Internet Salmagundi XIV

I haven't done one of these for ages. It's facebook's fault. I keep posting fun and interesting links to facebook and forgetting to do it here. So here's a collection for amusement.

Food Related

I can't believe I only just found epicute this week. Cute food - cakes, bento and lollies, mostly. Kind of opposite to cakewrecks, which I have mentioned before.

Speaking of cakes, here are some very wrong ideas for cakes: the tomato soup cake and the beer cheese cake with bacon icing. Words fail me.

These are supposed to be the best chocolate chip cookies ever. They contain more salt than you would expect.

And I really fancy making Alton Brown's granola. Though it is winter, and I'm more into porridge than cold cereal at this time of year.

Is it worth making your own? Well, maybe, maybe not - this article examines a few cases. It's where I found the link to the granola recipe, which is definitely something to make at home for both the author and me. Jam and marmalade, too, for me. But I'm not sure I eat enough yoghurt to justify making it, and bagels seem too time intensive to be a regular.

And in local news: Stonesoup has a book launch coming up at Gunning this weekend. I'd like to go but may be exhausted by the rounds of other events this week.

Not Food

First, I'm honoured to have been included by the Darling Sisters in their list of bloggy goodness.

This is cool musical toy to play with.

This letter from a former slave to his former master amused me no end.

If you like Buffy and hate Twilight, here is an excellent antidote. Personally I couldn't care less if some vampires sparkle, but the romanticisation of stalking and abuse is just disgusting.

And while we're on the politics of fantasy/SF, here is an thought-provoking critique of the Star Wars series.

And for happy geekery: a collection of periodic tables. Some are works of art, some are simply comedy.

Internet Salmagundi XIII

It's been a while since I did one of these. I've been posting funny and peculiar links to facebook, mostly. I'll go back for a trawl.

Food related:
* Beer Meringue Pie. I have to do this one day.

* Undead themed wedding cakes: the good and the bad, as collected by cakewrecks.

* And look at this: Mexican gelatine art. This is just amazing - is it a bunch of flowers?


And moving away from the food theme:

* This collection of 1920s cartoon LOLcats has grown to over 1000. Someone has far too much time on their hands.

* I don't think I know anyone who would knit me a jumper, and I can't knit, but I love this one. Owls! So cute!

* Sita Sings the Blues is an entire animated movie, available for free under creative commons. It's a fascinating construction - multiple animation styles, interweaving the ancient story of Rama and Sita with a modern story, and modern commentary (by shadow puppets) on the old story. All this, and a track of 1920s blues/jazz songs by Annette Hanshaw.

* We saw Meow Meow recently. She's an amazing artist: see her if you ever get the chance. Some blurbs: "vamped-up kamikaze cabaret and exotica performance art", "From the psychotic to cool to kitsch cabaret, multimedia performance art and virtuosic contemporary opera". "Stranded somewhere between the Middle Ages, 1930’s Shanghai show tunes, 60’s French pop, witty wicked Weimar and post-punk thrash..."

Best of Corinbank

Corinbank was totally awesome. I'm not going to dare to judge the acts or the art. But I had a wonderful time, and the highlights for me were:
* the choir. I got to sing backup to Chanel Cole and Simone Penkethman. Yay! I am so rock!
* the lineup at the Bally: Madame Mona Chromatique, Petite Sideshow presents Petite Freak, Bawdeville Allsorts Burlesque
* Mr Fibby!
* just wandering around taking in all the different artworks and people and music.

In terms of food and drink:
Best beer: The Backyard Brewery (as run by The Bloke)
Best breakfast: Huevos Rancheros by the Mayan Coffee stall
Best coffee: Non-colonialist coffee from the Mayan Coffee stall
Best cold drink: Iced Guarapo (panella sugar, lime, chilli) from the Mayan Coffee stall
Best dinner: Chicken mole from the Mayan Coffee stall

Umm... is anyone else seeing a pattern here?

An honorable mention goes to the sausage inna bun folks. They sold huge Kranski sausages from the Calwell butcher, who I am told smokes his own meats. They were indeed rather good, but the amount of fat in them is rather daunting. I don't often eat Kranski, and that one will probably suffice me for another year.

