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Culinary Challenge 7 (Something Coffee)

grant

This week's objective: Prepare a dish—savory or sweet—utilizing sous vide techniques and coffee. For example, consider using coffee for an infusion, broth, rub, smoking media, or a textural component. Your idea can be coffee anything!

Outline: Take the challenge in your own kitchen then share your results via the ChefSteps forum. Describe the dish you have chosen and techniques used to make it. Describe where your idea or inspiration came from, what your plan of attack was, and finally, post your pictures.

The top 3 posts will get their photos posted on ChefSteps' Pinterest board. Please have your entry posted by Sunday.

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Comments

seijoed

I think it should be 7

seijoed

Any excuse to use my pavoni

Chris_Young_80640

Fixed, you are correct, it is challenge 7.

Brendan_Lee_56950

As if I need more reasons to caffeinate my life!

Tim_Sutherland_52834

This is my concept plate, Coffee and Cigarette. The flavors and textures are there but they all need tweaking.

Starting at the top. The espresso cup is wiped with an Islay Whisky and "coffee grounds" of dark chocolate and coco power are dusted in. Next time I'll reduce the whisky to thicken and try to enhance the smokey flavor.

The coffee spilling from the cup are milk skins. The whole milk was infused with coffee then strained. 3% milk powder was added and the mixture heated to 90C. I tried using the parchment paper method (as per MC 4.114) to lift the skin, but after many attempts I let the skin form naturally. I couldn't get a nice whole skin that is why it looks a mess. The infusion was 10g coffee to 250g milk which was a bit weak and I'll double it next time. I will try a line of Espesso under the skin for a different texture and a stronger flavor. I'll also throw some toasted nuts under the skin for a crunch factor.

The white foam is 250g whole milk and 50g sugar foamed from the steam wand of my espresso machine. The foam was removed with a slotted spoon, placed on a silpat and put in a 50C dehydrator for ~1.5 hrs. I'll try the foam in molds to see if I can increase the height. Ideally I want the foam thick/strong enough to hold a stubbed out cigarette.

The cigarette is a dark chocolate tube that would be filled with a smoked whipped cream. See this video for the effect I am after. I'm out of whipped cream and cigars so I can't complete it yet.

For me the diner would be sitting on the right of the image facing the plate. The plate would be horizontal with the cup on the diners right (even when I rotate the image it defaults to this).

This was a good way to kill a few hours this morning. I'll work on it and post my final plate before Sunday.

seijoed

Very cool @Tim!

Andrew_Erickson_9623

Interesting concept @Tim, I'm looking forward to seeing the result!

Chris_Young_80640

Very interesting concept Tim. Would love to see this evolve and be refined. I would suggest perhaps preparing a fluid gel of the Islay malt. Prepare a stiff fluid gel with an agar sugar syrup, the blend it with Islay to get a nice consistency that you can drag on the plate.

Nor_Eastern_56309

@Tim If you have not, try Lagavulin 16. Although my wife always used to say it smelled like cigars, it is probably the most peaty tobacco flavor of all the Scotches.

seijoed

Not my submission but I was cleaning out the grinder

Coffee grinds, liquid smoke and maple.

Brendan_Lee_56950

@tim very cool. Maybe you could infuse the whiskey in an iSi with some smokey aromatics to enhance it's flavor that way as well. Maybe even cocoa nibs or coffee beans to go in the direction of the challenge as well.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Coffee and Cigarette update.

As @Chris suggested I made a fluid gel from the whisky and some interesting things happened.

I made a base of coffee, 100% water and 8.5% pre-ground Turkish coffee. This was made in a cezve then filtered through a coffee filter. To this new 100% coffee I added 0.9% Agar and 0.2% xanthan gum. The mixture was heated to ~90C while an immersion blender was going. A vacuum was pulled on the hot mixture to remove air bubbles. It was then allowed to set at room temperature (20C).

Once set the 100% gel was thrown in a VitaPrep with 10% whisky (Laphroaig 18 yr 48% ABV) and taken for a spin. I did not have enough liquid in the jar for the blades to work so I tossed another 10% whisky in. There was still not enough liquid so I pulled a crema heavy espresso shot and added that (40%). This mixture was blended until smooth.

The fluid gel plated well and held shape. The texture was good although the alcohol was a little too up front. There was no mistaking the gel had coffee. The smokiness of the whisky was overpowered by the coffee and alcohol. It would be very easy to reduce the amount of whisky and make an Irish Coffee fluid gel.

