Month: January 2018

Liverpool Winter Ales Festival

This weekend saw the Winter Ales Festival held at Liverpools St George’s Hall, a rather grand venue and worthy of a post in itself at some point in the future.

Two hundred beers and ciders to sample from in the Great Hall

Cascade. Liverpool Organic Brewery. Pale Ale. 3.8%. Amber in colour, clear. A lightish beer with grapefruit citrus flavours. A nice way to start the festival.

Shipwreck. Liverpool Organic Brewery. IPA. 6.5%. Amber/gold in colour with a slight haze. Very pleasant tropical notes with an underlying sweetness. A low bitterness IPA. A dry finish with lingering citrus.

Sunshine. Brass Castle Brewery, North Yorkshire. IPA. 5.7%. Dark amber in colour with slight haze. Grapefruit and orange marmalade flavours with a touch of sweetness. Citrus finish.

Pop. First Chop Brewing Arm, Salford. IPA. 5.4%. Amber in colour with a slight haze. Flavours of orange and a smokey/earthy element. A characterful beer.

Chevalier. Gibberish Brewing, Liverpool. ESB. 4.8%. Dark amber and clear. Bags of flavour here, nutty, malty, toast and a big hit of coffee. A long lingering finish with a slightly bitter end.

Citra. Saltaire Brewery, West Yorkshire. Pale Ale. 4.2%. Golden in appearance. A complex beer with citrus and tropical flavours with lovely balancing bitterness. Very refreshing, very drinkable.

Au. Three Brothers Brewing Co, Stockton on Tees. Pale Ale. 4.2%. Golden in colour with a slight haze. Light in body with a mild citrus flavour.

California Steam. Tollgate Brewery, Derbyshire. Pale Ale 4.2%. Very pale in colour, little or no head, slight haze. Light with an ever so slight spritz, lemon citrus. Almost lager in style.

 

 

Lagom

A wet and windy day. An ideal opportunity to investigate a Swedish cookbook called Lagom by Steffi Knowles-Dellner that I received as a Christmas present.

Lagom is a word that is difficult to define but generally means “just the right amount , enough, sufficient, adequate, just right” but can also mean “in moderation and in balance”. Indeed in the introduction to her book Steffi expands on this and gives a wider appreciation of its meaning.

My interest in  Nordic cuisine followed a city break in Stockholm a  couple of years ago. Superb meals at Gastrologik and Ekstedt together with the tradition of fika (coffee, often with a piece of cake or pastry) left me in no doubt that the Swedes take their food very seriously indeed. So this book was a welcome addition to the book shelf.

Recipes are divided into six sections and I decide to try cooking from three. To start the day, breakfast. Buckwheat and lemon pancakes with berries and creme fraiche. The actual recipe in the book shows a savoury version for serving with smoked salmon but gives an alternative sweeter variety which I choose. I have to say that the addition of whipped egg whites gives an incredibly light but very tasty pancake. An excellent addition to the breakfast repertoire.

Next up Seeded Apple Bread. Part bread, part cake and made without using yeast so there is no kneading and prooving. Easy to make and really nice.

Finally Slow-cooked Pork with sweet mustard and root vegetables. You have to be patient here but it is well worth the wait. Four and a  half hours in the oven produces pork shoulder that falls apart and tastes devine. I will definitely be making this again.

In conclusion three excellent recipes which worked well and are relatively straightforward to follow. Whats more there are plenty more to choose from. Steffi Knowles-Delliner has produced a book which is more than a cookery book to flick through, it is one to use over and over again to produce some authentic Swedish food and yes there are recipes for meatballs.