birthday. Fantastic cake, really rich and yummy. Went down well. I did the orange-flavoured option and it worke…

    Read full post

  • Becoming an omnivore

    For most of my life, I have despised tomatoes. Tomato soup, ketchup, pasta sauce and the like are all fine. Just raw tomatoes, I've always hated. For the last year or so, I've been trying to work myse…

    Read full post

  • Funky Porcini

    The fantastic cheese stall at North End Road market had a fantastic thing on offer this weekend. Giant 250g tubs of dried porcini mushrooms for £5. Incredible. So last night I cooked a mushroom casser…

    Read full post

  • Vietnamese Mint

    With the weather warming up, Holly has been getting her herb seedlings going. Last year we had a fantastic crop of chives, basil and oregano. Considering the small space available (one window sill) we…

    Read full post

  • Union Coffee Roasters

    I normally buy Cafe Direct 's fair trade coffee but there was a special offer last week on Union Coffee Roasters ' coffee. This morning I opened the first packet and it's absolutely sensational. Reall…

    Read full post

  • Marx and kimchee

    Yesterday we went on a Marx walking tour of Soho with Scott and the Trots associated with his flatmate Hannah. An excellent tour which he'll be repeating on Mayday apparently. Lots of interesting hist…

    Read full post

  • Cider and Dark Lager

    Just bottled the cider I made on the cider making weekend last year. It's delicious, though perhaps a little too much tanin. I bottled 20 bottles straight, which will be flat scrumpy-style. The remain…

    Read full post

  • Nut brown ale

    Just brewed up a Munton's Nut Brown Ale kit. Added 200g pale malt, 900g dark malt and boiled a handful of the cheap, crappy Fuggles hops for a while. Should be good. Following a successful brew, I cra…

    Read full post

  • Juniper?

    Anyone know where to get juniper berries? We're off to Scotland this weekend with a bunch of friends. We'll be cooking up eight pounds of venison and the recipe calls for juniper berries...

    Read full post

  • New edition of McGee's On Food and Cooking

    A new edition of Harold McGee's amazing book On Food and Cooking has been released. The original book is an amazingly detailed and interesting look at how food and cooking works from a scientific poin…

    Read full post

  • Another Belgian Wit

    I brewed up another Belgian Wit kit on Monday night, this time a Brewferm Tarwebier. I didn't add any orange peel or coriander this time, just to see, and used only glucose. We'll see how it goes. I t…

    Read full post

  • Wheat beer and IPA

    Just bottled my exceptionally bitter IPA. Brewed from a Coopers IPA kit and it's certainly damn bitter. Should be nice when it's ready. Also just cracked into my Belgian Wit which I thought was going…

    Read full post

  • Cider making weekend

    Over the weekend, Scott and I went cider making in the Forest of Dean. Was a great weekend away in beautiful countryside and we learnt the pleasures of making traditional cider. We also got to bring b…

    Read full post

  • Suck-in-your-cheeks bitter!

    Put the Coopers IPA in the bucket yesterday. I boiled up a huge couple of handfuls of Fuggles hops for half an hour to try and get a bit more bite in. Fuggles is, supposedly, an aroma hop and I got th…

    Read full post

  • Coopers IPA

    Just doing my water treatment (boil it all, nothing more) and yeast starter for my next brew, a Coopers India Pale Ale which I'll brew up tomorrow. Will make according to directions with 1kg glucose f…

    Read full post

  • Xmas beer in the bucket

    After quite a long break over the Summer, I've finally started brewing again. On Monday night I put a Woodeforde's Wherry all malt kit on. I'm gonna keg this one and have it for xmas day at Rachel's p…

    Read full post

  • Dark wheat beer

    This week the Great British Beer Festival has been on at Olympia, which is very close to our house. I think my favourite has been the dark German wheat beer I had last night. Delicious! Might see if I…

    Read full post

  • Canadian blonde bottled

    I bottled the Canadian Blonde last night. Should be a nice, light beer with loads of hop aroma. I bottled with 100g glucose priming and a handful of Fuggles hops boiled in for a few minutes. Tasted pr…

    Read full post

  • Wow that was quick!

    I brewed a Coopers Canadian Blonde kit on Sunday night with 500g glucose and 500g pale malt. This morning the yeast foam was all gone and I was worried something was wrong, so I chucked in another dry…

    Read full post

  • Asian food madness

    Yesterday Holly, Kev, Marg and I went out to Oriental City in Colindale. This is a huge asian (or, as they say here "oriental") food complex with a massive multicultural supermarket, food court and sh…

    Read full post

  • Wit bottled, Canadian blonde on the way

    I bottled the Belgian Wit yesterday. It's tasting great already, and can only get better. I must have messed up my measurements of the original and final gravity, as they make no sense. Either that or…

    Read full post

  • Belgian wit in the bucket

    Over the weekend I made up a Hoegaarden-style belgian wit ale, in the style of Graeme's fabulous recipe, the results of which tried while we were in Oz. Muntons Connoisseur wheat beer kit 1kg light ma…

    Read full post

  • Brewing again

    I finally got all my brewing kit over to our new pad (thanks Jamie!) so I can start brewing again. Last night I got the first batch underway. A Cooper's Brewmaster Pilsener kit. Nothing fancy in the m…

    Read full post

  • Bread!

    I've long harboured an interest in breadmaking. I eat a lot of the stuff and really appreciate the good stuff. When an old flatmate had a bread maker, I was very very happy. I'd always vaguely conside…

    Read full post

  • Hojicha

    Many years ago, my mate Martin introduced me to a Japanese tea style called Hojicha. It's made by roasting the leaves and twigs of the tea plant. The roasting gives it a distinctly nutty flavour, and…

    Read full post

  • Sustainable fish consumption?

    Recently I've noticed a few guides to the fish you can sustainably eat coming out. There was one for the East coast of Australia recently, though I can't remember the link. This one covers the West co…

    Read full post

  • Yummy strawberry tart!

    I made a delicious strawberry tart on Saturday, pictured here. The recipe I used was this one with the refinement of turning the strawberries the other way and glazing them with a mixture of hot lemon…

    Read full post

  • Norkfolk Nog is amazing

    I made a premium kit called Woodeforde's Norfolk Nog back at the start of November and stuck it in a pressure barrel with 100g extra dark malt. It's the beer I've been setting aside for Xmas Day. I ju…

    Read full post

  • Strawberry Tart Full Recipe

    What is it about recipes that the moment I link to them, they disappear off the web? Well fortunately Google kept hold of this one, so I bring you the recipe, with my variations included. Strawberry T…

    Read full post

  • Chocolate self-saucing pudding

    This chocolate pudding makes it's own sauce and is delicious with cream or ice cream. The preparation time is about five minutes and the results are awesome. Perfect for a chilly evening when you coul…

    Read full post

  • Skippy is good for you, good for the planet.

    I love kangaroo meat. It's just fabulous. It tastes great in Thai curries, works amazingly as a steak with beetroot and would probably work in every other situation where you use beef. Kangaroo has ot…

    Read full post

← All posts