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How to Spice Up Your Next Salmon Dish

October 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

f_01311077326_bourbon.jpgSalmon has become one of the most popular fish to serve. People love the taste, and salmon cooks quickly, making it a great option for both weeknights and weekends.

Besides convenience, salmon is an excellent source of high-quality protein, containing all the essential amino acids, making it a great source of nutrition for the young and old alike.

If you want to prepare salmon, remember to purchase the freshest fillets you can. Keep the fish refrigerated until you are ready to cook it, and always prepare it on a clean, dry surface. In order to eliminate a strong oily taste, remove the skin as soon as possible.

If you are looking for a great way to liven up your salmon dish, you may want to try my Salmon Magic. This seasoning blend is a flavorful combination of dill, mustard seed, herbs and spices with just the right amount of salt and sugar, creating a versatile blend for all salmon recipes.

The distinct flavors enhance the natural goodness of salmon or any other type of fish, shellfish or seafood. Whether you are grilling, saut

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Talisker Scotch Whisky

October 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

f_21310684369_cathys-rum-cake-tropical-hotpink-towncountry-baby-shower-cake.jpgSometimes when you are thanking a long-dead distiller for building his still in such a stunning location, you wonder at the insanity that led him to settle on such a remote spot. Talisker is one of those places: situated high on the northwest coast of Skye in Scotland, it looks back to the jagged ridge of the Black Cuillin, out into the stormy Atlantic Ocean. Even taking into account the reviled Skye road bridge, this isn’t an easy place to get to by road, but it was the sea that proved Talisker’s saviour, perhaps its raison d’etre.

‘Everything would have been brought in by sea, by puffer,’ says the distillery’s new managing director Alastair Robertson. ‘And everything went out in exactly the same way. The sea was critical to its survival – there had to be a sea link to get the place started.’ It might explain why Skye, the largest of the Hebrides and a place famed for its thirsty population, has only ever had one distillery; although iron in the rock, the brutality of the Clearances and the subsequent anti-establishment stance of the

Skye people could also have played a parr. Still, Talisker remains a frontline malt: UDV, thanks in part to the tireless enthusiasm of its former manager Mike Copland, and is a major player in Johnn:e Walker. The workforce may have shrunk since the days when it malted all its own barley, but it remains a mighty dram. Pean water, heavily-peated malt and long ferments provide the foundations, but Talisker’s seem lies in the still house and, specifically, in thr strange wash stills. ‘Every distillery, thankfully, has something unique about it.” says Alastair.

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Coffee Beans – How To Grind

October 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

f_11311077329_bourbonstreet2.jpgAir is the enemy of all coffee drinkers. Once air comes in contact with your coffee grinds, they begin to lose their flavor. Coffee manufacturers vacuum seal their grinds to keep them fresh while they sit on the shelves at the supermarket but once you break that seal, it’s all downhill from there. Buying whole coffee beans and grinding them yourself is a great way to ensure that your coffee remains as flavorful as possible. But do you know how to grind your coffee beans properly?

Different types of coffee calls for different types of grinds. So you’ll need to learn to use your coffee grinder properly if you want to make the freshest best tasting coffee possible.

If you plan on brewing your coffee with a percolator or a French Press coffee maker then you’ll need a coarser grind. Place the coffee beans in your coffee grinder and tap the grind button a few times as you would use the pulse feature on your food processor. The goal is to break the beans up so that they look like tiny pieces of coffee bean. If they look like a powder, then you need to slowly back away from the coffee grinder and start again. Remember to tap the button and not hold it down.

Automatic drip coffee makers work best with medium grinds. Picture the grinds that you’d find in a can of supermarket coffee. Those are medium grinds. They can be described as looking like brown sand. So remember the last time you went to the beach but instead of seeing the sand in between your toes, imagine seeing sand in your coffee maker. Once again, while holding the coffee grinder button, don’t get carried away and over grind your coffee beans. You do not want a fine powder if you’re going to use an automatic coffee maker.

Finally if your using an espresso maker, you want those fine powdery grinds that you’ve been trying to avoid when making coarse and medium grinds. So grind away until your heart is content.

Grinding your own coffee beans right before you brew your coffee is a great way to make sure that you’re getting the freshest cup of coffee possible. But a fresh cup of coffee can still be bitter or weak. Learning how to grind your coffee beans is an important part of making great coffee.

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