Just stumbled over this on the internet, but HOLY CRAP you can make “Cold-Brewed” coffee!?! Has anyone tried this? If so how did you like it? Found these instructions and am mixing up a batch as I type!
Here is an excerpt:
Ok, your first response to "cold-brewing" was probably "what the.... you can't cold-brew coffee!" Everything you hear about brewing coffee, and particularly espresso, talks about getting the temperature hot enough to do the job right.
But when we talk about applying heat to coffee, we are really talking about fast brewing, or brewing-on-demand. We are talking about extracting the flavor elements quickly. That is NOT always necessary, though. If you are willing to do your brewing in advance of when you want to drink your coffee, then cold-brewing is an option.
Cold versus Hot
Cold brewing takes time. However, it dissolves through the grounds only certain elements of the coffee. Surprisingly enough, about 90% of the flavor elements and the normal caffeine content come through this way, while only about 15% of the oils and acids will. It WILL change the taste of your coffee, but not the way you might think. It will strongly concentrate those most volatile flavor elements that most people like, making "super-flavor" coffee. The flavor elements you like about a given coffee will probably be up to twice as strong, yet the overall brew will have far less bite and acidity.
Is this a good thing? For people who like the acid and bite, which is part of the attraction of strong coffee, they may not like cold brewing. Other people take one sip and say "Oh my God, that is fantastic." Our recommendation is simple: Try it once or twice and see if you like it. Also, different varieties will respond to cold brewing differently, so it's hard to predict.
This Sept 22nd is the Mid Autumn Day Festival in China, a culturally significant and important Chinese celebration about something important that I can't be bothered to remember. All I know is I get a little time off work for it, and most importantly, you can get mooncakes everywhere! They are small, dense pastries that have a variety of regional tastes; each area of China prepares them differently as per their local culture and style of cuisine.
My company gives us mooncakes every year, and this year's looks awesome. They're from Starbucks! This link to the Chinese Starbucks page is in English, so check it out. They look really good.
I will provide personal pictures once I start to eat them.
Edit: Found an English version of the mooncake promotion page, so replaced the Chinese link with that.
The eight finalists for the Sixth Annual Big Tex Choice Awards were announced Wednesday. Vendors are competing for Best Taste and Most Creative. A panel of three judges will chose the winners on September 6, 2010. Unfortunately the event is not open to the public. Make plans now to attend the State Fair of Texas September 24 through October 17, 2010.
Deep Fried S’mores Pop Tart: Pop Tart with a sensational chocolate, peanut butter, s’mores flavor is lightly battered & deep fried. Hot out of the fryer the sinfully diet-busting treat is drizzled with chocolate syrup and topped with whipped cream.
Deep Fried Frozen Margarita: You’ll have to break out your ID for this treat. Sweet & creamy funnel cake batter is deliciously coupled with margarita ingredients. Fried, dusted with a tangy lemon/lime mixture and lightly spritzed with south of the border flavor, it’s served in a salt-rimmed glass. 21 and over, ID required. No joking.
Fernie’s Fried Club Salad: They took a healthy snack and fried it up Texas-style. A super colossal 12” spinach wrap surrounds generous layers of juicy diced ham & chicken, shredded iceberg, crunchy carrot strips, ripe cherry tomatoes, shredded sharp cheddar and hickory smoked bacon. Deep fried until lightly crispy; topped with deep-fried sour dough croutons on a stick & served on a bed of shredded romaine lettuce. Choice of creamy Ranch, Thousand Island or Caesar dressing.
Fried Beer: Just when you thought they’d thought of everything. A beer-filled pretzel pocket is deep-fried to a golden brown. One bite and the escaping beer serves as a dipping sauce. 21 and over, ID required.
Fried Chocolate: A white chocolate mini candy bar plus a cherry are stuffed into a mouth-watering brownie, dipped into delicious chocolate cake batter & deep fried to perfection. The finished product has a warm just-out-of-the-oven taste! Topped with powdered sugar and a rich cherry sauce and served with chocolate flavored whip cream.
Fried Lemonade: Lemon-flavored pastry is made from Country Time lemonade. First baked, then fried, this taste tempting treat is glazed with a mix of lemonade, powdered sugar, and lemon zest.
Texas Fried Caviar: A Texas version of a southern good luck staple. Black-eyed peas are fried and laced with special spices blended with Old Bay Seasoning and are available in regular or spicy.
Texas Fried Frito Pie: A generous portion of savory Texas born chili accented with a hint of sharp cheddar encased in everybody’s favorite corn chip. Lightly battered and fried to a golden brown perfection. With its smooth medley of hot, meaty, crunchy, salty, cheesy, oozing goodness; “Texas Fried Frito Pie” transports you back to the golden age of Fair Food.
As you may remember from last year, the Texas State Fair has hosted foods such as Fried Coke, Fried PB and J sandwiches, and Fried Butter, among other heart-attack-inducing snacks. They continue to outdo themselves every year.
