Cafe Pergolesi Espresso Steak Rub Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup ground sweet ancho chile or chile powder

1/4 cup Cafe Pergolesi ground espresso

4 Tablespoons hot smoked Spanish paprika

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 Tablespoon dry yellow mustard powder

1 Tablespoon salt

2 Tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon powdered ginger

2 teaspoons Chipotle chile powder

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Preparation Instructions:

Mix all up and store in an airtight container.

Tips:

Keep for use on grilling steaks and other meats.

Apply liberally to one side only, put this side down first.

You can grill on an open fire or on a griddle indoors.

If using 1″ steaks, about 4-5 minutes on each side will give you a medium rare steak.

I like to put a half teaspoon of herb butter on top of steak when serving.

Another suggestion is to mix a few tablespoons of this rub into about 1/2 stick of butter,

and my favorite idea – add some chocolate powder

If you’ve ever had coffee in New Orleans, you may find there’s an added, unfamiliar but pleasant zip in that cup. It isn’t the water and it isn’t special beans. More than likely, it is the chicory doing a zydeco dance on your taste buds.

What is Chicory?

Basically, chicory is a type of flowering plant of the Asteraceae family. While there are half a dozen varieties, only two are commercially cultivated for human consumption. Chicory grows very easily in much of the US, sometimes found as a weed called coffeeweed, succory or blue sailors.

Chicory plants are usually bushy with lavender or blue blossoms. While the flowers are beautiful to look at, the roots are actually what is used in the beverage making business. The greens are sold as endive, radicchio, Belgian endive, French endive or witloof in grocery stores. Cultivation is usually done in complete darkness so the greenery of the plant can be harvested and sold as well.

Chicory and Coffee

Dating back for many decades, the root of the chicory plant has been baked, milled and substituted or added to ground coffee to add a spiciness similar to but distinctly different than cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. It is believed that the French started this tradition and influenced cities like New Orleans to do the same. The essence of a coffee drink, when mixed with chicory, is less harsh and has less acid than plain coffee brews.

It’s Good for You

There are dozens of medicinal uses and benefits of including chicory in your cup of coffee. It’s been used for centuries in Germany, Rome and France to treat everything from liver and gallbladder problems to a laxative and dyspepsia.

The most recent discovery is that chicory is high in insulin, containing up to 20% of the blood sugar stabilizing chemical. This is great news for those suffering from Type II diabetes. Taken alone or mixed with coffee from beans, those stricken with diabetes can naturally and holistically stabilize their blood sugar levels and help maintain healthy levels.

While medical professionals will steer you away from treating many internal health problems on your own, you can use a strong pot of chicory coffee, taken throughout the day, to care for a number of ailments. Dyspepsia (chronic upset stomach), loss of appetite caused by nearly anything, liver trouble, gallbladder problems and intestinal worms can all be treated to some extent with chicory root beverage. Chicory is frequently prescribed to cancer patients going through chemotherapy to counter the appetite depleting and constipation often associated with the treatment as well as the disease.

Make a Chicory Coffee

Traditional chicory coffee is made with a French press. