Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
Ice cream on the quick
One of the many things that stood out from the BBC’s Summer Food Show and Gardeners World Live the other week was a fun little recipe from James Martin.
Instant Banana Ice Cream was part of a 3 course meal he prepared in front of an audience for one of his shows and it seemed fun enough to try at home.
Rapid icecream ingredients
My food mixer is only small, so I chopped 1 banana up into chunks and froze it over night. I then mixed it with a couple of tablespoons of this buttermilk thing and a few drops of vanilla extract. Whizzing it up into a puree was fun but loud and I don’t think my mixer’s gears liked it, it now makes a really nasty screaming noise when it goes round.
Into the blender
Having said that, it really does work, provided you make it a little thick and then add more buttermilk to get to a useful consistency.
I don’t think it needed the extra sugar, but the buttermilk was too acidic for my taste, perhaps it was too cultured for me. I might try swapping it for some really good natural yoghurt or add a bit of cream as well next time.
Rapid icecream and Rhubarb
I served it with some simply poached yorkshire rhubarb, which was very yummy. Definately going to repeat this one.
Peat – a global event
6ish weeks ago saw the last Whisky Lounge Tasting in York, eagerly awaited by many, Eddie had sourced peated whisky from six different countries. It was a blind tasting, as befits the showdown format which meant we should have been in with a chance to spot some of our favourite drams. In theory..
The peated flavours come from the barley maltings, the drying kilns were historically fired by peat bricks which allowed the moist barley seeds to absorb phenols from the peat smoke. The strength is measured in phenol parts per million (or pppm), about 75% of this is typically lost during the brewing and distillation process, so don’t be afraid that you’re drinking liquid compost!
With no further ado, to the whiskys!
| 1. Penderyn Peated | This pale, but not clear whisky had a nose that was sweet like confectionery. Opinions ranged from Pine and Melon towards Tropical Chewits. The palate was very easy, almost a breakfast whisky. A drop of water brought out the caramel in the body. The finish came and went, with the peat only barely noticable at the end |
| 2. Hakushu 12 yr | This nose was more developed, with notes of citrus, grapes or raisins, honey and vanilla. It was subtle with a number of harder to spot darker scents. It tasted almost like a white wine and had a fairly average finish |
| 3. Connemara Sherry Wood Finish | This was very dark to look at, which suggested it had taken on its colour from some new European oak. Its nose was unpleasant to me, a musty rubbery scent prevailed, with hints of salt or blue cheese. The palate was spicy and had a strong dry sherry composition. It was very characterful, but the oily sickly aftertaste and rubbery smell was not for me |
| 4. Caol Ila 26 yr. Single cask filling by Berry Brothers. | Non-chil filtered, this clouded easily in a cool breeze. It had a light colour and had some odd scents of kippers, tar and iodine. It had a full flavour, slightly seaweedy and had a stereotypical Islay body. Benefited by a drop of water, the finish was woody and citrus. |
| 5. St. George’s Chapter Four | This looked and smelt green and pleasantly creamy. I thought it was new make spirit, but it had its edges rounded off and had taken on some oaky flavours from somewhere. It was more akin to a Calvados or a Schnapps or a Tequila. Turns out this was because it wasn’t cask strength and it was only 18 months old, so technically can’t be marketed as a Whisky. |
| 6. Amrut Peated Cask Strength | This was a deep and sherried colour with a sweet, thick nose. By this stage of the evening, I was struggling to describe it, but I wasn’t alone. It’s a complex beast that builds up momentum as you progress through the dram. It’s not heavily peated and a drop of water helps penetrate the layers of flavour. A clear favourite, it was to many people’s tastes. |
I managed to spot the St George’s, strongly suspected the Amrut but wasn’t trying too hard for the Japanese or Scottish, there’s too great a range of styles to remember. I was totally thrown by the Connemara’s addition of the sherry maturation, the oily, sickly sweetness of the finish dominated it’s usual signature.
The Amrut Peated Cask Strength consistently scored highly from around the country, we’ve come to expect greatness from Bangalore and this was no exception, there are few 4 year old whiskys that can manage that depth of flavour AND are still suppable at cask strength. The real star of the show for me was the Penderyn, which is something I thought I would never say. It threw off the stereotypical flavours from the Welsh distillery and added some novel fruity sweetness. As Eddie said, you would feel quite comfortable serving it up as an aperitif to the unsuspecting!
The final scores and discussion can be found on the Whisky Lounge Facebook page
4 minute chocolate mug cake
This recipe is for those selfish moments where you need chocolate cake and you need it now. It easily scales to as many or as few as you need, keep the proportions the same by just using different sized spoons, although it’s tricky to find a quarter sized egg. The self-raising flour should expand to twice the size of the batter, so make sure your mug or basin is only half filled, otherwise you’ll be eating it straight from the microwave.
The illustration was done using heaped tablespoons and would have been plenty for four people.
Ingredients
4 level tablespoons self-raising flour
4 level tablespoons sugar
2 level tablespoons cocoa powder
1 small egg
3 level tablespoons milk
3 level tablespoons oil
3 level tablespoons cocolate chips, or roughly chopped chocolate (half a mini mars bar would do the job if you really wanted to annoy your dentist)
Method
Add the dry ingredients to your largest mug or a pudding basin and give it a stir
Beat the egg and add it to the mug, along with the milk and oil and stir it a lot until it’s well mixed up and smooth
Pour in the lumps of chocolate and half a teaspoon of your favourite flavouring (vanilla extract or a liqueur would be nice) and loosely stir through
Instant Cake Mix
Put it in a microwave and cook it on maximum for two minutes
If you’re cooking for others, wait for it to cool, turn out and serve with single cream, if you like.
If it’s all for you, just grab an oven glove and a spoon.
Instant Cake
