Soon after I posted up my last TdF post I found this - someone's done it again, and with a smoother landing this time!
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Briskett
There are two classic American barbecue dishes - pulled pork and beef brisket. There are plenty of guides on line for both - I favour this place which is a great mix of recipe, theory, history and philosophy - but sometimes it's hard to figure out which cuts of meat over here match the American cuts. It's funny, you'd think that cutting up animals would be a generic thing but different cultures divide the same animals up in different ways. Apparently it used to be a regional thing even within the same country, but with the development of the mass market the cuts that were sold became dictated by the larger merchant organisations. Nowadays there's a movement to discover old traditional cuts and even to invent new ones, to the point where some of the new cuts of meat are being patented by artisan butchers & restaurants. But for those of us trying to replicate recipes from what we can see on line, it can often be a case of looking at an American butchers cut guide and trying to correlate that to an Australian guide. So for example from what I can see Australian blade matches American brisket, whereas Australian brisket seems to match parts of American fore-shank & short plate.*
With that in mind I found a 'blade roast' selling for $6 / kg and thought that would be a good cut to experiment on. Here's the original joint
and with a rub applied (as per the Amazing Ribs link above)
Add to a kettle Weber set to smoke with indirect heat for a long time...
Six hours later the joint looks like this - you can see from the thermometer behind that it's been cooked at around 250F
Leave it to rest for an hour or so in an Esky
take out onto a chopping board - it's apparently supposed to look like a meteorite
and then carve
There's good and bad with this. The rub is beautiful and the smoke 'bark ring' looks and tastes great, but the meat is a bit dry and granular
The recipe suggested that I apply a 'Texas crutch' after a couple of hours, which entails wrapping the joint in a couple of layers of tinfoil with a few spoonfuls of beef broth next to the skin. That's apparently done to prevent the joint drying out during the end of the cooking process and I think that next time I'll give that a go.
It seems like smoking meat is a bit like brewing beer. It takes time both in preparation and execution, it gives us large quantities of something I both enjoy very much and need to cut back on and when I've finished one, I immediately want to try another one with what I've learnt...
*There's a family element to this too. My grandfather used to be a butcher before the war, but ended up flying in Catalina flying boats over the North Sea as a radar operator trying to pick up German U-boats. After the war was over he started working as an electrical engineer for Rolls-Royce Aero-Engines in Derby. It would probably surprise him to find out that almost 60 years on his grandson would be living on the other side of the world and trying to figure out what he knew about cuts of meat all those years ago. I need to ring him and ask him about it!
With that in mind I found a 'blade roast' selling for $6 / kg and thought that would be a good cut to experiment on. Here's the original joint
It seems like smoking meat is a bit like brewing beer. It takes time both in preparation and execution, it gives us large quantities of something I both enjoy very much and need to cut back on and when I've finished one, I immediately want to try another one with what I've learnt...
*There's a family element to this too. My grandfather used to be a butcher before the war, but ended up flying in Catalina flying boats over the North Sea as a radar operator trying to pick up German U-boats. After the war was over he started working as an electrical engineer for Rolls-Royce Aero-Engines in Derby. It would probably surprise him to find out that almost 60 years on his grandson would be living on the other side of the world and trying to figure out what he knew about cuts of meat all those years ago. I need to ring him and ask him about it!
Learning to grind
I think I first saw grind tricks on a skateboard when I was a kid - they looked awesome, but I was far to unco-ordinated to stay upright a skateboard, let alone try a grind
Snowboarding gave me a second opportunity and snow is a lot softer to fall onto than concrete. I even managed a couple of simple rail slides, but soon found out that both rails and the things they're mounted on are much harder than snow....I soon left this kind of craziness to younger bendy people
You can grind on bikes as well - on a mountain bikes (if you have no regard for your chainstays)
In less than 10 minutes I'm managed to convert whole wheat 'berries' from this
to this
to this
Unfortunately our bedmaker's settings for 'wholemeal' flour are based around using shop-bought wholemeal flour, which is essentially wheat that's been milled down to white flour and then had some ground-up husk mixed back in with it. So the loaf turned out a little denser than planned...
