Gin & Yang

I decided I needed a new challenge.  I’ve got the cookie baking sorted and it is pretty straight forward.  I’m still trying to get my head around baking loaves and I’ve got a fairly good standard white bread recipe but it hasn’t quite become second nature yet.  I’m not really ready to make the leap into cakes but I’m not a massive fan of cake anyway so I’m not really motivated to try.  Instead I[...]

I return to one of my favourites, steak.  You can read my previous article on how to properly cook a steak here, so I won’t cover it in much detail this time. My initial plan with this recipe was to do steak and eggs but I was reminded of the bottle of Jim Beam (white) which is so bad, I can’t even drink it with coke.  It’s like that overly excited aunt or uncle you always see at[...]

I’ve always loved the idea of making a dessert burger.  I like making food a little whimsical and I love burgers so when my work’s cake club came around again (I made cookies last time) a dessert burger seemed like a pretty logical next step.  I figured someone, somewhere would have tried it but a quick search on google didn’t come up with much.  In fact, the only good example of a dessert burger I[...]

I got a cookbook on coriander for my secret santa gift at work.  My “santa” knew I wasn’t the biggest fan of coriander but also knew that I liked to cook and ran this site… so it was a smart choice.  I’ve taken it as a challenge.  I don’t hate coriander, I just find people dump large quantities of the stuff on curries or other dishes without much thought, large amounts of coriander end up tasting like[...]

I don’t really do much baking… I’m a terrible baker but cookies are so easy even I can’t make a mess of them.  My baking skills are legendary, the “easy” victoria sponge that failed to rise, my brownies that ended up more blackies than brownies (I blame my inconsistent oven) and other baking misadventures. Now that I have a thermomix I’ve started experimenting more and trying to do a little more baking.  White loaves have[...]

With all the recent news about ready made meals contaminated with horse meat, I wanted to try it for myself.  Us Brits and the Americans revile horse meat but I’m not entirely sure why?  I can understand the anger over eating horse meat when it was meant to be beef, especially when the horse isn’t the type bred for its meat; but I can’t understand why we don’t eat horse that is bred specifically for[...]

Following one of my favourite Chef’s Richard Blais, I found a series of Burgers that he is currently showcasing on YouTube for Tasted.  One in particular was the Pigskin burger ahead of the Superbowl; It looked amazing!  See the video here. Sadly there isn’t a detailed recipe for this burger – the video gives us a good idea what it involves but there isn’t an exact method or list of ingredients.  So not only do I[...]

In my last article I gave a basic stock list for someone starting up their own cocktail bar at home.  It’s pretty organic, if you like a certain kind of cocktail, you should buy the drinks for it!  Then, you can look for cocktails with similar ingredients and build up from there.  I’m (un)lucky in that I go crazy, buy a bunch of different drinks and start making cocktails without having to worry too much about[...]

Alcohol: Booze, spirits, liqueurs, regardless of what you call it or what kind you use, all cocktails need some, otherwise it’s a mocktail!  Most cocktails follow a set of basic rules in their construction.  First off, you have a base, then a modifier and finally a taste or colouring agent.  For instance, a Mudslide cocktail is vodka (base), Irish Cream (modifier) and Coffee liqueur (agent). The base, constitutes the majority of the alcoholic content of[...]

Before I start posting up cocktails recipes I thought I should give a basic introduction to cocktails and what you’ll need to make some, starting with shakers. Cocktail Making Kit: So first of all, you’ll need a shaker.  There are three types: The Classic “Cobbler” Shaker – This is the one you will see most often, it’s usually the cheapest of all three and it is the easiest to use.  This is how I started[...]