The interesting part came when I poured the dregs from the blender into a pot and threw it on the heat. It was warmed to ~80C and the gel had reverted to a liquid. It was like a very thin sauce and but not nappe. I poured the mixture onto a plate and forgot about it. The mixture cooled on the plate and reset - this I had not seen before with a fluid gel.

With care it was possible, using a small off set spatula, to cut out and lift off small sheets. Sheets any bigger than my finger tips (~20mm x 20mm) would break under its own weight.

With much care, it was possible to transfer the coffee sheet to parchment paper. I cut a piece of parchment slightly larger than the coffee sheet and placed the paper on the coffee. Turning the plate upside down it was possible to slide the tip of an off set spatula under the coffee sheet. As soon I worked a bit of the coffee sheet off the plate, gravity took over and it was possible to get a large, clear sheet onto the parchment paper. Next time I'll try pouring the liquid directly on to the parchment paper.

It is possible to cut the coffee sheet on the parchment paper with a sharp knife. I used the tip of my 8" chefs knife. I had no problems with the coffee sheet tearing. By trimming the sheet so that three edges had no parchment paper showing, it was possible to transfer the sheet to a plate. I would lay the sheet (parchment paper up, coffee sheet on the plate/food) on the plate holding the edge of the sheet by the parchment paper. With an offset spatula I would work the coffee sheet off. Once the front edge of the sheet started to fall it was easy to pull the parchment paper off. The front edge of the coffee sheet never came off clean. The fluid gel would hold the weight of the sheet without deforming.

When eating the dish the sheet would tear under its own weight when lifting a spoonful to your mouth.

I'll play around to see if I can get a milk sheet to sit on a coffee/whisky fluid gel.

Chris_Young_80640

Awesome work Tim. Really excited to see the development in action. Also, the reason the fluid gel reset is because, unlike gellan gum fluid gels, agar is thermo-reversible. So above 80 °C, you melted the agar and as it cooled it reset. In this way it's like gelatin, except the melting point is above 70 °C.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

All my other gels must have been non-agar as I have never had any reset. This is good to know.

Joshua_Sharp_47919

Hi everyone!

For this culinary challenge I created a coffee infused, bacon wrapped pork loin, with a side of infused pineapple and black rice.

I initially experimented with my iSi whipper by putting 4 thick slices of bacon in it along with coffee beans, brown sugar, and a mixture of melted lard and water. This resulted in a bacon with a nice smokey flavor, a sludge mixture that had a strong pork and coffee flavoring, and coffee beans that had been infused with a bit of pork flavor.

I wrapped a pork loin in the bacon and vacuum sealed it along with half of the mixture from the iSi.

I then cut and cored a pineapple and bagged it, packing the coffee beans in the center, and putting the rest of the sludge mixture in. I vacuum sealed that on high and then put it in a bath at 160F for 45 minutes, before cooling it and putting it in the fridge over night.

I put the pork in a bath at 137F for 3 hours, adding the pineapple to the bath at the 45 minute point to bring it up to heat. I then cooked black rice as a side.

I dried off the pork loin and seared it at high heat so the bacon was crisp.

I sliced it and pineapple and then plated. I put a couple spoonfuls of the juice from the pineapple bag over the rice, adding a very distinctive coffee flavor to the rice.

The dish was really quite good. The pork and pineapple had a nice smoky flavor, and the black rice took on a mild but very distinct coffee flavoring.

My recipe is attached.

seijoed

Hah, I guess I can't use my coffee cured bacon that just finished curing today...

grant

For my entry, one of my favorite coffee ingredients we use in our pantry, coffee butter. It is extremely simple to make, last a very long time, especially in the freezer. Extremely flavorful with none of the bitterness or acid usually associated with coffee. Most of the delicious flavors we like in the bean are actually fat soluble, not water soluble. So we end up with a surprisingly bright butter.

I really love steak and spinach but it is seriously due for a facelift. So, I try to get some clean and basic flavors in from time to time. My favorite part is actually the spinach. Very nice with coffee and a speck of lemon if you'd like.

All I do for this is take 1 part whole coffee beans(we use Herkimer here in Seattle) and 2 parts butter. Vacuum seal in bag and cook in a water bath set to 80C for 2 hours. You can also make it on the stove, just be very careful not to fry or burn it.

