Sometimes Simple Pleasures Take Some Work

Simple & seasonal, with Jersey Royals & asparagus
well worth the prep

I don't know about you but I love roast chicken, I mean I really love roast chicken!

The smell of it cooking, the juiciness of the wings when they are yanked off just after cooking as a naughty chef's treat and then, the main event, that glorious white meat (or in my case I prefer the brown meat) nestled amongst some greens and roast potatoes, the crackle of browned skin, the addictiveness of reduced pan gravy... I could go on but I'm making myself hungry and I've only just had lunch!

However, there is always that between the crispy skin and juicy meat isn't there? Well, not any more! If you follow this recipe you'll have no dilemma, just gloriously juicy chicken AND crispy skin. And thank you Heston, once again, for inspiring this method of cooking.

Firstly, you'll need to start the prep 24 hours in advance but it's so ridiculously simple to do that you'll not break a sweat, even in this lovely weather!

Secondly, mix it up by all means, there's no real limit to what you can put in a brine in my experience, the only thing I do recommend is that you don't use aggressively hopped beers, they are just too bitter and counteract that delicious sweetness you want from the chicken and mess up the gravy.

Thirdly, don't over-do it on the salt, the reason why this works is that it is on the lower end of brining and means you can not only use a small amount of the brining liquid in your gravy but also that you don't have to spend ages and, let's face it currently precious water, to rinse it for an age when it comes out of the brine.

Finally, the great thing about this is, and I rarely hint at the healthy thing because, frankly, I'm more interested in flavour, but this does save stuffing a load of flavoured butter under the skin like I used to. (Although, if you don't have time for this method it's still a damn tasty way to go!)

Equipment:
Frying pan
Non-metallic bowl big enough to hold chicken
Tongs
Sharp knife

Brined and ready to go

Chopping board
Roasting pan with trivet big enough for chicken
Meat thermometer
Oven thermometer
Kitchen towel
Small saucepan
Fine sieve/muslin

Ingredients for Brine:
1 bottle of Chimay
Water
Handful of coarse sea salt - crushed/milled
Mild green chilli - pierced several times

Just out of oven
(browner than it looks!)

Bulb of garlic cut in half horizontally
Onion roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
6 cracked peppercorns - dry pan fried quickly
Handful of fresh thyme

Other Ingredients:
1 free range (or organic) chicken
1 lemon - pierced several times
Garlic from brine
1 pint of brown chicken stock
1tbsp dried tarragon
1 tsp sherry vinegar
1/2 tsp honey
Ladle full of brine


Method:

1. Give chicken a rinse, if it's trussed then untruss it and remove wishbone for easy carving
2. Put all brine ingredients into bowl, stir until salt dissolves
3. Place chicken in brine & then top up with enough water to cover, leave in fridge overnight
4. When ready to cook, heat oven to 90 degrees C
5. Whilst oven is heating take chicken out of brine, reserving a ladle full of liquid and the garlic and place the chicken on a plate on a bed of kitchen towel and also place some kitchen towel on top of skin to dry it, remove after a few minutes and allow chicken to come to room temp, around half an hour should do it
6. When chicken is no longer cold to the touch pop your lemon and the garlic from the brine in the cavity, place  on the trivet in your roasting tray in the middle of the oven and leave for around 3.5-4 hours depending on the size of your bird, keep an eye on the oven temperature every so often
7. Check internal temp after 3 hours and every 15 minutes or so from there, and when the thickest part of the breast has hit 60 degrees turn the oven off, leave the door open for five minutes and then allow to rest in the warm oven for around half an hour
8. By this stage I generally find my skin has crisped a bit, but if you want it browner take chicken out of oven and transfer to another baking dish/tray
9. Whack temperature up to 200 degrees C 
10.  Whilst your oven is heating up, put your baking tray on the hob and heat, then deglaze with some chicken stock, scrap all the gooey goodness out and then transfer to your saucepan, add your ladle of beer brine and the tarragon, reduce to your taste of thickness
11. When the chicken is browned, open oven door and leave to rest for 15
12. Strain off gravy through sieve to lose dried tarragon, add your honey and vinegar to taste for the gravy, whisk in, heat for a few more minutes and then carve, serve, enjoy!

Drink Match:
I am actually drinking the Thatcher's 2011 Vintage I planned to have with this as I type, but something light and fruity, soft and blonde would be perfect. A great quality lager, like Brooklyn, Freedom or Pilsner Urquell or a light ale like Adnams Explorer, Camden Wheat, St Austell Clouded Yellow or Little Creatures Pale Ale would be delightful.

Final Ride

Whilst it's not unexpected, I am very, very sad to hear of the death of Dave Wickett, a true titan of the brewing world, after a long battle with cancer.

