There is so much information about coffee out there. We have everything from harvesting beans and roasting them to dialling in espresso on a new machine. There are also some interesting coffee-cheese pairs that you might want to try. Hint: there are no strict rules, such pairing is more of a novel thing, but you can definitely follow one recommendation. Match mild creamy cheeses (like ricotta, chévre, mozzarella, piave) with mild coffee and espresso and aged cheeses (like munster, roquefort, stilton, taleggio, parmesan) with darker more intense roast.
And since we’re talking about roasts, have you… Have you ever thought that coffee can not only be drunk but eaten? Not as a bean of course (though you always may experiment!). We’re talking rubs here. Rubs where coffee plays an important role in building up the flavour. And it’s super easy. Just grab a whole chicken or a roast of lamb/pork, rub it all over with coffee and pop it into the oven. But you didn’t think it was it, did you?
First of all, coffee beans should be finely ground with some black and pink peppercorns (the latter mostly for colour play), sugar, salt and some other aromatics like star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, ginger, lemon zest, juniper, paprika, cumin. We won’t tell the one and only recipe, but hold in mind that you are making coffee rub. Hence it has to be coffee-y. Try mixing 100 g ground coffee with 100 g sugar and 100 g salt and let it be your starting position for future recipe’s tweaking. Fine-tune your rub base with 10 g black pepper and 10 g pink pepper, add some cinnamon, star anise, and lemon zest. Mix everything thoroughly until well combined.
Now go ahead and buy anything you wish to apply your new BBQ rub on. Say, it’s a whole chicken. Great choice! Run it all over with your new rub and throw it into the 400°F / 200°C oven for an hour or so. Take it out, tear with your hands for more dramatic presentation and drizzle with honey. That’s gonna be hilarious. And tasty.
What do you think?