Trout skin & oysters.

Welcome blogees. Tonight we're talking food matching for beer.
Some beers are just flat out unreal. I'll have a bit of a chat about them, and recomend a snack to go with.

Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale.
Coopers of South Australia is the only mainstream brewer in the country that actually makes real beer. By that I mean bottle conditioned, and with a best after, not best before date. This means that the beer is naturaly carbonated so it's still alive, therefor it will continue to age/improve under cellar conditions for years to come. If you don't beleve me try this one: Take a six pack of any coopers beer. Bung it in the cellar, or under the house for six months. Now after the ageing process has passed, go out and buy a fresh sixer of the same type of Coopers beer. Stick em boath in the fridge so as to be the same tempreture. First crack the fresh one and taste, now try the aged version. There will be no argeument as to wich brew is the better one!

Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale is a beer that has been designed around not just excellent drinking, but cellar ageing aswell. I'll start this review by including what was writen on the lable.

This naturally conditioned ale experences interactions between the robust malt, hop and yeast characters, to exhibit an intriguing journey of flavor development over a period of five years. This grand ale should be savoured in moderation.
Coopers vintage has been brewed with choice malts and an extended top fermentation to provide a strong flavorsome ale.
When stored under cellar conditions the rich & full flavor of Coopers Vintage becomes more complex with a smooth, warming finish.

In my opinion the above discription is totally accurate. But I add:
Dark and amber in colour. Showing the classic Coopers lack of head retention, but with a small, slow and fine bead. The nose is complex, malty and slightly floral. To taste, the malt is upfrount, well roasted but with possible lighter components. Jasmin and corriander seed come next as florals. The bitterness comes last and is supperbly ballanced. The lingering after taste is dark bitter chocolate and truely wonderfull.

As a food match I chose Tasmainian Spring bay oysters. (Supplyed by 'Kitchen & Butcher' main st Healesville). Good beer means good oysters. (Fresh is best). This lot were flown in from Tazzy haveing been picked fresh that morning.
Spring bay oysters are somewhat smaller than the average southern ocean variety, not to mention fucking hard to open. But once you've savoured the freshness, and ocean essence flavor you'll know it's been worth the trouble.
We won't mention the price to the wife..

Flomell pears. Flomell is Felmish for trout skin. (Still tastes like pears.)

Snow Day

Just a few photos this posting. Had an absolute blast romping about in the snow. A real winter wonderland.
I love this time of year!

Woke up this morning. This was the view from the verandah.

Was a big dumping of snow over night.

Dry, crisp, powdery, fluffy, lovely. Snow.

Archer and Ivy had a fantastic time playing in the snow.

Forest Fruit Green Ant.

Some of my core philosophies regarding food are: Fresh is best. Go for locally grown. Eat in season.

While hollidaying in north Queensland I was very fortunate to stay on a property that was allmost bursting at the seames this tropical fruit. Right out side the frount door of the guest house were coconut palms and banana trees. Within site were pawpaw, mango, avocado, star fruit, pasion fruit, and custard apple. Then there were the real exotics with names like lemmonades, (tasted like lemmonade) and chocolate pudding, (tasted like chocolate pudding). Ofcourse there were so many others that I wont mention here, except to say that each one looked and tasted more amazeing than anything I have tasted before.

The garden of Eden.

In the morning I would leave the house and wander through out the grounds plucking and sampleing fruit at leasure. After haveing eatin my fill I would return to the house with a choice selection of the ripest most suculent fruit for my family to breakfast on. A real paradice.

Liveing within the fruit trees were a speices of ant known to the locals as 'Green Ant'. They make there football size nests out of the living leaves by binding them together with a silk like thread. I'm told there a type of bush tucker/ medicine. I beleive it's because of their extreamly high asorbic acid (vitamin C) content. A good remedy for colds and flu, would protect against scurvy aswell.

