Chocolate and Coffee - How do they go together

My ideal coffee-chocolate moment is to take a sip of my evening coffee and pop into my mouth a Lindt chocolate ball and let it melt with the warmth of the coffee. Mmmmm heaven!

But there is more to coffee pairing with chocolate than my little moment.

I was invited to an event with De'Longhi and Lindt and along with a Master Chocolatier and Master Coffee Blender we went through some of the aspects of how the coffee and chocolate go together.  Most of the examples we tasted were really defined coffee from countries like Ethopia and Baku to name a few.

My problem with this way of tasting coffee was that they were too strong for my taste buds so what could I do with all the lovely chocolate I got to take home and how to describe them.

Well in the words if a certain meerkat "simples"! I would do a coffee-chocolate comparison of my own!!

I chose to compare with the Lindt Excellence range.

Firstly I used my De'Longhi Icona vintage espresso maker and made my self a latte.  A latte is a very milky coffee and a sip of latte with a square of the dark (47% cocoa solids) especially Stawberry Intense from the Lindt Excellence range is simple a melting moment of summer and fresh strawberries.

Next I made a strongish coffee in my French press coffee maker and tried it with Lindt Excellence chocolate with chilli.  A dark chocolate with 49% cocoa solids and a hint of chilli. The smooth richness of the coffee melted the dark chocolate leaving a tingle on the tongue from the chilli!

47% cocoa solids feature in the Lindt Excellence chocolate with  A Touch of Sea Salt and with an Americano coffee (freshly made coffee from my De'Longhi machine with a touch of cold milk) left a haunting taste on the tongue in an interesting but still slightly dull background note of salt.

I followed on to the Lindt Excellence 70% chocolate which is smooth and velvety with slight undertones of vanilla, perfect with a hot steamy cappuccino and the chocolate with 85% cocoa solids which when melting in your mouth with a sip of hot coffee is just about as good as it gets!! This chocolate is neither bitter nor overpowering so neither should your coffee.  These latter two coffees also melt exceedngly well and make a chocolate cake so much more chocolatey and delicious!

What this all boils down to is that coffee and chocolate are two universal pleasures and at the same time are very individual. A great way to find out your tasting pleasures is to try a up of coffee that you really enjoy with a square of fine chocolate and let it melt on your tongue from the warmth of the coffee.

So put the kettle on or switch your coffee maker on and get tasting!!

 

Happy Birthday to KitchenTalk!

Happy Birthday to Kitchen Talk.  Two years old today! 

Who would have thought two years ago that I would have written so much about food, cook books, cooking equipment, attended events, cooked with my food heroes and much more.

When I published my first post I never thought anyone would be reading it, I was just writing because I felt I had something to say and wanted to record it and not forget.

But lo and behold, people read my meandering thoughts, my opinions on food that I have cooked, eaten out, shared with family and friends.

I have attended some fantastic PR events, met and cooked with some great chefs - some of them my heroes. I have had the pleasure to cook with Reza Mahammad, Eric Lanlard, Lisa Faulkner, Alex Mackay, Vanessa Kimbell, Paul Merrett and The Fabulous Baker Brothers to name but a few.

A Day spent making a video with Lisa Faulkner

Cooking with Chef Paul Merrett and Total Greek Yoghurt

 

The Fabulous Baker Brothers

Cake making with Eric Lanlard at Total Greek Yoghurt's 30th Birthday Party

I have learned to make sushi with Yuki Gomi and Mexican with Omar Abilhoy.

My first sushi making lesson with Yuki Gomi

I have met Heston Blumenthal, Claudia Fulvio, James Martin, Dan Leppard, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry and loads of others!

Talking Christmas with Heston Blumenthal at Waitrose Christmas event.

I have been invited to some wine events, tasted wines I wouldn't have ever know about before, blended my own Campo Viejo Rioja and even met Olly Smith and Oz Clarke a few months ago.

Wine Blending with Campo Viejo

I met Olly Smith at a Canadian Wine Event at Canada House

I have eaten in some great restaurants, some that always wanted to try and some that I would never have thought I would attend. I have made some great friends in the past two years as well. And I have had the time of my life!!

