Cold Pressed Coffee Conspiracy Revealed!

Cold pressed coffee. It's really easy to make at home with no special equipment! After a bit of a read, and a chat to some relevant experts, I have had some pretty good success. I'm going to share the love.

I use a 250g bag of beans, which I have ground (coarse) at the coffee shop. To the grounds I add about 1 - 1.5 L of cold water kind, of alternating grounds/water/grounds/water etc. to make sure the coffee is dampened. Leave to steep overnight...

The morning after, carefully strain your brew. I use a fine sieve, but cheesecloth, or a paper coffee filter would also be the go. Some peeps also use a french press / plunger for this too. Store the liquid in the fridge for your enjoyment, chuck the grounds in the garden for the enjoyment of your plants.

The resulting coffee is quite concentrated - normally I put a bout 1/4 of a cup of coffee and top up with milk or water. You could also add some sugar, maple syrup or whatever! The upside is it stays fresh and ready to rock better than hot brewed coffee, up to 2 weeks.


Tips:

• Stronger espresso roast beans work best
• Use filtered or bottled water
• Use clean containers so that your coffee will stay fresh
• Don't stir the grounds at all, just agitate a little at the beginning to remove air pockets
• Keep the stuff cool, if the weather is warm brew it in the fridge
• Steep time can be from about 8 hours to 16 hours - the longer the stronger
• Try out your favorite / different beans (my favorite so far is Saint Coffee's PNG sundried beans)
• Grind as per fresh press / plunger ie. quite coarse
  

I think this covers it all, hit me up with questions if I have missed anything. This is really easy to do at home, and I urge you to try it. For junkies like me, it's a good alternative when you have to be sleeping away from your espresso machine, at some philistine friend's house that doesn't have coffee facilities.

Enjoy.

D

Thai Chili Jam

Here's a quick and easy recipe favourite of mine. 

It's great on fish or even just as a spread for crackers and cheese. 

Thai Chili Jam.

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil.
• 6 red onions, diced.
• 10 red birds-eye chilies, chopped. 
• 6 cloves of garlic, thickly sliced.
• 2 knobs of ginger, chopped.
• 100g dried shrimp.
• 3 tbs tamarind paste.
• 70g palm sugar, chopped.
• 2 tbs fish sauce.
• 1/4 cup of water.

Heat the oil in a wok, add the onion.

Cook for several minutes until golden brown.

Add the chilies, garlic and ginger and cook for a further few minutes. 

Add the fried shrimp and cook for a further few minutes.

Add the tamarind paste, palm sugar and fish sauce. Stir and cook until sugar has completely dissolved and the tamarind paste has lost some of it's 'punch'. 

Remove from the heat and add the mixture, along with the water to a food processor and blend until the mixture has come together. 

Store in a sterilised jar with a bit of oil on top so it will keep and refrigerate.    

Campos Coffee

Breakfast & Brunch seems to have been the biggest craze in food for the last little while (right behind the horrific amounts of Spanish/tapas inspired eateries...I'm yet to be converted still), and as a result everyone seems to be on their own individual search for 'the best' breakfast spot in Brisbane. Is it Gunshop? Tognini's? Perhaps even Anouk? A special mention must go to Anouk by the way, whose menu had my dining buddy and I in a painfully slow decision making process - a heads up: if your indecisive and hungry, Anouk will tease you with its tasty menu, and once you think you have finally decided, you'll spot the extensive list of delicious daily specials and be back to square one. But this isn't a post about Anouk. It's a recommendation for another breakfast hot spot - the favorite of my Anouk dining buddy - and certainly the current front runner in my own search for Brisbane's Best Brekky.



Campos Coffee is the name, and a consistently good brekky experience is the game. The coffee brand was started in Sydney originally, and they consider themselves 'the coffee specialists'. I'm definitely not a coffee connoisseur - although I can tell between good and horrific - but if the food is as good as it is and it's only their second priority, then I'm gonna agree with my taste buds and say that the coffee is definitely a solid brew.


