who I will become tomorrow?
I am wondering….
May 3rd, 2012Here are the recipes
May 1st, 2012I have just finished doing some cooking demos at Tatsing Australia and people asked me if they could get the recipes for the dish I demo’d. So here they are:
Lentil, Parsley and Tomato Salad
1 ½ cups of brown lentils
1 clove of garlic smashed
2 bay leaves
2 large ripe tomatoes – sliced across into fours then roughly chopped into large cubes
½ – ¾ Spanish red onion – finely sliced
2 Lebanese cucumbers – peeled and cut into dice
1 tablespoon of small salted capers
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley
12 caper berries
Put lentils, smashed garlic and bay leaves into saucepan with 6 cups of cold water. Place pan on high heat and bring to the boil then turn down and simmer for 12 – 15 mins or until the lentils are al dente. Strain and remove the garlic and bay leaf then allow lentils to cool.
Combine all other ingredients in a large salad bowl making sure you capture all the juice from the tomatoes and mix well. Add the warm lentils in to the bowl and mix well again.
Dress with a generous splash of olive oil and red wine vinegar – season with a pinch of salt.
Tea smoked brined Eye fillet
1 eye fillet – 700g – one kilo
200g salt
200g of brown sugar
20 black pepper corns
3 bay leaves
3 pieces of lemon rind – no pith
1 litres of boiling water
3 litres of water
Put the salt, sugar, peppercorns, bay leaves and lemon rind in a large pot and pour over the boiling water. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt and then add in the cold water and stir again. Put pot in the fridge to bring down the temperature. Once the brine is cool place the eye fillet in – it should be covered by the brine, cover the pot with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for two to three days turning the fillet each day.
After two – three days remove the fillet and pat dry with paper towels and place on a plate. Put plate in the fridge uncovered for 1 – 2 days so as to dry out.
Smoke mix:
½ cup of black tea
½ cup of brown sugar
½ cup of raw white rice
Mix all ingredients together well. Line a wok with three layers of Al Foil and pour the smoking mix in to the wok. Turn the heat to high and wait for the mix to begin to smoke, when it does place a wire rack in the wok and then place the eye fillet on to the rack over the smoking mix. Cover tightly and once the smoke is really going turn the heat down a little to a medium high. Smoke for 25 – 30 minutes. Remove the meat from the wok and if you have a meat thermometer check the internal temp. Ideally you want to get a reading of between 63°C to 67°C. Allow the meat to rest then slice thinly and enjoy.
Mix sliced meat through the lentil salad and serve.
Mercurio fronts hi-tech tourism marketing
March 27th, 2012
Campaign face: Paul Mercurio is the face of the New England North West Tourism campaign, launched last week at Tamworth’s Big Golden Guitar tourist centre.
A SMARTPHONE app featuring television personality Paul Mercurio as the face of New England North West Tourism’s autumn marketing campaign was launched last week at Tam-worth’s Big Golden Guitar tourist centre.
With marketing buzzwords such as “staycation”, “storylines” and “footprint” featuring in their speeches, MPs and marketing gurus took the floor at the launch to announce the second phase of the campaign.
NENW Tourism chairman Les Parsons said the $220,000 campaign was aimed at the selfdrive market. Despite describing himself as “app ignorant”, he hoped everyone including grey nomads would embrace the new technology.
Check these out!!!
March 12th, 2012these are some labels in concept form for my condiment range.
Great News!!!
March 11th, 2012My cook book Cooking with Beer has been recognised as the fourth best beer book in the world!!!!! It came fourth in the Gourmand Cookbook awards in the beer section. To be able to say it is in the top four in the world, it is the fourth best beer book in the worlds is great. Yes I would like to have said it won and I dont go out of my way to say it only came fourth but what ever way you want to look at it fourth best in the WORLD is good for me!
So what were the top three….third was one was called – biers et brasseries des 2 Luxembourg – so is a book about the beer and beer cafes of Luxembourg, 2nd was the UK Good Beer Guide basically a guide togood beer and pubs in England and the winner was the OxfordCompanion to beer – which I thought would most likely win as it is a very in deepth history of beer type book with many contributors.
See my page here – http://www.cookbookfair.com/index.php/gourmand-awards/winners/gourmand-awards-2012-winners/book/3?page=1
And I would suggest looking through the whole booklet to see the worlds best cookbooks for 2012 – http://www.cookbookfair.com/index.php/gourmand-awards/winners/gourmand-awards-2012-winners/book/3?page=1
Not bad for a boy who started out as a dancer with a bit of a passion for food and yes beer! Who ever would have seen that coming?
