Food and Drink – Page 4

Port Sippers

07. March 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Food and Drink, Me

My lovely wife got me a set of four port sippers for my birthday recently. One of my brothers got me a bottle of a good vintage port, and I still have a vintage bottle from a friend's wedding where I was best man. All I need now is a decanter and I'm go go go for a port party!

I've been wanting some of these sippers for years, since using some at a friend's house, but never actually finding them anywhere (internet or real world). It seems they're now freshly available and easy to find. They are delicate little handmade glass items, the idea being that you drink through the built-in straw, hence taking the liquid from the bottom rather than the top. Which is apparently a good thing, helping to "avoid oxidisation and improve taste". Apart from that they're just neat little things that are out of the ordinary.

More Vienna

25. February 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Food and Drink, Photography, Travel

A couple more shots from Vienna – now a few weeks back.

First, to prove that it was proper cold, here's a gargoyle with a not-so-runny nose.

And in an arty mood, here's Vienna through the bottom of a beer glass – which is shockingly very nearly empty!

Beer Review: Kasteel Cru

15. February 2009 · 1 comment · Categories: Beer, Food and Drink

This is quite a special lager – brewed with champagne yeast it has a very fine, light bubble and it does indeed taste like a beery champagne. Imagine a very fine champagne with the sweetness replaced with dry pils bitterness. Certainly the lingering feel in the mouth is more champagne than beer.

There are very few beers brewed in this style, so this one from Alsace is quite unique and worth tracking down. I was spurred to pick some up because Waitrose had 25% of the bottles – and it was on taste 🙂 It's really very good indeed – super refreshing and drinkable (but remember it's a deceptive 5.2% ABV) but a bit unusual.

In this case I was drinking it from a Kölsch glass, which isn't entirely right, but seemed to suit it's delicacy. I suppose it could/should be drunk from a champagne flute!

Vienna: Big Schnitzel at Figlmuller’s

10. February 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Food and Drink, Travel

We stumbled across Vienna's prime schnitzel place, Figlmuller's and ordered the house speciality for lunch. It more than covered the plate and was only about 3mm thick. It tasted like those breaded turkey burgers I used to eat when I was young, which was a little disconcerting. It was basically nice, but became a bit of a chore.

Austrian Beer

08. February 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Beer, Food and Drink, Travel

A cavalcade of beer today! But drunk last weekend in Vienna in holiday mood, with cold wintery weather outside.

First, a warm bar called Centimeter, where many things (including sandwiches) were available by the centimeter. A Paulaner in its correct glass on the right, and I can't remember what the dunkel beer was on the left, other than this wasn't the correct glass for it. Both were delicious!

Then, in a similar district we found ourselves in a big rambling place with its own brewery. I tried the chilli beer, assuming that it would deliver a warm background glow of chilli heat but nothing more, otherwise they'd struggle to sell much of it. I was wrong. This was throat scorching stuff and I probably wouldn't have another, but it was an interesting novelty experience.

Beer Review: Hoegaarden Big Bottle

24. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Beer, Food and Drink

I like witbiers and have always found Hoegaarden to be a classic example. It's a shame that it's another example of a decent beer getting bought out by the faceless mega-corporation – InBev in this case. Read about the history of Hoegaarden Brewery at Wikipedia.

Still, even with corporate types meddling it's a fine beer, with the citrus and spice flavours that you'd hope for. It's a shame it doesn't go a bit further with it though, to stand out from the crowd.

Corned Beef Hash

17. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Food and Drink

Another 'what I had for dinner' post. Sorry.

Because there's a recession on, I went for cheap and cheerful: corned beef hash, as described in How to Boil an Egg – the most straightforward no-nonsense cookery book ever and a staple of any kitchen, surely! It really is simple: par-boil diced potato, then throw in a pan with chopped onion and diced corned beef. Fry for fifteen or so minutes with a beaten egg, ketchup, tabasco, worcestershire sauce, seasoning etc. until ready to eat. In my case, serve with baked beans, but I find that if you're just eating it on its own (like I did with the leftovers next day for lunch) it needs a good splurge of ketchup when served, to lubricate and tastify.

