drinking chocolate - best brand?

Both of these brands of instant drinking chocolate are on special at Coles at the moment, though the ‘La Bella’ brand (~$4) is about $1 or so more expensive than the Cadbury brand (~$3). Earlier this week I bought the La Bella one, but today I saw the Cadbury was on special too so I thought I’d try that as well and compare them.

After trying both brands, the only conclusion I’ve come to is that both are in need of improvement. La Bella is better for its chocolatey-ness, but you have to use a fair bit and it doesn’t have much sweetness, so I ended up adding some sugar (which I find annoying because I don’t want to have to do any work - I just want to put it in the cup and have it taste good - not have to adjust the sweetness myself).

Cadbury’s is Ok - you use less, but it has a sweetness that, if not used wisely, could be sickly. And it’s not very chocolatey compared to La Bella.

My solution so far is to put a spoonful of each brand in a cup. Top with hotwater, stir, and add milk.

My longer term goal is to try the other brands of drinking chocolate and see which is better. I think Vittoria might be better, but at ~$8 a pop it’s pretty pricey. Granted, the container is about twice the size of the brands I’ve bought so far, but I’d hope it was good for that kind of price. Anyone tried it?

wildschwein’s easter eggnog

Our chooks are laying like mad at the moment, meaning we have a HUGE surplus of eggs to get through! Lastnight it was on the chilly side, and I felt like something warm and sweet, so I pulled out the Kenwood Chef and whipped up this creamy and slightly addictive batch of eggnog. Was so proud that it worked out!!!

This recipe was inspired by one of Alton Brown’s, available on the Food Network website, however I’ve made a few alterations to both the ingredients and method, which probably produced a slightly different result. I also doubled the recipe so I would have plenty of leftovers to refrigerate (and also to use up more eggs!!). My altered recipe is below!

lemon chicken marsala

Here’s a great-tasting, dead-easy chicken recipe I threw together the other day for an early dinner. This dish started with a corn-feed chicken which was on special at our local supermarket - about $6.00 for a 1.5kg bird. Marsala is a sweet, aromatic fortified wine. If you can’t find it you could use a medium-dry or a sweet sherry instead. Madiera or dry sherry would probably also work but would give quite a different flavour - although it would be perfectly acceptable but may require some sugar to balance the acidity of the lemon. This dish is so minimalist it’s almost not a recipe but here we go anyway.

Food quizzes galore!

You Are Duck

Exotic and unusual, you are a bit of a rare bird - literally. You’re known for being soft and succulent, though at times you can be a bit greasy.

What Kind of Meat Are You?

Yes, these are about 2% truth, 98% bulldust, but they’re also good temporary boredom busters! Have a go at them and post your own results

roasted barley and honey ale

Here is my most recent batch of beer. I really felt like doing something with honey in it, so I threw this recipe together. I found a 1kg tin of liquid malt extract at Coles near where they stock their honey - it’s made by a company called Saunders and was only $7.99.

First I pan-roasted 100g of pearl barley to a deep brown colour over high heat - it ended up similar in colour and taste/aroma to an espresso roasted coffee. I wanted to destroy all the starch. Tasting it as I went I stopped when there was no sweetness present in the grain at all - only a deep roasty nuttiness. Cracked the grains. Then I did a 1.5L steep of this home roasted barley along with 20g of chocolate malt at 66C for 1 hour. Strained the steeping liquid into the kettle (rinsed off the grains with an additional 500mls of hot water) and added the 1kg tin of Saunders malt extract, 40g of treacle and brought it all to the boil. I threw in about 15g of Saaz pellets and boiled for about 5 minutes. After flameout and a brief cooling I added about 350g of homebrand honey and a 1.7kg tin of Coopers Real Ale. Dissolved everything and poured it into the fermenter. Topped up to 23L with cold water and pitched yeast at 23C. It was very foamy.

The smell of the wort was unbelievable - the honey and barley aroma combo was mindblowing in the early stages. The initial colour was a reasonably dark, semi-translucent coffee - thanks mainly to the roasted barley.