Dave's brew, Kelham Island Pale Rider, was my epiphany beer - the beer that changed the course of my life you could say - and for that I will always be grateful to a wonderfully collegiate, intelligent and passionate man.

When I met Dave at the Great British Beer Festival for the first time, I couldn't have been more delighted that I really liked and admired the man who made it as well. 

In fact, I will freely admit that I behaved like a star-struck adolescent, stammering out ridiculous stories of how his beer was the one that made me sit up and take notice of real ale and, despite my burblings, he seemed genuinely interested in the impact his beer had on me and never stopped being interested, or interesting, during any of our subsequent conversations.

And it’s not just me that had a bit of a crush on Dave either, the whole UK brewing industry has a soft spot in their heart for him and he gets much credit for inspiring a whole new generation of brewers in the UK, not just through his own brewery but by helping other businesses like Thornbridge get off the ground too.

But where did he start? Well, it all happened when Wickett decided to throw in his lecturing day job and opened the Kelham Island brewery in 1990 next door to the Fat Cat pub and he also threw his doors open to the public.

During the brewery tours that he gave he showed off raw ingredients and he saw that men would really like the aroma from rubbing the bittering hops but that women didn’t, they like the aroma hops and a similar profile of behaviour happened when it came to the tastings.

However, he had no desire to make a lager, so he saddled up for a brainstorming session and  devised a beer that was high in aroma and low in bitterness like a lager but with a full, creamy body of an ale and Pale Rider was born.

The reports back were that the beer was flying out, being enjoyed by men and women from all walks of life and within three months it was the most popular beer the brewery has ever made and it’s not stopped winning awards either, it took CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain award in 2004 and so many others it’s hard to keep count.*

Dave, you are a huge loss to the brewing industry but I hope you know that your legacy is one of greatness, of innovation and of true leadership by example. RIP.

*this is a slight adaptation of what I wrote about Dave in my book, this is not an advert, just a clarification.

Send Yourself to Siberia!

Come and drink beer with me!

Because today, Wednesday April 4, I shall be launching my collab beer with Ilkley Brewery, which is also a saison called Siberia, which has been made with Yorkshire forced rhubarb, vanilla, grains of paradise and orange peel - yep, another mental one from me!

The Siberia is fab, I'm really pleased, it was spicy peach on the nose, a tiny bit sour, pleasingly spicy and orangey on the palate and absolutely bone dry, it's lush! :)

 Here's the agenda for the pub crawl we're embarking on, which could be dangerous as this beer has rocked out at 5.9%, eek!
 5.30pm: The Bull, Highgate
6.45pm Southampton Arms
8.15pm Draft House Tower Bridge
9.30-close The Rake

P.S. In case you're wondering why it's called Siberia, it's because rhubarb originates from Siberia, something I only found out when researching it - every day is, indeed, a school day! :)

Upcoming Beer Events

Pan-toasted & ground grains of paradise 
added to rhubarb & vanilla!!

Hi everybody! How's tricks? Enjoying the sunshine? Well then that means it's time for a beer then doesn't it?

Tonight (March 28) my lovely fellow beer writer Pete Brown (@petebrownbeer) will be launching his Ilkley Brewery (@ilkleybrewery) collaboration Medina, which is a Moroccan inspired saison with some yummy spices in it.

Then on Monday April 2, I shall be hosting a Spring beer and foodextravaganza at Meantime Old Brewery with head brewer Rod Jones, which I'm really looking forward to - details here of full menu.

UPDATE: There are only a few tickets left to my Meantime Brewery event next week, get 'em whilst they are hot! :)

Then, on Tuesday April 3, if you have nothing better to do you can come and laugh and point at me through the windows of the Tap East brewery, as new head brewer Jim Wilson as we knock together a pale ale, launch date of which is currently TBC.

Finally, on Wednesday April 4, I shall be launching my collab beer with Ilkley Brewery, which is also a saison called Siberia, which has been made with Yorkshire forced rhubarb, vanilla, grains of paradise and orange peel - yep, another mental one from me! I am getting to try it for the first time tonight, so I'll give you an update after that, but the boys from the north assure me it's tasting mighty fine! 

UPDATE: The Siberia is fab, I'm really pleased, it was spicy peach on the nose, a tiny bit sour, pleasingly spicy and orangey on the palate and absolutely bone dry, it's lush! :)

Here's the agenda for the pub crawl we're embarking on, which could be dangerous as this beer has rocked out at 5.9%, eek!

5.30pm: The Bull, Highgate

6.45pm Southampton Arms

8.15pm Draft House Tower Bridge

9.30-close The Rake

P.S. In case you're wondering why it's called Siberia, it's because rhubarb originates from Siberia, something I only found out when researching it - every day is, indeed, a school day! :)

Pie - that is all!

