Parsnip Wine

Well it was a long miserable winter: 2013 limped away and ushered in a 2014 without an original thought in its meteorological head. It rained and it rained and it rained:

That's right, it rained cubed.

England flooded from Somerset to Kent, and everyone anywhere else shrugged their collective shoulders, glad that they weren't quite so unlucky, although it was still very very wet.

And windy.

Very windy.

Anyway, at some point in early February, Lidl were doing a special on parsnips (lets face it, they're not especially pricey in the first place, but I do love a bargain) and I thought 'let's make some parsnip wine to cheer us all up'.

Here's how it goes

Top, tail and scrub about 1.5 kg of parsnips, chop up into large-ish (about an inch) chunks and boil in 5 pints of water until just getting soft (too soft will result in a cloudy wine).

Strain the liquid into a sterilised bucket, with 3lb of sugar, a good cupful of sultanas, the juice and pulp of a squeezed orange, a chopped up apple (pips, peels and all), a teaspoon of citric acid (you could add the juice of half a lemon instead) and some pectolase (because I had some... I'm not sure it's nececessary) and half a banana.

Add pints of boiled water to make up to 9 pints (to make a gallon plus a bit extra for topping up) and a mug of strong black tea (no milk, no sugar).

Allow the brew to cool to room temperature (or wait til next day) and add the yeast according to the instructions.

Rack into a sterilised demijohn a few days later (4 or 5) and again when the bubbles have all but stopped (using some of the spare pint in a plastic bottle to top up the demijohn).

At this point you can check the sweetness. The yeast I'm using is quite a voracious little creature and seems to tolerate high alcohol and eats up all the sugar - resulting in a strong and dry wine. Other yeasts might die before all the sugar has been used, resulting in a somewhat weaker and sweeter wine.

If needed, dissolve a little sugar (not much, a few teaspoons will do it unless you have a real sweet-tongue) into some of the top up wine. (you can add a crushed campden tablet to stop the fermentation starting up again on the new sugar or you can risk a slightly fizzy wine and a popped wine cork or two).

Bottle when clear.

The results

The first tasting of this wine was, I must confess, a bit weird. I'm not sure if it was the banana, or maybe the orange or just plain too parsnipy.

However, 2 or 3 months on, it has settled nicely into a rather pleasant glass of wine. Served ice cold on a sultry hot Sunday afternoon in June (yes the weather has finally bucked up, even up here in Glasgow), it is very sippable and rather strong (alcoholically speaking).

I think I'll have another glass.

Note to self:  Make more next time.

Turkey Korma

Very sad to announce that, having been grievously wounded yesterday in a serious roasted-for-3-hours-and-then-hacked-with-a-carving-knife incident, the remains of our Xmas turkey (Geraldine *) has today slipped into a korma and now is no more.

I reckon I have stripped about a more-than-paltry kilo of meat (mixed white and dark) off poor old Geraladine's ** bones (which were then boiled for a couple of hours along with the left over veg, for a delicious soup***)

Whizz up a couple of onions. about a thumb-full of fresh ginger ****,  and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic and about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes until smooth like a paste, and add to a pan with about 3 or 4 tablespoons of veg oil preheating on the hob.

Fry gently of about 10 mins, before adding 2 teaspoons of ground coriander, and 1 teaspoon each of turmeric & garam masala, 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of cumin*****. Fry for a little longer (attending often to make sure the spices don't stick), then add 3 big spoons of full fat yoghurt or cream and a can of coconut milk. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Add half of a 200g pack of ground almonds****** and simmer gently til the sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and some lemon juice ( a liberal squirt from a jiffy lemon to taste) and add the diced up turkey meat to heat through before you serve.

At this stage, if, like me, you find that you are a wee bit overcome with emotion at Geraldine's no-more-ness, try not to dwell too long on her passing: Instead, you would do well to remember the good times you shared: such as how you both laughed when she nearly didn't fit into the oven in the first place on Xmas day morning.


