Shakes Beer - The Knocking Without

My very first brew was a Cascade kit - the Chocolate Mahogany Porter, and although I bottled it a bit too soon, and it was substantially overcarbonated, I thought it was fantastic! So after a few years of brewing, and having switch to all-grain brewing, I thought it was time to revisit it. Some time soon I'll get round to doing an all-grain version, but this time I've had a crack at a kit+bits.

The Knocking Without

• Cascade Chocolate Mahogany Porter kit
• 1kg tin Morgan's chocolate malt extract
• 1kg Cellar Plus Stout mix
• 20g EKG pellets (5mins)
• Brew Cellar premium ale yeast

Boiled all ingredients except the yeast for 5 minutes with 2L water. Transferred to fermenter and made up to 22L. Pitched yeast at 26C.
OG: 1.060

2009/06/11 Racked. SG 1.025. Rather high. Sat on the heat-mat to try and kick things along a bit.

2009/06/28 Bottled. FG 1.020. Beautifully smooth and sweet. 20L in 500ml bottles with 150g priming sugar.

Shakes Beer - Antipholus' Saison

A couple of weeks ago, after reading "Farmhouse Ales" by Phil Markowski, I thought I'd better try a Saison to get a feel for what I'd been reading about. I got a bottle of Dupont Saison, and tried it with some mates over the footy. Blew us all away! It's fantastic, and I decided straight away that this was a brew that needed to be attempted.

I wanted a first attempt that really exhibited the yeast profile (Wyeast 3724 is the Dupont strain), so I opted for the following fairly neutral wort using up hops that were already in the fridge.

Usually, I buy coriander seed at a middle-eastern grocer. On this occasion I bought them at the local Indian grocer. Interestingly they have a much more oval (prolate) in shape than the round ones I usually have, and the aroma was more citrus-like.

Shakes Beer

• 4.5kg Weyernann Pilsner malt
• 1kg Weyermann Wheat malt
• 40g Hallertau pellets (4.5%aa) @ 60min
• 40g Hersbrucker pellets (2.2%aa)@ 30min
• 10g crushed coriander seed @ 5min
• 5g orange zest (about 1 orange) @ 5min
• 0.5 Irish Moss tablet @ 5min
• 1L yeast starter Wyeast 3724

BIAB/NC

Mashed low at 63C for 90mins, with mashout at 76C for 15mins.

No-Chilled for 24hrs, then pitched starter and maintained at 24C. Lots of airlock activity about 12hrs later.

2009/06/11 Racked. SG 1.022. Taste from the sample jar was terrific! Temperature still sitting at 24C. Still getting burps from the airlock, so although the fermentation seems unhurried, it is still moving.

2009/06/28 Sampled. SG 1.005. Man, this is one attenuative yeast! Will bottle in the next few days.

Shakes Beer - Cornelius

Well, finally, I've put the BIAB brew Tim and Bryan and I made last year. I didn't ferment it straight away because my plan was to pitch it on to the yeast cake of a London Ale yeast, but it all went horribly wrong and the previous batch (with the yeast from a smack pack) tasted off, and I am pretty sure it was infected. Then spring was too well advanced anyway, and I don't have a brew fridge.

Anyway, here it is!

Shakes Beer - Cornelius

• 4.5kg BB Ale Malt
• 0.4kg Weyermann Caramunich II
• 0.2kg BB Wheat Malt
• 70g East Kent Goldings at 60mins
• 20g East Kent Goldings at 15mins
• 20g East Kent Goldings at 0mins
• 1 tab Whirlfloc
• Safale US-05 yeast

BIAB/NC

35L, Mashed at 66 degrees for 90 mins, stepped up to 77 for hoist. Good squeeze for a pre-boil volume of 32L (loss of 3L for ~5kg grain - that's okay). Preboil gravity of 1.040. 90 min boil, (hot) post-boil volume 27L.

OG: 1.044

Yeast pitched at 20C.

2009/04/30 SG 1.012 Taste from the sample jar was terrific!

2009/05/01 Racked. SG 1.010

2009/05/19 FG 1.008 5.3%abv Bottled with 130g priming sugar. 18x500ml + 14x750ml bottles. Sample jar tasted great - more hop flavour than any previous brew, which at first I was scared might have been an off flavour, but no, it's all good.