On a fixie
and of course on a BMX
In my view the most impressive grinding of all is on inline skates
This weekend I had another go at learning to grind
I can probably use it to mount a grind rail into so I can start practicing again...
Tomato beer
This weekend I decided I'd pick up a long standing challenge - make a tomato & basil beer. I'd carried out a few internet searches and there aren't many recipes out there for beer brewed primarily from tomatoes so I was on my own with this one. Although surprisingly tomato juiced mixed with beer seems to be a reasonably common drink in the US (it's known as 'red beer') - crazy people.
There were a couple of different ways of going about it. I could have just added some extras to tomato juice and fermented that out, similar to how I made my cider. That seemed a bit too easy and I wanted to use vine-grown tomatoes and include the vines in an attempt to give a more resinous texture. I could have followed the technique commonly used by 'hedgerow wine' makers where the ingredients are chopped, mixed with water & yeast and left for an initial ferment for a week or two. Then the solids are separated out and the liquid added to a demijohn. But this normally requires various additional powders to prevent the food from spoiling. So I decided I'd follow the 'traditional' brewing approach and make a 'mash' of tomato.
So here's the base ingredients -
1.8kg Vine tomatoes
1 bunch basil (I only used the leaves plus one stalk) - this may have been too much
1 fennel heart (approx. 200g)
4 bay leaves
2 chillis - I maybe should have removed the seeds, but it's hard to gauge the heat
2 teaspoons ground fennel seeds
3 star anise
Chop everything up (including tomato vines) and cook at medium heat (stirring regularly) to break down the tomatoes. This is early on in the cooking process
and this is 'the mash' after a couple of hours. I'd also added around 1/2 pint of water to keep everything liquid
Press the mix through a steel sieve to get a rich tomato sauce - at this point you can still bail and pretend you're just cooking Italian
Dissolve 1kg of light malt extract into boiling water in another saucepan, then mix the two together and bring to a gentle boil. I'm not sure if this was wise as I lost the vibrancy of the tomato colouring, I think next time I might just use raw sugar instead. I also debated adding in some hops at this point to give a hop aroma, but after tasting I decided against it.
Cool the wort in the usual way and once it's no hotter than body temperature decant into two clean demijohns, then top up with filtered water to halfway. You need to cool the wort to stop the glass demijohns from shattering.
Add yeast and leave. My two got pretty feisty over-night, and you can see from the foam ('kreuzen') that's being generated why you don't fill the demijohns to the top - if you do it' just gets messy.
Once the kreuzen has died down then I'll top up the demijohns, and then all I can do is wait. I reckon two to three weeks of fermentation should be all it needs followed by a couple of weeks of bottle maturation. Then we need to make some pizza and give it a try!
There were a couple of different ways of going about it. I could have just added some extras to tomato juice and fermented that out, similar to how I made my cider. That seemed a bit too easy and I wanted to use vine-grown tomatoes and include the vines in an attempt to give a more resinous texture. I could have followed the technique commonly used by 'hedgerow wine' makers where the ingredients are chopped, mixed with water & yeast and left for an initial ferment for a week or two. Then the solids are separated out and the liquid added to a demijohn. But this normally requires various additional powders to prevent the food from spoiling. So I decided I'd follow the 'traditional' brewing approach and make a 'mash' of tomato.
So here's the base ingredients -
1.8kg Vine tomatoes
1 bunch basil (I only used the leaves plus one stalk) - this may have been too much
1 fennel heart (approx. 200g)
4 bay leaves
2 chillis - I maybe should have removed the seeds, but it's hard to gauge the heat
2 teaspoons ground fennel seeds
3 star anise
Friday, July 26, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Are you over the Tour De France?
OK, after three weeks the results may be a bit unsurprising (and dare we say a little suspect?) but the spectacle is always worth it
and at least some of the riders can get into the Cx spirit - good on you Adam Hansen!