I found that the corned beef disintegrates from the carefully chopped cubes almost instantaneously. Even my most careful and delicate pushing it around the frying pan resulted in complete disintegration within mere seconds. I'm sure I remember corned beef hash from my childhood having nicely seared cubes of meat, so I don't know what I did wrong. I can only imagine that I'm remembering wrongly, or I need to buy better ingredients. So I blame Sainsburys in this case.

Curry: Wok-cooked Chicken in Tomato & Fenugreek Sauce

13. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Food and Drink

Episode three in my curry cooking adventure – this time with vegetables! See parts 1 and 2 for the exciting initial chapters. I've finally used up all the garlic and ginger paste I made for the first one.

I'm getting used to some of the standard manoeuvres in Indian curries: marinating meat in lime juice and salt; frying spices (but not burning them); finely chopped onion; garam masala and fresh herbs going in only at the end etc. This time I also did cumin-scented aubergine & potato curry, at the same time! It was quite a logistical challenge, flipping between two recipes in the same book, both of which were complex and unfamiliar whilst trying not to mix up the two of them. But it was a huge success I reckon. No problems to report, and a super-tasty result.

It was quite hot though – with three large fresh green chillies chopped and incorporate to both dishes. Not to mention the hot chilli powder and other spices. The missus found it all a bit too much actually, but I was in curry heaven. And then I went back into the kitchen and discovered the small pile of fresh chopped coriander leaves that I had intended to use as a garnish. Oh well.

Beer Review: Meantime London Pale Ale

10. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Beer, Food and Drink

A light but fairly complex taste that's reasonably bitter and hoppy, with a slightly burnt/roasted edge which I'd only usually expect to fine in dark beers and stouts. The bitterness and 4.3% ABV make it highly quaffable, but maybe it's a shade too bitter not to get wearing after a while.

Apparently "the International Beer Challenge 2007 awarded Meantime Pale Ale 'World's Top 50 Beers' Status." I can't say that I agree with them on this occasion. It's a quality beer for sure, but not one that will stick in the mind. I can name quite a lot of beers that have blown me away and I remember fondly. This isn't one of those, though it might be more impressive outdoors on a hot summery day.

Curry: Lamb in Cinnamon Scented Fenugreek Sauce

04. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Food and Drink

Here’s my second curry adventure from the Curry Bible my wife bought me for Xmas. My first attempt was Butter Chicken and was thoroughly awesome. This one was just as good I’d say, and it should be given all the ingredients that went into it: 8 different herbs and spices!

The hardest thing to find was dried fenugreek leaves. The supermarket didn’t have any so we walked to Hatfield Road, where St Albans’ Asian community has a strong presence. The first shop we tried didn’t have any but the proprietor was thoroughly helpful in pointing us to his competitor down the road who “has everything”. He wasn’t wrong – Madina Store is an Aladdin’s Cave of wonderful foodstuffs, stacked floor to ceiling. It took us a while and some assistance before finding what we wanted, though it was in a packet akin to a family size box of Cornflakes. I only needed a tablespoon! Luckily my wife spotted a much smaller box (more Kellogg’s Variety pack size) on the way out so we got that. We could also have got fresh Fenugreek leaves and anything else that has ever been used in Indian cooking as far as I could tell.

The cooking was relatively straightforward with all the ingredients assembled, and almost a one-pot job. Marinate the lamb cubes in red wine vinegar and salt for a bit (which quickly turns it a funny colour), make up the sauce by adding various things to a saucepan as per the recipe and leave to simmer with the meat in it for 50 minutes or so. This is the only cooking the meat gets – no frying. One issue I did have was that the cinnamon stick (only a small piece) disintegrates quite readily and is then a pain to pick out in shards whilst eating it. The recipe made no mention of the stick after adding it, so it’s a mystery what was supposed to happen to it.

The only downer on the washing up front is that you have to use a separate pan to fry the garam masala (only 1/4 of a teaspoon of it) at the very end, before adding it to the rest. I messed this bit up by burning the spices in oil that was too hot, and had to throw it away and try that bit again. No damage done.

The result was served with some curried veg from Waitrose – they seem to have a new range – to bulk it out, and garlic and coriander naan. It was another great meal from the good book, though it doesn’t make a great deal and needed the bulking out.

JustTheSam