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'.