I don't know about you, but anything with the word pie in the title is enough to catch my attention, so I thought I'd save my terrible punning headlines for another day!

In case you didn't know, it's National Pie Week...WHOOP!

And as I recently created a pie I was pretty proud of (and that my mate @cityjohn went back for seconds of) I thought I'd pop it on the blog!

It's my take on a chicken and ham pie and my reason for making it was that I always find chicken and ham pie disappointing - it's generally claggy and bland and just, well, meh! So I wanted to make an updated version that had a little more to it - I think I've succeeded.

I will hold my hands up that, on the occasion I made it, I used shop-bought shortcrust pastry for the base, but I was pushed for time and would normally make it myself, so I've included the recipe but you really don't have to use it but do follow blind baking instructions.

Another cheat I used was some frozen leftover chicken gravy from a roast that I let down with a little bit of brown chicken stock, but if you buy a good-quality chicken gravy (Duchy's from Waitrose is not too shabby) or reduce some good chicken stock with a few unpeeled cloves of garlic, a bit of arrowroot/corn flour, a bay leaf and a few peppercorns (strain before using!) then you'll get pretty similar results I'm sure.

As for puff pastry? Life's too damn short! Now you can get all-butter puff in the shops it's just not worth your while making it in my opinion - but if you're masochist enough then please feel free to go the whole hog!

And whilst I'm here, I'm immensely excited that Carl Smith of the Windmill in Mayfair, one of my oldest contacts in the trade, is giving away the secrets of his award-winning pies on YouTube - most especially my absolute favourite the English Breakfast Pie, it's awesome and I'm going to be making my own version of it next weekend with a few little beery (and possibly black pudding) tweaks for a bit of fun!

So, without further ado, here it is...

Summer Lightning Chicken, Leek, Ham & Cornish Brie Pie

Serves 4 very hungry people, you don't need much more to accompany it than some samphire/greens/peas & carrots (the potatoes were a little much when I had mine!)

Equipment
Sharp, decent sized knife
Chopping board
Mixing bowl
Rolling pin
Tongs
Cooking spoon
Rubber spatula
Pastry brush
Large heavy-based saucepan
Large dish (I used an oval one that is 24cm long x 16cm wide x 5cm deep, but a false bottom/spring form would have been better to see the pie in all its glory!)

Sundry Ingredients
375g All-butter puff pastry
Egg

Make your shortcrust pastry:
500g/1lb plain flour (plus some extra for rolling)
125g/4oz unsalted butter (plus extra for greasing dish)
125g/4oz lard
pinch salt
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 egg, beaten
Cold water

1. Sift flour & salt into a large mixing bowl
2. Rub the butter & lard into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs
3. Add vinegar & enough cold water to bring mixture together into a smooth dough
4. Wrap in cling film, chill in the fridge for 30 minutes

Filling
500g skinless, boneless chicken thighs (free range)
100g Jamon Iberico lardons (Waitrose) or smoked bacon lardons
White onion, very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or smushed
Two good size leeks (trimmed, washed, cut into 3cm disks)
200ml chicken gravy
1 bottle of Summer Lightning (and more to drink with it!)
1tbsp dried Tarragon
100g Cornish brie (I used Llawnroc)
Seasoning
Groundnut oil

1. Get a pan on a medium high heat
2. Chop your chicken thighs into bite-size chunks
3. Put oil in pan and add chicken
4. When it’s golden brown on one side, turn over and then throw in onion & lardons
5. When chicken is golden brown all over, onions should be softened and almost disappearing, lardons should be golden & crispy too
6. Throw in your chicken gravy to deglaze pan then turn heat right down
7. Add garlic and leeks, cook for a minute
8. Add half your bottle of beer (other half is for the cook!), reduce at a gentle pace, it will take about 20-30 mins to reduce to a thickish sauce
9. Put in fridge to cool

Assemble Your Pie
1. Roll out shortcrust pastry and put in a suitable, lightly buttered, dish and leave some hanging over sides
2. Fill with baking parchment (quick tip, scrunch up your baking parchment before trying to fit it in, makes it easier – as well as a satisfying noise!!), and fill with baking beans, or rice and blind bake for 15 minutes in 180 oven or until it’s just beginning to colour
3. Once it’s set, remove baking beans and parchment, allow to cool for 10-15 minutes then trim the excess off the sides
4. Put half your cooled filling in the pie, stud with torn off chunks of half your brie, repeat process with the rest of your filling & brie
5. Roll out your puff pastry and put it over the top, crimping it to the shortcrust pastry base as you go, poke a hole in the middle to let the steam out & egg wash (tip: put remaining egg wash in a small plastic tub in freezer, very handy!)
6. Bake in a 200 degree fan oven for about 25 mins or until the top is golden and the insides bubbling!