HAPPY NEW YEAR



* I thought she looked a little like this when I first clapped eyes on her in the reduced aisle at Tesco

** Sorry this is really just a repeat note about *. Apologies for any offence caused to any real Geraldines out there. But this is my turkey, not yours.

*** Strain the stock, add a good splash of red wine (you know you have drunk more than enough already this xmas and can spare a glassful or two), some mash and whats left of the bread sauce & gravy. Thicken with a roux made of plain flour and a little of the turkey fat you drained from the roasting tin (add the roux to the soup and stir like fook until it boils and thickens). Add a few bits of chopped Geraldine and some left over veg (I had plenty of Delia's red cabbage going spare)

**** Or add some dried ginger to the spice mix *****

****** Or all of a 100g pack

Pickled Eggs

When I was a boy growing up in the pub*****, I would sometimes watch my Mum prepare these pickled eggs to sell as bar snacks. Sometimes she would let me help with peeling the eggs, but most of the time, my botched efforts weren't presentable enough for onward selling. Peeling eggs gets easier with practice, but a good tip is to not use fresh eggs* (buy them a week or so before you want to get started): they peel a lot easier for being a couple of weeks old.

So right about now is a good time to make these little beauties in time for Christmas. I used cheap (caged hens') eggs (15 for about £1.50) and I splashed out on a 2l tub of Sarson's malt** vinegar (£3.00 from Tesco)***. You can pickle the eggs in any old glass jar(s), so long as they are clean (the jars I mean), not cracked or chipped and with a serviceable lid****, but for Christmas, or as a gift, you can buy those funky kilner type jars with the clippy lid, which are ideal. I bought one from Ikea, which cost £4 or £5.

The method could hardly be simpler, but do set aside a good hour or so for cooking and peeling the eggs.

1. Place the whole eggs (carefully so as not to crack the shells) in a large pot. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil.
2. As the water comes to the boil reduce the heat. The idea is to maintain a very gentle simmer that wont cause the eggs to bounce around and crack. Simmer for 15 minutes (the eggs want to be very hard boiled) - probably for a bit longer if you are using large eggs. 
3. Drain some of the boiling water from the pan, and flush with plenty of cold water. Repeat until the eggs are sitting in cold water and allow them to cool for 5 mins.
4. Peel the eggs and place in the jar.
5. Go and buy more eggs when you realise that your jar is too large and it would look better filled, rather than half empty.
6. Start again at stage one, missing out stages 5 & 6 next time. 
7. Top up the jar with the vinegar, seal, and store for 2 or 3 weeks.
8. Enjoy your oeufs au natch, seasoned with a little salt and white pepper, or resting on the top of a freshly opened packet of crisps, ideally alongside a pint of real beer.

Sure as Eggs is Eggs

The pickled eggs always sold well in the pub, and never lasted long enough to cause any worry about how long they would keep for. They need to pickle for two or three weeks, and I should imagine they are good for a month, maybe two after that (but that really is a guess: you will need to use your own judgement).


* but still fit for human consumption, please. By the way, there a tips and tricks aplenty about the peeling of hard boiled eggs. Most the them can be found on google: you could try some of them if you want.

** The malt vinegar will turn the eggs a beautiful (or horrible, depending on your point of view) dark brown. You often see white pickled eggs for sale in fish & chips shops which are pickled in clear spirit vinegar. You can use spirit vinegar if you prefer. I really don't care.

*** Cheaper vinegars were available.

**** If you are using manky old jars, seal the jar with a couple of layers of clingfilm before screwing down the lid. This should stop any of the vinegar reacting with the metal.

***** Yes my parents ran a pub. I don't mean that my childhood was all that mis-spent.

Lo-Cal Easy-Peasy Pea & no-Ham Soup (Lite)

I have to confess that I have joined an on-line diet club. Now I can try to lose weight without having to meet other fat people. To be honest, the diet & exercise plan is a bit rubbish, but at least I now know that if I keep below about 2200 calories* a day, I can lose weight sensibly and safely.

