August 2007 – Abstract Gourmet

Signature Espresso

Ever wondered how you can turn your insatiable need for caffeine into an all day affair ? Sure you’ve got your morning latte covered, and the midday piccolo and afternoon ristretto is a done deal. But there’s still that lingering need to fill the void between after dinner and bedtime with as much coffee as possible (doctors advice may differ).

Enter the Epic Espresso Signature Drink Workshop ! Not only can you fill your head with all sorts of interesting coffee related facts, but you can also learn a few tips and tricks on how to make some stunning coffee based dessert drinks, meaning you’ll never have to take too long a break from your caffeinated lifestyle.

Tonight’s signature drink workshop was the brainchild of Epic Espresso barista Jeremy Hulsdunk. Jeremy should know a few things about creating espresso based drinks… His creation of a pancake themed signature drink helped take him to first place in the 2006 W.A Barista Championships.

The format for the night was straightforward. A group of coffee lovers of varying levels of experience, gathered around to sample excellent quality coffees and learn a little more about how to work with flavours to create new and interesting combinations. We started with a double ristretto of the Ugandan Bugisu Sippy Falls AA, an excellent single origin coffee. Not everyone was used to drinking ristrettos, but after some dubious initial reactions due to the intensity of flavour in that tiny little cup… the consensus was resoundingly good. Flavour descriptors ranging from floral, citrusy, sweet, and smokey were thrown around, with none necessarily being wrong.

Then it was onto another fantastic single origin, the Bali Gunung Batur. This time in the traditional cupping method used by coffee tasters to determine varietal qualities and defects in coffee. The process is basically grinding a set amount of coffee relatively coarsely, adding water at a specific temperature (a little below boiling), and then breaking the “crust” of coffee grounds to inhale the aroma, before slurping the coffee down, aspirating it as much as possible in order to spread it out over your palate. Somewhat like a wine taster would when judging wine, and with probably as many (if not more) different ways of describing the flavours.

Jeremy gave tasting notes and points of interest on each coffee, and a fielded questions with consummate ease while explaining his choices for the evenings selection.

Then it was onto the signature drinks. We made two different styles, one called Strawberries and Cream, and the other called Espresso Fondue Martini.

A certain someone has promised a write up of the Strawberries and Cream, so I’ll cover the Fondue Martini. It was a rich and luscious concoction. Melted chocolate, espresso, and vanilla infused cream, with roasted hazelnuts on top and fresh fruit pieces for dunking. Take a minute to check out the photos of the night below before scrolling down for the full recipe straight from the horses mouth.

Espresso Fondue Martini

Pouring cream
Melted chocolate (we used Belgian couverture chocolate)
Fresh fruit (we used pineapple and kiwifruit, but there’s lots of options that would work)
Frozen Raspberries (to put into the cream)
1 Vanilla pod (or 1 tsp Vanilla bean paste)
Crushed roasted hazelnuts
A shot of espresso (we used the Bali Gunug Batur)
Toothpicks / fingers (for dunking the fruit)

Methode ala Jeremy

1) Before you begin, infuse the cream with raspberries and vanilla by placing the cut vanilla pod and raspberries into the cream and stirring with vigour ! Let them stand together for a while so the flavours infuse nicely.

2) Place the melted chocolate (melted in a double boiler / microwave ) into a martini glass to fill just below half way (or more or less depending on how much of a chocolate fiend you are).

3) Pour a shot of espresso over the top of the chocolate.

4) Now add about 50 ml of the infused cream. Which should sink into the espresso / chocolate mixture with a layered effect.

5) Next sprinkle the top with the crushed roasted hazelnuts (an ingredient that compliments espresso and chocolate fantastically).

6) In true fondue style, go for the healthy option and dip fresh fruit into the dessert… making sure to stir up the chocolate and combine all the wonderful flavours for maximum effect.

It was a great night and a lot of fun for everyone. Check out the Epic Espresso website for details of when the next one might be. Thanks again to Jeremy and Corey for being excellent hosts. Here’s looking forward to plenty more great events, and more excuses to drink great coffee at all hours of the day ! :)

P.S – Apologies to anyone who has been trying to comment… I’ve moved to a new host and had inadvertently turned them off

We’re back online now :)

Sorry all round

Dear readers,

Just a quick note to apologise for the recent ups and down on this site, which is having a few growing pains at present while I look for a new server to house it on. So if you’ve had trouble getting onto the site recently I apologise, and hopefully will have it sorted out soon.