My husband has become known as Mr R and has made several appearances on my blog and given the family something to giggle about when they see him referred to.

Hard Life of Mr R!

So what about the future you may ask?

I hope to keep up the momentum of meeting and cooking with my food heroes.  I would like to do some travelling and write about the food of my travels. I would like to make more videos of my cooking and would even like to make some television appearances. There I said that out loud!

I would like to run more competitions and have some guest bloggers appear. If you fancy guesting on my blog please let me know.

As for my blog, I plan to work on taking better photos, put into practice some of the tips I learned at Food Blogger Connect a couple of weekends ago. My feature called 'Today's coffee break is brought to you by ...' will be re-named 'Kitchen Talk'.

I plan to keep having fun and learning and having great experiences.

Please re-post, re-tweet or Facebook share this as a birthday present and leave a comment on the blog, I thank you in advance.

 I love getting loads of lovely comments so please keep on commenting. Thanks for reading this and all my other posts.

Allotment Inspired Dinner

There are loads of 'Here's what I had for dinner' blogs but please grant me this one because I grew a good deal of the meal on my allotment!

I do feel quite proud of myself lugging my trug home full of produce that I took the time to sow in the greenhouse, re-plant outside, weed, water and generally look after.

I started planning the meal by taking some wild scottish haddock fillets out of the freezer which were sent to me a while ago by Fish Is The Dish and supplied to them by Delish Fish in Aberdeen. Even though this fish has been in my freezer it still tastes as fresh as the day it left the sea!

I just wanted simplicity itself with the fish so popped in on a grill pan, light brushing of oil, sea salt crystals with lemon from Falksalt and a sprinkling of mixed spiced that my sister sent me from North Carolina.  Under the grill for about 10 minutes whilst I got on with the stir fry.

 

Into my large frying pan I poured about 2 Tablespoons of rapeseed oil and gently started to fry the schallot that I had thinly sliced.

 

 

Next went in the thinly sliced courgettes (2) and peas from the allotment followed by the rainbow chard also thinly sliced. For some heat I added a large teaspoon of Gran Luchito Mexican chilli paste.

I stir fried this for about 5 minutes till tender and at the last 2 minutes I added two packages of chinese noodles (I got them reduced from £2.40 to 24p!) and about 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce and presto - a really fast and delicious supper topped with the fish fillets.

 

Mr R said he really liked the dinner even if he nearly broke his back digging earlier in the Spring - drama queen!!

Pyrex Slows Things Down with their New Slow Cooker

Slow cookers are the 'in' way of cooking these days. You just put things into the pot and forget about it for a few hours.  Pyrex, known for their great glass cooking dishes have brought out an enamelled cast iron slow cooker.  It is great for simmering due to its superior heat retention properties. It comes in different sizes and is suitable for a range of cookers. Mine is the 20cm - 2.2L which is the smallest and holds loads.You can use it on the hob or pop it into the oven. They are easy to clean and come in a vibrant red.

I wanted to cook some sauerkraut after trying some of Ren Behan's Polish bigos.  I have long loved sauerkraut from my days living in Austria and Germany.

I started with a little bit of olive oil,

then into the pot I added some chopped smoked bacon, a piece of choritzo and a red onion finely chopped and sauteed until the onion was getting soft and the bacon and choritzo was cooked.  I tipped in a jar of sauerkraut, a red pepper and three carrots grated into the pot. 

 

 

 

To this mixture I added ground pepper, sea salt, caraway seeds, a tablespoon of tomato puree, paprika and a glass of water. You want some moisture but not too much so that you keep the texture since you do not want to boil the kraut.  Instead of water you could add a glass of white wine or a lager.

A couple of sprigs of thyme from my allotment and the whole pot went into the oven on a lowish to medium heat for about two and a half hours.  The smell in the house was absolutely heavenly!

I served the sauerkraut with a homemade potato salad and bratwurst.  We sat outside on a summer evening, dinner on the plate and a glass of wine in the hand. Perfect!!