To Drink
The Summer Lightning goes gloriously with this, of course, and really any spritzy, citrusy blonde ale will go well. I also thought that the Saison Dupont I had was also a good accompaniment too, take your pick!

Ice, Ice Baby!

Hello troops! How you all doing? Hungry?

Well, for those of you who follow me on Twitter I have recently been tormenting you with pictures of a rather jolly ice cream I made, so I thought I ought to post the recipe here so you can give it a whirl.

The recipe was born of one of my new year's resolutions to cut down on food waste in my house, as I will hold my hands up that I can be pretty shocking with wasting food - particularly fresh fruit and veg. 

I've always been happy to blame my bonkers schedule, the unpredictability of self-employment or the fact that it's too cold and I want to dodge a salad - but I had to be honest with myself and say that, invariably, it was just because I'd not thought hard enough about the appalling ease with which I just chucked stuff in the bin (I also like very much what these guys are doing, @foodcycle, very worthwhile).

And there is something else good that comes from this as well, thinking about what you've got kicking around forces you to be creative, which is where this recipe came from.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that this is anything other than an utterly indulgent recipe made from some quasi-posh ingredients - I'm pretty sure that having leftover Amaretti biscuits & 85% cocoa solids chocolate falls firmly under the Twitter hashtag #firstworldproblems - but my point is if I hadn't been thinking about limiting waste, I might not have come up with this recipe and just chucked the biccies in the bin when they got stale.

As a slight side point, one the things I've been doing for a number of years now is to freeze any (very occasional) bits of leftover beer. Generally I have a couple of tubs on the go that fall broadly under the churches of stout/porter/mild and bitter/barley wine/ESB - this keeps them around for chucking in stews and gravies and such like for a bit of added richness - it's very handy.

Anyway, back to the ice cream, I've chucked in a few variation suggestions at the end, as a result of some people on Twitter expressing a dislike for nuts/amaretti etc. but I haven't tried them, so if you give them a whirl please feed back how they worked out!

I have got an ice cream maker but you don't need one according to David Lebovitz, a food writer I have a lot of time for, however I can't recommend my Cuisinart one highly enough, the bowl freezes in six hours and makes the ice cream in about 25 mins, which is extremely exciting (WARNING: it is bloody noisy though!).

Imperiously Nuts Ice Cream

Just some quick parish notes, it might look like the Jersey milk & extra thick cream are difficult ingredients to get but I bought them in Sainsbury's, so they shouldn't be too tough for you to source, alternatively use whole milk & double cream.

This recipe is a bit like brewing, it's all hurry up and wait! You will need five hours or so overall to make it from start to finish, but most of the time is taken up by cooling, so don't panic...

Equipment:

Ice cream machine

Flexible spatula

Mixing bowl

Heatproof bowl

3 x saucepans

Whisk (electric or balloon)

Ladle 

Sharp knife

Chopping board

Electronic scales

Tubs for ice cream (makes just over a litre)

Ingredients for Ice Cream:

280g extra thick cream

300g Jersey milk 

85g golden sugar

4 large eggs

5 Amaretti biscuits, frozen for 15 minutes then chopped roughly

50g Pisa or Disarrano liqueur

15g vanilla extract (not flavouring, they are vastly different)

1 vanilla pod

Ingredients for Choc & Imperial Stout Swirl/Topping:

330g Imperial Stout (I used Dark Star)

100g 85% cocoa solids chocolate

1/2 gelatine leaf

Method:

1. Mix together milk and cream in a saucepan, split your vanilla pod down the middle and scrape out seeds and chuck it all (pod included) in pan with the milk-mix, add vanilla extract in and very gently warm
2. Meanwhile, cream together your eggs and sugar, it's mixed properly when it goes very pale
3. When bubbles start to form around the edge of the milk & cream, take a ladle full and add it to the eggs whisking vigorously to prevent curdling, don't stop whisking until it's all incorporated
4. Tip your egg mixture back into the saucepan, stir until it's all incorporated and then add your liqueur
5. Keep heating slowly until it starts to thicken, a little patience may be required for this but I reckon once it's thick enough that you can leave a trail through the back of the spoon/spatula with your finger you're done!
6. Put in the fridge for three hours to cool
7. Once it's cooled, fish out the vanilla pod and sprinkle in the chopped up Amaretti biscuits,      then pop in your ice cream maker (or use above method for making without machine)
8. Once this is churning, put your stout into a pan and slowly reduce by half, this takes about 20 mins on a very low heat, be patient or it'll go bitter
9. When the stout is nearly reduced, put your heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and break up the chocolate, allow to melt
10. Soak your half leaf of gelatine in some cold water
11. By this time your ice cream should be ready, put into tub/tubs and then take pop in freezer for 10 minutes 
12. When chocolate is melted whisk it into the stout and, when it's fully amalgamated, whisk in your gelatine
13. Put in the fridge to cool slightly so it thickens but doesn't set, about 10 minutes
14. Take ice cream out of freezer and make some channels in the ice cream, pour your chocolate stout mixture into channels and then pop back in freezer for 10 minutes or until ready to serve!
15. There may be some choc mix left over, if you're feeling very poncey you can serve it as a small quenelle on the side! (ok, mine isn't the best quenelle in the world but my mate @cityjohn was sitting on the sofa salivating at the time and I needed to get it to him before he started shouting!)