I visited Campos for the second time, mid-morning on a Thursday. Even at this time there was only one table free, but thankfully nothing near the crowds of Gunshop. The weekend, however, is a completely different story. The first time I visited I was in the mood for sweet, so I tried the banana and pear bread with vanilla mascarpone. It was just perfect, and if I hadn't discovered my own personal recipe for a killer banana bread, I'd say it would be the best I've had. My dining aquantences on this occasion had the traditional eggs benedict, which looked fantastic, and apparently (Ok, I MAY have snuck a taste in myself) tasted delicious too.



On my second visit I decided it was time to get the real hot breakfast experience. I ordered the bubble & squeek hash with semi-sundried tomatoes, watercress, grilled haloumi, a perfectly poached egg and amazing chive hollandaise (see above). Again it was unfaultable and simply delicious! My friends both ordered the Asparagus with sourdough bread, fried pancetta, poached egg and brie (see below). Equally as perfect and great! The Campos 'Fry Up's were coming thick and fast out of the kitchen and looked fantastic and huge, giving me a clearer idea of what I will order next time. Although, with a food menu that is changed every couple of weeks by the head chef, who knows what breakfast goodies I'll be tempted with next time!


You definitely have to check this place out: 11 Wandoo St, Fortitude Valley (behind James Street Markets). The entrance leaves something to be desired, as you feel like your walking into the back-dock area, but once your inside you can forget about all that and get stuck into, arguably, 'Brisbane's Best Breakfast'

Food Inspiration

Possibly my favourite blog is Szymon Błaszczyk's 'Inspire Me Now'.

BBQ at the Story Bridge

I feel  ashamed to say it, but today was the first time I had been to the end of Kangaroo Point, in the park next to the Story Bridge. The area almost feels surreal; you've got the river and CBD in addition to the over-towering bridge almost encapsulating, but certainly separating this quiet suburban pocket (if you choose to ignore the busy Story Bridge Hotel further up the street). The ability to view the city from afar, as well as the traditional stress reliever that is the Sunday barbeque was, to say the least; an enjoyable experience.

Late night snacks + coffee? ...or Gelato?

So I'm a sucker for devouring my bodyweight in desserts well past bedtime, in the past this has usually found me at pancake manor in the city, which to be honest is pretty shit, but a bit fun due to the 24/7 aspect of it. Thought it was about time for a change, so I've been on the lookout for cool spots around the place, found a kickass place last night...

Three Monkeys Cafe

Actually, this isn't the place I found last night, but just incase you hadn't heard of it, Three Monkeys in West End, kickass. Go there. Great coffee, great cake. Each time I've been there, the service has been pretty good, coffee within a couple of minutes of ordering it, cool interior, shit all over the walls, and anything from cafe style seats + tables to lounge chairs + coffee tables.

Milany

This one is a bit more out of your way if you live around the Kenmore area, but totally worth it in my opinion. It popped up on Urbanspoon the other night, and definitely don't regret pursuing it. It's in a little cluster of shops, think there's a pizza capers + few Italian restaurants that I walked past to get there, so could always do dinner and then wind up at Milany for dessert.

So the place does gelato, and does it well. I've heard that the best way to judge a gelato bar is to try their pistachio, I decided not to last night, partially because I didn't want to, but also because I don't know what it is supposed to taste like, so I could hardly judge if it was a good one or not. What I did end up getting was a banana split, with bounty, fererro rocher and mango gelato, well, that and a heart attack. Worth it.

My partner in crime got a scoop of cherry ripe and of their dark chocolate gelato. Both of which were amazing, also cheaper than what you'd pay at somewhere like cold rock / baskins, and a hell of a lot better.

Inside is pretty cool, very clean + shiny, huge ass counter showing off all of the different flavours, great menus giving the option of anything from a $4 icecream to a $30 monstrosity that'd feed a family for a week. Seats were cute little couches, and the staff (which were all asian females for some reason...) were lovely, seemed to be enjoying themselves, provided great service.

