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Tags: sprouting ginger
Thank you for your suggestions as to the hairy vegetable in question below. This is not a gremlin Douglas, or a piece of oversized ginger Ron, but do watch this space for a photo of a rather surprising sprouting gingerman…
Lizzie and Chris obviously know their hairy veg. According to Morrisons, where I picked the thing up, it’s an eddoe. But eddoes are also known as taro, coco yam, arbi and nampi and are used in Indian, Chinese and Caribbean cooking. I’ve yet to have an evening in to cook the thing, and suspect it may be past its best now. Having sat languishing next some limes in my fruit bowl it has also taken on a peculiar limey smell. But I will give it my best shot tomorrow.
So here it is: the edible eddoe. I scrubbed off the skin, which came off remarkably easily, peeled it, chopped and then fried it. Under the skin it looked like a potato, but was a little slimy – driblets of a runny-nose-like goo attached themselves to the end of the knife and made me feel a bit queasy. Once fried in vegetable oil for ten minutes, the eddoe chips came up golden brown on the outside and remarkably soft on the inside. Up close the texture was spongy, with open pores. It tasted rather bland. In conclusion, I prefer potatoes: not so much novelty factor, but far fewer air miles.
What’s it called? Where’s it from? What should I do with it?
Tags: guess the food, hairy vegetable
I cooked a goose on Christmas day, but what with all the vegetables (roast potatoes in goose fat; sprouts with pancetta and marsala wine; red cabbage with orange and juniper; thankfully plain peas) and various sauces (juniper gravy; port, prune & chestnut stuffing; bread sauce; lemon and apple puree), not much actual bird was eaten. So now I have rather a lot of goose in my fridge and need a goosey recipe. Any ideas?
Tags: Christmas meal, goose
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7GGkKpBR-g]
Tags: beardyman, beatboxing
I got over-excited about my brew, thought of many different names for it, was going to create hand-made labels for it. Then cracked it open with friends on the roof. It was fizzy at least and a light yellow colour – I like to think it looked like champagne. But not sweet enough. It was tart and made our tongues cringe a little. The taste was reminiscent of another cider made last summer called Angry Driver – nothing to do with drink driving – think heated arguments in the car while the cider ferments away in the boot until its incredibly potent and sour as a lemon. Anyway, I decided not to bother with the labels. It did however, attract the name Cold Nudist (derived from spying an actual cold nudist from my friend Jess’ window last Christmas…)
Tags: cider
My parents unearthed half a dozen thick brown quart bottles and several Grolsch style swing top bottles. They were thick with dust and still contained sterilising fluid from the seventies, when they had been constantly filled and refilled from a bin of beer that bubbled away in a corner. I had also collected quite a few screw-top wine bottles. Bottling is easy, once you get the hang of it – once you get enough suction going in the syphon though, make sure you have the bottles (with their heaped teaspoon of sugar inside) lined up and ready to go, or you’re likely to get cider spurting out all over you and the kitchen floor.
Tags: cider
As a true cider lover (bar Magners’ weird orange, over-sweet fizzy pop) and an eternal optimist, I thought making delicious apple nectar at home would be a doddle. It is. Starting from scratch is a mission though, so unless you have acres of garden laden with apple trees ready to drop and an apple press in the shed ready for scratting the fruit, it’s easier to start with a cider kit. Strangely, although there’s a whole world of beer kits out there, when it comes to one of the UK’s favourite and best drinks, there aren’t many to choose from. This was the one I went for (you can buy all the equipment you need from here too): http://www.homebrew4u.co.uk/homebrew-cider-kits/
When it comes to making up your brew, be warned that measuring out 32 pints of water with a half-pint jug is not that easy after consuming a fair bit of shop-bought cider. Oh, and the instructions are on the back of the label, so tease it from the tin slowly… But if you do rip it off with excitement like I did (and believe me, it’s hard to read when in strips) you can always find the brewing instructions here: http://www.homebrew4u.co.uk/brewing-instructions/brew-buddy-cider.asp
Tags: cider