More baking: carrots and onions

I've been slowly cleaning out the fridge and discovering things that need using up. Some very nice young carrots from the EPIC market had gone all limp and floppy. I also had some baby leeks and spring onions (the kind with the bulb) that were looking the worse for wear. And a couple of old tomatoes and half a punnet of large cherry tomatoes. These are easy things to deal with.

If you're a regular reader, you know that I roast tomatoes all the time. Cherry tomatoes work too. Since I'm basically reducing them to sauce, it doesn't matter that they take less time than the larger ones. Into the slow oven for an hour or so to caramelise a bit, peel when cool, and squish into a container for later use in a pasta or pizza sauce.

Floppy carrots will come good with iced water. You peel them and cut off the tops, and stick them in a container of cold water. Then it's into the fridge for an hour, or up to several days, even. They came so good that I ate several of them raw as a nice crunchy side to my sandwich lunch the other day. But I also saw a carrot muffin recipe in one of those cheapie supermarket food magazines and I felt inspired. I didn't have quite the required set of ingredients, so I improvised a bit. See below for the recipe.

As for the onions, well, as long as they're not too slimy you can just keep stripping off outer layers until you get to a nice core. I did this and chopped the resulting onion and leek mix fine. I fried them gently in a little mixed olive & canola oil until soft and a bit browned. Then I mixed them in to a beer bread mix, along with a teaspoon of caraway seeds and half a cup of coarsely grated strong cheddar. The beer was Cascade this time. We'll have it for dinner tonight, with some of that Carolina pork from the freezer, and a coleslaw.

I confess that I had to throw out some green beans and plums. They were definitely off. And some bread went moldy. In this weather, it really helps to keep it in the fridge. Mea culpa.


Recipe: Carrot and Honey Muffins
1 cup white SR flour
1 cup wholemeal SR flour
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
2 cups grated carrot
--
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/2 cup plain yoghurt (low fat Greek)
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
--
Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly.
Mix all wet ingredients well.
Add wet mixture to dry mixture, stir gently to just combine.
Bake in muffin pans for 20 minutes at 200C, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Notes: Makes 6 large or 12 small.
Tip: honey is easier to measure if you microwave it for 20 seconds to runny. Using an oiled spoon helps, too.

These muffins came out surprisingly well. At first I thought I'd totally screwed up by burning them, and I'm still dubious about whether my oven is behaving itself on the non-fan setting. (Fan setting is still broken.) I made 6 large ones, baked them for 25 minutes before testing, and by then they were all a bit burned on the bottom and a couple a tad burned on top. (Oven is hotter at front than back.)

But it wasn't too bad - cut off the bottom and trim any burned bits, and they are good to go. They're even nicely moist; perhaps that's the yoghurt. They are good with cream cheese - it's almost like having carrot cake for breakfast.

Oh, and here's a bonus. My lunch, a tuna pasta salad. Using up the last of several salad veggies - and now I must go to the shop to restock.

F is for Fyshwick, and Friday, and Flute

You might think that there's nothing foodie in Fyshwick, Canberra's light industrial centre. Furniture, car repairs, motorcycles, home renovation supplies, whitegoods, sex shops and brothels, yes, but food? If you are new to Canberra and that's your impression, then you'd be wrong. There are several notable foodie things in Fyshwick. Though I really don't recommend chocolate body paint from the sex shops. Nasty stuff, that, but I guess everybody has to try it once.

There's actually quite a few places worth mentioning. First, of course, is the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets. These are across the railway line from the more industrial zone, with access off Canberra Avenue via Dalby St. It's almost Kingston. It's open Thursday to Sunday, and boasts a couple of delis, an Asian grocer, two fish shops, a poulterer, a couple of bakeries, two butchers, an organic fruit & veg stall, and a lot of general fruit & veg retailers. I'm fond of the nut stall, with the fresh roast nuts and shop-ground peanut better. I don't go out there that often, though, since Belconnen is usually more convenient for me.

