Flat White is my new obsession

Yesterday was an incredible day. First of all, the weather has just gone totally nuts. Snow and rain together virtually caused stop of all traffic. My bus was crawling with the speed of a snail spaced down on valium. It took me 2 and some hours to get to Queen’s Park from Oxford Str. Never mind, because it gave me opportunity to digest the Flat White training session, that myself, Malik (very funny manager of 34 Edgware Rd. store), Lola and Mae had and which was very intense and very hands on.


I was quite interested to find out for myself what all this hype was about. People say, there is flat white café in Soho, which makes the best flatties ever.
I have visited them, but only virtually. (The web site was kinda inspiring. D’ya know what I mean, darlings? Kinda. But I still liked it.)

Here is what they say:
Flat white noun /Austral. flaat whyette/ / NZ flet wyte/ 1. An antipodean coffee which is served as a strong shot of espresso served in a small cup with textured milk; a damn good strong coffee. 2. 51.51 ( 51 30`) -0.13 (0 8`)
(the meaning N2 is mysterious, maybe it has something to do with geography, don’t know)


And this is what Wikipedia says:


“Originally from New Zealand, a flat white is a coffee beverage prepared by pouring steamed milk from the bottom of steaming pitcher over a single shot (30ml) of espresso.


The drink is typically served in a small 150-160ml ceramic tulip cup. The stretched and texturised milk is prepared by entraining air into the milk and folding the top layer into the lower layers. To achieve the "flat", non-frothy texture the steamed milk is poured from the bottom of the jug, holding back the lighter froth on the top in order to access milk with smaller bubbles, making the drink smooth and velvety in texture.


A flat white differs from a latte in that it is served in a smaller ceramic cup[1], whereas a traditional latte is served in a glass with the steamed milk poured over the espresso shot. A latte can also be served in a bowl or a larger cup requiring more milk, obscuring the complex flavours of the coffee.”


It does say there single shot, but I guess 30 ml is actually our double shot. I don’t really like this sneaky notion at the end of the article, that latte is in some ways inferior to this fashionable newcomer. I think, it is the matter of individual taste and those two drinks can not be compared – they are both in the leagues of their own.


There was also an interesting article on Independent web site about flat white, which to me sounded as a obituary to our beloved chain, because some marketing agency predicts that there will be more demand for flat white in years to come then for our lattes. Well, firstly, they are too small to open store on every corner. And secondly, we are rising to the challenge and undigging our tamagauks. To latte art war, my people!

Easy Tiramisu

Remember that book I borrowed from the library with 60 coffee recipes?



So, yesterday I decided to prepare something form there and were leafing through, sighing and squeaking occasionally at the splendour of this all.


Mocha macaroon were voted off because you have to keep them overnight before serving (I think it is some sort of sophisticated torture – you have to spent about 3 hours making them and can’t eat’em immediately!)


The layered pear cake looked rad, but too much hustle just for two of us on Sunday night.


I have to confess, after much thought and consideration, I have decided on Tiramisu, which is the most popular coffee dessert, and since we have the recipe in Gordon Ramsey’s book called “Fast Food”, my tiramisu was made easy.

So, here is the recipe:

Easy Tiramisu

Serves 4
You’ll need:
150 ml single cream, 4 tbsp icing sugar, 250g mascarpone, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 3 tbsp Grand Marnier (or any other brandy)*, 200 ml strong coffee (cooled to room temperature), 20-24 sponge fingers (savoiardi) and some cocoa powder, to dust.


1. Whip the cream with 3 tbsp icing sugar until evenly blended, then beat in the mascarpone, vanilla extract and 1 tbsp brandy.

2. Sweeten the coffee with the remaining 1 tbsp icing sugar, stir to dissolve, then
add the rest of the brandy.

3. Dip 4 sponge fingers in the coffee mixture and use them to line the base of four serving glasses (breaking them into shorter lengths if necessary to fit the glasses). Spoon over a layer of the mascarpone mixture. Repeat layering the dipped sponge fingers and mascarpone mix until you reach the top of the glasses.

4. Spoon any remaining coffee mixture over the top and dust with sifted cocoa
powder. Chill for at least 20 min.

5. Just before serving, stick two sponge fingers into each tiramisu.

Mine on the pics doesn’t have sponge fingers because they were eaten by mistake before I got to the last line in the recipe :-(.

We have tried it yesterday and it is a winner. Very nice and not too sweet with luxurious silky texture and slight tang from the Grand Marnier. And so easy to make! Heaven. Coffee is rather accompaniment, then a lead in this recipe, still you feel its presence.


* Actually, in Ramsay’s recipe it is Marsala(or brandy or Tia Maria), but we didn’t have any of those and had Grand Marnier (standing unopened from March when we bought it in Keflavic’s duty free on the way back from Iceland.) It worked perfectly!

RED Tumbler

This is my new RED tumbler. I bought it yesterday. I wanted to trade my old tumbler (which I broke recently but still used) for this RED thing, but staff said no. Of course, the fact that 3 quid from that sale goes directly onto account of Global Fund will make even black Verona in this tumbler sweeter.


I like its rubbery red outer coat, it is very smooth and not slippery at all, the lid is watertight, so nothing spills. The only drawback I found so far is that the lid falls on my nose and I have to keep it at bay with index finger which is a bit deliberate and non elegant, Môn chaton, but… never mind!