I fully intend on going to the fair this year, and I'm sure as hell going to try the margarita, the beer, and the chocolate.
And then you wonder why Texas is one of the fattest states in the nation. By the way: Fried Beer won most creative, Fried Frito Pie won most delicious.
Yeeah, Texas may be disgusting and full of extemist assholes, but DAMN do they do a good job of instilling a certain pride not known by any other state. Anyone else know their state pledge better than the National Anthem? Does anyone else come from a state that has a state pledge?
...is any of this really that difficult? I've used a frier before. It doesn't require skill. Drop in boiling oil. Let sit. Pull out. Done. It seems like they're just dropping miscellaneous shit into the frier that shouldn't be fried.
I'll give credit where due though. Fried beer sounds interesting.
I know for the liquids they have to freeze whatever it is to some ridiculous temperature before they put the batter on it and fry it in order to have any remnant of the taste left over, but I'm pretty sure it's more a contest of "Hur hur, let's figure out what food is marginally tasty, and then figure out a way to fry it!!"
Our State Fair was 2 weeks ago. I went on the last day. Food consumed included a cinnamon roll which was quite tasty, some french fries, part of a funnel cake, a few glasses of some really good milk, and more chocolate chip cookies than I could eat alone. This was the smallest option for the cookies. The larger choice was a whole bucket heaped up with them so you'd have to eat a huge stack of them before you could even get the lid on. I thought about getting that, but there weren't enough people there to help eat them and I knew I'd get myself sick if I tried to do it myself. I'd have had to just throw some cookies away and I'd have none of that.
Damnit, Two days on the trot I've made some kickass food stuffs (Haddock pie and tuna pasta bake, respectively) from scratch, and posting it on the belt didn't even occur to me.
My husband wanted to buy Alfredo sauce in a jar from the store. I told him, no, I make better Alfredo sauce than anything you can buy! He didn't believe me (that I would make him sauce from scratch), bought the jar, and of course mine was more delicious. We pair it with his favourite vegetable, Rappini, and om nom nom.
I love carbonara sauce when I'm in Japan. And I just came back from there. They use pork belly in so many delicious ways. You too, China.
So I bought some bacon, as you see in the buns above. That was my intention. But then I had leftover bacon.
And tonight, I perfected my alfredo sauce.
1. Slice up 4 slices of bacon into small strips. Fry in the bottom of the saucepan. Pour out some of the fat, but leave a bit too. In a separate pot, boil enough pasta for about 3 people.
2. Add 2/3 cup coffee cream (18%) to the bacon, save the other 1/3 of cream for later. Half & Half (10%) or Whipping cream (30%) work too, and you could probably even use milk, but we're trying to go for maximum deliciousness. So let this boil on medium heat, stir it around so it doesn't burn to the pan. Takes a few minutes.
3. Sprinkle in some pepper, and one shot of nutmeg. Don't overdo it. No need to add salt, since you have bacon. The sauce should be thicker by now, but don't worry if it isn't.
4. Drain pasta it and pour it into the creamy pot.
5. Add the rest of the cream, along with 3/4 to 1 cup of grated parmesan. Stir over low heat. The sauce should be all stuck to the noodles and not drippy.
Even alfredo sauce in restaurants isn't nearly as good as what you can make at home.
Usually I use the same recipe but add a little salt and a little lemon juice, along with two crushed cloves of garlic. Add the garlic to the initial cream, add the lemon juice just before tossing in the noodles. The lemon makes things all lumpy and curdled.
Oh my god Tanya, that sounds AMAZING. I'm going to have to try that out; everyone in my household is a HUGE pasta fan, so I'm sure it will be received well.
...Not to ruin this thread, but I went to the state fair yesterday. ((Read above in the thread for what that implies-- I tried a few of those foods))
Fried beer is BY FAR the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten in my entire life. Seriously. Greg bought us some to try, and after one, both of us managed to best our gag reflexes. He thought it would be HILARIOUS to try a second one, and even though I argued it as much as I could, my pride got to me so we both tried a second one. Both of us gagged; I swear Greg was about to throw up.
The way they prepared it was a ravioli square (sour dough ravioli square, I believe) with beer on the inside... when you bit into it, really, really warm beer spills out, and it kind of tasted like a pretzel gone horribly, horribly wrong. I don't think it would have been SO disgusting if the beer wasn't warm- that was the worst part for me. In any case, nothing could get the taste out of my mouth for the rest of the day, and the only other foods at the fair were other fried foods. My tummy was not happy with me.
I read one of my friend's facebook statuses the other day that had a link to a story written in the same fashion-- I liked Four Loko the only night I drank a few flavors, but I think that alcoholic whipped cream is a good replacement.
In order to bid our farewells to Four Loko, my roommates and I (and most likely some friends) are going to buy one of every flavor and keep the cans for our alcohol bottle collection in the living room. I love this idea; I feel like the cans will be a good reminder of college.