Suggested alternatives:

If you have a nut allergy, or just don't like them, then I reckon you could substitute the nut liqueur for some orange liqueur and use Jaffa Cakes instead of Amaretti or possibly some creme de mur and blackberries or, mega retro, some creme de menthe (maybe using a little less so you don't end up with mouthwash ice cream) and mint matchmakers!!

Beer Match:

I was lucky enough to have some Southern Tier Crème Brûlée stout in the house which was utterly decadent and wonderful with this. However, I reckon the Dark Star Imperial, Fuller's Past Master's Double Stout or even Bristol Beer Factory's Milk Stout would go equally well. If you were feeling a little more adventurous then perhaps something barrel-aged would work like Goose Island Bourbon County or even Ola Dubh - effectively surrender to the dark side and see where it takes you!

UK Brewing Industry Unfriendly? Really?!

Over the weekend I caught up with some reading I've been meaning to do since I ordered, what can only be described as, a plethora of beer books.

I finally got around to flicking through Jeff Evans' Book of Beer Knowledge, which is a fun romp through a load of trivia which will assist me greatly in planning beer quizzes in future! And I also perused excitedly through Stan Hieronymous's Brew Like a Monk and Jeff Sparrow's Wild Brews - both of which definitely got my brewing blood racing!

However, unfortunately, there was also something that made my blood pressure shoot up so high I'm surprised it didn't come spurting out of my ears - and that was Greg Koch and Matt Allyn's The Brewer's Apprentice.

Now, I should clarify here, it's actually not the book itself that's the problem, I like it, I like its content, I like its concept - in fact to get that many world class brewers in one book from Schneider to Lost Abbey, Dogfish Head to Cantillon and Russian River to Fuller's is a truly wondrous thing.

But when I got to the BrewDog page I was so incensed by their comments I actually chucked the book down in disgust.

I don't think I need to go into why BrewDog do what they do, I think we're all familiar with their shock tactic methods by now, but it's one thing to thumb your nose at authority and it's another to tell outright lies.

The comment, photographed right, is simply outrageous, the UK brewing industry closed? Yeah, ok lads...

If the UK brewing industry is so damn unfriendly why is it that Stuart Howe of Sharp's is going up to Sheffield this week to present a cheque for over £6,000 to a hospice after the whole brewery staff gave up their weekend for free to help bottle and package a special charity beer called DW, brewed after Howe heard that fellow brewer and leged Dave Wickett was diagnosed with bone cancer?

If it's so miserable and unsharing, how is it figures like John Keeling of Fuller's or Mark Tranter at Dark Star, amongst many others, are trotting around the country doing brews at small craft places like Marble or Magic Rock? And using their, much larger, PR machines to publicise it? Not to mention the amount of beer writers and bloggers to who are now welcomed through brewery doors to do collaboration brews.

I also know for a fact that brewers all over the country regularly borrow raw ingredients off each other, seek advice on things that have gone wrong or just ring each other up for a natter about their next beer; I could go on but it would seem pointless in a way because I'm pretty sure it will fall on deaf doggy ears.

What I will say is this though: this is utter, utter rubbish and I would implore you not to listen to it.

The UK brewing industry is not only booming and forward-thinking, it is also fabulously friendly and I feel, quite strongly, that BrewDog owes the industry as a whole a bloody enormous apology.

No Female Beer for NZ Competition

Wow! It's bad enough that rubbish like 'beers for the ladeez' are foisted on women in the UK, but at least there isn't the archaic attitude recently demonstrated at a show in New Zealand where a woman wasn't allowed to enter a home brew competition because, well, she's a woman!

The awesomely-named Rachel Beer was told that she could enter her beer but it wouldn't actually be judged because, wait for it, it was a blokes-only competition.

Initially I thought it was just one dinosaur who had put everyone else in a bad light... but then, oh then, I saw this bright idea from the show president Mike Smith in this article from the New Zealand Herald.