Green ants are the most agressive arachnid I have ever seen. There strategy when thretened is to swarm the enemy, where they inflict a painful bite with there massave and powerful jaws. They use chemical signals to great effect. When a food source is detected the message is sent back to the nest with amazing speed. Within moments it seames the whole nest has arived to consume the avalible food. At the food source consentric rings of guards are posted, heads and anteni held high looking for and sign of danger. Scurrying between thr guards are messenger ants sending and receveing chemical masseges from the guards and workers. Further out from the rings of guards are the scouts. The job of a scout is to rush back to the guards at the first sign of danger, the threat message is passed along the line, and the hyper agressive guards swarm the area where the threat was detected. Meanwhile the workers make short work of the food, ferrying it back to the nest flanked the entire time by squads of guards and reconnecence scouts. The rest of the time groups of five or six prospecter ants spred out looking for more food.

Crabulations. (Look it up)

Mud Crabs.

Been a while since my last posting. (Thats bad). Thats because I was on holiday in North Queensland. (Thats good). But I'm back now. (Thats bad). Great tropical foodie stuff to talk about though. (Thats good).

Cardwell is a small coastal town in north Queensland. I was lucky enough to vist for a week.

To say the sea food is abundant up there is a gross understatement. What I would have considered a prize fish they used for bait.

One of the delicacies of the tropics is mud crab. These buggers are huge, fierce, and bloody scarey. As you can see from the above picture don't get your hand in the way, you'll lose it. The flavor is some what breath takeing, abit like lobster, but more earthy and not as sweet, with a firmer texture.

To catch mud crab you need to travel into the estuarys and the mangroves. Man was never made to visit a mangrove swamp. Sand flys live in mangrove swamps, these fuckers will eat you alive. They bite like mosquitos but swarm in the billions. Next are the larger preditors, by wich I mean salt water crocodiles.

One of these huge fuckers was just inside the forrest while we were fishing. You could hear him smashing and bashing this way and that. What scared the shit out of me was not how close he was but the way he would flatten whole trees that were in the way. I mean, how big do you have to be before it's easyer to knock down a tree rather than walk around it?

If you make it past the crocs, you'll never beat the mud. A very fine silt, it just sucks you in, down and down. Dark grey and brown, full of life because it will take any that strays into it...

After you've survived all that it's the trees themselves that are out to get you. They lift there roots above the mud. The tangled maze is nothing short of inpassable.

Soooo...

After you've been killed like 4 times over. It's time for a bit o crab-a-rama! This involves takeing a small 'Tinnie' (aluminium boat with out board motor) along the edges of the mangroves and throwing in crab pots right up against the tree roots. These are a raised disk shapes covered in nylon mesh with openings that make it easy for a crab to get into but not out of. To attract the crabs pigs heads and catfish (also dead) were tied to the bottom of the pot with wire. The traps were left over night.

The next morning we went back and retreved the pots. In them were some truely massive mud crabs. But also other marine life, estury cod, swimmer crabs, even octopuss.. The mud crabs, (only males), cod, and octopuss were all emptyed into an intulated box in the center of the boat to await transport back to the main vessle.

On return to the main fishing boat the crabs were cleaned and cooked in boiling water. The cod were all fillited, and the octopuss was frozen.

Bust out the ball peen (hammer) to crack the shell coz it's like tank armor. But once the meat is out, (there is a shit load). Do as the locals do. Pile the meat onto white bread, splash with vinager, crack with peper, slap on another peice of bread to make a sandwich and bung it in ya gob. Chow down and go to heaven.

Monks & Dragons

More beer reviews today.
Trappistes Rochefort:

The term trappist brewed refers to beers that have been made in or originated from monasterys in and around Germany.
So lets not beat around the bushell. Some of the best beers in the world are made by monks! Why? In days gone by the church realised that vows of silence and poverty wasn't drawing the crowds like it used to. So the powers that be or were, decided that fermentation of grain and grape was an act of god not yeast. Thus the monastery was saved. Whilst those of little prospect were able to get nightly shit faced in the name of god; being free of sin if not hang over. So delivered into silence, prayer, poverty, and brewing, the brotherhood of old began a fermentation the likes of witch none had ever seen befor nor are likely to see again.

