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Author: Kris

  • GoT: Dinner

    Kris Baratheon, chowing downA few weeks ago I spotted an article in the SMH about a special Game of Thrones themed menu that Gastro ParK was doing this month. I’d heard of the restaurant before; Fiona went there last year and enjoyed it. I rang them up to ask about a possible booking and found they were filling up fast! I managed to get a table for four for the 15th… which just so happened to be my birthday! Awesome. I invited the other two biggest GoT fans I know (Kylie and Kunaal) and we prepared ourselves for an evening of GEEKING OUT. I am happy to say the experience did not disappoint. The venison was beautiful; the soup exquisite; the roast pork divine. We dove in like we were Baratheons. And that dessert… A giant silver tray dotted with all manner of sweet things including a passionfruit-filled dragon’s egg that melted when the waiter poured over “liquid gold” (a la Viserys)? DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN. My favorite part was the ostrich-egg sized cloud of frozen aerated buttermilk panna cotta. (Granted, the crash from the sugar buzz the next day kinda sucked. But still – WORTH IT.)

    Highly recommended if you can manage to get a table!

  • Corned Beef Brisket

    Since Mary-Helen asked about my corned beef yesterday, I thought I’d share the recipe. I had the idea a couple weeks ago to make something “Irish” for St. Patrick’s Day. I ended up basing the dish on these two recipes. I’m really pleased with how it turned out! I had seen a lot of warnings that it would look grey and unappetizing without saltpeter (which is difficult to get these days), but mine turned out nicely browned. (Granted, it wasn’t the traditional “red”, but I didn’t mind.) Overall the dish was a lot easier and tastier than I expected!

    I bought the brisket at Establishment 218, and it was a massive, vac-packed 8kg+ slab of beef. (It was flat, not rolled.) The butchers helpfully cut it into quarters so we could get it home (on our bicycles). I only ended up using half of it, and I sold the other half on to my Irish friend Kevin so he could make his own. 🙂

    Sunday night I prepared the brine. I boiled up 2 quarts of water with 1 cup salt, ½ cup white vinegar, 4 tablespoons sugar, 3 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon peppercorn, ½ teaspoon mustard seeds, and 1 pinch ground cloves. Then I left it to cool overnight. Monday morning I took out the brisket and cut it down into smaller pieces (to fit into my Ziplock bag). I also stabbed it all over with the knife to allow the brine to penetrate. Then I put all the meat into the bag (along with 4 smashed garlic cloves), poured in the brine, and sealed it up. It immediately sprang a leak. Some duct tape and a second layer of Ziplock seemed to fix the problem. I put it into a baking dish and slid it into our (giant new) fridge to rest.

    Throughout the week I checked on it, periodically flipping over the bag to be sure it brined evenly. Friday morning we had a Brine Breach Incident, when I opened the fridge to discover the baking tray full of leaking brine. I managed to get the bag sealed up again without losing too much of the precious liquid. (Happy to report that the new fridge shelves don’t leak!)

    Saturday was cooking day. Rather than cook it on the stove, I decided to use the slow cooker. I rinsed each piece of meat off and the Snook trimmed off the larger bits of fat. Then we crammed it all into the slow cooker (it *just* fit!) and poured water in to fill about halfway. I added more spice to the cooker as well: 1 teaspoon peppercorns, ½ teaspoon mustard seeds, ¼ teaspoon whole cloves, and 4 sliced garlic cloves. I put it on high for an hour or two, then switched it to low for the rest of the day. I checked to see if there was any scum to skim off, but the cooker was so full there wasn’t a lot of liquid surface area. It was probably in there for 9-10 hours all up.

    As we got close to dinner time, I chopped up some carrots and threw them in. (I was hoping that by adding them late, they wouldn’t suck up so much of the saltiness. But they did anyway.) Half an hour before eating, I pulled the pieces of meat out onto a tray. I then cut up some cabbage and threw that into the slow cooker. The meat was well cooked, and it was very easy to remove the fat and silverskin. (The butcher had advised us that it was harder to do before cooking.) Warning: you do lose a LOT of volume with brisket. I think we ended up with about 50% meat and 50% water/fat/silverskin. After I cleaned it up, I put the meat into the oven to keep warm while I finished the sides. I also made a horseradish cream sauce using this recipe. It was great and earned me a big thumb’s up from the Snook.

    Overall I’m not sure I’d bother with this outside of St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t really have a family tradition of corned beef, and I think I’d have been just as happy with a non-brined beef roast. It was a fun and tasty experiment though!

  • Shared today on Twitter

    RT @LaughingSquid: Cat Litter Face Mask http://t.co/PpJqA0k6// This is an actual thing. HA! (cc @mrs_sockvictim)

    RT @LaughingSquid: World Record: Takeru Kobayashi Eats 13 Grilled Cheeses in 1 Minute http://t.co/cox9mkft (cc @the_snook)

    The Game of Thrones dinner was great and I don’t regret it a bit, but geez I’ve felt tired and crappy ever since. Grains and sugar, man.

    Striping the mismatched dye lots seems to be working. Much less noticeable!

    @mrs_sockvictim Awesome – great job! (Damn I miss running.)

    Dinner Tonight: IRISH! Homemade Corned Beef & Cabbage, Cauli Mash, Glazed Turnips, Horseradish Cream. http://t.co/TLObJQAE

    @drkknits I’m sorry, you drew a Viking that wasn’t a giant blonde naked sex god? You are out of the club.

    @kunaal84 @drkknits She should’ve drawn him in the shower. I’d have gotten that.

    @kunaal84 Meanwhile, my latest drawing to you is a stunning indictment of the American educational system. I have no real excuse.

