Monthly Archives: March 2012

TheTaste of the Huon Festival

Kris: It was a perfect day for the Taste of the Huon Festival. Nothing beats strolling around tasting amazing local food and booze. Sadly there were no craft beers available, so we settled for some Gillespie’s Ginger Beer and some cider from Captain Bligh’s and Tasmania Inn.

Caroline: I love pulled pork, it’s a classic American beer snack. The pulled pork roll from Fat Pig Farm was sweet, spicy and smoky, just the way I like it. The roll was fresh, but it could of used some classic smoky BBQ sauce on top. It was still really tasty though.

 Kris: Some Dry Apple and Blackberry Cider from Captain Bligh’s was a great match for the pulled pork roll. Apples are a classic match with pork, also the dryness and the carbonation of the cider cut through the sweet and smoky pork.

Kris: Next it was off to grab some tasty alcoholic Ginger Beer from Gillespie’s. I was thinking it would be a great match for the San Choi Bao served in a wasabi leaf from Red Velvet Lounge’s stand next to Captain Bligh’s.

Caroline: I love Gillespie’s Ginger Beer, especially on a warm and sunny day. It is a touch sweet, but has heaps of fresh ginger flavor and spice. It was a perfect match with the San Choi Bao from Red Velvet Lounge too.

Kris: Another day in Tasmanian paradise! It reminds me of why I have always wanted to live down here. Great local produce cooked perfectly, matched with some great local beverages. We also stopped in at the Home Hill cellar door on the drive home to taste some wine. The 2009 Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay were my two picks. Definitely worth stopping off if your traveling through the Huon Valley, 40 minutes south of Hobart.

 

Beer Breakfast

Caroline: Banana bread is one of my favorite sweets and it reminds me so much of my childhood. We used to beg my mom to make it for us! This recipe isn’t quite as good as hers, but I think I’m almost there. After tweaking through a couple of batches here’s what I’ve come up with:

Ingredients

4 really ripe bananas

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups plain flour

50g almond meal

1/2 cup sugar (caster or raw, I used caster)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

tsp cinnamon

(chopped walnuts if you want)

Method

Beat the eggs and 3 of the bananas together in a large bowl

sift in all dry ingredients and beat together

mix in nuts if you like

I save one whole banana to chop into the batch and mix around gently so there are some big chunks of banana in the bread

bake in a loaf pan on 180C (360F) for 1 hour
(we have a pretty crappy oven so mine took the whole hour, but it’s important not to overcook, it’s meant to be dense and gooey. If you think it’s finished early take it out and pierce the center with a skewer, if it comes out clean all done!)

Place on cooling rack

EAT!

Kris: The banana bread tastes awesome fresh out of the oven with nothing more than butter on it. I thought I would jazz it up a bit to match with the Moa Breakfast Beer. A Dunkelweizen is another ideal match to banana bread.

Caroline: Warm banana bread with salted butter is delicious! But I wasn’t sure about mixing in a bunch of other savory components…

Kris: I put some avocado on the banana bread, some wilted spinach, warm ham, roasted cherry tomatoes from the garden and a soft poached egg. I thought the sweet and savoury combination would go really well together.

Caroline: Boy was I wrong to doubt Kris’ idea! I love savory and sweet breakfasts so much by themselves I couldn’t imagine mixing them, but, OH MAGIC. The runny poached eggs, fresh cracked pepper, salty ham, sweet cherry tomatoes, and the dense-ness of the banana bread were so great together! The texture of the banana bread was so much nicer then plain toast and the sweetness of the bananas was mild enough to compliment the ham and not over power it. YUM
I’m converted.

Kris: Moa is a craft brewery based in Marlborough, New Zealand. I haven’t done a breakfast matched with a beer so I thought it was about time. The Moa Breakfast Beer is a 5.5% cherry wheat beer. The high carbonation and light body cut through the richness of the breakfast dish. The cherry flavour complimented the sweetness of the banana bread.

Caroline: Breakfast of champions!!