Even in the industrial zone, there are several places worth a visit. Last Friday I had to go to pick up a motorbike part, and I took the opportunity to go to Cosmorex coffee and The Flute bakery. Cosmorex, at 44 Kembla Street, sells coffee equipment of all kinds: grinders, plungers, roasters, espresso machines, mugs, and more. They also sell their own blends of coffee and tea, some of it nicely packaged up for Xmas gifts. The coffees are around $8-10 for 250g, unless you want the famous Jamaican Blue Mountains - at $180/kg, they keep a little in stock around Xmas but otherwise you have to place a special order. They're open Monday to Friday 8-4.40, and Saturday mornings 9-12.

The Flute Bakery, at 8 Barrier St, is even less accessible to the full time worker since it's a Monday to Friday concern, and they close early. I think it's 8am-3pm. But I'm only 80% full time, so I can get there now and then. I do love my Fridays! This little bakery and patisserie is very impressive - they turn out a terrifically good crusty white sourdough loaf, as well as multigrains and rye and fruit loaf and so on. I'm told their pies are excellent, too, but I haven't yet tried them. Their patisserie is wonderful: it's a hard choice between all the little French fruit tarts and cheesecakes and profiteroles and mousses. One of The Flute's specialties is the mini fruit-filled brioche. I took home a blueberry and ricotta one for Saturday breakfast, and had a pear and almond tart with my Friday morning coffee. The tart had a lovely crisp sweet shortcrust, and a creamy almond base under the fruit, and a pistachio garnish. Yum. And to top it off, the coffee was brilliant! It's seriously one of the best in Canberra: full bodied, aromatic, rich and strong without any burned in bitterness.

Also in Fyshwick, there are a few new looking cafes around to cater to the local workers and the weekend furniture shoppers. I haven't tried any of them yet, so if you have any suggestions, please do pop them in the comments. The one place that I really want to get to soon is Zierholtz. I've been to the brewery, and the beer is really great. Debacle keep a couple of varieties on tap, if you want to try it in town. But now a cafe/restaurant has opened up, and I'm hearing rumours that it's got good food as well as beer. I want to get there soon!

Corned Beef and all that jazz

Corned beef with mash, cabbage, and parsley sauce - a British classic, and actually pretty tasty with it. Especially when you add some hot mustard. But what was I thinking again? This requires at least one pan per component. And the bloke is sick, so who's going to clean up? And there are lots of one pot recipes for corned beef and cabbage. Why am I not doing one of those? I must be daft.

This week I have rehearsals Sun, Tues & Thurs, and a yoga class on Monday. I need quick reheatable food, and this should mostly fit the bill. The potato, cabbage and sauce can last one more meal, and there's still plenty of corned beef for sandwiches. Perhaps a pasta on Wednesday will help vary things, and bought soup and cheese toasties are always an option. And there's baked beans left over from last week.

So anyway, I went ahead with the four pot dinner, and took a photo even though it's not the most photogenic of meals. One of the pots is for a simple potato mash with some turnip in it. Recipe: boil in lightly salted water for 20 minutes, drain, mash, add butter or milk to taste. More detailed recipes for the rest follow:


Corned Beef in Beer
1.5 kg piece of corned beef
1 jug beer
1 onion
6 cloves
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
Rinse corned beef and put in slow cooker or large saucepan. Cover with beer, add onion and spices. Cook on slow cooker's high setting, or at a very slow simmer for 4-5 hours.



Light Parsley Sauce
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup non-fat milk
1 onion
2 bay leaves
1 bunch parsley, leaves chopped finely, stems saved
2 tablespoons cornflour
Combine milk and chicken stock, add onion, bay leaf and the parsley stems. Bring to a simmer, then turn off heat and leave to infuse for an hour or two. To make the sauce, strain the cool milk and stock mixture into a saucepan, and stir in the cornflour, mixing well. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. When the sauce thickens, add the chopped parsley.

Note: if the milk isn't cool, mix up the cornflour in a 1/4 cup of water first, to avoid lumps. I invented this sauce when we were more determinedly trying to lose weight, and I like it rather better than the usual bechamel in this context. Adding some lemon zest is a nice option.

