Starter
Garlic Bread
Main
Chicken Breast wrapped in Prosciutto and pan fried (Chicken Saltimbocca)
Mushroom Risotto with Truffle Oil
Steamed Broccolini
Dessert
Tiramisu
Scott and I were wondering what other desserts or recipies use coffee or more specifically espresso in their ingredients. I thought of some chocolate cake recipies and even a chocolate mousse that have coffee in them. I used 2 double shot long blacks in the Tiramisu - Yum!
I made my first babycino this morning for Adrian's son Nicholas when they came over for brekky and to borrow some movies for Rowena who's hurt her neck - get better soon Row! I wasn't really sure how to make one so had to ask Adrian. I over frothed some milk and scooped the thicker foam with a bit of milk into a small espresso cup and sprinkled some chocolate powder over the top. After first shaking his head at the proffered cup and spoon which I placed in front of the little guy we soon heard the clinking of metal on ceramic - I must have got it right :)
Any tips for my future Babycino attempts? Do you put some coffee in or is that a no no? How much chocolate? What should the foam to milk ratio be? What size cup do you use? Maybe I should do a Barista course ;)
We're about to leave for the airport so I thought I'd keep my promise and just quickly make a holiday post. We've seen heaps. Done some awesome driving tours around the top of the North Island - Taupo, Rotorua, Coromadel Peninsula. Visited lots of geothermal thingys. Seen heaps of cows and only a few sheep?!? Paid an arm and a leg for petrol $2.17/litre - curse my right foot! Eaten great food. Drank a few tasty beers and a couple of decent espressi. All in all good times. See you very soon.
A near perfect Saturday morning today, except for the lack of sleep in?!? Woke my usual time of 0600 (not that usual on a Saturday but it happened) and threw together some banana and raspberry bread and whacked it in the oven. Set a timer beside Kate's sleeping head to take it out when done.
Up to church to mow the lawns at 0800. Nothing like pushing an engine on wheels to get the heart going. Beautiful temperature this morning if not a little dull (when is daylight savings starting?). Finished by 0930.
Doppio ristretto lattes and warm b&r bread with Guthers and Matt Fuller (on the mowing team). Now off to Isaac's 1st birthday picnic in Carlo. I'm taking my frisbee! Love the frisbee - I used to play ultimate for the Uni team back in the day - it's been a while though. Fun!
Check out the art that I knocked out for Guthers!
(... Ribs)
I got my baby back yesterday - yesss! I had my first day back at Uni so while I was over that way I called the 'doctor' on the off chance it was ready. It's now pumping out the good stuff. Although the beans I bought just before it went away might be getting a little old they are better than plunger to my palate - I'll work through them quickly ;)
Went to this kicking cafe in Mosman on the way home from our 5th anniversary stay the city. Met up with Lach (the bro) and Joy (the wife). There's a massive Synesso and a tricked out Mazzer grinder - they cut a hole in the back and whacked on a sizable cooling fan (like a computer) - they said it works a treat. The barista even has a tat of a group handle on his foreram and it seems the rugged unshaven look is the staff uniform. The use a tasty bean from South Melbourne by St Ali. Had a double ristretto latte then a piccolo. Kate had a couple of lattes. Lach had large flat white in what I now call 'Sambo's dream cup' - solid heavy with a dark brown glaze on the outside (you can get them from Cafe Bianchi). Every cup was sweet as! Anyway check it out - it's off Military Rd on Raglan St.
Pablo & Rusty's (new website) just got a 3 group Synesso! A friend just had a go on it and was amazed at it's beauty (well duh!) and how forgiving it was. I reckon it'd have to be one of the first in NSW?!?
Just arrived home from my second of four night shifts after making an unscheduled pit stop at Withams Coffee roasters after a spur of the moment desire to get fresh beans. They great thing is they are 3 blocks from the hospital and just off my route home. It's bean a while (he! he! he!) since I had any of their stuff - I had easy access to it when we lived at Gordon and can't really think why I stopped because it's fantastic. They've a new logo, bought a massive new roaster, started using a WEGA machine and have a new barista who is awesome (I had a hot chocolate - beautiful milk). I bought 250g of the Super Mocha ($10) a brother of an old blend they had called Columbia Medellin Excelso to which I was rather partial.