He suggested Ms Beer put a proposal to his committee for a women's or mixed sex section next year.

WTF? Are you kidding me? Is that supposed to make it all better? 

I actually find that more offensive than the outright sexism of the original exclusion because this fossil can't seem to recognise that it doesn't matter, as Ms Beer so bluntly and brilliantly put it, whether someone has balls or not - the entry should be judged on the quality of the brew!

I am also cross at how badly this reflects on the NZ beer scene, because I've tried quite a few of the craft brews coming from that neck of the woods and they are excellent and I also know some of the brewers, most notably the boys at Epic, and couldn't find their attitude to be more diametrically opposed.

Take Time to Smell the Beer

I spend a lot of time during tutored tastings encouraging people to smell their beer before drinking it, in order to get the maximum enjoyment, but today I had a powerful reminder that this isn't just about immediate gratification, but could one day give you a beautiful gift in the form of a very happy memory.

Smell is the most powerful of the senses when it comes to recalling memories and I certainly experienced that this morning, when the mere act of opening a wooden box led to the unearthing of a memory that was so happy, it bought tears to my eyes and a huge smile to my lips.

It was a memory of my Granddad, Alf Cole, who was a man I loved dearly. In fact, I'd go as far to say idolised. He died when I was 12 and, to this day, I find it heartbreaking he didn't live to see me grow up; I hope he would have been proud of me but, if nothing else, he would have at least enjoyed some free beer, that's for sure!

So when this box wafted its muted sandalwood scent at me, a tidal wave of powerful memories was unleashed and I was transported back at least 30 years to a bright summer's day in the Barley Mow pub garden on Englefield Green in Surrey and my Granddad holding his pint glass to my lips for me to take an illicit sip, which I’m pretty sure is my earliest beer-related memory - but it’s also so much more than that.

With that aroma came a host of other remembered scents - over the pungent nuttiness of the beer, I could smell the smoke on his fingers, the Brylcream in his hair and, throughout, the woody note from the Old Spice shaving cream that he used, whisking it to a lather in its branded china pot with a badger hair brush.

I then remembered how I would find him in the morning, carefully shaving in a mirror in the kitchen because it had the best light, wearing just his vest and trousers, with his braces flapping around the backs of his legs; how he'd pretend I wasn't there as he carefully finished, then wiping any excess foam away before giving me a good morning kiss and making me my breakfast, which was always a bowl of cornflakes followed by blackcurrant jam on toast.

I am so pleased to have these precious memories gifted back to me for the rest of my life by the simple act of opening a wooden box that I just want to encourage you all to do something that will hopefully make you as happy one day as this did me.

Stop and take the time, when you're out enjoying yourself with friends or loved ones, to just inhale the aroma of your beer.

Just take that few seconds to commit that smell to memory and, perhaps, one day you will be drinking that same beer and you will be back transported back to that exact moment in time of joy and companionship - and I hope it brings a smile to your lips as you take a salutary sip.

Party Time!

Hey folks, as tonight is the official launch party for my book I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a big thank you for all the great feedback so far.

I've been utterly overwhelmed by the positive reaction I've had to Let Me Tell You About Beer and never, in my wildest dreams, did I think it would be so enjoyed by so many of you.

There are myriad people I couldn't have done this without - many of whom are thanked in the back of the book and many of whom I just couldn't fit in - but what always strikes me the most is how amazingly warm and friendly the brewing industry is.

I've always been given a great reception from beery people the world over, whether it's enquiring about their beers, offering feedback, writing about them or, even, going and brewing them.

And, whilst some may have recently been quoted saying the UK brewing industry isn't friendly, I would just like to state for the record that I have never, ever found that to be the case... perhaps those people should look at themselves, and their own conduct, before pointing the finger at others.

Anyway, I'll rant about that another time, because what I really wanted to use this post for was this...

To everyone, both personally and professionally, who has shown me love, respect and support over the last 13 years (since I joined the Licensee & Morning Advertiser as a cub reporter), I thank you from the bottom of my heart for enabling me to have the greatest job in the world.

Also, to all you lovely people who read my work, comment on it, show support or give me honest criticism, you are the heartbeat of what I do - if you didn't care there'd be no point.

Cheers all!

Melissa x

p.s. if you're at the launch party tonight and I have a little weepy moment, please don't take pictures, just laugh and hand me a beer, I'll get it together eventually! : )

Hummust Try This!

Sorry, I just can't help myself sometimes, cheesy headlines make me happy!

Anyway, I popped a picture of this home-made hummus on Twitter last night and there was a very positive response, so I thought I'd pop it on the blog for you.

Here we go!