As for the reveiwed beer:

A classic trappist beer but adding a nice twist or two.

A rich dark golden brown when held against light. Showing a foamy head that fades thinly to the rim, enduring thanks to a medium size but slow to rise bead.

In the mouth it started malty and tasting of ripe wheat, at back was subtle vanilla bean. The taste was crisp but sweet.

On the nose it was; Yeasty, with malt and toffie flavors leading to passionfruit and lollie banana aromas. Whilst the hops imparted a cut grass and peach fragrence that reminded me of spring.

Warmly finished by toffied malt and a cool breath of alcohol. This beer is a classic Australian winter brew. My recomenation for serveing would be in a brandy balloon at around 10C.

Gulden Drack:

Excellent Easy Beer.

The average home brew kit calls for a can of malt hop extract and sugar. But with the addition of a few cheap ingredents you can go from:
"It's not great beer, but it gets me pissed so I'll drink it". To...
"Shit mate, this is one of the best beers I've ever tasted"!


1 tin of Cascade Spicey Ghost draught malt hop extract. $13.50
1kg of light dry malt extract. $7.50
2X 250g bags of roasted cracked wheet or barly grain malt. 2X $2.50
15g cryo sealed bag of cascade dryed hop pellets. $2.50
Total cost = $28.50AU


Note: The hop plant is closely related to cannabis. (Hops stink like pot). When hop pellets are used to make beer it smells like 50 pounds of hydro are being baged up for distribution. So open a window and turn on the extrator fan if this aroma offends the pellet.

To make the 'wort' (This is the term given to unfermented beer).

In a large stainless, (copper if you can afford it) pot bring 2lt of the best freshest water you can get your hands on to the boil. Add half (7g) of the hops, the grain, and the dry malt to the water. Reduce to a very slow simmer and let cook/steep for about 2 hours stiring occationally. After this time add the rest of the hops. Splitting the hops works like this:

When you boil hops for an hour or more the floral fragrence disapates leaveing the bitter tannins that contribute to the flavor profile. Boiling for less than an hour means that the bitter tannins don't have a chance to infuse but floral flavors and aromas can impart themself.

In a seperate pot immerse the can of malt hops in water just off the boil, about 90C is good. let stand for 30 minutes. Now remove the can from the pot. Carefully open it and add the contents to the simmering hop malt grain mixture. Make sure as much of the cans contents as possible is added. You may wish to rince the can with a bit of boiling water to get at the last dregs. Bring the water in the pot that the can was in to the boil and chuck a strainer in. The strainer is needed in a minute to remove the bits from the wort. Boiling it will make sure it's sterile, a must when makeing beer.

Now place the strainer over the top of your sterile and pre rinsed fermenter. Pour the wort consentrate through the strainer so as to sepperate the grain and hops. Now rince, or sparge as it's known in beer makeing jibe the grain and hops that were caught in the strainer. To do this just run some water through the strainer untill it runs more or less clear. This will wash out the last and best of the flavors into the wort. Remove the strainer, top up to the desired level with water. The quality of the water used in makeing beer is very important, fresh soft spring water is best. If you cant get that just use the best water you've got. Don't be fooled into thinking that the flavor of the beer will hide the taste of bad water, it won't, it will taste even worse. Add yeast. Seal the fermenter and let the magic fermentation happen.

If all goes well, at 25C the wort will have transformed into beer after about 8 days. Bottle your beer according to normal sterile conditions. To prime your bottles, (add sugars to aid in carbonation) I prefer to use raw sugar.

With about 3 or 4 months of bottle conditioning you can marvel at the stunning improvement in your brewing skills. All thanks to the added goodness of grains and hops. Note the complicated floral nose, the supurb mouth feel, the hop malt counter balance, fine beading, and sustained head.

And it gets you sloshed.

It's getting into winter at my place, I love winter, it's not hot for a change. Winter brings heaps of yummy things to my table. One of my favourites is mushrooms. This time of year when it finally rains mushrooms seem to spring up over night. The above picture is of several local varieties. Don't ask for names coz I got no f'n clue. All I know is they taste great, and nobody tripped out.