    @drkknits I’m impressed you got my sombrero before I even drew a taco! (I said to Rodd: “It’s hard to draw this without being racist.”)

    Jameson & Ginger. For a classy St. Patrick’s Day. #enjoyingthis http://t.co/kOvJCtr4

    @sthcrft What’s a superlong?

    RT @GuardianUS: Facebook’s ‘dark side’… http://t.co/ab9GdG9C // “Socially aggressive narcissism” is going to be the name of my rock band.

    RT @GlobalPost: Video – O’Bama downs a Guinness for Saint Pat’s http://t.co/TAUGgmh2 #Obama

    Since @witty_knitter asked, I posted the recipe for my homemade corned beef: http://t.co/Ge1BBGUu

  • Shared today on Facebook

    Dinner Tonight: IRISH! Homemade Corned Beef & Cabbage, Cauli Mash, Glazed Turnips, Horseradish Cream. http://instagr.am/p/IRG80iRJP5/

    Jameson & Ginger. For a classy St. Patrick’s Day. #enjoyingthis http://instagr.am/p/IRJY50xJAQ/

    We partied like Baratheons, yo.

  • Photo post

    Dinner Tonight: IRISH! Homemade Corned Beef & Cabbage, Cauli Mash, Glazed Turnips, Horseradish Cream.

    Dinner Tonight: IRISH! Homemade Corned Beef & Cabbage, Cauli Mash, Glazed Turnips, Horseradish Cream.

  • The Story Behind That 9,000-Word Quora Post on Airplane Cockpits – Megan Garber – Technology – The A

    The Story Behind That 9,000-Word Quora Post on Airplane Cockpits – Megan Garber – Technology – The Atlantic – What do all the controls in an airplane cockpit do? Somebody actually answered that. (This one’s for the Snook.)

  • Happy birthday to Aunt Kris!

    My niece is the cutest.

  • Shared today on Twitter

    @lemon_lime Yup. I was hoping to get a cortisone shot and be back for next week, but looking more dubious now. 🙁

    For my birthday, @the_snook got me a DVD I already own because the quality of my old one annoyed him. #highdef #firth http://t.co/ioBWjOiT

    @imdominating I think he really wanted to use it as excuse to get a Blue-Ray, but I shot him down when he asked me vague questions about it.

    @imdominating @Justacogitating Did you see on FB how I convinced Molly that the BBC version is the One True Adaptation? She loved it. 🙂

    @imdominating @Justacogitating I could not in good conscience allow a family member to watch the Knightley Abomination first. *shudder*

    @misswired It’s Barry’s world, the rest of us just live in it. (cc @nolim1t )

    @sharre @the_snook He mentioned reading something about that. Due to the original film stock, apparently? It was a nice gesture though. 🙂

    @MissVicki79 It’s got a 30 minute documentary, a bit about the restoration process, and the original Making Of. So that’s nice!

    Just had my first ever birthday phone call from Dubai, thanks to @kunaal84’s lovely fiancee Kriti!

    @NagsHeadGlebe Any idea if/when Samson & Sharkey are playing again? Love those guys!

    @JennaPrice So my stalking of you isn’t working then? 🙂

    @drkknits Rodd has joked that we should make ourselves up as white walkers.

    Another 100+ page spec in the bag. I fear I will develop a reputation.

    @drkknits A woman of the Night’s Watch! Fun. 🙂

    @drkknits KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD, FOOL! 🙂

    Happy birthday to me! New necklace + scarf courtesy of Ma Snook. @ Gastro parK http://t.co/1TlWCVGy

    Kylie and I dressed in black, in honour of the Night’s Watch. (Jon Snow is our boyfriend.) http://t.co/kY0No0kW

    This is more sugar than I have had in the last six months. #jittery #manic #happy

    @stufromoz All bets are off tonight. So good!

    Petey approves of @drkknits’s awesome hipster Lego Moleskine birthday present. 🙂 http://t.co/C8jXxGpz

    Game of Thrones dinner was AWESOME. Here’s @kunaal84 looking askance at our “Bleeding Stag” entree. (Venison=so good.) http://t.co/WEce5ojq

    @brown_note I’ve only been there for 6 weeks, and these are projects that were well into pre-production already. So not yet.

    @brown_note I don’t like producing doorstops. But right now, it’s one way of showing that the scope of these projects is WAY TOO LARGE.

    @brown_note I’m hoping that message starts to sink in – both for our sales staff and the clients! (They’ve never had a BA before.)

    Lots of people have left me FB wall messages. Unfortunately my wall appears to be broken, and I cannot read any of them. 🙁

    @_brigita_ I managed to see that one. 🙂 (It’s actually a running joke from freshman year, which is why Liz was pissed she missed out.)

    Clover fights back on bike lanes and more: http://t.co/dJpb2xkv. Hells yeah.

    @parkrun_au Need any volunteers for St Peters parkrun tomorrow? I can’t run, but I might as well help out!

    @ozgamer Sounds like it was a success! Congrats. 🙂

  • Shared today on Facebook

    Another 100+ page spec in the bag. I fear I will develop a reputation.

    Happy birthday to me! New necklace + scarf courtesy of Ma Snook. @ Gastro parK http://instagr.am/p/IL0WDLRJNf/

    Kylie and I dressed in black, in honour of the Night’s Watch. (Jon Snow is our boyfriend.) http://instagr.am/p/IL3KuDRJNr/

    Thank you to everybody who left me birthday wishes! (I just wish Facebook wasn’t broken so that I could actually read them.)

  • Photo post

    Happy birthday to me! New necklace + scarf courtesy of Ma Snook.

    Happy birthday to me! New necklace + scarf courtesy of Ma Snook.