Marcus' Gourmet Kitchen Blog

Choosing Great Coffee

Log on to any coffee blog or newsgroup and you may begin to wonder, “What is with this whole coffee thing anyway? You will find that many people are as passionate about their coffee as they are about their wine and tea! At www.distinctive-décor.com it is our goal to demystify, or at least simplify, the coffee world in this short informational segment.

The truth is that volumes of books have been written on the subject of coffee and it is impossible to be thorough here, but we will do our best. Understanding the intricacies of coffee is akin to understanding the complex worlds of both wine and tea. The various names of coffees, coffee bean types, degrees of roast and a few other tidbits will be explored here.

What’s in a Name?

Choosing coffee based solely on its name is a bad idea. Names given to coffees are misleading since names may be attached to designate the region where the coffee was grown, to describe how dark it is roasted or a name may be attached arbitrarily by the roaster. Suffice to say there are thousands of names.

What Type of Bean?

When you go to your local coffee house, supermarket, online retailer or local roaster (if you should be so lucky to have a local roaster) you need to know what type of beans you are buying. There only are two types of coffee beans: robusta and arabica. Robusta beans are cheaper to produce, contain twice the caffeine of Arabica beans and generally have a harsh flavor. Robusta beans are used primarily by the instant and canned coffee producers.

Arabica beans are superior to robusta beans and can be purchased anywhere. However, you need to be aware that there are varying qualities of Arabica beans in the marketplace. It is good to know a local roaster who you can trust to give you the highest quality beans—again, if you are so lucky to have a local roaster—or you can join a coffee newsgroup to find opinions and options on where the best beans are to be found. Update: I found a local roaster in my small town and his coffee is superb!

What About Roast Strength?

This depends totally on your palate and the type of coffee you are serving.

Cinnamon Roast- The beans are roasted to a Cinnamon color, hence the name. The brew will be acidic and fruity.

Light-medium roast- usually called “Columbian” or American Roast. The beans are dry (no oil on the surface of the bean). The brew will taste slightly acidic and lively.

Medium roast- This roast is often called “breakfast,” light espresso, Viennese and is most likely used in a blend. The beans should have small droplets of oil on them.

Dark roast—Used for dark espresso and may be called “Italian Roast.” The beans are dark in color and shiny because of the beans’ oil escaping. Extra dark roast- Also called French roast, these beans are intensely deep in color and have a smoky taste. The beans are roasted thoroughly and if they taste burnt they have been roasted too much. Throw them out!

I advise you to try various roast strengths and choose what you like. Always choose the roast strength YOU like.

Storing Your Beans

Coffee is like bread in that it absolutely hates air. As soon as air contacts the surface of the bean it begins to loose its flavor and depth. Always buy your coffee whole bean and store in an air tight container or roll down the top of your bag and secure firmly with a rubber band and store in your freezer. The best storage is to keep your beans at room temperature and use within a week. If you buy in bulk be sure to separate what you will use in that week and freeze the rest in an air tight container, bag or vacuum pack it for the freezer.

Check out our full line of La Pavoni espresso makers and coffee grinders imported from Italy. Also, check out our airtight canisters, coffee scoops, coffee tampers, and frothing pitchers.

Entertaining with Judy

We have a new blogger on our site, www.distinctive-decor.com. Once a small bakery owner and now an avid home entertainer and gourmand, it is with great pleasure that I introduce Judy.  Judy,  a customer and friend, will give tips and recipes about anything that strikes her fancy.  She is an accomplished baker and will provide insight into that world.  She has lived in New England, San Francisco and numerous other places.  She has eaten the finest foods and made them. Let me warn you in advance that she is a Viking advocate.  She loves all Viking products and will refer to them frequently.

Let me be honest with you.  I am a terrible baker.  The world of baking is too precise  and structured.  I like to throw in things to my taste.  Needless to say, my baking leaves much to be desired.  The problem is that I can make the same cake recipe twice, being as precise as I can, and the two cakes will be different.  I have asked Judy to be our baker "on call" and if she can't take away my baking phobia, maybe she can, at least, alleviate it.  Check out her blog "Entertaining with Judy" to see for yourself.

Pot Stickers

I made pot stickers this Saturday and they were quite easy and tasted great.  I used a technique that I saw on Alton Brown's Food Network show, "Good Eats."  I think Alton has a quirky and informative, yet enjoyable, show and I watch it regularly. I have used wonton skins before when making ravioli and they turned out great.  Wonton skins are basically pasta so its a no-brainer to use them for ravioli, but I had never made my own potstickers.  It is a shame because I am quite fond of them and didn't know how easy making them would be.

When you make pot stickers be sure to use a clad pan.  I suggest you use a 12" clad pan like the KitchenAid Gourmet Excellence 5-Ply Clad Stainless Steel skillet.  Non-stick pans are just too slick and the pot sticker won't stick. They don't get the pot "sticker" moniker for nothing!  Here is the technique in a nutshell:  brush your skillet lightly with vegetable oil over medium-high heat; place the filled potstickers in the skillet and cook for two minutes (they will stick);  after two minutes add 1/3 of a cup of chicken stock and immediately cover; cook for two more minutes.  The steaming action will release the pot stickers from the pan.  Voila!  Remove them from the pan, deglaze (pour water in the hot pan to remove any bits still stuck to the skillet) and start over again.

