RogueChef
“It IS all about the TASTE”
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Iced Coffee
It is the hottest this century. By the environmental monitoring system in the lair 104°F. I am NOT cooking anything, unless cooking involves freezing with lots and lots of ice.
Since it has been so hot I’ve curtailed my caffeine intake, and now am suffering from heat stroke and withdrawal. I must do something about this. Maybe a Cafe au Lait with lots and lost of ice. This really is a simple recipe, heavy on milk to sooth stomachs, and COLD ….
Wikipedia says:
There are several ways of preparing iced coffee. Ordinary hot-brewed coffee can be served cold, although this may result in a bitter-tasting product. Cold brewing relies on time, rather than heat, to transfer the coffee flavor to the water. In order to achieve this, ground coffee is soaked in water for hours and then filtered. This may be done in any container, such as a mason jar or French press, although commercialized cold brewing systems also exist.[1]
In more recent times it has become common for coffee shops to offer ‘iced’ versions of their most popular coffee drinks. The iced latte and iced mocha are the two most common examples of this. A quick way of preparing such drinks is to make a small quantity of strong, hot espresso, dissolving the required sweetener/flavorings in the hot liquid and then pouring this directly into a cup of ice cold milk. This method is particularly common in busier coffee shops where rapid customer turnover is required.
Start with a pot of coffee, brewed strong, or as my father would say, “Black as sin, and Hot as hell.” I’ll take that 10 cups of coffee sweeten to taste and chill it. Then I’ll shake 2 cups of the coffee with 2 cups of milk, 2 cups of ice.
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Summer Cooler – Melon-tini
The 4th of July holiday fast approaching, and while everyone else looks for some way to present tired burgers, and limp dogs, I think I’ll look at other things to present to my readers.
Things that cool, refresh and relax… and how refreshing is a cold, crisp sweet bite of watermelon? Take that taste and strain the juice to condense the flavor, add a bit of vodka for a bite of “relax me”, a touch of sugar and lime to balance the flavor and you have a summertime cooler that is “Absolutely Mahvelous.”
The first thing to be done is to prepare the juice, by taking the red flesh of a watermelon and crushing it and straining through a cheesecloth overnight to separate the pulp from the lovely juice. One can use red fleshed watermelon or yellow fleshed watermelon.
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Frozen Blender Drinks – Daiquiri / Smoothies
A light little refresher / relaxer to cut the heat, and sooth the mind, almost as good as plunge into a vat of ice tea chilled to 34F….
Some might consider these as “girly drinks”…
Ah, WRONGO, BUFFALO BREATH…
The daiquirí was one of the favorite drinks of writer Ernest Hemingway and President John F. Kennedy.
Daiquiri (pronounced /ˈdækəri/, is a family of cocktails whose main ingredients are rum, lime juice, and sugar or other sweetener. There are several versions, but those that gained international fame are the ones made in the El Floridita bar in Havana, Cuba.
Originally the drink was served in a tall glass packed with cracked ice. A teaspoon of sugar was poured over the ice and the juice of one or two limes was squeezed over the sugar. Two or three ounces of rum completed the mixture. The glass was then frosted by stirring with a long-handled spoon. Later the Daiquirí evolved to be mixed in a shaker with the same ingredients but with shaved ice. After a thorough shaking, it was poured into a chilled flute glass. In more recent times it has become a drink blended with cracked ice or (shudder) ice cream.
One can exclude the alcohol from the more modern versions and deliver a “smoothie” or a blended, chilled, sometimes sweetened beverage made from fresh fruit (fruit smoothie). In addition to fruit, many smoothies include crushed ice, frozen fruit, honey or frozen yogurt, although some smoothies are 100% fruit. Some may also contain syrup and ice ingredients.
Besides consider that special person in your life melting when you demonstrate your new found proficiency with that symbol of verile masculinity, the Bar Blender…
Blender Basics
Whether you are creating Smoothies, coffee based drinks, or the classics of frozen margaritas or daiquiris, there are a few basic tips that will help you get the most from your blender.
- Start Slow Start at a low speed and gradually increase speed until you get the consistency you want. If it is too thin add a bit more frozen fuit, if it is too thick add a bit more ice and continue to blend.
- Frozen Fruit Most of the Daiquiri’s / Smoothies have some form of fruit involved. Starting with already frozen fruit will help maintain the temperature and the consistency of your frozen drink.
- Add liquids first Again the success of a frozen drink depends on control of the consistancy, and this means controling the temperature and the formation / reduction of ice crystals. Starting with liquid ingredients, (I suggest cooling them first) will allow you to add frozen ingredients in a manner to control the texture of the final product.