Of course the guy that best got over the Tour De France was Dave Watson, back in the hucking glory days of 2002...
One of my favourite pictures ever. Man, that seems like a long time ago....
Match the breakfast to the bike Mk III
It's been a while but the addition of a Fatty to our menagerie prompts a revisit. A Surley Pugsley helps too :)
So - four bikes
and four breakfasts
The fat bike was fun to ride and it turns out that it is a puddle warrior, something that pleased Graham enormously
Although is it just me that thinks this is ridiculous?
So - four bikes
- Giant Anthem 29er
- Cotic Roadrat
- Surly Pugsley Fat bike
- Vivente Randonneur
and four breakfasts
- Huevos Flamencos
- Bacon & eggs (poached)
- Rasin toast
- Avocado stack
The fat bike was fun to ride and it turns out that it is a puddle warrior, something that pleased Graham enormously
Friday, July 19, 2013
Recovering from the queen stage
It was an epic stage of the Tour last night, culminating in not one but two ascents of the Alpe D'Huez switchbacks. I managed to stay awake for most of the race but I'm feeling pretty rough today, so here's something fun & upbeat for anyone that's in the same state that I am...
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Weekend of the Nerds - Day 2
After a late start and a bleary morning on Sunday I dragged myself along to Pushies Galore, an annual festival of all things cycling. The weather was a bit suspect but there were still plenty of stunning bikes on display - everything from beautiful self-made BMX frames
through to fat bikes that are kitted up to race the Alaskan 'Bike Iditarod',
Fat bikes are a burgeoning fad in mountain biking
They were originally designed for snow and sand, but seems to be taking off as a general ride. 3.5" - 5" tyres give a natural form of suspension, but the weight of the wheels needs to be minimised by holes in the rim
Have you noticed the unusual spoke pattern? All laced to one side of the wheel, which combines with bent seat stays to help centralise the wheel but still keep the rear cassette in line with the front chainring. Craziness. Sheer awesome craziness.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, there were some great looking urban bikes as well
This one, whilst very cool, is more on the ridiculous end as it's made from almost entirely bespoke componentry. Whilst it looks lovely, in my view there are better ways to spend $5,500
The cargo bikes, whilst useful looking, had a muted appreciation
but as usual the real plaudits were saved for the old and antique bikes - this one a defence bike from the mid-20th century, complete with holster & cartridge belt.
Most people seemed to be taken by the shearers 'swag bike', carrying everything an itinerant shearer would need in the early part of last century
The swag & sleeping blanket over the front wheel would have been useful if you were riding home from a homebrew conference....
Weekend of the Nerds - Day 1
On Saturday I was one of the lucky attendees at the Queensland Bi-annual Homebrew Conference
You have to love a conference where in the opening remarks they warn you not to drive , and this is the morning tea served at 10.30am - there were also three other brews to try in this tasting session alone
It was a great day with a lot of interesting ideas on offer
This lecture wasn't what I was expecting as it was basically about how to add flavours to strong malt & hop brews - no mention of kimchi, tomatoes or sage. Maybe they try these things out before trying to sell them! It was also curious to hear obvious brew nerds behind me excitedly writing down ideas like 'use oak chips in your fermenter to replicate the concept of ageing in the barrel', which makes me realise that I may be on the more experimental end of the home-brew arc.
Having said that I walked away with both a 25kg bag of grain (best raffle prize ever?) and a headful of ideas. And not just about beer - a really interesting talk about brewing for prohibition-style whiskeys (accompanied by several sample nips, all before midday) has me thinking about a still that I could use (to make essential oils of course). And an afternoon talk on saki has had me looking at the bag of rice in our cupboard in a different light.
By the end of the day everyone was pretty relaxed
and the next day one of the contents of the showbag turned out to be very useful....
Having said that I walked away with both a 25kg bag of grain (best raffle prize ever?) and a headful of ideas. And not just about beer - a really interesting talk about brewing for prohibition-style whiskeys (accompanied by several sample nips, all before midday) has me thinking about a still that I could use (to make essential oils of course). And an afternoon talk on saki has had me looking at the bag of rice in our cupboard in a different light.