In the meantime, here’s a shot of my lovely sister who recently got married.

And here’s the first few experimental shots taken mostly by Sharon with our new Holga camera. Very cool :)

There’s a buco in my osso

Osso buco, that perfect slab of unctuousness coaxed into melt in your mouth tenderness by a luxurious slow cooking. Would you believe that up until a few years ago I had no idea what it even was ? I assumed it was one of those things on the menu at an Italian restaurant that I would never order. Much like gnocchi and saltimbocca (not that I have anything against them, I just haven’t had a good one).

So it wasn’t until I started getting interested in the slow food movement, and slow cooking specifically as a means to softening up less appealing cuts of meat, that I decided it was time to try making osso buco for myself. I’ve had some success with my oxtail dish – coda alla vaccinara, which ranks on my list of tastiest dishes I’ve made in recent times, so I was hoping that the marrow would work it’s magic in this too, and I haven’t been disappointed.

Now normally my recipes on the site are pretty slap dash. Yes they work, and most of them I’d be happy to cook again… but for whatever reason I don’t. I get bored, I wander off, I forget. My attention span is about as short as a three year old in a cafe drawing pictures with colouring pens (actually probably less, because she was good Ed :)). So it’s a testament to taste if I write about something more than once, and if it gets adopted into my regular stable of dishes, then it’s pure gold.

So clearly risotto in it’s many forms is on that list… as is anything containing chorizo in it, and poached eggs. A chorizo risotto with a poached egg on top may just my ultimate mash up dish, but now I’m getting distracted again…

Back to the Osso Buco.

The recipe I based mine around is a simpler version of the common ones, with a few small twists. I personally don’t think carrots and celery add much to the flavour (well they do, but not in a good way), and I much prefer red wine to white wine for the cooking. This is for once something that I’ve taken to refining a little over the many times I’ve made it now. So you my appreciative audience can benefit from my willingness to rinse and repeat this one a few times over to get it just right.
You still don’t get exact measurements though… they’re for the weak :)

Osso Buco alla Matt

The ingredients

4 chunky pieces of osso buco – Veal seems to popular but if you’re a little different you can think outside the box and take the hole in the bone definition to whichever kind of meat you like. Other examples would be venison, or a very tasty lamb osso buco, that I tried recently after asking the boys at “Meat The Butcher” (still love that name) in Dog Swamp Shopping centre to slice up some lamb shanks for me.
flour for dusting
2 onions – chopped finely
4 – 5 cloves garlic – chopped finely
2 cans tinned roma tomatoes (home made if you got em), and extra passata
a bottle of red wine (you won’t use it all, but it’s good to have while you’re cooking)
sea salt and cracked pepper.
some parsley if you like

How I make mine

So dust the osso buco in flour and shake off any excess, then in a hot pan fry them in olive oil until they’re a golden brown colour all over. Then take them out of the pan to rest a bit and wait for their time back in the sun.

Now add some more oil to the pan and throw in your chopped onions and a little garlic. Cook them slowly down until they’re soft and then bring back the osso buco, laying them on top of a little onion bed, and dousing thoroughly with red wine (1 or 2 cups), pureed tomatoes (1 or 2 cans), and a sprinkling of garlic.

You now turn the heat right down on the pan, making sure that the osso buco are arranged so that they lie flat in the pan, and are mostly covered by the liquid, adding more tomato passata or wine to bring the level up. This is where the magic happens.
Try and find something productive to do for the next few hours while the wine and heat work their way into the sinews and activate the marrow in the middle of the bones. Personally I don’t think you can cook this for long enough (given that you have plenty of liquid so it doesn’t dry out). The longer you cook it, the more mouth wateringly tender it will become.

Along the way, you may want to give it a season with salt and pepper, and somewhere towards the end sprinkle over some more garlic and parsley, give that another half an hour and you’re done.

Be careful taking them out of the pan, as by this stage (2 hours + later) they should be falling away from the bone without you doing anything.

I’ve served mine over a variety of side dishes, a sweet potato mash, a regular potato mash, a pearl barley risotto alla milanese (not as great as it sounds), and I’m also thinking polenta would be fantastic.

Traditionally in Milan it’s served over the risotto alla milanese ( a rich saffron risotto ) with gremolata on top. Not that I’m much of one for tradition, but they are seriously onto something with this combination.

Give this one a shot, it’s 2 hours of your life you won’t get back, but the 30 minutes of eating it afterwards will totally make up for it :)

Lamb Osso Buco - Pearl Barley Risotto alla Milanese