Thought I had hit absolute gold until I found the downside to it all. My mate also got a flat white. Awful. Holy crap. McCafe does better coffee. Beans were super burnt, milk may as well have been microwaved, and it was hotter than the sun. It is up there with some of the worst stuff I've ever drunk, along side with Dr. Pepper and fish sauce.

All in all, I am definitely going there again, but not if I feel like a coffee. I rarely get coffee late at night anyway, so not too much of a bother for me really, but a bit dodgy knowing it is never really a good option. The gelato was awesome, and the crap they have in the menu looks like it'd be great, so definitely heading back there to try some more out. Worth a visit in my opinion.

Dean Goes Bananas!!

Something has been happening to me of late. I swear I haven't been doing anything differently, but each week the number of bananas in my fruit bowl seems to grow. Don't get me wrong, I love bananas - in fact I start everyday with one - but no matter how much I eat, someone or something seems to keep replenishing the fruit bowl's stocks (I'm looking at you, Mother). So how is this a bad thing? Well, I suppose its not - my vitamin C and potassium levels must be through the roof - but it has got me thinking of ways I can use up these bananas before they turn towards the darkness (their skin that is) and make there mushy mushy way towards the Tuesday morning rubbish collection. So here's what I've come up with:


Option 1: The Classic
Grab one perfectly ripe banana. Peel & Eat.

'The Classic' is for those with a fruit bowl lucky enough to be graced by a Goldilocks banana (read: not to firm, not too soft...its just right!*). The banana may only maintain this 'goldilocks' state for a very small period of time, so please act with haste! No time for recipes, no time for nothing, just get that bad boy into your mouth pronto (yes, an innuendo). If you are feeling a little American, and want to find a way to turn something perfectly healthy into a high calorie (yet obviously delicious) snack, grab a packet of Peanut Butter M&M's (or Reese's Pieces) and push them into your bananas flesh. Enjoy

Note: Reese's Cups do not work

*beware of bears

Option 2: The Smooooth Operator
Grab one ripe-to-overipe banana, various ingredients (see below), and blend.

'The Smooooth Operator' is for those looking for something a little more substantial, and whose banana may be just beyond the Goldilocks zone. It's quick, it's filling, it's nutritious and it's perfect for summer. Traditionally I have tended to stick to a tried and tested low-fat health smoothie I have made for years, but of late I've tried to incorporate everyone's (read: my) favorite summer fruits - mangoes and blueberries! (Of course, being me, I pick the most expensive fruit around) The result? A delicious breakfast that holds you for most of the day! So check it out:

1 cup of skim milk
1 banana
1 mango cheek - (I use canned mangoes for basic affordability)
1 handful of blueberries - (I use frozen, again for affordability)
1 small handful of ice cubes
1 teaspoon of malt
1 big scoop of low - fat mango frozen yoghurt (or natural yoghurt if you want to limit sweetness)
1 teaspoon of honey

At this point I personally add a small handful of rolled oats and just a sprinkling of pumpkin or sunflower seeds, but that may not be everyone's cup of tea. Blend it all up and enjoy getting your daily requirement of fruit, and the majority of your recommended dairy intake, all at breakfast and in about 2 minutes. How smooth!



Option 3: The SNAB (Sensitive New Age Baker)
Grab some over-ripe, mushy, black skinned, grandma's of bananas and get baking.

So, finally getting to the original point of this post, what does one do with a banana too far gone to even consider eating 'raw' (so to speak)? One bakes my friends, one bakes. Our house is very much a banana cake house, but I recently decided to strike out from tradition and veer wildly into the world of banana bread - crazy I know. One thing I always tend to do is attempt to incorporate my favorite flavors at the time into pretty much anything I cook. These 'flavors of the month' can, and have, varied from the rich yellow coloring of turmeric, to chorizo, to cream cheese - making for some spectacularly different (read: not so great) dishes that I would probably have never mentioned to any of you. BUT, this time success was to be had! The last few weeks I have been obsessed with the Asian flavors of Coconut, ginger and lime (as Hana and Jackson will no doubt have picked up on at the Good Food & Wine show. Mmm lime olive oil). Admittedly my tasting of these flavors were limited to thai curries, asian stirfry's and salads, but that was all about to change. My 'New Age' banana bread was about to be born, and after widespread rave reviews (...a couple of people liked it) I suggest it is reborn in your kitchen next time you have neglected the bananas in your fruit bowl to the point of spontaneous implosions (or, preferably, a little bit before this stage). For the creation of the 'New Age' banana bread I took a basic banana bread recipe, and made quite a few changes in order to incorporate the flavors and make it work. Check it out:

