Tuesday, September 16, 2014

An (unnamed) Middle Eastern Stew

For those who are familiar with how I cook, you know I like stews.  A lot--Particularly ones from all over.

This particular one was inspired by a beef stew recipe in the book, Real Stews.

As always, the measurements are approximate--spices should be done to taste.  However, they are approximately proportionate.

1 stick butter
1.5-2 lbs beef, either ground or finely chunked
2 onion, sliced
1 cup spinach, measured as frozen
1 can diced potatoes

Thursday, September 4, 2014

A (hopefully) Malliard Botchet

Botchets are, of course, a type a mead made with caramelized honey...and I have never made a straight one before (previous ones were hybrids with a braggot, and a metheglin).  I decided, somewhat on the spur of the moment to make one and step up the flavours a bit...by going through the same process as is believe to produce the Belgian Candi syrup.  I got curious about what would happen if one did so, and being as I cannot find any evidence of someone else doing so, I decided to experiment by myself.

This isn't the first time I've tried to make the syrup--I've done so once before, for a Dubble based graff, and it turned out fairly successful that time.  As near as I can tell, three things are required to do so: