Swanage Railway Diesel Gala & Beer Festival 2015

Already last year I wrote about this event, which I also visited yesterday. The Swanage Railway Diesel Gala & Beer Festival is an annual event on the Isle of Purbeck for train enthusiasts, families, beer friends and more. During the weekend vintage diesel trains operate on the heritage rail between Swanage and Norden. My favourite stop along the line is Corfe Castle, because it's just such a fairytale village. I also love the hill landscapes and the seaside in the Isle of Purbeck and always gladly visit there. 

We travelled a lot on trains back and forth during the day and it was good fun. I thought that the beer festival was a bit nicer this year as well, as it had moved to the Corfe Castle railway station and therefore it was practical to grab a beer or cider and jump onto the next train. I tasted some wonderful beers like the Old Pusher Ale by the Glastonbury Ales, or ciders like the Glastonberry, also by the Glastonbury Ales. The Glastonberry cider unfortunately sold out fast, so I could only get one half pint of it, but it was a really nice cider, dry yet full of surprising berry goodness. I definitely want to try that again! 

Yesterday the weather was really nice, just perfect for a little outdoor event. Here are my impressions through my photos.

Sunday morning power bowl

The Hedgehog Awareness Week may officially be over, but hedgehogs that sadly are in decline, should always be on our minds. For today's breakfast I used my hedgehog shaped cookie cutter once again to make a quirky presentation for a very healthy bowl.

I used these ingredients for my breakfast bowl:

Pineapple

Red currants

Wild blueberry powder

Sea buckthornberry powder

Greek Yogurt

My week has been very busy so I felt like I wanted to start the relaxing Sunday with a healthy breakfast. I haven't had time for posting much this week, but I will try to write later about what I was up to yesterday.

Have a lovely Sunday! Sun is out at least here!

Your VegHog

Hedgehog shaped ravioli with a potato, olive and rosemary filling

This week is Hedgehog Awareness Week and I can't keep saying it enough. Yesterday I already wrote an Old Prickly post, but now I am going to continue with the all important hedgehog theme. I made suitable hedgehog shaped ravioli with a potato, olive and rosemary filling. I have made hedgehog ravioli before, but the potato filling was a first for me. All the components tasted in the mix, so it worked really well and I liked this ravioli version a lot.

As the May theme for The Vegetable Palette challenge is “your favourite vegetable”, I thought I'd share this recipe there as well. The Vegetable Palette is a monthly vegetarian food blogging challenge hosted by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. I though long and hard what would be my favourite vegetable, as it constantly changes and there are many, but potatoes are pretty much always up there on the top of my list. They are so versatile, subtle yet tasty and also easy to cook in many shapes and forms. So there you have it, I love potatoes! In this recipe I of course combined them in a way I have never done before, which was also a great experience. 

 

I will also share this recipe with another food blogging challenge, Pasta Please, which is hosted this month by Jen from Jen's Food and created by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes. The theme in May is free, as long as the recipe contains some pasta. 

Here is my recipe for these small prickly beasts and it does make quite an array of them:

Pasta:

400 g grade 00 pasta flour

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

Filling:

500 g potatoes

200 g green olives

Sprinkle of salt

Fresh rosemary leaves

25 g grated mature cheddar

Method

Make the pasta first by kneading the pasta flour, eggs and salt into a firm dough. Let it rest wrapped in a cling film in the fridge for at least one hour.

Boil the peeled potatoes until they are done and mash them. Let the mash cool. Grind the olives into a smooth paste with a mortar and pestle and add them to the mash. Also add the salt, rosemary and little grated cheddar.

Start working the pasta dough thinner and thinner by rolling it through a pasta machine. Once you are happy with the texture and thinness, cut some hedgehog shapes from the dough. Put a little teaspoonful of the potato filling onto a hedgehog shape, brush the edges with water and press it closed with another hedgehog.