Harissa-Spiked Hummus
Equipment needed:
Small frying pan
Pestle & mortar
Food processor
Flexible spatula
Measuring spoons
Micro whisk/fork
Chopstick
Serving bowl
Large plate

Ingredients:
One can of chickpeas
Good, grassy olive oil
Tahini (sesame paste)
2 tbsp Cider vinegar (or you could use pomegranate molasses and dispense with sugar/nectar below)
2tbsp cumin seeds, freshly toasted & ground
Juice of a lime
Garlic (preferably roasted but not necessary)
1tsp Sugar/agave nectar
Salt & & freshly-ground pepper

For topping:
A few reserved chickpeas
Harissa paste let down with some olive oil
Toasted sesame seeds
Bit of green herb or some micro herbs or something pretty!

To serve:
A large, thin flatbread
Crudités

Method:

1. Drain and rinse your chickpeas
2. Pop in food processor with the garlic clove and a splash of water
3. Start blitzing for 30 seconds or so
4. Then add cumin, lime juice, sugar/nectar and tahini - blitz a bit more
5. Start adding olive oil very slowly so it emulsifies & becomes smooth
6. Taste for seasoning & acidity, add vinegar and salt as needed, it generally takes quite a bit of salt
7. Once you've blitzed in your balancing flavours, use your flexible spatula to scrape hummus out into serving bowl and smooth the top
8. Using your chopstick, drag a quite deep swirl pattern in the top of the the hummus
9. Whisk together your harissa with a splash of olive oil and carefully pour into the swirl pattern
10. Place chickpeas on top, garnish with whatever you're using and then sprinkle from a height with the sesame seeds
11. Crumple your flat bread and place on a plate then pop hummus in the middle of it and serve crudités on the side or sprinkled on the bread

Suggested beer match:

I actually was drinking a lovely NZ Villa Maria Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2010 to toast the Kiwi team's world cup win. With its huge gooseberry and elderflower notes it really reminded me of Oakham Citra, so that's my recommendation! Cheers and enjoy.

Something a Bit Silly!

I don't care if this is true or not, it's an entertaining thought! 

If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have £49.00 today. 

If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you would have £33.00 today.

If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you would have £0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased £1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminium cans for recycling refund, you would have received a £214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle.

A recent study found that the average Briton walks about 900 miles a year.

Another study found that Britons drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Britons get about 41 miles to the gallon!

Makes you proud to be British, doesn't it?

(thanks to Howard Winn for emailing this to me)

Battle of the Sexes - Bring It On!

The lovely John Keeling

Tonight I am facing off against John Keeling, head brewer at Fuller's in a battle of the sexes - not really it's just going to be me and John picking beers for a menu set by the lovely Angus, licensee of the Red Lion.

I'll also have just 10 of my books, which I managed to beg, borrow and steal from the publishers to be signed, I did my first signing at Ilkley Literary Festival last week but I haven't had a chance to blog about that yet, it's all coming along with news from across the pond at GABF as well.

Anyway, here is what I'm putting up against the might of the narky Manc! I really hope given the breadth of choice I had available to me that I do justice to Angus's lovely food.

Amuse Bouche

Live oyster, steeped in Cantillon lambic & raspberry puree 

Matched with Aspall's Cyder (I'm cheating straight away!)

To Start

Charcuterie board

“Pickled” smoked duck breast in Kriek w/ cherry compote 

Matched with Anchor Liberty

Oxsprings English Air Dried Ham & fresh fig 

Matched with Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted

Brandade of Salt Cod, on rye 

Matched with St Austell Clouded Yellow

Devils on Horseback (pancetta/mango chutney /English mustard) 

Matched with Chimay Blue

Main Courses

Sweet potato & Yam Fatt Putt w/ Chinese slow roast Belly Pork in Plum Sauce w/ Asian Slaw (mouli/carrot/spring onion/mint/toasted sesame & lime dressing) 

Matched with Thornbridge Kipling

Lahmacun (greek lamb pizza-type thing) Pickled cucumber salad & Greek Yoghurt 

Matched with Williams Bros Grozet

Dessert 

Pear Tart Tatin w/ Fuller’s Double Stout Devon Ice Cream 

Matched with Dark Star Espresso Stout

Chilli Salted Caramel tartlet 

Matched with O'Hanlon's Brewer's Reserve

Home Sweet Home!

Finally! My blog has been dequarantined by Google, thank god, and I've got a lot to catch up on, not least my adventures in the US at the ever-awesome GABF, on which I'll be doing a separate post in the next few days.

But, before that, I just wanted to share something I made for dinner this evening that was not only healthy but like a hug in a bowl.

You see I really needed something comforting and cuddly, I've had jetlag like hell today but after a week and a bit of serious overindulgence, I needed something that would nurture my body a bit as well as lift my spirits and soothe my travel-weary soul - which this most certainly did.