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Meatless Mondays – Bananas Foster Pudding
Once again, I’ve bough fruit, and while most of it has been devoured, some of it has not been eaten as a whole, and will have to be disguised in some way to ensure its consumption.
Banana pudding is a dessert common in the Southern United States, generally consisting of repeated layers of sweet custard, cookies (usually Vanilla Wafers) and sliced bananas placed in a dish, baked and served, sometimes with whipped cream or meringue on top. I’ve built this in parfait glasses, scooped on to a plate / bowl, in individual bowls. One tip is to give the banana slices a bath in lemon juice to stop enzyme actions that turn them dark and slimy in minutes.
The real trick is to make the custard yourself and add that special rouge chef twist, bananas cooked and coated in a run / banana liquor and brown sugar sauce. (AKA Banana’s Foster)
On overiew of constructing this desert is as follows:
- Cook custard
- Layer cookies, custard, banana’s
- Add cream topping
- Chill
- Serve
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Champagne Cocktails
As the jet lag fades, so do the memories of the London run. But in keeping with the overall Bond feeling, I really must turn my eye to the Bond Girls and their drinks.
It is quite safe to say the all drank champagne, and in many guises, so we will examine a small number of those…
Wikipedia says :
Champagne is a sparkling wine produced by inducing the in-bottle secondary fermentation of the wine to effect carbonation. It is produced exclusively within the Champagne region of France, from which it takes its name.
The primary grapes used in the production of Champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier. Through international treaty, national law or quality-control/consumer protection related local regulations, most countries limit the use of the term to only those wines that come from the Champagne appellation. In Europe, this principle is enshrined in the European Union by Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status. Other countries, such as the United States, have recognized the exclusive nature of this name, yet maintain a legal structure that allows certain domestic producers of sparkling wine to continue to use the term “champagne” under limited circumstances. The majority of US produced sparkling wines do not use the term “champagne” on their labels and some states, such as Oregon, ban producers in their states from using the term as it can be confusing to consumers.
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Affogato, Espresso over Home Made Ice Cream
I love deserts, and I always love coffee with my desert, but this from Il Vicolo was absolute simplicity, and a total joy to consume.
This is one restaurant, I will visit when ever I can, preferably for dinner as it does seem to be a mob scene at lunch.
An affogato or Italian for drowned is a coffee-based beverage or dessert. It usually takes the form of a scoop of vanilla gelato or ice cream topped with a shot of hot espresso, for a try roguechef twist I’ll a a shot of Kahlua or Amaretto..
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Stout Stew over Polenta
Again, we are playing hot and cold with the temperatures outside. Seems the next couple of days are going to be coolish, so time for a stew to go over my new culinary plaything, (Polenta)…But I want a hearty, beefy, chunky, tasty, stew. You know the one that all the canned stew claim to be but always taste like beef flavored library paste with vague vegetable chunks floating in it… A real stew with chunks of no so Gucci beef simmered in a rich broth thickened with a browned roux seasoned with fresh herbs and wonderious spices…. But for the rogue chef twist, I’ll add a nice stout beer to the dish for an extra flavor kick.
Wikipedia says:
A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables (such as carrots, potatoes, beans, peppers and tomatoes etc.), meat, poultry, sausages and seafood. While water can be used as the stew-cooking liquid, wine, stock, and beer are also common. Seasoning and flavorings may also be added. Stews are typically cooked at a relatively low temperature (simmered, not boiled), allowing flavors to mingle.
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Hot Drinks – Hot Spiked Tea
Crap, All the denizens at the lair have had a cold / sinus problem. Now with all the cold, wet, and chills, I feel it coming on. I need to take evasive action, and try a peremptory strike on this before it gets out of hand.
The last time I got tagged with a similar issue, one of my clients took me to a little bar on 22nd street, for hot green tea, ginger and vodka drink. The tea warmed me, the ginger helped to cut the mucus, and the vodka fumes helped to clear my head. Then again after two pots of this, neither of us were very clear headed….
Now to make a ginger infused vodka takes a bit of planning. I use 1 fifth of vodka and a good hand of ginger. I peel a fresh ginger hand, (use a full hand), and bake it until it starts to brown and become fragrant, (~20 minutes @ ~350F), the baked ginger and any liquor expressed are then mashed (I use a food processor) with an amount of vodka sufficient to produce a very wet slurry. The slurry is then added back to a bottle of vodka and the bottle is sealed and rested for a week.
After resting the vodka is filtered / strained (I use a old coffee filter rig for this) and returned to a clean bottle.
This is mixed 1 part of vodka to 3 parts of Taureg / Mint / Green Tea, along with a decent squeeze of lemon juice.
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