Author Archives: Henry Gomez

Charcoal grilled fresh water fish in Quistococha

Sausages are dead

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Sausages are dead.

if you’re a true blue Aussie and pride yourself BBQ’ing sausages on a gas burner, think again. When you buy sausages, you’re at the mercy of the butcher who processed them. You have no idea what’s in them (cartilage, ligaments, fat), unless you’re lucky enough to have a label that clearly explains what ingredients were used in making them. Even then, manufacturing processes can’t fully control factors such as humans cutting corners or flies dropping into the mixing batch. And do you know what is the allowable percentage of fat content in your sausages? Do you even know what that tube the sausages are encased in is made of? Is it a dissolvable synthetic material or animal’s intestine?

Have you ever tried something other than sausages? For example Turkish/Uyghur lamb skewers (with cumin, salt and paprika) or Russian pork and onion “shashlik“? – you say you haven’t? You really are in for a gastronomical delight!

Charcoal lamb skewers in Xinjiang – Co Rou
Xinjiang lamb skewers – yum!
Everywhere you turn, someone is charring lamb skewers
Lamb skewers on naan bread
Look at all that charcoal smoke, yum!!
Friendly Uyghur’s smiling
More lamb skewers
Skewers ready to be charred at the Urumqi night markets
Hello there Uyghurs!
More charring
More lamb skewers
Russian Shashlik pork skewers in Brisbane
Brazilian Churrascaria restaurant in Sydney – BRAZA

Australia, it’s time to rethink your meat purchases for the old traditional Aussie BBQ. And while we’re at it, let’s not just stop at purchasing sausages, let’s rethink how we cook our meat. Are you using a gas BBQ? Oh my lord, it’s time to go to your local BBQ vendor and drag yourself out of your stereotypical nightmare and into 2016.

In this day and age, you want to be cooking with red hot coals on a hot grill – your taste buds will thank you for it. Can you begin to imagine the depth of flavours you can achieve from cooking with seasoned Australian hardwood? When you cook with coals, the fat renders off the meat and drips onto the burning ambers, this gives off a smoke that encapsulates your meat. You can’t obtain the same depth from cooking on a gas burner. At best, the solidified fat on your flame tamer catches on fire and those flames burn your sausages for a distasteful bitterness – if this makes you happy, then I do feel sorry for you.

Charcoal grilled fresh water fish in Quistococha
Charcoal chicken and other Amazonian specialties
Pig on the pole – Chancho al palo
More pig on the pole
Pig on the pole – Chancho al palo
Lima – Peruvian food festival
Pollo a la Brasa – Don Tito restaurant Lima

How to successfully propagate Gracilis Bamboo from cuttings

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How to successfully propagate Gracilis Bamboo from cuttings you ask me?

Well, it’s been a long and winding road, full of potholes of despair… but after more than 4 years, I can finally say I have learnt how to successfully propagate Gracilis Bamboo from cuttings.

Here is the proof – this is a cutting that I successfully managed to root at the end of 2014, early 2015. See the roots coming out of the bud?

IMG_6804-2

I have since managed to successfully propagate 8 out of 8 cuttings this year. Once  you know the trick, it is quite easy to grow your own cuttings of Bambusa Textilis Gracilis.

The two diagrams below show in detail 1) When to take a Gracilis cutting and 2) How to plant the Gracilis cutting.

When to take Bambusa Gracilis cuttings?

When to take Bambusa Gracilis cuttings?

how-to-plant-bambusa-gracilis-cutting

  1. Make sure you take a cutting from a mature culm, one that is over 12 months old.
  2. The culm diameter is important in the sense that it will hold water to feed the new cutting while it attempts to grow roots to survive. Use a culm where the inner diameter (the hollow part of the tube) is greater than say 7mm, so it can hold plenty of water.
  3. Take the cutting 3 to 4 inches above and below the culm node.
  4. Make sure there is one main branch coming out of the node and the size of the “bud” is large and looks healthy as this is the point where the roots will grow from.
  5. Take the cutting around the full moon phase. The moon affects the earth in many ways. In Bamboo, the moon’s gravitational pull draws sugars and starches from the roots and rhyzomes up the culm to help new leaf growth. These nutrients provide energy for the generation of leaves and fresh branches at the node of the cutting.
  6. Remove all small branches and leaves from the node – but leave the main nodal branch as this will be the cutting”s lifeline once it grows leaves.
  7. Plant the culm in a large pot with potting mix (large pot is good to avoid disturbing young plants during transfer).
  8. Use root hormone on the bud.
  9. Place the culm almost parallel to the ground (approximately 20 to 30 degrees to the ground) and ensure the main branch sticks up out of the soil, but the bud is well placed under the soil.
  10. Place the pot in a shady spot. I placed some pots at the base of the parent plant so its “new” environment hadn’t been changed.
  11. Water the pot on a daily basis for 4 weeks.
  12. Make sure the inside of the culm is full of water at all times.
  13. This process should completed during the warmer months to give your bamboo the best chance of growth.
  14. All that bamboo wants to do is survive and grow, this will best be achieved when there is high humidity and warmer temperatures.