By the end of the day everyone was pretty relaxed
Friday, July 12, 2013
Baby Metal
Sometimes the Friday Music Club is inspired by things going on around me, sometimes it's more of a reminiscence and sometimes it's a new band that I want other people to hear because I think they'll like them.
Sometimes it's just something I heard on the radio that I couldn't help posting....
Sometimes it's just something I heard on the radio that I couldn't help posting....
I'm trying to limit my video choices to one a week to stop your downloads from maxing out, but if that one's a bit heavy this may be more to your liking....
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Cider with boozy
My fermenter has been empty for a few weeks, and worse still so have my demijohns. There's been nothing brewing at Chez Dykes (as it were) and that's not good. A combination of end of Financial Year work stress and busy weekends have meant that I haven't had the chance to get another partial mash brew on and whilst my extract brew was fairly quick and easy, it's a bit unsatisfying.
One of the rides I've been on was a preliminary Southside pub-crawl (watch this space) and at one of the pubs we sampled a very tasty whiskey-aged cider. It got me thinking - cider is quick and easy to brew from juice, I have a half-bottle of Dewars that I'm never going to drink along with some wood chips left over from previous brews and there's an Aldi down the road from the office that sells cheap & plentiful preservative-free apple juice.
So here are the ingredients - 22 litres of apple juice, 1.3kg honey, 1 kg brown sugar, 3 limes, 3 big-arse lemons and a hand of ginger
Oh and a half-bottle of Dewars mixed with a combination of oak chips from the homebrew shop and hickory chips from the barbecue box (I ran out of oak chips)
Heat one bottle of juice and mix in the sugar & honey. I juiced most of the citrus and poured it in but also sectioned one of the lemons and sliced up the ginger. Leave to simmer for 40 minutes or so.
Whilst that is bubbling mix the whiskey and wood chips in another pan and bring to the boil. Smells great!
After that it's a question of straining the apple juice into the fermenter, mixing in the other 20-odd litres of apple juice, adding the yeast (I used Safale S-05 American ale yeast) and waiting for a month or so. I've also tipped the whiskey soaked wood in a jar and am leaving it to soak for a week or so, then I'll add it to the brew in a hop sock for the remainder of the initial fermentation. Here's hoping it works out OK - expect tasters in around 6 weeks...
One of the rides I've been on was a preliminary Southside pub-crawl (watch this space) and at one of the pubs we sampled a very tasty whiskey-aged cider. It got me thinking - cider is quick and easy to brew from juice, I have a half-bottle of Dewars that I'm never going to drink along with some wood chips left over from previous brews and there's an Aldi down the road from the office that sells cheap & plentiful preservative-free apple juice.
So here are the ingredients - 22 litres of apple juice, 1.3kg honey, 1 kg brown sugar, 3 limes, 3 big-arse lemons and a hand of ginger
Monday, July 8, 2013
Long, slow & smokey
There seems to be a few different styles of barbecue which depend on the country of origin -
British barbecuing tends to be small and easily cooked items such as burgers, steak and the occasional chicken drumstick. This is probably because it's generally cold & raining, so you need to minimise the time you spend outside. I remember shivering under an open garage door whilst my Dad "finished off the steaks to perfection" (perfection to my Dad was 'a little over well done') as the rain teemed down outside.
Australians tend to use barbecues as an extension to their kitchen and consider that it can be used to cook anything and everything. I've got a barbecue book at home which suggests using a kettle barbecue (which needs about 30 minutes of preheating to bring the heat beads / charcoal to a temperature which they will continue to burn at for the next four hours) to do everything from frying eggs on a hot plate, grilling grapefruit or whipping up a soufflé. The recipes include comments like 'Once your fire has reached temperature simply fry each side for 3 minutes and serve'.