The beer match I would suggest for the below would be something like a Vienna-style lager or even a crystal wheat or Belgian-style but nothing too dark and heavy or, conversely, very bitter as there is some very subtle and pretty spice notes in the dish that I feel would be overwhelmed

So, here goes my Oxymoronic One Pot Wonder (or slightly bastardised tagine recipe if you like!)

Serves 4 (with quite a good bit of bulgur wheat and veg left over for salads)

Sorry picture isn't great, I was hungry!

Toasted spice mix:
Half a cinnamon stick

3 tbsp Ras-el-Hanout (Moroccan spice mix)

2tbsp cumin seeds

1tbsp coriander seeds

1/2tsp chilli flakes

Dressing & Sprinkly Bits!

Finely chopped mint leaves

Two garlic cloves

Salt

Lime - juice & rind (juice of two if it's not very juicy)

Half an inch ginger very finely grated

Small pot of natural yoghurt

Pomegranate seeds

Pomegranate molasses
Toasted sesame seeds & chopped pistachios

Main ingredients:
8 x chicken thighs
1 x medium butternut squash chopped into inch cubes

1 x large aubergine chopped into inch cubes

4 x large garlic cloves smashed

1 x onion finely chopped

1tsp harissa

600gms bulgur wheat

Ready-to-eat prunes & dried apricots

Chai tea bags (optional to replace with a spiced Winter Ale, porter or mild)
1 x tin of chickpeas

1tbsp Harissa (or a slightly smokey not super-hot chilli paste)

1x bottle spicy ginger beer (I used Wychwood Ginger Beard, see brief review at end)

Small splash of groundnut oil
Seasoning

1. Soak your dried fruit *childish snigger* in the chai tea or one of the mentioned beers
2. Pop a dry pan on the hob to heat up
3. Whilst it's doing that, pop salt & garlic in a pestle & mortar and pulp
4. Add lime rind & juice + mint leaves & ginger - leave to macerate
5. By now pan should be nice and hot, add spices from spice mix list, turn heat down and toast spices carefully, don't burn and then set aside
6. Heat a large pot or hob-friendly tagine (I can't recommend Emile Henry highly enough)
7. Add oil and quickly brown chicken thighs, add half the toasted spices, then add onions and cook until they go translucent then add aubergines & butternut squash for four or five minutes, then the chickpeas and then add garlic, some seasoning & harissa, then add rest of spices
8. A minute after the garlic is added deglaze with a bit of water before adding any beer you're using
9. Add the bulgur wheat and stir everything together carefully, keep an eye on the liquid levels every five minutes, it's not an exact science
10. Whilst it's cooking add your mushed garlic, mint, lime etc. into your natural yoghurt
11. Then just give your spice pan a wipe & toast the sesame seeds & pistachios in that
12. To serve: test for seasoning then pile into bowls, drizzle over yoghurt and a bit of pomegranate molasses and sprinkle with some more chopped mint, sesame seeds, pistachios and pomegranate seeds - serve!
13. Drink beer with it! 

Wychwood Ginger Beard

A name I've seen before in a Firkin pub but a very different beer Ginger Beard is initially a little sweet but ends off with a decent fiery Ginger Kick. Personally, I find this kind of ginger beer a little one-dimensional but that's probably because I came to ginger as a flavour a little later in life, the OH who loves Old Jamaica in the summer declared it would be 'really nice ice cold in summer as a thirst quencher' - so what do I know?! : )

Not Beer and Certainly Not Fear

Via @rickontour on twitpic

This is a quick post that's not about beer, although I am having one as I'm writing this, it's about saying no to fear.

The streets of London, and other areas of the country, have seen the most appalling violence, thuggery and downright criminality in a way that I have never experienced in my lifetime.

Most heartbreaking was the footage of the scum who robbed an injured young man, after pretending to take care of him, I have never witnessed such a sickening display and if I had my way they wouldn't be left to breed, but that's why I'm not a police officer.

However, you lot all know about the horrors, so I'm not going to bang on about it.

First off, I want to thank our emergency services and for all the citizens who protected their own territories - you have all done amazing work in the face of tremendous adversity.

And to the people behind @riotcleanup I say bravo, you are true heroes and have engendered some of the most remarkable scenes of human strength, fortitude and beauty I've ever witnessed too - the brooms being held aloft around Clapham as hundreds took the streets to clean up the mess the thugs had left is still bringing tears to my eyes.

If these mindless thugs take to the streets again tonight and continue to trash our fair city, I'll be out there tomorrow with you because we need to show that they are a disgraceful minority, we will not tolerate it and FEAR WILL NOT WIN!

Be safe fellow Londoners - Drink Beer & Carry On x