If you’re a long-time reader of the content that we share, then you’ll be familiar with the fact that we truly adore coffee. From the flavor to the texture, and from the brewing to the sipping, we adore the complexity of both brewing and flavor built into a wonderful cup of coffee.
In this article, we’re going to take a slightly different tack than we normally do. Rather than speaking about how great coffee can be when it’s a delicious and decadent drink, we’re going to talk about how great coffee can be when it’s part of a meal. Whether it’s the star of the show or a supplementary ingredient, it’s hard to deny that there are many dishes out there in the world that great coffee can boost.
Tiramisu
The first example that most people think of when it comes to combining coffee and food is likely tiramisu. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, it’s a fairly simple one.
Tiramisu is a layered, chilled dessert dish. The base layer is typically a dense sponge that’s been soaked in coffee and coffee liqueur, leading to a rich, harsh flavor that’s quite strong. The next layer will be beaten, sweetened mascarpone, which has a rich and luxurious flavor that balances out the harshness of the coffee. Finally, the dish is finished with a substantial layer of cocoa powder – a chocolatey hit that finishes the creamy layer and creates a beautiful finish atop it all.
Tiramisu is exceptionally popular since it perfectly achieves something that is hard to do when coffee and food are combined – the balance between different elements of the dish is perfect. The harsh coffee and creamy mascarpone combine into a smooth, decadent mouthful that’s exquisitely moreish.
In tiramisu, bitter, strong coffee is often used. As it’s a traditional Italian dish, traditional Italian coffee is typically used as well. This means that the beans are often roasted to quite a dark finish, with the coffee than brewed under pressure to create a strong coffee. This can be either espresso or Moka pot coffee – either is commonly used here.
That coffee is combined with coffee liqueur, typically Kahlua, to create a boozy coffee syrup that is soaked into the sponge at the base of a tiramisu. The final effect is one of a potent flavor that’s hard to refuse.
Chili
This is one that you might be a little less familiar with, which is a crying shame!
A number of chefs around the world have long been saying than an element of bitterness in a meaty, acidic stew such as chili is the perfect thing to enhance the meat within the dish.
Chefs have been suggesting the use of dark chocolate for a long time in chili, and it truly does work to make a wonderfully well-rounded and bright dish, with the meat enhanced thanks to the simple addition of gently bitter dark chocolate.
J Kenji Lopez-Alt, of Serious Eats fame, suggests the use of umami-packed ingredients to enhance the meat in chili. Umami is the savory flavor typically found in things like mushrooms and meat, but without the presence of salt.
This umami flavor is typically present in a lot of quite rich, bitter foods, though in small quantities. Soy sauce is a common addition to food to get a bitter, umami flavor that sets off meat wonderfully well, and it works wonders in a chili.
The unsung hero of great chili, however, is black coffee. Not a lot is needed in a pot packed with chili, but the addition of the bitter flavor and acidic nature of coffee serves to boost the natural umami of the meat. A small cup of coffee added to a pot of chili before a long stewing time will bring a fascinatingly bitter, rich characteristic to a great chili.
Coffee mole
A mole is a traditional Mexican sauce, and the word is used quite often to refer to virtually any sauce that might be served in a Mexican restaurant. The reason for this is that there’s an old Aztec word ‘molli’, meaning sauce. This was adopted by Spanish colonists, and the phrase spread throughout the Spanish empire, including Mexico and South America.
Coffee mole is a rich, smoky sauce that is rarely seen on the menu for most local Mexican places. Typically, the sauce includes cocoa as a key ingredient, and the natural bitterness of that bean, along with that of coffee, leads to a final dish that’s pleasantly bitter. This is served along with pulled pork, chicken, or shrimp, to create an exciting flavor combination.
There are a great many different recipes for coffee mole online, and we would recommend looking through a few of them. The main reason that we suggest this is that the use of your favorite chili pepper in the mole will make a world of difference.
Make sure to take a look through a wide range of different options until you find one that uses a chili pepper that you’re a fan of. Personally, we would recommend the use of a rounded, warming chili pepper over the use of one that’s bright, sharp, and red hot. For example, using a chipotle or habanero pepper would be preferable over the use of naga or bird’s eye.
You might also consider using dried, roasted chili peppers to ensure that your mole has a rounded, earthy flavor to it. Boosting a sharp, hot flavor won’t do the coffee content any favors, so we would recommend aiming for something a little more rounded. A great choice could be an ancho chili pepper. They’re typically sweet and warm while also being dried and, therefore, have quite an intensely concentrated flavor to them. They’re a great choice!
Conclusion
We hope that this article has given you a couple of great ideas for boosting the food in your kitchen with the power of coffee. It’s a delightful ingredient to use since it’s so versatile, and we’re sure that you’ll find a great use as soon as you pick it up in your home.