Saute Cabbage
1/4 cabbage, shredded, rinsed well
1 onion, sliced
1 apple, peeled & sliced
1 tablespoon of light oil
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Fry onion in oil until lightly golden. Add caraway seeds, apple and cabbage. There should still be some water clinging to the cabbage; if not add 1/4 cup or so. Add the vinegar. Let this cook down for 5-20 minutes depending on how well done you like it. I prefer it quite soft with the corned beef.

Sydney Shopping, Lunch, Beer & Brunch

We took Belinda & Michael to the airport on the weekend. They're off for a 3 month grand tour of the Baltic. Such a long trip - it's very odd to think that before they get back, Beth and I will have been to Tibet and back. Anyway, this seemed like a good opportunity to do some shopping, and we did it with great efficiency. We had planned to drive down Friday night, but everybody was too tired, so it got put off to Saturday.

In our lightning tour, we managed to get to Retrospec'd in Newtown, where I got 1940s swing pants in grey, and a red and white spotted blouse to go with it. It's going to be one of my costumes for the Searchlights and Sirens burlesque show - dinner & show $50; Fri 29th August, come and see! I'm singing and dancing. The bloke ordered some cool black & white swing dance shoes from them, which they didn't have in stock in the right size & colour, but will post. We also went to the rather fabulous (mostly menswear) Anton's, where the bloke bought two jackets and I got a top hat. I have no idea when I'm going to wear a top hat, but I'm sure I'll think of something. Add in a quick trawl round Galaxy and Abbey's, and we were done, all in a few hours. Phew!

We ate at three different places, and I was happy with them all. We grabbed a late and much needed quick lunch in the QVB basement. You may know that the place is full of rather expensive and dull cafes, but on the way out to the rest of the underground malls there's a place called "Malaysian Laksa House" with cheap but sound Malaysian & Indonesian fast food. You can get a beer there, even. I had a gado gado ($8.50), and the bloke had a beef rendang with rice ($7.50). Mine was better, I think. They used a lot of iceberg lettuce in the veggie salad, where cabbage is more traditional, but it worked well. Plenty of spicy peanut sauce, and lots of fresh crunchy veggies.

We had dinner at Red Oak, which is a wonderful boutique brewery. There's a casual bar there, and a more formally arranged dining room, all in the same large space. They like to use beer in the cooking - even the desserts. Each menu item is matched with a beer. I had three beers: starting with a crisp Kölsch style, I moved on to a honey ale with my tagliatelle with clams ($18), and a Belgium chocolate stout with my sticky date pudding and porter icecream ($12). Yes, a beer icecream! It was great. The honey ale is made with Tasmanian leatherwood, and has all the complex aromas without too much sweetness. The chocolate stout is infused with dark belgian chocolate, it's also got all the aromas without much sweetness. Amazing stuff.

I forget exactly what the bloke had to drink, but his lamb and oatmeal stout sausages and mash ($20) came with a porter, and his cheese tasting plate ($20) with four different beers (in very small glasses). It cost us $100 even for the two courses each, a salad, and several beers. We ordered from the cheap end of the main course menu, but they only go up to about $30, anyway. It seemed like very good value to me. The beer really is terrifically good there, and they have all the awards to prove it.

Brunch next morning was at Not Bread Alone, where we all met up with the bloke's Mum. It's in Crows Nest, and we chose it as a sort of half way point, convenient to neither party. It turned out to be a good choice. The coffee was good, the portions were generous, and everybody seemed happy with their choice. Belinda's ricotta hotcakes ($14.50) were very thick and fluffy, and came with bananas and a huge chunk of passionfruit butter. My French toast with rhubarb and maple syrup ($13.50) was made with two large slices of sourdough. Good stuff, a bit more eggy that I usually make it. The big breakfast and omelettes looked good, too. The service was fine to start with, but was rather on the slow side later, when we were ordering second rounds of coffee. We didn't get cranky with it: in some ways that just made it more relaxed. No pressure to eat and run. We ended up lingering just a little too long, and got back to Canberra half an hour late for rehearsal.