One of the keywords that constantly keeps popping up in my statistics is “Gracilis Growth Rate”.

I would also like to crush any and all myths about this and set some facts straight.

  1. When planted from a cutting, Gracilis will do pretty much nothing the first 12 months. It will be sorry looking stick in the ground growing roots and a few small branches and leaves.
  2. The following 12 months, it will send some new small culms up – these will be the diameter of a pencil (maybe even smaller). The culms will grow to a height of approximately 2 metre or so and still look a bit sorry.
  3. After the first 24 months, things become interesting, and gracilis now throws some culms up to approximately 3 metres in height – but this depends on factors such as the size of the container, how much fertiliser/nutrients have been provided and how much water has been provided.
  4. Now you have a thick and dense Gracilis grove… the next year, you will see new culms that may reach the maximum height. The lower half of the plant will start to defoliate as the upper half grows most, if not all of the leaves.
  5. Gracilis is great for “all-round” privacy the first couple of years, but once it has matured, leaves only appear on the upper half of the culms. So it is great to block out a two storey window, but not ground levels.

Anywho, that’s all from me for now, follow these guidelines, good luck and let me know how you went!

I look forward to hearing from you :)

Henry Gomez aka Papa Gomez.

Making homemade wine using homemade wine press

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Making homemade wine using homemade wine press – that is the name of this story.

A few years ago (7 years to be precise), I planted a number of red Muscat cuttings that were taken from my parents’ residence. Fast forward to 2016, these plants have endured the 2011 floods, the 2014 major hail storm, Indian Myna bird attacks and a number of dry seasons. I built a trellis so the vines could grow and provide much needed shade. I also added a number of other varietals including Muscat Gordo Blanco, Ribier, Shiraz, Flame grape, and Globe Grape. The only crop that has really been fruitful is the original Muscat. Maybe the other plants are too young to bear fruit, but I will give them a good trim this winter to encourage further growth.

I picked 100 litres of Muscat grapes this season, and put them in two 60ltr vats and let them ferment for 10 days. The ultimate objective is to make homemade wine so I had to make sure that temperature and fermentation speed was closely watched.

The product – Black muscat grapes
100 litres of dark purple goodess
Close up view
Fermentation begins
The payoff
The aftermath

I also bought a French Oak Barrel made from French “full grown oak” timber – the oak gives colour, flavour, tannin profiles and texture to the wine as it ages. I know it’s the real deal because it has this stamp:

chene haute futaie

I also built a wine press from scratch, and saved myself over AU$700 in the process. The base is made of concrete which I poured into a 44 gallon drum. I used an old Acrow Prop to make the threaded shaft, and a Stainless steel tubing as the spout. It needs some legs and a ratchet mechanism which I will be preparing before next year’s harvest…

The timber staves are made of Merbau screening timber, and I used 40mm x 3mm galvanised flat bar for the frame structure. The gap between the staves is very important – if the gaps are too tight you will have difficulty pressing out the must, and if they are too far apart, the pomace will ooze out the sides of your homemade winepress. M6 cup-head bolts were used to hold everything together. The homemade wine press worked like a charm and we were able to squeeze out approximately 75 litres of burgundy gold (this left us with roughly 40 litres of pomace).

Acrow prop inside cut 44 gallon drum
Close up view
Pour the concrete into the drum
Make sure the spout hole is not filled
The cardboard holds the concrete in nicely
Merbau screening timber
Cutting screening timber to length
Chamfer one side of the timber
Start drilling and bolting together
Slowly coming together…
Getting there…
Cut out the two half-circles that will press down the grapes
We used a timber thicknesser
The basement (secret location)
The base will let the juice through
View of the assembled press staves and base
Fermentation completed after 10 days
Checking the fermented juice
Filtering out the fine pulp and skins that make it through
Liquid gold!
Grapes slowly added to wine press
Side view of wine press
Placing the half circle wedges
Half circle
Two half circles
Placing the spacers
All squished!
Muscat grape pomace cake
Most grape must has been pressed out. Pomace cake is dry.

The process of making homemade wine is quite simple, and you don’t need a lot of fancy machinery if you’re doing this at home. The grapes already have the sugar and yeast you need for fermentation to take place. It does make the job easier if you have some “machinery” and measuring instruments, but it’s not primordial. I have to say that this was a lot of fun, and I’ll be doing it again next year – I also feel a great sense of pride in continuing an old family tradition. I’ll provide an update once I have tasted the wine in a few months – hopefully it doesn’t turn to vinegar!

Santé!!