I know, I know, I don't post anything for weeks then here I am, BAM, with two posts in one day. However as it happened, I had this one all ready to go when I decided that I simply must do a post on brining -- including ratios if your turkey isn't the size of a small child -- before sharing the recipe for the turkey that was brined. Of course, as all things do these days, it took a bit longer than planned. And so we return to our regularly scheduled programming, joining the story a few … [Read more...]
How to Brine a Turkey – plus Brine Recipe Ratios for any size bird
If you've never brined a turkey before roasting now is the time to start. No, no, not next year, now -- or at the very least the next time you cook anything remotely turkey related. Because once you do you'll never go back, seriously. Ok, ok, how can I be so sure? Well only a few weeks ago I was you, well not really you, that would be impossible and a little awkward, but the non-brine-er part of you who is questioning my blatant confidence. You see for years I'd intended to try this … [Read more...]
Slow Smoked Pepper-Crusted BBQ Brisket
Remember how I said I was going to work my way through drafts and archives? This is one of those, written in the beginning of December 2013 then filed away (but certainly not forgotten) in favour of far too many Christmas dessert recipes, it happens. In any case, instead of changing it to suit late summer I'm leaving it as is, because I can. Stay tuned for all the sides too. ------ Yesterday (well yesterday when I wrote this on 2 December) was the first day of summer in Sydney. For some … [Read more...]
The Woods Restaurant – Sydney
There are plenty of reviews about The Woods Restaurant that wax lyrical about summers spent swatting mosquitoes and cooking over camp fires. They draw tenuous links due to the raging fire that adds smoke and caramelized edges to most of the menu at The Woods but let's be perfectly clear -- a trip to consulting chef Hamish Ingham's restaurant is nothing like camping, roughing it, or cooking anything in the wilderness. This is by no means a bad thing. The Woods is nestled in The Four … [Read more...]
Moroccan Lamb Shanks & Gremolata
There is something wonderfully satisfying about a slow cooked stew in winter. Given, I don't eat this one myself but every now and then RJ asks for it by name and I simply can't resist. I've mentioned before that I'm a veg-aquarian and, until very recently, it's been roughly 15 years since I've eaten meat. However the consumption of meat has always been a texture / flavour / heath issue for me, never an ethical one, and I really enjoy cooking with it. We do try to buy organic and … [Read more...]
Aussie BBQ Sauce
It's funny you know, the differences you find in an activity as simple as cooking food over an open flame. For starters what do you call said activity - barbeque, barbecue, BBQ, grilling or something else - and what do the terms mean? Then there's the question of what to cook, and even what equipment to use. Let me paint the smoky picture in very broad brushstrokes... In America-land, grilling is what happens on a charcoal or gas grill, usually with chicken legs and hamburgers and maybe a … [Read more...]
Beef & Chicken Lasagne. Or Lasagna. Tomayto, tomahto.
Working in hospitality when I first moved to Sydney I learned quickly that "Would you like tomahto on your sandwich" caused many less confused looks than an America-land 'tomayto' when asked across the counter of a cafe... Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. Now we all know I don't eat meat, so what am I doing making a Meaty Lasagne? And for that matter what am I doing spelling Lasagne with an 'e' instead of Lasagna with an 'a'? Well on the first one, I told RJ that for his birthday … [Read more...]