After bulk-priming with raw sugar, and a week in the bottle, this beer turned out to be a lot lighter than I thought it would be. The Coopers kit is quite bitter, and so this beer is probably better suited to cooler weather. It also seems to be perfectly suited for ageing - perhaps from 6 months to a year.

It seems to be just about as bitter as Coopers’ Bitter Kit which I have written on before. However, this one doesn’t have the same type of roasted malt character. Although, my roast barley addition has given it a subtle coffee note on the palate. The honey is there, too, lending a complex, fruity aroma to the brew.

This went perfectly with the curry we served up for dinner - stay tuned for the recipe!

oktoberfest is here!

A beautiful spring day…

A beautiful excuse to drink beer in ridiculously large steins, light up the barbeque,
and eat copious amounts of delicious German-inspired food!

Click below to see our celebratory BBQ gallery!
Recipes coming soon!

a coffee break in pictures

Saturday arvo coffee craving.

AU$2.42 at Coles.

Recently rediscovered in our store room.

Coffee + water + 2-3 sugars + skim milk.

Mmmmm…

homemade mandarin soda

We had some mandarins in the fruit bowl that we needed to use, so we juiced and used them in general accordance with our ginger beer recipe. The result is a deliciously sweet and refreshing mandarin soda.

For a 3.7L batch, we juiced 16 large mandarins and poured the juice several times through a sieve to remove as much pulp as possible. The juice was then combined with 400g of sugar, 2 large tablespoons of golden syrup, 3 teaspoons of dried ginger powder, 1 teaspoon of mixed spice, 1/2 a teaspoon of citric acid, and a pinch of cream of tartar (all put in a big pot and heated to 80C). This was then topped up with water, decanted in to bottles, and then some ginger beer plant was added.

The bottles were left uncapped overnight, and then sealed the next day. Within 8 hours the bottles were hard and carbonation had obviously occurred. We have since kept them in the fridge, so as to keep them cool prior to serving (to avoid gushing).

Enjoy!

three homebrews in three hours: coopers bitter, australian heritage draught & boutique australian candi lager

This is a Coopers Bitter aged for three months in the bottle. The ingredients list is dead simple. It includes a 1.7kg can of Coopers Bitter, a 1kg bag of Coopers brew enhancer 2, and the kit yeast, all made up to 23 litres. It was fermented at 16C for two weeks before bulk-priming and bottling. The final product is an intensely flavoured bitter brew with a very oaky character. The copper colour reveals that Coopers used a lot of roasted malts in this product. A distinct though cheap and easy beer to make.

This is a Boutique Candi Lager. This brew used a 1.7kg can of Farmland Lager purchased from Coles, a 1kg bag of Coopers brew enhancer 2, 20g of Saaz hops pellets (aroma) and 500g of homemade Belgian candi sugar cooked to a deep amber. The brew was fermented with a W34/70 lager yeast at about 10C for three weeks before bulk-priming and bottling. The final result is a very consumable lager with slight toffee notes thanks to the candi sugar. A great session beer.

This is an Australian Heritage Draught. This one was made with a 1.7kg can of Wander Draught, 500g of dried light malt extract, 500g of dark dried malt extract, 200g raw sugar, 20g of Saaz hops pellets (aroma) and a steep of 20g of chocolate malt, 40g of roasted barley, and 100g of crystal malt. The brew was fermented at 16-18C for around 10 days with the kit yeast, which is an ale. The final result is a very consumable beer with a fruity aroma and a very nice toasted malt character. The colour is a beautiful deep amber hue. Another great session beer that’s not too bitter.

If you have any questions about how these were made and any kit & kilo homebrewing questions feel free to leave a comment.

Prost!!!

homemade lemon cordial

To make a batch of homemade lemon cordial, put one cup of sugar, one quarter of a cup of lemon juice, one and a half teaspoons of citric acid, and one cup of boiling water in a jug. Mix well until sugar is dissolved. Pour a little of the mixture into a glass and dilute to taste with water. This tastes like it’s store-bought, but better!