Cauliflower and Almond Soup with Parmesan Croutons

This is a beautiful soup - much nicer than the title sounds. Cauliflower immediately calls to mind the awful smell of over-boiled cauliflower served beside vile mass produced cafeteria roasts. Take a risk and try this - it will rehabilitate cauliflower for you!

Cauliflower and Almond Soup with Parmesan Croutons

• 1/2 cup blanched almonds
• 2 slices bread, crusts removed and soaked in 1/3 cup water
• 1.5 litres vegetable stock
• 2 tbl olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 leek, white part only, washed and chopped
• 600g cauliflower florets
• 2 tbl chopped chives
• 4 slices bread, crusts removed and cut into 1 1/2cm squares
• 1 1/2 tbl olive oil
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan

For parmesan croutons, drizzle bread with olive oil, add parmesan and toss to combine. Place on an oven tray and bake at 180 deg C for 15-20 minutes until golden. Cool.

Process almonds and bread mixture in a food processor until smooth, gradually add 1/2 cup stock and process until smooth.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, and garlic and leek and cook over low heat until leek is soft, then add cauliflower and stir over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add remaining vegetable stock then simmer partially covered over low heat for 30-35 minutes until cauliflower is very soft. Process in a food processor, in batches, until smooth. Return to pan, stir in almond mixture, season to taste and cook over low heat until heated through. Serve soup topped with parmesan croutons and sprinkled with chopped chives.

Serves 6

Another Spectacular Salad

Like the previous salad, this is one that I would recommend serving on its own as a course. Both have delicate flavours that would be overwhelmed by other foods. I made this one for a special occasion a couple of months ago, but only just got round to writing it up.

Crisp Prosciutto and Shaved Fennel Salad

• 2 bulbs fennel, trimmed, halved and cored
• 100g black olives
• 1 tbl olive oil
• 200g thinly sliced (not shaved) prosciutto
• 100g pecorino, shaved
• Dressing
• zested rind of 2 oranges
• juice of 2 oranges
• 1 tbl red wine vinegar
• 2 tbl olive oil
• 1 tbl coarsely chopped dill

Using a mandoline, thinly slice the fennel and mix with the olives.

Combine all the dressing ingredients, pour over the fennel mixture and toss to combine. Stand for half an hour to allow flavours to develop.

Heat olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and cook prosciutto, turning once, over a medium heat until crisp.

Spoon fennel salad onto serving plate[s], top with crisp prosciutto and shaved pecorino, drizzle with extra olive oil and sprinkle with cracked black pepper.

Shakes Beer - Oberon

As I mentioned in the previous post, last night we put on two brews. Here's the second.

Oberon

• 1 can Malt Shovel Two Row Lager
• 500g dextrose
• 25g Czech Saaz pellets
• Safale S04 yeast

Mix kit and dextrose in fermenter with enough hot water to dissolve. Make up to approximately 15L (intended to go to 11L, but from the brewing calculator, using the measured OG, below, it's probably 15L). Add hops dry.

S04 pitched at 28C and maintained at 18C.

Measured OG: 1.051.

2009/04/24 Racked. SG: 1.014.

2009/05/01 FG: 1.012. Bottled with 60g dex. ~5.7% abv

Shakes Beer - Pyramus & Thisbe

Well, it's time for the first brew of 2009 finally. I might have started earlier, but the weather cooled down enough just in time for the birth of my third child, and time did not permit....

Time does now permit, or at least can be made to permit, so last night a few Loamies came over and we put on two brews. Here's the first.

Pyramus & Thisbe

• 1 can Morgan's Golden Sheaf Wheat Beer
• 1 can Thomas Cooper's Wheat Malt Extract (1.5kg)
• 500g dextrose
• 25g Czech Saaz pellets
• Safale S04 yeast

Mix kit, wheat malt and dextrose with a couple of litres of hot water to dissolve, then make up to 23L with cold water, add hops dry.

S04 pitched at 28C, and maintained at 18C.

Estimated OG: 1.056

2009/04/24 Racked. SG: 0.014

2009/05/01 FG: 0.012 Bottled with 120g dex. ~6.4% abv.

2009/05/27 Cracked one last night. First time in my homebrew I've noticed subtle fruit and floral notes. Fantastic!

Anticipated Bliss

Reading recipe books is one of my favourite pastimes - meandering through others' ideas about food; learning by inference the many properties of an ingredient. As with fiction, I have authors I admire, and those I don't, and books that I come back to again and again. One such is Arabesque, modern Middle Eastern Food by Greg and Lucy Malouf. There are many recipes that I have cooked from it - a sure sign of a good cookbook, and many more that I have read over and over and thought "One day, I must try this."