On a related note, has anyone else ever tried Four Loko?
I only heard about Four Loco when the reports came out about all the stupid kids killing themselves. I really don't get it. We used to mix alcohol and caffeine drinks all the time in my day. Plus, I found that 'Tilt' alcoholic energy drink like 4 years ago. The idea for the drink is nothing new. And I don't get how they're trying to spin the whipped cream either. Ive made some pretty strong Jello shots before, and there's already a ton of deserts with lots of alcohol mixed in. I've known people to make mousse and whipped chocolate style stuff with Baileys and Jameson mixed in.
Comments
OM NOM NOM NOM haaaaaa
Food is one of the great pleasures of life.
Here is an excerpt:
This Sept 22nd is the Mid Autumn Day Festival in China, a culturally significant and important Chinese celebration about something important that I can't be bothered to remember. All I know is I get a little time off work for it, and most importantly, you can get mooncakes everywhere! They are small, dense pastries that have a variety of regional tastes; each area of China prepares them differently as per their local culture and style of cuisine.
My company gives us mooncakes every year, and this year's looks awesome. They're from Starbucks! This link to the Chinese Starbucks page is in English, so check it out. They look really good.
I will provide personal pictures once I start to eat them.
Edit: Found an English version of the mooncake promotion page, so replaced the Chinese link with that.
As you may remember from last year, the Texas State Fair has hosted foods such as Fried Coke, Fried PB and J sandwiches, and Fried Butter, among other heart-attack-inducing snacks. They continue to outdo themselves every year.
I fully intend on going to the fair this year, and I'm sure as hell going to try the margarita, the beer, and the chocolate.
And then you wonder why Texas is one of the fattest states in the nation. By the way: Fried Beer won most creative, Fried Frito Pie won most delicious.
Yeeah, Texas may be disgusting and full of extemist assholes, but DAMN do they do a good job of instilling a certain pride not known by any other state. Anyone else know their state pledge better than the National Anthem? Does anyone else come from a state that has a state pledge?
I'll give credit where due though. Fried beer sounds interesting.
But not mine...
Hey, 9 out 10 people can't tell the difference between fried baby and fried chicken. And the tenth one only complained because he got the skull.
Or so I have read. Not that I've ever tried destroying evidence of infanticide at KFC.
Om nom nom nom
I've failed you all
I love carbonara sauce when I'm in Japan. And I just came back from there. They use pork belly in so many delicious ways. You too, China.
So I bought some bacon, as you see in the buns above. That was my intention. But then I had leftover bacon.
And tonight, I perfected my alfredo sauce.
1. Slice up 4 slices of bacon into small strips. Fry in the bottom of the saucepan. Pour out some of the fat, but leave a bit too. In a separate pot, boil enough pasta for about 3 people.
2. Add 2/3 cup coffee cream (18%) to the bacon, save the other 1/3 of cream for later. Half & Half (10%) or Whipping cream (30%) work too, and you could probably even use milk, but we're trying to go for maximum deliciousness. So let this boil on medium heat, stir it around so it doesn't burn to the pan. Takes a few minutes.
3. Sprinkle in some pepper, and one shot of nutmeg. Don't overdo it. No need to add salt, since you have bacon. The sauce should be thicker by now, but don't worry if it isn't.
4. Drain pasta it and pour it into the creamy pot.
5. Add the rest of the cream, along with 3/4 to 1 cup of grated parmesan. Stir over low heat. The sauce should be all stuck to the noodles and not drippy.
Even alfredo sauce in restaurants isn't nearly as good as what you can make at home.
Usually I use the same recipe but add a little salt and a little lemon juice, along with two crushed cloves of garlic. Add the garlic to the initial cream, add the lemon juice just before tossing in the noodles. The lemon makes things all lumpy and curdled.
...Not to ruin this thread, but I went to the state fair yesterday. ((Read above in the thread for what that implies-- I tried a few of those foods))
Fried beer is BY FAR the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten in my entire life. Seriously. Greg bought us some to try, and after one, both of us managed to best our gag reflexes. He thought it would be HILARIOUS to try a second one, and even though I argued it as much as I could, my pride got to me so we both tried a second one. Both of us gagged; I swear Greg was about to throw up.
The way they prepared it was a ravioli square (sour dough ravioli square, I believe) with beer on the inside... when you bit into it, really, really warm beer spills out, and it kind of tasted like a pretzel gone horribly, horribly wrong. I don't think it would have been SO disgusting if the beer wasn't warm- that was the worst part for me. In any case, nothing could get the taste out of my mouth for the rest of the day, and the only other foods at the fair were other fried foods. My tummy was not happy with me.
Alcohol whipped cream
In order to bid our farewells to Four Loko, my roommates and I (and most likely some friends) are going to buy one of every flavor and keep the cans for our alcohol bottle collection in the living room. I love this idea; I feel like the cans will be a good reminder of college.
On a related note, has anyone else ever tried Four Loko?