In theory.

Now, I know you are probably thinking that 2 gallons of sweet, strong elderberry wine isn't going to help with the grand weight-loss plan, and I have to agree. But the wine wont be ready for at least a year, and a chap can, if he puts his mind to it, lose several pounds in that time.

The diet club website does have one enormously useful feature in that you can key-in, store, and experiment with, your own recipes and calculate (and I really can't vouch for the accuracy) the calories and fat content in your total cook-up, and therefore also per portion of your recipe. I entered the ingredients of one of my customary Friday-night curries and was quite literally mildly surprised at how many calories it contained.

Anyway, here's my new favourite autumn-friendly tea-time snack: not as easy as opening a can, but possibly better for you, Or not.

Pea and no-Ham Soup

(There's no ham in it).

This recipe yields about 3 generous mugfuls of thick & comforting soup at about 100 calories and 1.5g of fat each. You could easily double up the quantities, or even triple them**

• 200g frozen peas (garden or petty***)
• A medium/large carrot (about 100g), peeled & chopped up small
• A smallish potato (again about 100g) peeled and diced
• 1 (knorr) ham stock cube and 1 veggy stock cube.
• 1 tablespoon (15ml) tomato puree

The ingredients - arranged neatly.

1. Put the peas, chopped carrot & diced tato into a medium saucepan and add a pint of water.
2. Bring to the boil, cover, and simmer for about 20 mins, or until the carrots and tatos are very soft.
3. Dissolve the stock-cubes and the puree in the pot and allow to cool, until cool enough to...
4. Whizz the soup up in a food whizzer until smooth.
5. Return the soup to your pan, season, & return to a simmer. I like mine with plenty of salt and white pepper. Why not try kicking it into touch with a pinch of chili flakes****?

*        That's about 3 bottles of wine a day, and a small snack.

**      Why stop there? Make a batch load for the whole family for the entire week!

***    Petit in French

****  Or Don't. Up to you really. All I can do is suggest...*****

***** How about some mint?

Elderberry Wine (Part 2)

So... some 18 hours after I added my yeast, I still wasn't sure that my fermentation was up and running. Worried that I might have put my yeast in a touch too early, while the must (that's the word we (you & I) wine-makers use for the stuff that will one day be wine) was still too warm, I sprinkled in another couple of teaspoons of yeast and toddled off to work.

By the time I returned that evening, everything was fizzing away splendidly, and the plastic lid of the bucket was bulging up from the pressure of the carbon dioxide within. I stirred the must that evening & the next evening. The following evening (when the elderberries had been stewing in the water etc for 3 full days (4 might have been better, but I was getting impatient!) I decided to strain the berries etc out of the wine.

Easier said that done: the upshot of my rather greedy decision to go for a 2 gallon batch was that I found myself rather short of suitable containers. In the end I used 2 large stainless steel cooking pots (ideally metal utensils should not be used (as they can react with the acid in the must), but as yet the permissible space allotted to me for storing my wine-making gear won't allow for a surplus of food-grade plastic buckets) into which I strained (jug by jug through a (again metal) sieve) my fizzy blood-red cordial, gently pressing the sieved berries with a ladle each time to extract the excess juice.

I rinsed out the bucket and poured the strained wine back into it. At this point I added the juice of the two oranges as mentioned in my previous post, and the next evening I also added another pint of cooled boiled water into which another pound of sugar had been dissolved (about 2 pints in total). I had um'd and ah'd over this for a whole day: I don't want the finished wine to be too sweet, but I do want it to be strong. Only the end result will tell if I made the right decision. 

Watch this space...

(The reason, by the way, for the extra water is that I wanted enough must to fill 2 demijohns plus a little extra for a about a plastic litre bottle of 'spare', which I can use later to top up the demijohns as necessary).

Elderberry Wine (Part 1)

My mum & I used to make wine when I was a teenager, with varying degrees of success. Some were downright horrible, to be drunk only in extremis (my brother recently reminded me of an orange wine that tasted like a bitter alcoholic marmalade). Others were actually quite nice, and among those I would happily include elderberry and blackberry wine.