I'm also listening to a pommy bloke called Scott Matthews - sweet tunes! Check him out here.
Catch you all later. I'm off to bed!
Kate and I spent the weekend serving (literally) our brothers and sisters at Cumbo Uni Church. We cooked for them on their weekend away while they heard talks on Eschatology or 'the end times' (I had to ask). They had a great time and so did we. It was great to be a part of a small Uni Church again after our Mars Hill Anglican Church experience at Macquarie Uni a few years ago.
The highlights were pancakes, lots of apple crumble and choc chip cookies. This one is from the dough that didn't fit on the trays - so we made a huge one!!!
We also went to Fresh on Sam and Soph's recommendation. I had a piccolo of their fair trade Sumatran Single Origin and of their House blend. Both very good! Amazingly we ran into Libby and Matt as they were also following Sam and Soph's advice while in the mountains for the CMS Federal AGM (I think?!?!). They were roasting as you can see on the embedded blogger video below (new feature!)
Engage (if you haven't heard) is the latest conference to be added to the KCC line up. Our church (along with many others) is going as an informal group. We are going up with our Bible study group and all but one are coming, some of whom had never even heard of Katoomba conventions! This is really exciting as we are looking forward to some great teaching and a good time to get to know one another better! I especially looking forward to visiting Fresh for some fair trade delights after Sam & Soph's recommendations and revisiting Blue Mountains Chocolate - yum!
Has anyone else heard the rumors about Engage next year?
- both Mark Driscoll & Don Carson are the speakers for next year!
- if you have tickets for this year you are guaranteed one for next year (possibly two)?
Also check out the Engage Blog. Some interesting thoughts especially one on "whether to buy or rent"? I commented on this one - check out the discussion here.
Thought all you other coffee snobs out there will be pleased to know that International Roast has had a face lift. At least they show what you're getting (no false advertising here unlike Gloria Jeans).
A short time ago Michelle of Knock Box notoriety asked some of us coffee snobs for our feedback on a new (signature) blend she had created. She also asked for name suggestions and the above is what she may have decided on (it was roasted on Tony's last day as PM). She also made hints to the possibility of starting what would be the premier coffee snob go-to joint on the Central Coast (ie. their own cafe with 4 blends available) - sounds like a ripper idea. I'd definitely drop in when visiting my Grandma who lives up there. Here is the latest (and probably my greatest yet) art made on top of the very tasty coffee - nice one Michelle.
Here are a couple of cool coffee links that I've found recently that you should definitely check out. One is a Flickr album called Coffee Porn which is totally clean except for the naked group handle ;) - it's clean too.
The other is a photo journal of a complete rebuild of a La Marzocco machine that this guy off bought eBay - buyer beware!
I've also put some piccys of my latest latte art below as I've been commenting on other peoples (Guthers, Michelle) so thought it'd be only fair to open it up for comment on mine.
I've the day off today so I've finally had a chance to give the Lovell Rosters beans a go. Here are some piccys. The demi cup was the second shot I pulled and is probably the best and darkest crema I've ever seen come out of my machine - I turned it into a macchiato. The bean has a great aroma and a solid taste with some lingering bitterness (it's a fairly dark roast). I like it, well done J & A!
I've ordered some Lovell Roaster's Brazil / Ethiopian Blend from the Lovell boys (John & Aido) who's little enterprise is slowly taking off. They're blending and roasting at home - with a bread maker I think - after buying sacks of single origin green beans from all over. I tried their decaf at Scotty's (also a Lovell) a week ago and was quite impressed with it (and at his skills on the machine).
Just found their blog here. Check it out. Cool photos like the one at left which has the caption "Two ways to live" :)
I'll you you know how the bean goes down!
The Search began today!
I went into Parramatta (the official search area) after dropping Kate at work. I had one hour for $1 at the parking station to get tasting...