Got Knife

It's Autumn, around my place it's my favourite time of year. The leaves turn colour, it's rains, (drought my way), it's cold, I get to cook winter food.

A pic of two of my kids in the new fallen leaves.
Kid chuck some leaves.

Some knifes I will use to cook winter food.

Close up.

Leg of duck, boned and stuffed with pork & fennel. Wrapped in Wagu proscutto.

To cook they were placed in a kettle BBQ at medium heat for 50 minutes.

Chiselled Out Fenchner!

I love to cook. I also love the right tool for the job.
Today I went to a knife expo held by the knifemakers guild of Australia.
At one of the stalls I found this jem. A chisel ground (left side) Japanise inspired kitchen knife.
Spec: Chisel grind half tang. Total length 29cm. Blade length 16.5cm. Grip one peice Jarra, (farmed in W.A). Metal= 440C stainless tempered to hardness 58 Rockwell.
Hand made by knifemaker Fenchner.
Smith Fenchner is mostly renouned for his Japanese sorwds. On the odd ocation he is known to turn out a kitchen knife. This is a fine example.
At home the knife is a pleasure to use. The weight is spread 60/40 in favor of the blade. Most often I prefer 50/50 split, but the foward weighted blade atacks the food and suits the grind well.

Signed Fenchner.

The Tribute

I love to brew my own beer. With about two hours work each week I can drink myself stupid for no more than three buck a night. (Try doing that at the pub!)
I mention this because the local home brew shop also sells a good range of beer. The only problen is that the bloke who run the show is a pom, so the English beers are everywhere, but he's abit stingy on the Geman stuff.
Lucky for me that the poms make a shit load of good beer.
Unlike the Germans, the English prefer their beer profiles to favor the malt characteristics, while the krouts like their hoppy diversity to be upfrount.
This brings us to St Austell brewery and 'Tribute. The Ale Of Cornwall.'
Haveing never been to Cornwall It's hard to talk about the beer there. But if this fine brew is anything to go by. Where's my passport?
I bought this beer coz it was comming over abit wintery. However, one sip of this beauty and it was straight back to summer. Really and truely a very drinkable beer! A plesant amber ale with a small but sustained head of medium grain formed by a small but brisk bead. The upfrount malt was light but complex. Warm butter, cut grass, and jasmin were prevelent. Hop wise the beer was perfectly balanced. I liked the citrusy aromas. But I felt that a more bitter finish would have made for a better ending.

On the front lable they said this:
A delightfully delicious and drinkable beer that captures the essential character of cornwall.

On the back they said:
Pale amber in colour. Tribute is a moreishly drinkable beer with delicious full-bodied malt flavours and a citrus aroma. Brewed using cornish spring water, cornish gold and maris otter malts, with a hand picked blend of aromatic hops. - It is truely the ale of Cornwall.

Black Pudding, Lamb Cuttlets.

Black Pudding:
Some people get all grosed out by blood sausage (black pudding). I don't see what all the fuss is about. It's not like there made out of blood. Oh wait, yes they are!

Ox blood, oats, pork fat, salt, and pepper. Mix all ingredents well. Stuff into sheep intestine so as to make short fat sausages. Gently simmer the lot for a few hours. String them up to cool, makeing sure to cut off a couple to have hot and fresh with lunch.

Lamb cuttlets:

Pretty much mutton at this time of year. But these ones were fresh and tender. Coated in sour dough crumbs, lemon zest, rosemarry, tyme, and pepper. Gently fried in olive oil, and rested on a cous cous salad with slow fryed capsicums and shallots.

Riddel Burns

The bushland surounding where I grew up, and now live again, is/was known as temperate rain forest. This means it rains alot. When I was a yonger lad it would often rain right through the summer. Then it would rain night and day for the six months of winter. Inbetween, light snow squals would flatten the ferns and chill the uncountable streams, creeks, tributaries, and rivers throughout the region.
It was allways wet.

What now.

Drought.

Drought. And a bit more drought.