Cook the hedgehog ravioli until they are al dente and serve. I served them simply on a bed of salad drizzled with olive oil. Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Old Prickly & Hedgehog Awareness Week

The Hedgehog Awareness Week (3.-9.5.2015) started yesterday, so now is the perfect time to remember our prickly friends. You don't necessarily need to be donating money or goods, but for example as a garden owner you can do a lot to improve the well being of your local hedgehogs. You can also raise hedgehog awareness in your neighbourhood through information sharing or events. 

I'm going to make a couple of hedgehog related posts this week and will start by sampling a wonderful hedgehog themed beer, Old Prickly by Hobsons Brewery. This beer supports the work of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, 5p of every pint or bottle sold will go to the hedgehog charity. 

At 4,2 % Old Prickly is delightful like a hoglet. There is a refreshing foretaste leading to a hint of citrus sharpness with aromas of spices and raisins and a long crisp malty aftertaste. This is a very tasty beer to enjoy and remember that you will be supporting the prickly beasts while drinking it.

Have a nice week thinking of hedgehogs!

Your VegHog

Grilled mini sandwich triangles

On a lazy weekend like this, it's so nice to make some warm sandwiches for breakfast or lunch and just relax. Or these sandwiches can be even enjoyed in the evening when watching a film.

I made these mini triangle sandwiches on the griddle pan to get the nice grilling effect with the stripes. You can put any vegetable into the sandwiches with cheese. I chose a quite classic mix of tomatoes, rocket, basil and garlic.

Here are the ingredients I used:

Bread slices

Emmental slices

Baby plum tomatoes

Rocket

Fresh basil leaves

Garlic clove

I rubbed the garlic first on the breads and then assembled the sandwiches with the filling.

Then I char-grilled the sandwiches in a pan on both sides and cut them into small triangles.

These were just perfect with some coffee.

Your VegHog

Mikkeller

It took me some time to write this Mikkeller post, so here we go briefly back to Copenhagen. By entering Copenhagen, we entered a Mikkeller heaven! I tasted so many beers, always only a small glass at a time and it was wonderful. For those of you, who are not familiar with Mikkeller, it's a Danish gypsybrewery. Meaning that it's a microbrewery that has no own brewery, but collaborates with other brewers instead. Mikkeller was founded in 2006 and has risen into world fame since then. They are a very well known name among beer enthusiasts. I also love their artwork on the bottles.

I am lucky enough that my local specialist beer shop has some Mikkeller products, but now of course I was the luckiest one to be able to visit couple of their pubs and a bottle shop. Here are short introductions of the Mikkeller establishments I visited in Copenhagen:

Mikkeller Bar, Viktoriagade, Copenhagen - Mikkeller Bar is a vibrant cellar bar with an excellent selection of beers. It was quite busy in the evenings, but definitely worth the hype. We tried several Mikkeller beers there and even got to taste a vintage 2012 Boskeun Belgian Easter beer (as it was Easter when we were visiting, by the way in general in Copenhagen we also got to sample several other great Danish Easter beers). 

Mikkeller & Friends, Stefansgade, Nørrebro, Copenhagen - Mikkeller & Friends is a bar with a quirky interior design including great Mikkeller artwork on the walls. Of course they also have an incredible beer selection, obviously there are also beers from Mikkeller's friends. The staff in both bars were really knowledgeable and friendly. 

 

Bottle Shop, Stefansgade, Nørrebro, Copenhagen - The name says it all. Here you can shop for the most exquisit Mikkeller products and it's conveniently located in the same premises with Mikkeller & Friends. In the bottle shop I purchased many lovely beer bottles, but also Mikkeller's book of beer, Mikkeller Gin and Herbal Hop Salve. I could've spent ages looking at the selection in the shop.

On this trip I totally fell in love with Mikkeller's Spontan range, although I was a little bit skeptical first about sour berry beers. Then I had the Spontanseabuckthorn 7,7% and it really opened my eyes regarding sours. What a great beer with such a strong sea buckthornberry taste! You know that I'm sea buckthorn appreciator anyway, so it was clear that I would try the beer. Then I had several other beers from the Spontan range and am now officially addicted. 

Have you visited any of the Mikkeller bars around the world or have you gone crazy about their beers?