I pre-seared the steak then bagged it with a little coffee butter. Cooked the steak to 56C then deep fried it in 225C oil for about 20 seconds. Brush with lots of coffee butter and season with salt. I sliced my steak into 4 pieces to serve 3 other co-workers;)

For the spinach, you simply place a little coffee butter(15g/60g spinach) in a heavy pan and slowly warm while moving spinach around from top to bottom. Some uneven cooking here is really nice, it allow for various textures in the plant when serving. I place the spinach on a tray when I feel its finished cooking to stop/slow the whole cooking process. Sprinkle with salt, red ribbon sorrel and more coffee butter! YUM!

Next time I do this I will definitely make more of the spinach.

We will post the entire recipe very shortly. There will be two, one for the dish and one fro the coffee butter itself.

Coffee butter unfiltered

Finished steak and spinach with coffee butter

seijoed

Love that plating Grant.

grant

I like to keep the simple, simple.

seijoed

I have bowls like that, never thought to use them for this app, thanks!

Andrew_Erickson_9623

That looks good Grant.

I have a batch of coffee butter in the water bath at the moment, I was planning on lightly smoking it before using it in my dish this week.

There'll be some leftover so I might just have to try your steak dish too.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

My final Coffee and Cigarette dessert.

Sorry for the bad photo I need to dig out my real camera and set up a small studio with lights and reflectors so you can see what is on the plate.

The dark bottom sauce is afluid gel of 100% water, 8.5% Turkish coffee, 5% Brandy. 1% agar was added to the filtered mixture, heated to 90C then allowed to cool and set. Once set it was pureed in a vita-prep to from a fluid gel. A teaspoon of the warm gel (before pureeing) was placed in the espresso cup with dark chocolate placed on top and allowed to cool.

The middle lighter sauce is a café au lait fluid gel made again with 1% agar.

Crushed candied pecan are placed in the center of the lait fluid gel.

The white disk at the end of the coffee fluid gels is dehydrated milk foam.

A chocolate cigarette with whipped cream is on the left. I need more practice to get the chocolate tempered correctly and to also get a more smokey flavor into the cream.

I tried many other options for the coffee in the middle to have a range of different tastes, textures and colours. Most of the others I tried were too difficult to prep or inconstant plate to plate. It is easy to have these ingredients prepped well before service and plating at service is not overly complex.

seijoed

Very, very cool @Tim!

Joshua_Sharp_47919

That is pretty incredible looking @Tim. How does it taste?

seijoed

I predict Tim will make me look like the Bush guy.

I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully....

seijoed

And before I get pegged I'll make a joke about the other side.

We'll lose 170 million jobs!!!!

-- We have about 129 million employed today.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

@ Joshua, this plate I had cold so the flavours were a bit muted. As it is an agar gel I can heat it which should make it taste better.

Each of the different coffee gels taste different. Together the coffee and milk come through. The brandy is lost. As I play with the dish over time I will try a very milky lait gel on a very strong espresso gel. The gel in the cup is too rubbery so I need to make a gel that just sets for here. The candied pecans are definitely needed for a sweet and crunch factor.

The dried milk foam has the texture of a dry meringue but tastes like sweet milk. I tried to make the foam thicker but in the time taken for the thick foam to dehydrate, it takes on a yellow tinge. I could use other methods to get a milk foam on the plate, but the dessert needs the dehydrated foam for texture.

This is a very flat plate that needs height. The cup is the highest item on the plate, takes up a lot of room and is hard to eat. Every time I look at the cup I hear "if you can't eat it, don't put it on the plate!" (the favorite saying from a chef I know). A custom mold of the cup (sans handle) to make a white chocolate cup would be nice, but that is beyond my means at the moment.

From a texture point the dish is very "airy" and needs something denser. A warm espresso fluid gel with a quinelle of milky coffee ice cream would be interesting to try. An almond tuile could be stuck in the ice cream to give height, or the tuile could be made into an "ashtray" for the cigarette.

A long answer for a short question, the flavours are approaching what I had in mind, but the textures and presentation still need to be worked on.

seijoed

Oh well

Coffee and coriander cured pork butt bacon, 62.5C egg, pickles, sous vide veggies

and the pommes rosti.

prince_of_porcelain

Everytime I see a sous vide egg I think it looks so damn delicious. Nice work @Johan

seijoed

I think the pouring it out is the coolest thing ever, darn near impossible to do as easily with a traditional poach!