Wheat beer 

For those of you who are starting to try out craft beer there is no better place to start than Wiess beer.

This is a top fermenting beer made with wheat, and a lower hop content than Lager. This has the effect of  having a less bitter taste and a light body with a rich creamy head which has been enjoyed for centuries throughout Europe during the summer months.

I recently came across a fantastic Weiss beer made by 

Brewers & Union www.gabrielcollective.com/craft.html 

and decided to pair it with a classic combination of blue cheese. 

When I first mentioned this pairing, it was usually met with a face akin to one you would expect at the suggestion of putting tomato sauce on ice cream! Others 'ín the know' kept telling me that cheese should only be paired with wine. But once they tasted the rich creamy and salty blue cheese with take a nice big sip of the ice cold malty wheat beer they will soon realised  it was a match made made in heaven. 

So as we hang on to the end of summer in the southern hemisphere, go grab yourself some craft Weiss beer  at your local pub or bottle store and serve it with a nice creamy blue cheese snack. 

My personal favorite is Gorgonzola coupled with the sweet tang of red onion marmalade. Give this a try and let me know what you think - have a fantastic taste experience on me! 

     
Toasted pita with creamy blue cheese & sweet red onion marmalade and Steph Weiss craft beer 

A Taste of Mozambique

It was a while ago now that I went to Mozambique for the first time and one thing that always stood out for me apart from the clear blue waters, fresh seafood, peri-peri  sandy white beaches, plenty mosquito bites and nasty hangovers in the heat of the day was the simplicity and tastiness of the food .

Being a third world country the African/Portuguese style food was once described to me as peasant food , for me when I think back to this food there is nothing better!

I love many of the local recipes but one of my favorites is the Trinchardo and  that I will defiantly have on one of my menus one day. 

I like slow braised beef short rib cooked in copious amounts of red wine and garlic with subtle hints of bay leaves, olives , tomatoes and chillis .'

This has to be served with crispy Portuguese rolls to lap up the sauce left behind and washed down with an ice cold Laurentina of Mac Mahone ( 2M) lager

If this is peasant food I want to remain a peasant!

New Breakfast ideas 2013

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day so this year I decided to revamp some of my cocktail breakfast menus and was lucky enough to get a photo shoot done  so everybody could take a look.

My menus are designed for corporate business meetings and people who eat while chatting to clients, so is designed to eat on the go. Simple eats  however should never compromise on simple classic combinations that everyone loves, so the food remains fresh and tasty but easy to eat!

Above is a tasty bacon, egg and mushroom quiche topped with  a spoon of red pepper harissa (spicy red-pepper sauce) and below some chicken and black sesame  puff pastry rolls. These are fantastic served with a sweet and spicy apricot dip.

A popular addition to this meal are the bite sized 

B.L.T's with a little twist, I used some lightly toasted 

cocktail  paninni breads , replaced the lettuce with 

some rocket , crispy streaky bacon,  slow roasted 

cherry tomatoes and toped it all off with a coriander 

and lime avo puree.

The piece de resistance below I created some spinach and parmesan baked eggs something a  little different for when your bringing your egg out of it's shell!

Please not that no  horse , goat or donkey were used or harmed  in this photo shoot.