Climate change.

Only a few years ago a camp fire took a great deal of effort. Every branch was covered in lichen. Every log was rotton and covered in fungus. Bush fire was impossible, to wet.

Now; Leaves and twigs crunch like eggshells underfoot. I dare not strike a match lest I burn the forest down.,

How this fire started I don't know. But it means great change for the surounding environment. To what end?

Tomato Rainbow.

Lucky me. I got some very late season tomatoes. Coz it's been so hot and dry. (Prefect tomato weather). These babys were packed full of flavor. They were so good I gave them center stage in a salad. So simple, so yum. Look:

Ingredents:
500g Very vine ripened tomatoes of various colours.
Small handfull of flat leaf parsley choped.
Olive oil.
Juice of half a lemon.
Murry river 'Pink Salt'.
Fresh cracked pepper.

Method:
Slice thickly the tomatoes and place into a salad bowl. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper. Bung on the parsley, and drizzle over generously with olive oil. Gently toss, carefull not to break up the tomatoes to much. Heap onto a plate. Garnish, and serve.


Sir loin cut, from localy grown organic Black Angus, aged 28 days. Cooked on a super hot grill. Read the High Steaks posting for intructions on how to do this properly.

At plate up time the steak was used as a garnish. Be sure the beef is well rested befor plateing. Otherwise the heat from the meat will destroy the tomatoes. Yum-o

Thank for all the help in the kitchen Archer!

3 Ravens & A Duck!

3 Ravens White:

Many, many non German brewers have tryed witbier. (Witbier is the fermentation of malt extracted from wheat grain, not barly). Almost all of these brewers given time have fallen by the way side. This is because the German product is of an incredable quality. One reason could be that there are breweries there that have been in continual operation for more than seven hundred years! Those are just the ones makeing beer from wheat. Don't get me started on older brewers useing oats, barley, random wild seeds, horse shit, and who knows what else lost to antiquity.
Infact archaeologists have shown that in Germany the formalised production of beer predates the cultivation of crops. Clay tablets found in Germany containing among other things recipes for makeing beer have been dated at around 60,000 BC. Historians have since recreated these beers. They contained wild oats, grasses, peat moss, even horse dung. It was reported that the resulting beer tasted like shit. (True)!
Importantly though, after 60,000+ years of development you end up with such astounding biers as the revered Hoe Garden Grand Cru, and Shofferhoffer Heifervizen. These witbiers alone are good enough to blast all new comers out of taste contention. Hard task for an Australian beer to master. Bloody oath!

Heres what 3 Ravens brewery said:
"Engineered by hand, this beer is the product of a craft brewing process in whitch traditional methods meet exacting standards. We take care to emphasise quality over quantity and to use only the finest natural ingredents."
To describe the beer they add:
"3 Ravens White is an exotic ale, Based on traditional Belgain witbier. Sweet barley malt is balanced with tart wheat and spiced with coriander and citrus peel, resulting in a rich yet quenching brew. Traditional bottle conditioning naturally carbonates this beer and helps add to it's complexity."
To witch I reply with this:
If this beer was based on a traditional Belgain witbier, by definition there would be no mention of barley malt what so ever. Further the german beer prurity law of 1610 states that beer may only contain water, malt, hops, and yeast. Sublte varients in the frementation process of these ingredents give rise to flavor profiles such as coriander and citrus peel. To force these profiles on a beer by adding coriander and citrus peel violates the beer pruirty law and further removes it from the style of wheat beer. In short 3 Ravens White can not be called a witbier.
However. As a beer: This is one of the better micro brewer beers I've tryed in a while. Anice wheaty golden colour. Revealing a small fine and slow bead. Head was fluffy at first but subsided to quickly. The unfermented malts contribute a plesant sweetness. While the citrus and coriander hop flavors are refreshing and well balanced.
Not boring, worth a try, but no witbier.

Soy Marinated Grilled Breast Of Duck.