Cheers
Is it safety, stupidity or revenue raising
January 30th, 2012Okay first and foremost it is against the law to speed so the very first and last argument that can be had (and the one that those who don’t wish to have the discussion or actually look at the argument) is just that – it is against the law and therefore if you do and you are caught you deserve the consequences.
I can’t argue against it. I can argue the STUPIDITY of how, when, where and why the roads speeds are placed and how when where and why they are policed. Or in fact not actually ‘policed’ – ie by the police – but how people are caught and fined by a privately run company that is largely owned by one of our large banks (I believe but could be mistaken) – REVENUE.
Yes this is about the speeding fine I received in the mail today. It was for doing 66kph in a 60 zone. In fact they take 3 kph off just in case their equipment is faulty so they say my actual speed was 69kph. Of course one must ask if there equipment could be out by 3kph couldn’t it read lower and higher ie plus or minus 3kph thereby my reading might actually be 66kph which they could then take 3 kph off to give me a reading of 63kph?? However that is not the point.
The reason they don’t like us speeding – they being the police is because they say it is dangerous. So me doing 6 kph over the speed limit driving up a very long straight and very wide road with clear, open vision for at least 6-700 meters ahead is apparently dangerous?? In the three years I have been driving along this road there has never been an accident in this road and in fact it is the sort of road that you will often see sign posted at 70 or 80 kmh. In fact it joins on to a road that is sign posted at 80 and then becomes a 90 for 1 kilometre before returning to 80. The fact is though that speeding along this road is not dangerous at least not if you are speeding by 6 – 10 kph over the limit as most traffic does daily on this road.
The reason a speed camera is put on this very straight, very safe, no incident road is that because it is so wide and has such great open forward vision people tend to drive along it safely but over the limit and the private company operating the speed cameras know it can make good money on this road – REVENUE!
I am teaching my daughter to drive and I am always telling her to be careful of her speed and she will complain about how often she is looking at her speedo instead of the road – a very common complaint from many many drivers – the fact that the speed police have us watching our speedos and taking our eyes off the road creates a very dangerous environment for road users and you could fairly say is an environment created by the speed police – STUPIDITY!
The police often say there is no such thing as safe speeding but in fact there are many people who would agree there is. There are plenty of stupid, irresponsible and criminal drivers out on the road and there are plenty of weird and inappropriate speed signs posted in strange and ill advised areas. Worse there are plenty of plain clothed camera cars sitting on very straight and safe pieces of road making good money out of people doing less than 10 kph over the limit – yes they are speeding according to the law but you cannot say they are being in any way, shape or form dangerous.
Sadly these camera cars and the revenue (and profit they make) have nothing to do with caring about our safety for if they did they would be patrolling known danger spots where their efforts could actually make a difference – would in fact save lives.
As for me I let my guard down, usually I spot these camera cars well in advance and check my speed and if I am over the limit then I adjust to the relevant posted sign and then when well away from the camera car do the smart and safe thing when driving on the road with lots of other cars – drive according to the conditions around me. Sometimes this means exceeding the posted limit and sometimes it means going slower than the limit – amazingly I was given my license because I was seen as a responsible, mature person able to think for myself and to operate a motor vehicle with prudence, intelligence and safety.
Apparently.
My Dad a Member of the Order of Australia
January 28th, 2012Vale Michael Dragan
January 7th, 2012My heart and thoughts go out to all my cousins in Wisconsin who will bury their youngest brother today. He was killed on the 29th of December when his car was hit by a train as he was crossing the tracks. Michael leaves behind a loving wife and three wonderful children. I cant imaging the shock of being given this news it is to me unfathomable and because of this I cannot imagine the pain that his brothers and sisters must be feeling – so unexpeceted, so violently sudden that there are no goodbyes, no last words, just an ugly dark hole ripped open and shoved unwanting and within all that loved him nestled coldly against our hearts.
I only met Michael and his wife Pam when I was in Wisconsin filming a year and a half ago. He was the youngest of 9 – the eldest brother Roger died of cancer some years ago so the family know loss but the sheer tragic nature of this will hurt for a long time.
I send my love and thoughts to you all I know it hurts so please be gentle with yourselves.
RIP Michael
Ciao 2011 Hello 2012
December 31st, 2011Thought I best post something early before I open the champagne and get things going.
Wishing everyone who drops by here a very happy, prosperous, healthy, harmonious, joyful and positive year ahead.
I have decided this year end beginning that I will for the first time ever make a new year resolution, however as I will not commence that resolution until after my Mum goes home (yes she has been here visiting since before Xmas) and it does include drinking less I will not be drinking less while Mum is here as a nice glass of wine or two with Mum is a pleasure not to be messed with.
So my New Year resolution will be posted on the 6th of Jan.