80's Inspired Coffee and Walnut Cake

I was recently sent some Nielsen Massey vanilla extract and a couple of others in their range. One of them was coffee extract which inspired me to make my 80's inspired Coffee Walnut Cake.

Recipe

Preheat oven to 180oC - grease and lightly flour two sandwich tins.

Ingredients

Cake:
225gm caster sugar
225gm butter (at room temperature)
200gm Plain Flour
50gm walnuts
4 tsp instant coffee
1 Tbs boiling water
2 tsp Nielsen Massey Coffee Extract
4 large eggs (at room temperature)
2.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp baking soda
1-2 Tbs milk

1. Beat the butter and caster sugar till light and fluffy. The longer you can beat it the lighter your cake will ultimately be.

2. Add the eggs, one at a time until each one is thoroughtly incorporated. If the mixture starts to seperate you can add a little flour.

3. Mix the instant coffee with the boiling water then add to the butter mixture.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients, leaving the milk until last. You may need a little more depending on the consistency.

5. Pour the mixture into two greased and floured sponge tins and bake for approx 25-32 minutes in a 180oC oven.

6. When cooked the top should spring back when lightly touched. Leave to cool for 5-8 minutes before taking out of the tins and then let cool completely before icing.

Icing:-
350 gm icing sugar
175 gm softened butter
2.5 tsp instant coffee
1 Tbs boiling water
1 tsp Nielsen Massey coffee Extract
1 Tbs cream cheese
16-18 walnut halves for the decoration

1. Cream the icing sugar with the softened butter until smooth and mixed well.

2. Mix the instant coffee with the boiling water and add to the sugar-butter mix.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth and creamy.

4. Use about 1/3 of the icing to sandwith the two layers together and then spread the rest of the icing on the top and sides of the cake.

5. After smoothing the top of the cake arrange the walnut halves in a pattern on top.

Serve with a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy!!

Today's coffee break is brought to you by ........

Today's coffee break is brought to you by .... Jelly Belly jelly beans!

 

Sometimes you come across a sweet that brings back childhood memories. These jelly beans do just that!

They come in over 40 flavours such as Sizzling Cinnamon, Red Apple and Bubblegum and each flavour pretty close to the real thing!

 

Jelly Belly jelly beans are designed for grown ups so don't feel guilty and start experiencing those flavour sensations!

Nestle ask What's Your BIQ? Breakfast IQ that is!

We have been told many times before that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and there are plenty of statistics and information to prove this.

Nestle have put loads of time and expertise into making sure their breakfast cereals contain as much nutrition as possible and it is good for children to go to school on a bowl of their cereal but now they have taken things a step further.

They have given breakfast combinations a numerical value and this is called your Breakfast I.Q. (BIQ). The formula to work out your BIQ includes values for protein, fibre, calcium, iron, Vit D, energy, fat, saturates, sugar and salts. Also taken into the calculation is the cost factor, how easy it is for the family to sit down together for breakfast and getting the children included in some of the prep.

I was invited to a breakfast meeting to get further information into the BIQ and the opportunity to chat with Nutritionists and with Ben Fogle (in between some of his amazing expeditions!)

Now I have to admit that until that meeting my BIQ was usually '0'! I have the bad habit of skipping breakfast, doing a bit around the house then taking the dog for a walk and ultimately having my first food of the day at around 11:00.

Whilst I was chatting to Ben Fogle he admitted to me that until he had his two children his BIQ was not all that high (unless of course he was on an expedition when energy is all important), but now that he has two young children he makes a point of sitting down as a family for breakfast in case it is the only time of they day they are all at the same place at the same time!

The breakfast with the highest score is Shredded wheat with semi-skimmed milk, served with a glass of orange juice and a banana coming in at a whopping 136!  I have started to try to have breakfast when I wake up and have some white toast with butter and jam which scores 74 or maybe a cereal.

If you want to learn more about what's your BIQ then click here.

All ready to take home and try to improve my BIQ!

 

Thanks you Nestle for breakfast and the education of how important it is and how easy to improve my BIQ.