Serve with a garnish of chopped scallions and drops of soy sauce.

Recipe from Alton Brown's Good Eats Show: Perfect Potstickers

Recipe by Alton Brown, 2004

Show: Good Eats

Episode: Wanton Ways

1/2 pound ground pork
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons ketchup
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
35 to 40 small wonton wrappers
Water, for sealing wontons
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, for frying
1 1/3 cups chicken stock, divided Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Combine the first 11 ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl (pork through cayenne). Set aside.

To form the dumplings, remove 1 wonton wrapper from the package, covering the others with a damp cloth. Brush 2 of the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place 1/2 rounded teaspoon of the pork mixture in the center of the wrapper. Fold over, seal edges, and shape as desired. Set on a sheet pan and cover with a damp cloth. Repeat procedure until all of the filling is gone.

Mocha!

My wife bought a la Pavoni Lusso espresso maker for me for Christmas this year.  It isn't the at the top of the la Pavoni line, but, for me, it is just what I need.  It froths, makes great espresso and has a small footprint; so it doesn't take up too much room on the counter and it looks really nice with its chrome exterior. 

My mother-in-law bought me an inexpensive Mr. Co!!## espresso maker the Christmas before, but it was a goner before I was able to make even 30 cups of espresso.  It had a pressure tank that I had to fill directly and then screw on a gasketed lid.  To say it was cumbersome is an understatement; it was a pain in the rear end!  I was happy to see it croak. (Sorry that you had to learn about this here, D!)  Let's hope she continues to talk to me after reading this!

Back to my little gem of an espresso maker.  Other than its ease of use, this machine makes so much "crema."  (Crema is the coffee froth volume that sits on top of the espresso shot.)  The la Pavoni Lusso is equipped with a milk frother stem that rocks!  It can be converted easily (part included) to automatically draw warm milk out of your container and froth it into your cup.  I don't use it because I like to froth my own milk, but it does take the guesswork out of frothing and ensures that you don't scald your milk.  It will take coffee pods, too, but again, I like to grind coffee and load the "group" myself.  (The group is the little handled contraption you put the coffee in and lock into the maker.)   

[Note:  Buy a frothing pitcher!  When I started using the machine I used coffee mugs in which to froth milk and made huge messes and scalded my hand a time or two.  Yes, I did whimper a little over my spilled milk.  It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out I needed a bona fide frothing pitcher.  I ended up settling on a Cuisipro stainless frothing pitcher and am very happy with it.] 

I make a mocha every morning--err, when I am not running late to work, anyway.  I like to sleep as long as I can, okay!?  I grind just enough whole coffee beans in my la Pavoni burr grinder to make one shot of espresso.  I am not a purist here and use whatever arabica coffee I want that day.  (There are only two types of coffee beans: robusta and arabica.  I will tell you about these in an upcoming blog.)  You should choose coffee that you like, not what some coffee snob tells you to use.  I like a darker roast, but seriously, use what you like.  Who says espresso can be made only one way?

Okay, back to the mocha.  I make one shot of espresso, two shots if I need a little boost.  Then I froth on half a cup of 1% milk.  Yes, the Lusso will froth 1% milk!  Whole milk will almost triple in volume and I suggest using it if your waist can take it.  Pour the frothed milk, one shot of espresso and two squirts of the chocolate syrup, of your choice, into your mug--leave out the chocolate and you have a latte.  (My wife likes to put Ovaltine in hers;  I guess she wants some vitamins in her coffee.  She can have all the Ovaltine she wants--I won't touch the stuff.) I estimate my 1% mocha carries 100 calories--an amount I can incorporate into my daily caloric intake without buying new pants and keeps my kids from rubbing my belly for good luck!

Veggie Omelette

All I can say is WOW! Viking cookware is not only beatiful, ergonomically designed and extremely functional, it has wonderful conduction qualities.  I have a ceramic cooktop in my home and the Viking 13 inch non-stick skillet heated almost as fast as the burners!  This skillet is so conductively responsive that it gave me great control over the breakfast omelette I was cooking this morning.  I have used this skillet many times and it has fast become my favorite non-stick skillet.  Yes, it is pricey, but it is well worth the price.

My wife likes meatless omelettes.  She has a preference for vegetables; she is not a vegetarian by any means, but just tends to turn up her nose at meat, in general.  So I tried something new for her.  I sauted broccoli slaw (found in most supermarkets), julienned onions (cut into thin strips), julienned red bell pepper and garlic, along with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper from my Graviti automatic peppermill (really neat peppermill, by the way), for 2 minutes in butter and olive oil to soften them. 

I added a tablespoon of water to two fork-beaten eggs and poured them into the broccoli slaw mixture.  It was not a traditional omelette in that the slaw was cooked in the eggs instead of folding the omelette over the slaw.  It reminded me of egg foo yung without the brown sauce, and she loved it.  She can't wait to have it again!  While she ate her "egg foo yung"  I settled into my more traditional ham and cheddar omelette--heavy on ham AND cheese, of course!

If you have a vegetarian in the house give this recipe a try.  Use as much of the ingredients as you like, just remember that if you use too much slaw, pepper and onion your omelette will fall apart--or I suppose you could just use more egg!

Look for my port wine omelette recipe soon.  I picked it up from my father-in-law who was a sous chef in the late 60s at a restaurant in Aspen.  It is delicious!