The only suggestion (sort of) I'd had was from SamR and that was the cafe that's started in place of his old tamping ground 'CT's' on the corner of Macquarie St and Horwood Place. They were pretty busy as they have a '$2 take away before 10am' deal which I took them up on for a short time... before I tipped the tasteless, Aero milked, over heated liquid down the closest gutter grate and dropped the cup in the bin. Not a great start :(
Not to be defeated I looked up and across the road I saw a beacon of hope, a Toby's Estate umbrella outside the unusually named (and logoed) Sea Food Connection. I walked over and met Ernest, the barista and co-owner, a Filipino bloke who chose Toby's because it was the best. It's not a busy cafe by any stretch of the imagination (I was there for about 40 minutes and he did 4 coffees). I ordered a latte first, which he served in a tall slim white mug (not a great choice) - it tasted ok but the milk was a bit rough. He then cranked out a couple for some customers as I cringed at the milk he poured into their paper cups. We talked coffee for a bit, I let on that I was a fan, he offered me a crack at the machine, I pulled a shot a bit fast and covered it with some passable art, he was impressed. I watched him make a another coffee, offered my (maybe not so) humble advice - tamp harder (slow down the shot) and practice his milk. I had to leave while he out the back taking deliveries but as I coughed up the $6 for my two coffees I noticed a Bible verse magnet on the register - definitely a topic of conversation for next time. Not the end of my quest but he has potential...
The Search will continue! Stay tuned for more updates...
I've the next two days off. At the moment I'm at Kate's school after dropping her at work and will soon head over to Eastwood for a coffee from Centro and a crossiant from the Korean bakery near Franklins. I just read a coffee related post from Guthers here and have been further inspired - I've been thinking about trying to find a decent coffee in Parramatta (the closest hub of civilisation to the Toose Hoose). I think it might require some cash and a bit of time with the intention of making a coffee crawl through Parra CBD. I thought I'd start by letting my fingers do the walking and call a few cafes asking the following and collating the answers:
I've just arrived home from night shift (the first of four) but had to post this. It was the last shift for one of the girls (Mel - who's hurt her back and has to change jobs to rest it) so the night staff went out for breakfast in Crows Nest at a little place called Crow Zone Cafe.
I had to order a decaf flat white or I wouldn't have a chance of going to sleep. It wasn't a great coffee but they had their very own mini coffee roaster sitting on the bench next to the machine. They had it going most of the time which was pretty noisy and made that burnt, bitter smell of roasting green beans in the cafe even though it had it's own chimney? It was still pretty cool!
The source of many cold disagreements and heated discussions - whether or not to freeze your coffee beans. This article brings some interesting contributions to the to and fro. If you can't be bothered reading the whole thing the conclusions were:
Two months is safe: Freshly roasted coffee that is immediately frozen after roasting in a near airtight container in a very cold freezer, can be kept undisturbed in the freezer for at least 2 months and be expected to produce espressos that are not obviously inferior to those made from fresh coffee that has never been frozen.
Freezing does not accelerate staling after defrosting: At least over a period of time extending to about 8 days after roasting, using the roasting and freezing procedure used here, there was no evidence that previously frozen coffee deteriorates more quickly after defrosting than does coffee that has never been frozen.
The past few days have been awesome. Three great coffees at three different cafes.
1. Pablo & Rusty's - Gordon 1.2.07
Jem is now working here and has been well trained (h/t Sam). Don't ask if the bean is Toby's Estate - it's their own blend (I made this mistake as their logo is very similar to Toby's. Whoops!)
2. Campos - Newtown 3.2.07
I don't think I need to sing it's praises too much, just that if you haven't been here - go! We went on the morning of Sam's wedding (more on this later when I get the photos - it was exciting too) and weren't disappointed.
3. Centro Cafe - Eastwood 5.2.07
I visited here this morning after dropping Kate off at school (h/t Guthers). Friendly and skilled Barista at a cafe less than 10mins from the Toose Hoose - Glorious!
