I got into brewing seltzer during the spring of 2021, and these are my notes. They're in descending order, so the most-recent are at the top. The notes got progressively less-detailed as time went by, so those looking to actually learn things (e.g. "How much yeast nutrient should I use in a seltzer that's 100% dextrose") should read the highlights and then read from bottom-up. :)

Highlights:

• Kveik Voss is fast-fermenting and relatively transparent flavour. Excellent for seltzer
• It does take a couple days post-fining for the yeast scent to …

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Had a hankering for a Satay Chicken tonight and kinda whipped something up based on a couple different things. This is more of a saucy satay, not a dry skewer-type. This takes a bit of juggling; I had three elements on the stove, and a few stages. Worth it, tho.

I've broken this into stages: the sauce, the veggies, and the noodles. For the benefit of shopping lists (and Whisk!) I've provided an awful monolithic pile of ingredients up-front. Yay.

Ingredients

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 2 …

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Inkbird were having a special in November, so I got a sous vide for Christmas! There are heaps of places with recipes for the best sous vide eggs, most notably the always-outstanding Serious Eats, but also an excellent write-up on Salt Pepper Skillet, and of course sous vide manufacturer Anova Culinary with a somewhat briefer post.

I submit to you that none of these are the best sous vide eggs. In my eyes, the best egg has a completely opaque white (not rubbery and not snot), with a semicooked gooey …

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I've loved daal (or dal or dahl or dhal etc) since my trip to India in 2019... Ugh, that seems so interminably long ago now, in the final weeks of the long decade of 2020. Anyway.

So there's this recipe I've followed a handful of times. I like it, it's similar to what I enjoyed while travelling through Jaipur, but it doesn't really kick the same way that the food in India did, so I always find myself tweaking it. The base recipe came from https …

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I've never made Ham and Pea soup before today. I remember my mum making it when I was younger, but it was never really my thing. But tonight just seemed the right combination of a rainy, chilly, wintery evening... and we had some leftover jalapeño cornbread!

Well, it was so good I completely forgot to even take photos. I did it all in our pressure cooker, so the meal was ready in about half an hour. Here's what I did:

Ingredients

Primary Aromatics

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped …

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I remember celebrating Christmas with family in New Mexico when I was a kid. I was fairly young, but I think it must have been at the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe. One of the most delicious treats I recall from the Feast was real Mexican cornbread.

Now, every few years I'll head into Gilmours and yoink a three-kilo bag of cornmeal. I don't make this often, but we do all love it, and one batch usually makes enough for multiple households.

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I joined some friends last weekend for a belated World Whisky Day celebration. The entry fee was, of course, a bottle of whisky (this year the theme was different finishing casks)... but we also each bring some delicious morsel that piques our interest.

This year, as I was bringing Glenmorangie's The Lasanta (aged in Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks), I decided my amuse-bouche would be sherry-based.

My treat was dried prunes, soaked in a dry sherry, then sprinkled with a pinch of salt, and eaten with a tamari-roasted almond …

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I picked up a set of whole pork loins at Pak 'n Save the other day for like twelve bucks, and being on dinner duty tonight I thought it was time to fire up the smoker. But just last night we'd had a Chicken Tikka Masala which cleaned out our garlic stocks ... what to do?

After a bit of dithering, I made a simple low-garlic rub and it turned out good enough that I'm documenting it here!

Outta Garlic Pork Rub

• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp …

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It's the first weekend of New Zealand's COVID-19 lockdown, and having already been working from home for a week I decided I'd get energetic in the kitchen.

Last night, with some guidance from my mate Nevyn, I put a couple chickens into a brine. I've brined before, but this one was super experimental for me, as usually my brines are just that one top result on AllRecipes.com, which is about as inspired as plain mayonnaise on pizza.

Well, holy shit I just finished dinner and it was good enough …

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Quite a long time ago, I posted my recipe for smokey BBQ-baked beans. It's still one of the only recipes I've seen which starts with dry beans, and includes slow-cooking in a smoker. Most of the recipes I've found are either for oven baking, or start with a literal can of baked beans (wtf).

Well I'm making baked beans again for the first time in ages, and I've taken the time to write down my tweaks. This is primarily around my BBQ sauce, hence the title of this post!

Just …

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