Oh, and we didn't see the pope. Good. More regrettably, we didn't see any of our Sydney friends either, but it was a very short flying visit. Next time...

Zierholz Brewery

Last night the cook and I went out to Zierholz brewery with a bunch of the Slow Food group. While I'm not really a member of the Slow Food group I really couldn't pass up an opportunity to visit Zierholz.

For those who don't know Zierholz is a small brewery that . . . .

. . . started up in Canberra a couple of years ago by Christoph Zierholz . He got into brewing by starting as a home brewer and then took the brave leap into a commercial setup. He's pretty adventurous. While most of us start home-brew with kits, then move into extract and experiment with grains. It sounds like he started with extract and leapt to all-grain mashes and boiling. Brave man!

The idea of the visit was that Christoph would give us a small talk describing the brewing process while showing us the brewery. We would then taste some of his beers.

I've been doing a little research into brewing lately. There is a lot of information out there on brewing and it can be a bit difficult to separate theory from myth from experimental fact. My latest, greatest read is "Designing Great Beers" . It's a brilliant book that contains vast amounts of information if you want to approach brewing from a more scientific point of view. It goes into great detail on methods and beer styles and beer history. Someone should start a one semester Uni course using it as a text book. . . .

. . anyway where was I before I got carried away. Ah yes. Reading the book provides lots of information but it was better to have Christoph show us through the brewery and explain each step in the brewing process. He told us what was done and why and some of the history. It really made the theory bloom in front of my eyes. Christoph knows all the theory and has a very pragmatic approach. Just brilliant. I had some of my pet theories confirmed (e.g. don't ferment over 18C) and unfortunately my fears confirmed (e.g. brewing from extract is OK but it's like making instant coffee).

So even before the beer the trip was well worth it. But then, of course, there was beer :)


The beers we tasted were: Schank, German Ale, Hopmeister, Pils, Weizen, Brown Ale and Porter.

They are all good beer although my tastes really run toward the hoppy and darker beers. I would like to be able to do the beers justice but I don't think my beer palate and vocabulary are up to beer tasting standards however I'll give it a go.

Schank: A very light beer. Somewhat hoppy. Very little malt taste
German Ale: This is the one I have tasted before. This in many ways is a reasonably generic beer. Something that most people (who like beer) would drink happily. As such it is not a stand-out from the rest but it's still very drinkable.
Hopmeister: Sort of like the German Ale with more hops. That means I liked it more.
Pils: Noticeable hops and somewhat sweet. This is a very tasty drop. This is the sort of beer that I would drink through the warmer weather.
Weizen: Don't ask me I'm just not a fan of wheat beer.
Brown Ale: Somewhat reminiscent of Newcastle Brown Ale but superior. This has a slightly nutty flavour and is full bodied. Not really hoppy.
Porter: One of the best porters I've tasted. Porter is a very wide church of a beer. It even used to include Stout. A lot of porters have a very rich malt taste. So rich it seems to overpower the other tastes in the beer. This doesn't do that. This is a very even beer that spreads all the tastes out. It's slightly biscuity, a bit caramelly and of course you can taste the malt. If anyone likes stout or porter and gets a chance to drink some of this don't let the opportunity pass you by.

So after tasting a beer or two we wandered home. Or, more accurately, the designated driving Cook drove me home. It's a hard life.

If anyone is interesting in trying these beers and is in Canberra Zierholz is opening a cafe. So it's worth dropping in. I'm planning on it and I suspect Canberra taxi's know how to find Fyshwick.

At this point I should add that I have no interest in Zierholz past the point that I love good beer :)

The Bloke

Hi Folks

This is The Bloke.

As a home brewer and lover of beer, Cath has invited me to add an occasional post talking about beer and all things beer-like.

So you may expect to see an odd post or two from me in the future.

Just as an introduction you should know that I brew my own beer and have a fondness for boutique brews. Living in Canberra that means that I have to mention the Wig & Pen and Zierholz Brewery. Both make brilliant beers, though I definitely favour the W&P. Now that I am a blog contributor I have a very good reason to review their entire range, again.

More later, bye for now.