The most important thing is I don’t have to waste any more cups and plastic water bottles EVER. I think I have to thank my parents who brought me up this way, but I always have been environmentally conscious. Since I was as little as three, I would never drop any litter on the streets (thanks God, Chelyabinsk have always been a bin paradise, so to say). Later on I really took this topic to the heart and never ceased preaching about recycling or saving paper, water etc. Although I am fully aware that most of it doesn’t make any difference I believe that making people aware at least is already very good. (I am also aware that by doing my little bit here and there doesn’t count because the climate change was and is induced by heavy industries and big money. Will they ever change the way they conduct business? Fat chance. What they will do or are doing right now – employ a team of PR specialists who come up with some image-enhancing solutions.)
Sometimes I wonder if all this buzz around environment is not just some populist trick in the eve of different elections or market opportunity (the whole recycling industry is thriving and making money for someone). There are many questions and the answers are either hard to dig out or just too heartbreaking to accept.

It was meant to be very light-hearted post, maybe even with a bit of luck quite funny, and I am rereading it now and it is very sad. And not about coffee at all.

Well, this is what I feel.

Revelation

In a fit of clearing up the cupboards in the kitchen, which happens every now and again to "clear energy flow" in my flat and subsequently to change the life's direction to bright and happy future, I found this tea. It was bought for my birthday (I think) by my then fiance (or fiancee - where is the dictionary?).



It is pure magic. It floats on the surface, when you just pour water in, opens up like a flower and slowly and nonchalantly descends to the bottom of the glass. In my pictures it rather looks like a huge spider or octopus, because there is not enough space for it to spread its glorious leaves, still the whole thing never fails to impress me.

It transports me to that delightful place, where people live properly. You know what I am talking about - the place consisting of landscapes and rituals, picked from different epoch and cultures without any reference to historical chronology or geographical accuracy. Where dusk is rosy and filled with the songs of a nightingale, people wear crinolines (all my childhood I was dyeing for one!), high powdered wigs with galleons on the top, have coffee ceremonies with macaroons in caramel lace baskets, listen to Mozart and don’t EVER hurry. Ever.

Where the toilets are located in rose bushes, equipped with pencils and paper to write occasional verse (I trace that one down to my early memory, when my parents bought some raspberry bushes to plant in the garden and left them for few days in the bucket in the toilet – total bliss!). And where it rains when you want it to, so you can indulge in some melancholy and sweet sorrow.
Don’t call it utopia; I am sure this place exists. It just takes looking.

PS. I just noticed that the tea is expired, actually. It says on the bag - June 2009. But I think tea can not expire, can it? It is ethereal. It tastes very nice and so delicate that you stop short of thinking that you are drinking boiled water. Sublime! 

How about Coffee Roulade with Salmon Filling and Apple and Horseradish Confit

Yesterday I was off from my Coffee Master duties and went to the library. I usually keep my eyes peeled and have no plan as what to borrow, I just browse around different sections and always find something interesting. For example, my last trip resulted in large heavy tome on the nature of hurricains. It is a mixture of scientific account and poetry with many colourful pictures and you get the feeling that the author is clearly in love with the subject - powerul and beautiful nature phemonenon, although very unkind to all our humans arrangements. 

So, walking around, I stumbled upon a DYI section which included cooking books. I have a soft spot for cooking books, although rarely cook myself - all those pictures of food, carefully selected and retouched, just like ageing celeb, fancy napkins and rustic plates, little stories behind this particular dish ("I cooked this parfait for my girlfriend and she immediately agreed to marry me" or "That pud tastes exactly like my Gran's" ), all the labour involved to produce some culinary wonder - it is just mesmerising!

I found a book called (surprise, surprise!) "Cooking with Coffee. 60 recipes using Fair Trade coffee". I want to cook all the 60. Since the book is borrowed until 9th of Jan, theoretically, I might be able to do that, but realistically, I will be just bumming around the house on my days off, half heartedly looking for a job and heating up the Covent Garden's pearl barley soup, which I bought from Sainsbery's the other day in great abundance.          

The index list looks like a dream - Asparagus with Coffee Orange Butter, Coffee-smoked Fish with Nut vinaigrette, Crayfish Cappuccino (oh my, my!), Coffee Doughnuts, Coffee Pannacotta with Kiwi Fruit, Pineapple and Praline, Coffee Pancake with Pears in Spicy Syrup and (hold the emotions!) Mocha Macaroons!  There are as many savoury recipes as sweet which is good, I think, the savoury side of coffee is due to major update.

Share your love

I dreamt about doing a post on latte art for a long time, especially because I know at least three people, who can do it quite effortlessly (including me as a potential Latte Van Gogh since I tried it so many times and never succeeded, however I just know I can).

However, latte art being a skill that equals piano playing in its grace, poshness and complexity and involving as much fidgety hand movements, is difficult to come by. Every so often by struck of luck some divine symbol appears on the silky surface of the cappuccino, sheer beauty that makes angels sing. Only to be totally ignored by the customer or worse just to be hidden under plastic shroud of a lid.  

And when I asked people (Devesh and Irina*) to create something on demand so I could take couple of pics, they got very nervous, self-conscious and started blaming jars for being too big, milk for not frothing and shop being too busy for such delicate operation. 

Well, I got what I got. Still very nice :-)

* Irina makes fantastic leaves and flowers, not to mention hearts, her art has most contrast and definition due to micro bubbles in perfectly steamed milk. She is just a genius with a jar and wonderful barista!