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup desiccated or shredded coconut
270ml coconut cream (I use light)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup of glace ginger chopped
1/4 cup of coarsely chopped dates
1/2 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts (or less depending on preference)
The juice and rind of 1 lime

1. Preheat oven to 170°C/150°C fan-forced. Lightly grease and line a loaf pan with baking paper.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Add sugar, coconut, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, glace ginger, walnuts and dates. Stir to combine.
   

3. Place coconut cream, eggs, banana, vanilla and lime juice and rind in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Gently fold into flour mixture. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

The lime flavor tends to get a little lost in the cooking process, but this can be enhanced if served with a vanilla and lime marscapone, or a lime cream cheese frosting. Personally I enjoyed this banana bread best when served warm with a dusting of icing sugar, and a little bit of butter.



Now who ever said going bananas was a bad thing?

Sous-Vide

After long resisting the movement of sous-vide cooking as unnecessary and tedious, I decided to swallow my pride and try it out (as a quick background, sous-vide is slow cooking vacuum packed protein in a hot water bath around 60degrees - and we're back). And now, I'm convinced. My first foray in the art was not without tribulation (we'll get to that), but I must admit, the end product was an effect unreproducible through any other cooking method.

Quick facts

Dish: Sesame crusted chicken in a Thai salad.

Cooking time: long.

Result: great success.

The first hurdle encountered was the absence of a vacuum packer, so the brainstorming began. Many ideas were discarded for obvious reasons; sticky tape, surgical gloves, plastic laminate and condoms to name a few. Although the later might be revisited when Masterfoods and Trojan team up to release a line of gourmet herb and spice flavoured-condoms. Trojan gourmet - every sausage deserves the masterchef treatment. But i digress.

Eventually the duct tape of the kitchen, the ever trusty, glad wrap was settled on. So came problem two - no thermal immersion circulator. This was tediously circumvented using a large saucepan placed half over the smallest flame I could produce. Surprisingly, my rather imprecise meat thermometer informed me this set up maintained the temperature at an ideal ~63 degrees.

After generously coating the chicken in whisked egg and sesame seeds, it was thrice wrapped in glad wrap, then wrapped once more for good measure. This was placed in the water and weighed down with a smaller saucepan lid. 1:45hr later it was removed and the praying that it was cooked began. As I sliced into that tender, succulent chicken a wave of relief enveloped the kitchen as a slice fell away to reveal a perfectly cooked centre. On to a salad of Cos lettuce, some red lettuce, carrot, capsicum and sugar snap peas it went. After drizzling with a refreshing lime and chilli Thai dressing, it was complete.

The end result was the most incredibly moist and soft pieces of chicken I've ever had. Sous-vide literally degrades the proteins in meat, and if left for another 30mins or so i would hazard a guess that it would have turned to mush. But as it was, it was held together just enough to melt in your mouth. The biggest improvement I could have made would have been to sear off the chicken after removing from the water. This would have further evoked the flavours of the sesame seeds and crisped them nicely to contrast the soft centre (much like a Lindor Lindt chocolate), but ultimately I was ready to eat and the 30seconds that would have been required seemed too much.

While I would like to claim awesomeness, I found this website to be an invaluable reference and highly recommend it to anybody trying sous-vide for the first time. My set up was perhaps (read definitely) not the best option for sous-vide, but when faced with price tags approaching $1000 for a good immersion circulator, I must say this is a perfectly acceptable alternative for the occasional dabble. Other than the unique texture, the biggest benefit in sous-vide can be seen in the uniformity of the cooked product. Instead of having the centre at the perfect temperature with the temperature (and associated overcookedness) increasing towards the circumference, the entire cross section will show the same perfect level of doneness.

