More Brews and Food?

No wonder I'm getting a gut. =)

The lemonade's still fermenting. On tasting it wasn't too flash. It tastes kinda... beery. I just used a couple of beer kit yeasts - not recommended. Not good in a lemonade. The bitterness isn't as strong as when I first set it up, so there's hope though. I'm going to separate it from the yeast and sit it for a while, so hopefully the 'beeryness' disappears.

Now this is a great brew! Amazing. If I can one day brew a dark approaching this quality I'll be happy. And quite possibly perpetually drunk (say that three times after a couple of Leffes).

Had it at the Belgium Beer Cafe in the city. Not really my kind of drinking haunt generally. But it was a special occasion (sorta). Very good beer, served very well, and very expensively. Though honestly if you've got the money it's well worth it. The girls and guys behind the bar are nice, and really knowledgeable about beer. I learnt heaps. They also did me up a little sampler for a reasonable price so I could work out what (besides the dark) was good.

A soup with the strong flavours to go with the dark fell into my lap the other day. I was at the Adelaide central markets the other day, and one place had tomatoes and capsicum reeeeeeeally cheap. So of course I grabbed a heap, and did a little google to see what I could find.

Roast capsicum and tomato soup? Yes please. The amounts ended up being about a biscuit tray (crammed full) of veges to 1.5-2 litres of stock. I used only roast capsicum and tomatoes. But if I'd had some zucchini I would have used a little of that too.

Oil the biscuit tray (or roasting pan/s) and cover with roughly equal numbers of tomatoes and capsicums. Either put a couple of garlic cloves in too, or, if you're lazy like me and mostly use crushed garlic in a jar you can put some of it in the oil before brushing the veges with it.

I also grabbed some turkish bread while I was at the market. Soft and fluffy and about a foot by a metre. I made it into a crispy garlic bread to serve with the soup by smearing on the butter and crushed garlic (not pictured, that's the knockoff I tried when the turkish bread was gone *cry* - nowhere near as good). Good strong tastes and went great with a dark.

Beer and Burgers

Hey all!

Sorry about the long time frame. I will try and make this more regular from now on. I love that phrase 'try to' - it's like making a promise, but without the commitment.

I have started brewing my own beer. Yes, beer. As a friend of mine says 'lesbians and beer' - I mean is there more to life? Usually at that stage I have to disillusion him - ie 'the lesbians in porn aren't real lesbians.' Then he cries. Fun times.

My first batch of beer was from a kit. It's very ordinary, like the lager you get on tap down at the RSL, but at 10 bucks for 2 slabs (cartons for the non-Aussie amoung us) I figure I'll be able to give it away to someone.

The batch I've got on the go at the moment is lemonade. Yes, alcoholic lemonade. Mmmm - probably won't turn out, but at least I used up some of the lemons. I'll let you know how it turns out, and post the recipe I used later.

Meanwhile I'm trying to learn more about beer in general. Good beer (no that doesn't include VB). I grabbed a couple of pale ales from Dan Murphys to compare. And decided to make some food to go with. Steak burger it was, and man did it turn out well (and go great with the beers).

Ingredients
Toasted Bun (dark is better kids, anyone eating white bread or buns needs spanking)
Steak, cooked how you like it (medium-rare for me)
Sweet chilli sauce
Egg (runny of course)
Bacon (crispy)
Good cheese (I used swiss)
Good greens / lettuce
Good tomatoes (leave them out if it's a choice between that and supermarket ones)

There you have it folks - was delicious. And went really well with the beers. According to folks I've spoken to Little Creatures Pale Ale is meant to be the signature Aussie brand. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I enjoyed the Wicked Elf ('the little brewery').

Steak and Beer folks. Can life get any better than this?