Well, one of the recipes that has excited my imagination over and over is this one. Finally I tried it out today when we had a vegetarian friend amongst our guests for lunch. You can try a recipe that looks really good and be sorely disappointed, but this one (like all the others I have tried from this book), will not. We had it on its own for lunch for five, and it wasn't till several hours later that anyone went looking for the coffee and cake. You could easily spread it between eight if you had other courses, but I suggest that you go old-fashioned and serve it as a course, because it would be too overwhelming to the palate to combine it with anything else.

Honey roasted pear and walnut salad

• 3 ripe pears
• 2 1/2 tbl mild honey
• 3 cardamom pods, seeds only
• 1 tbl orange-blossom water
• 3 tsp sherry
• 25g butter
• 120ml olive oil
• 100g walnuts
• 2 packages Cypriot Hloumy cheese (250g packets), sliced in 3mm slices
• 100g plain flour for dusting
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1 purple onion, sliced finely
• 3 handfuls of salad greens
• salt and black pepper

Peel the pears and cut them into halves or quarters (if they are large), and cut out the core. In a small pot, warm the honey, cardamom seeds, orange-blossom water and sherry.

In a heavy frying pan melt together the butter and half the olive oil until bubbling, then sear the pears for a minute or so on each side so that they begin to brown. Add the honey mixture and saute together for a further couple of minutes until it is a warm caramel colour then remove to a large bowl.

To roast the walnuts, place them on a baking tray in a very hot oven for 5 minutes, then tip them on to a clean tea towel, rub off some of the papery skin, and cut or break into large pieces.

To grill the haloumy cheese, dust the slices in flour. Heat the remaining olive oil in a frying pan over high heat and cook the cheese slices until they are golden brown. Turn them and colour the other side. Remove the slices to a bowl and pour over the lemon juice and sprinkle over the thyme.

Stand the onion slices in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes then rinse in several changes of cold water. This softens the harshness of the onion.

Add the cheese, salad leave, 2/3 of the walnuts and onions to the bowl with the pears, season, and use your hands to gently mix it together.

To serve, mound the salad on a large serving plate, or on individual plates, and scatter with the remaining walnuts.

More banquet

Here's another dish from Friday night's banquet. I like beans, tahini and pine nuts, and this combination works beautifully. If you make it ahead and keep it in the fridge, make sure you let it return to room temperature before serving. This recipe makes a decent amount, enough for 8-12 people as part of a dinner.

White Beans with Tahini

• 400g dried white beans (haricot or great northern) soaked overnight
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 2 tsp cumin seeds, dry-roasted
• 2 tbl Middle Eastern grape molasses (or verjuice)
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbl chopped flat leaf parsley
• 75g pine nuts, toasted

Drain the beans from their soaking water, and cook in plenty boiling water for 50 minutes, or until tender, then drain and keep warm.

Meanwhile, place tahini, garlic, lemon juice, cumin seeds and grape molasses in a bowl, season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and whisk to combine well. Place beans in a large bowl, and while still warm, pour over dressing and mix gently, being careful to avoid breaking up the beans. Cover and stand at room temperature for 1 hour to allow flavours to develop.
Whisk paprika into olive oil in a small bowl and allow to stand for 30 minutes or until paprika settles to the bottom, then carefully spoon off the oil. Stir parsley and 3/4 of the pine nuts into the beans, then drizzle with the paprika oil and scatter with the remaining pine nuts.

Pomegranate Molasses Strikes Back

We had quite a banquet on Friday night. Although I wouldn't rate it my pick of the dishes, several guests raved about the pomegranate and walnut dip that we served with Turkish bread.

We have long held out on pomegranate molasses. It somehow epitomized the affluent and unnecessary in ingredient lists. Having used it now, I take it all back, or join the ranks of affluent consumerist westerners who fill their pantry with exotic and expensive ingredients. I note that if you go shopping in middle eastern grocers here, it may be labeled with its French name - Grenadine. And it is cheap.

Walnut and Pomegranate Dip

• 110g walnuts
• 1/4 round flat bread
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tbl pomegranate molasses

Put the walnuts, bread, cumin, and chilli flakes in a food processes, and process until finely ground, then add the oil and pomegranate molasses and process until smooth.

Makes about 1 - 1 1/2 cups. Keeps for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.