This is definitely a technique I would recommend trying at least once (if you're not confident perhaps use something other than chicken). Or at least, order it when you see it on a restaurant menu next time.

Happy Eating!

Tasting Whiskey

I recently got my hands on a pretty little bottle of The Macallan 'Whiskey Maker's Edition' Single Malt Whiskey. I thought it was about time I learnt how to drink and appreciate a fine scotch. 

British Masala

Dean Vowles discovers Curry contentment in London’s East End


Six Months, twenty-three countries, countless train journeys, more money than I care to recall, and a plane load - I’d like to think – of new friends. I contemplated what I had achieved, what I had experienced in my life since I left Australia. I’m not going to lie - I was pretty impressed. I left home a fresh faced, clean-cut, innocent, run-of-the-mill nineteen year old. Six months later, and in less than twenty-four hours, I would be returning to my homeland a travel worn, under-slept, stubble ridden twenty year old with hair resembling the household mop. Would my friends still know me? What would my parents think of my lifestyle of recent? How would I find work? These questions, and many more (Will that girl still have a killer body?), are what I should have been thinking about as my once-in-a-lifetime trip drew to its inevitable end. I should have been researching ways that I could somehow stay longer, trick the visa system, find some long forgotten wad of travellers cheques in my travel folder. Memories should have been flooding through my head, overwhelming me with feelings of anxiety and sorrow in prospect of my return home. But that wasn’t how I’d been living this trip, and I definitely wasn’t going to start acting that way now. And, to be blatantly honest, all I really wanted – all I really felt like - was a curry.

I Put Up Some Blog Links

I have decided to add links to some food and beverage blogs 

that I have frequented.

Here's a preview of the first few I've added.

The search for the best Brisbane brekky...

As a giant food lover (I just can't get enough of the stuff), and an even more giant lover of breakfast I, for some time now, have been on the search for the best breakfast in Brisbane. Armed with two like-minded, breakfast loving friends, I've traveled from the west to the east (side of Brisbane that is) and, whilst we have had some truly delicious meals, we're yet to find a place that really tantalizes our taste buds, is reasonably priced and doesn't have a waiting time of 2 hours (Gunshop Cafe I'm looking at you..). The following are the places we have tried thus far:

2011 Courier-Mail Food and Wine Guide Winners

Oh baby, is Brisbane becoming a haven for food or what?


Here are some select winners;

Alchohol Under The Microscope.

CyberCity 2002

Ok you are probably looking at the title of this entry and saying to yourself, "Umm, why is he reviewing a game arcade?" Well, for any westerner in Brisbane it is quite difficult to find any decent Chinese food, without the help of some insider knowledge. The general western preconception with any chinese food in this country, comes down to a few dishes...Mongolian Lamb, Beef and black bean and the infamous Sweet and sour pork. This is rather sad as the Chinese possess probably the oldest and most diverse food cultures on the globe due to the nation's historic feudal history as well as due the country's diversity in regards to its size and numerous provinces.

[Bunker] Specialty Coffee

Bunker is one of the coolest coffee joints in brisbane. Situated on Railway Terrace in Milton, this old, overgrown garage has been converted into a fully functioning cafe. Using Blackstar roasted coffee beans, you are guaranteed a fantastic coffee.

7th Annual Brisbane Multicultural festival!

Last Sunday, Dean and myself enjoyed what seemed to be the best day Brisbane has experienced weather-wise for months now. There was no better place to be on sunday than the Roma Street Parklands as it was converted into a sensory-overload of sounds, sights and smells.  What better place to be ticking-off international cuisines than that?!

Welcome

This blog is simply designed to keep members of FARC updated with other members culinary experiences. Please have no hesitation in adding to the blog in text, picture or even video format! Ask Dean to invite you to become an author and start keeping track of the delightful eats you digest.

Enjoy!