In my view Americans do it the right way. They developed a way of using barbecues to take low-value cuts of meat and find ways of making them succulent & tasty. As most cheaper cuts have a fair degree of fat, connective tissue and other less appetising things then a long slow cooking process helped melt everything together and some smoke (which was initially just a side effect of the cooking process) helped season the meat &vary the flavours. Of course being Americans they also cook huge chunks of meat, slather the resulting feed in sugar-laden sauces and run week long competitions to find 'who can produce the best barbecue'. Each State has its own sauce style and its own way of cooking the meat, and woe betide someone who tries to use tomatoes in a South Carolina sauce. When I was in Texas we'd drive for 40 minutes to a favoured 'barbecue pit' and often we were the only guys not wearing soiled flouro workwear and a beard in the joint, but despite my stand-out accent no-one seemed to care and damn the food was good!
Ironically the American style is so successful that the supposedly 'low value' cuts of meat like baby-back ribs ('USA style ribs' in Australia) can sometimes cost as much as the more refined cuts. But not always - I tried to find a 'Boston Butt' at the weekend (which I think is a shoulder joint with the bone in) and I'm not sure I got the right cut, but the principal is still the same.
Initially after a rub was applied the joint looked like this
and after 6 hrs at 220F (I lapse into American for temperatures as all the decent BBQ websites I've found use them), plentiful hickory smoke and some shredding / pulling with a fork it looks like this - whilst it was beautifully cooked it could have done with another hour I reckon
Generally one of the good points about making your own foods is that it brings you closer to your food and you know exactly what went into it. Although for us squeamish city dwellers that can go a little too far at times...
If you have a kettle Weber or similar, grab some hickory chips and give it a go!
British barbecuing tends to be small and easily cooked items such as burgers, steak and the occasional chicken drumstick. This is probably because it's generally cold & raining, so you need to minimise the time you spend outside. I remember shivering under an open garage door whilst my Dad "finished off the steaks to perfection" (perfection to my Dad was 'a little over well done') as the rain teemed down outside.
Australians tend to use barbecues as an extension to their kitchen and consider that it can be used to cook anything and everything. I've got a barbecue book at home which suggests using a kettle barbecue (which needs about 30 minutes of preheating to bring the heat beads / charcoal to a temperature which they will continue to burn at for the next four hours) to do everything from frying eggs on a hot plate, grilling grapefruit or whipping up a soufflé. The recipes include comments like 'Once your fire has reached temperature simply fry each side for 3 minutes and serve'.
In my view Americans do it the right way. They developed a way of using barbecues to take low-value cuts of meat and find ways of making them succulent & tasty. As most cheaper cuts have a fair degree of fat, connective tissue and other less appetising things then a long slow cooking process helped melt everything together and some smoke (which was initially just a side effect of the cooking process) helped season the meat &vary the flavours. Of course being Americans they also cook huge chunks of meat, slather the resulting feed in sugar-laden sauces and run week long competitions to find 'who can produce the best barbecue'. Each State has its own sauce style and its own way of cooking the meat, and woe betide someone who tries to use tomatoes in a South Carolina sauce. When I was in Texas we'd drive for 40 minutes to a favoured 'barbecue pit' and often we were the only guys not wearing soiled flouro workwear and a beard in the joint, but despite my stand-out accent no-one seemed to care and damn the food was good!
Ironically the American style is so successful that the supposedly 'low value' cuts of meat like baby-back ribs ('USA style ribs' in Australia) can sometimes cost as much as the more refined cuts. But not always - I tried to find a 'Boston Butt' at the weekend (which I think is a shoulder joint with the bone in) and I'm not sure I got the right cut, but the principal is still the same.
Initially after a rub was applied the joint looked like this
We were so hungry by that time that we kept it simple - pulled pork, home made guacamole, home made hot sauce, artisan pumpkin bread and some supermarket tortillas (they're on the list of things to make). Washed down with homebrew. It was a good evening.
It seemed a shame to not use the spare space on the BBQ grill so I also whipped up some bacon from a slab of pork belly
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