Harvesting the Elderberries

Elderberries & blackberries grow abundantly in the UK, ripening in Autumn. Right now, along the canal tow-path in Glasgow, there are elderberry bushes whose branches are being weighed down by their fruit. Large bunches of small almost-black berries that look like glistening vines of caviar, practically begging to be picked!

Elderberry Bush in Full Fruit

To be fair, they look rather nicer than they taste. At best, they are just OK to eat (when fully ripe and much less so before). You can get away with a blackberry crumble if enough sugar is added: you just wouldn't bother trying with elderberries. As far as I know, their only use is in wine-making (for humans, at least), and it seems almost criminal to let them go to waste.

Berries Stripped from Stalks
at about the 3lb stage!

Pick them by plucking the whole cluster of berries by the stalk from the bush. A standard supermarket carrier-bag full of stalks & berries will yield a rough 3lb of berries, enough to make 1 gallon (6 bottles) of wine. Use a fork to strip the berries from the stalks into a large container (take care, they can bounce and ping everywhere). This is quite a long-winded but effortless task: best done while watching some telly or listening to music. I easily gathered about 6lb of berries which took about 2 hours to strip free from the stalks.

Rinse the berries gently in some water and skim (not too fussily) any larger creatures, twigs and green berries that float to the top. The ripe berries will sink.

Strain the good stuff from the washing water and tip into a large STERILISED bucket.

A Note on Sterilisation (does not work on pets)

Nothing can ruin all your hard work like nasty little invisible bacteria. Sterilise all your wine making equipment from this stage on. You can buy sterilising powder in most chemists or brewing shops and from on-line suppliers. I got mine from Tesco. You can also use milton fluid or even good old boiling water (but I have no idea how long boiling water takes to sterilise something). Sterilising solution made from a powder takes about 10 minutes to work, and this extra minimal effort is worth every second. Indeed, without it you really might as well stop now.

Getting Brewing

NB: All added ingredients are for my 2 gallon batch (6lb of berries). Adjust as appropriate to the size of your own batch.

Also note that this recipe is pretty much experimental based on hazy memory and guessing. The idea is to record what I've done and adjust if necessary for next time.

Get the kettle on.

Mash the berries with the bottom of a (sterilised) wine bottle or glass jug, squashing at the same time against the sides of the bucket, until you start to see some pool of crimson berry juice forming, then mash a little more. Add 1/2 lb of black currants* and 1/2 lb raisins* and 6lb of sugar and the juice of a couple of lemons (I used 3 tablespoons of jiff lemon juice). If I'd had one I'd have put the juice of an orange in too, but I didnt. Will add some later if I remember.

Pour on 12 pints of boiling water and stir well.until the sugar dissolves Allow to cool to blood temperature.

Add  some pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient according to the packet instructions, and finally the yeast**. Cover your bucket.

After about 12 hours you should be able to see and hear your fermentation getting going. Stir well, daily for 3 or 4 days.

* left over from last years xmas cake and needed to be used up. I'm sure sultanas, prunes, dried apricots etc would all work just as well

** bread yeast will work, but you will get much nicer wine using a proper wine yeast. and there are many to choose from. I'm using a pretty generic one (again from Tesco) which promises high alcohol tolerance (which is why I have used plenty of sugar- I'm going for a strong one) and fast clearing. We shall see.

Welcome

Please don't be put off... by the cheesy blog title: I was keen to get started and was hit with immediate writers' block when it came to choosing a name.

"Brews, Stews & Other News" (get used to it) is, I hope, going to grow into a kind of diary & record of some of the home-brewing and other culinary projects I like to embark on from time to time. I also reserve the right to blog on just about any other topic I choose, hence the 'other news' bit.

So here it is: my new blog. Comments, advice, opinions and corrections are always welcome, especially so when they are polite (although obnoxious can also be fun).