I hope all your wishes come true in 2012!
Heres the thing – Social Media!
December 26th, 2011It’s crazy, possibly a trap, certainly a time consumer! Social media is eating up a lot of what used to be spare time and all in the name of making things quicker, easier, more immediate, intimate, short time accessible…..I am sure there is a perfectly good bit of jargon for what I am trying to say but I haven’t got it at the tip of my typing fingers.
Once upon a time starting a blog was something pretty unique, brave, different and cutting edge. Who would have thought sharing your thoughts out there in the great wide web would capture the attention of people all over the world from different countries, backgrounds and belief systems (not to mention the media and potential employers/sponsors).
I started blogging in 2000 which from what I understand was in the early days of blogging. Just a side note – webloging kind of came about in the early 90′s when someone put their personal journal out there for all to see then in 1999 the word “Blog” was used and thus blogging was born. So I got into blogging in 2000 which is pretty early on in the scheme of it and it was all thanks to Cat (thanks Cat!!) I didn’t know about, couldn’t set it up, had no idea how it worked or even why I might want to do it but I got into it. My driving force was so that people who thought they knew me could actually get to know the real me and not the Film TV personality. I blogged a lot and they are all still out there on the net for people to read through if they have the courage, strength and time as Natalie recently has!! Occasionally I will click randomly on the archives and have a read – it is certainly a fascinating look into where, why, who, what and when I was as well as the conversations and replies that flew back and forth between us.
I blogged a lot and frequently, my wife would often ask me what I was doing and why and thought I perhaps spent too much time doing it. My brother couldn’t work out why I – a person in the public who had to contend with that would then go and put myself in the public in a much more intimate and personal way. My sister quietly found my site and would read the posts but never post herself. Eventually my wife would read my posts and the responses and generally enjoy them – not always – they would often spark discussion between us and sometimes argument but all healthy really. I now know a lot of people whom I know well read my blog but never actually tell me they do. I also know that when I have gone for interviews for jobs, sponsorship opportunities and actual interviews for radio/newspapers etc the interviewer has seen my blogs and thus is armed with information to use at their discretion.
That has been the scariest part of blogging actually. That people I don’t know can take information I have freely put out there and use it for or against me. That is why my blogging over the years has decreased, sadly a small number of people were reading and using the info against me. That sounds harsh in fact let me put it a better way – when I realised certain people were reading my blog I then realised the potential for misunderstanding and how that could damage me and my brand. In the early days I could be brazenly honest because for one there was not so much at stake as there seems to be now and not a lot of people knew about or followed blogs so those that did were fellow travelers. Of course this is not only a problem for me nor only for celebrities but for everyone indulging in this brave new world. What once was a wonderful place for true freedom of expression has become a slightly subdued environment where one can express themselves with some caution lest they get, sued, fired or beaten up. Of course I could have changed my name (still could) but what is the point of expressing oneself behind a false name???
I have often felt sad about this change as I have felt less able to express the me I still am, the free and open bloke I was when I began blogging and the me that sits here today with more of a need to do so then ever. I am sorry if I have disappointed people as I withdrew from this world – how ever I console myself with the idea that everything has it’s time, whilst I am not giving it up it has changed due to the nature of social media and the way it makes the world go round – but we did have a good time back in the old days didn’t we?
And so I get back to the point of this post – Social Media. This blog has suffered from it even as it is a part of it. I now have three facebook accounts, a Twitter account (thanks to Kelly – 337 friends now!!) and of course this site. I have several domain names registered which one day I will activate and no doubt need to spend time writing on and hopefully answering questions/requests etc
And so it came to Xmas and it came to the dilemma…..where do I post my Xmas wishes? The answer of course is on every site although I didn’t do that as I felt silly saying the same thing on every site knowing that there are people who follow me on different sites and would see the same message and then if I posted different messages on each site that would take a lot more time and what if one site message was happier than the other???? Damn Social Media!!!!!
Each social media site I have has a different audience and serves a different function which seems crazy as I type this. It is like we are pulling ourselves apart and presenting each part to a succinct section of the community and along the way lessening our ability to truly communicate. As we reach for a broader audience are we dumbing down who we are and therefore our message? Or am I thinking too much, am I not getting what it is all about, am I still coming to terms with the new wave of Social Media ?
I will have to get back to you on that one as it’s time to tweet to my 337 followers that my cup of tea is ready and ask what biscuit I should have with it and whilst I have my cup of tea and biscuit I will check my 3 facebook accounts, my hotmail and email accounts, twitter and peep on my phone and then after all that have a chat to my wife – if I can remember how.
Oh…..and Happy Belated Christmas – I raise my glass and toast to you all and thank you for being on this journey with me.
Cheers