Breast of duck can be a bitch to cook well. What I did here was to marinate the flesh in soy and rice wine for about 1 hour. Then after patting dry it was placed onto a super hot grill skin side down for about 1 minute then into a pre heated oven at 250c for a further 15 minutes before being rested, carved, and served on a cous cous salad. Worked well with the beer...

Red Duck.

Micro breweries in the last ten years have exploded like a dodgy home brew all across Australia. Hand crafted specialty beers are makeing significant inroads into the mainstream beer drinking market. This, I belive, is a direct result of the gentrifcation of young suburbain males coupled with higher levels of education/ income.
While young Aussi blokes might be starting to wake up to a few beer facts....The Red Duck Brewing Co, doesn't quiet have all the jig saw peices yet. All natural ingredence, yes. Hand crafted, good. Unfiltered, keeping it real! The key aspect lacking here is expertease born of experence. I have no idea how long Purrumbete Brewing company (Makers of Red Duck) has been operating for. My feeling is not a very long time in beer terms. The stagering difference in the two reveiwed beers below may help explain what the hell I'm on about:
Red Duck Amber Ale:

The colour of watered down chocolate, not amber. With an upfrount rancid malt fragrence and flavor that appalls the palet leaveing a lingering grimace. With the shocking mouldy and cut grass taste of the hops it's not so much of a slap in the face as it could have been. Only because it is well balanced with the malt. With the remnence of a head clinging to the side of the glass, and a coarse rapid bead. I am reminded of infected home brew. Sorry Red duck for the grilling, but one of the worst hand crafted beers that I've ever had...

Red Duck Pale Ale:

Pale and golden in colour. With a small but consistant head formed by a medium to fine bead. The first sip afart from being a revelation, was a simultanious combination of extra floral and fruity hops, (guesing Pride Of Rosewood), with a perfectly balanced smattering of lightly roasted malt. A well rounded after taste showing off the first hopping that imparts bitterness in just the right measure. A unique taste, unfrogetable, jaw dropping. One of the best beers I have ever tasted. A must try!

Finn Give Me Trout Pout!

I allways crap on about the freshness of fish. My best suggestion to date is: Go get your own!

So this time my two sons, myself, and a pair of friends, get a spot of sunrise fishing in. ( Trout are best fished at sunrise or sunset, thats when they are most active.) So I cast, and cast, and cast. Finn says can I have a go. Sure, here's a rod... Cast;) Bang. Bang. Bang! Mind you, this is Finns first time ever fishing. Final score is: Jem= 6(2ib). Finn= 3(2ib). Roters=1(2ib). Archer=0. Brock=big fat zero!

After all that we got em home and cooked them:

Fresh rainbow trout. Stuffed with dill, parsley, onion, garlic, lime, salt, and pepper. Befor stuffing I patted down the skin with paper towl and sprinkled some salt flakes over the skin to remove excess moisture. Kitchen twine was used to secure the stuffing.

To cook the trout: 1 kg of heat beads were used in a kettle BBQ. With the coals well alight the lid was placed on with vents at half way closed. Leaveing the BBQ to heat for five minutes, the trout was placed on the grill head towards the coals. A small handfull of dryed Hickory chips were sprinkled over the heat beads and the lid placed on top^. After 40 minutes another small handfull of wood chips were placed on the coals. 1 hour and 10 minutes was enough to cook four trout weighing in at around 2.5 pounds. *

* I know your thinking that 1:10 is a long time to cook a 2 pound trout. Whats writen above describes a method of cooking known as 'hot smokeing'. To cook in this way is like useing a very slow oven. (150c). With added smoke.
^Because the trout was very, very fresh, not over smokeing is importaint. Give a big blast of smoke at the beginning to get the flavor going. Then once the flesh has cooked and contracted abit, another blast of smoke can penertrate deeper into the meat without over powering the taste of delicate fish.

The end result being an evenly and lightly smoked trout carrying the subtle flavors of the stuffing throughout the fish.

To serve: The meat was pulled (easly) from the bone and rested on a bed of: Fennel and grilled zuccini, with parsley and torn buffalo mozzarella. Lighly seasoned, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and juice of lime.

Well done fishing Finn!