An essential ingredient for traditional tiramisu, in recent years, coffee has widened its horizons to become the star of many dishes and amazing pairings.
Some great starred chefs have created their own interpretation of this beverage, while the contaminations of various cuisines from around the world have evidenced its versatility. Here below, we describe some uses for your Hardy coffee that may surprise you.
Unusual company
Avocados are widely used in Asia, where this fruit appears in numerous local dishes. When blended with milk and sugar, before being aromatized with coffee, it turns out to be a very pleasant dessert. In some vegan recipes – which are excellent and by no means punitive – this pairing is used to create a thick foam to replace fresh cheese in the preparation of cheesecakes.
Refined simplicity
To make a last minute yet extremely gratifying sweet, pour an espresso, freshly made using the Hardy Universo blend, onto a home-made vanilla-flavoured ice-cream. The bitterness of coffee will be mitigated by the ice-cream to tantalize the palate with a perfect harmony of flavours.
A spicy beverage
Add a dusting of ground ginger to your Hardy Zanzibar coffee, possibly accompanied with a honey cake: you will be immediately whizzed off to distant lands and atmospheres of time gone by. This, in fact, was a typical treat of XVII century English coffee houses, where coffee was served with ginger, cloves and other spices.
A personality-packed roast
Roughly pounded coffee beans mixed with salt and pepper can become a tasty outer crust for wrapping a piece of fillet in before roasting in the oven. This is a typical recipe of South American cuisine. According to the type of meat being used, you can choose which Hardy blend suits you best. To offset the pronounced taste of this dish, you can choose a blandly flavoured side dish of vegetables or mashed potatoes, strictly prepared at the last minute.
An assertive risotto
Risotto is an extremely versatile dish, but if you are short of ideas, add a cup of espresso coffee to the stock you are using to cook the rice. After creaming your risotto with butter and cheese, you can then add a final ingredient of your choice, such as lemon zest with scallops or, for more daring palates, very fine slices of a gamey meat.
Alternatively, use the Hardy Virginia blend for the final touch: when the rice is cooked ‘al dente’, add a dusting of ground coffee mixed with bitter cocoa powder.
A Sicilian recipe
Orange marmalade and coffee will make you feel as though you are basking in the sun-drenched intensity of this region. You can eat it spread on rusks, accompanied with cheese or as a fruit tart filling. For this purpose, we recommend the Hardy Universo blend with its low acidity.
An unusual marinade
Using coffee to cook fish such as cod or bass is an inspired idea that comes straight from the kitchens of great chefs. Prepare a marinade using a cup of espresso coffee and leave the fish in it for 2-3 hours. Then you can either steam the fish or cook it in a pan with your favourite herbs and a drizzle of oil.
Whether ground, or in the form of beans or espresso, Hardy coffee makes a precious ingredient for preparing some amazing recipes, just waiting to be discovered.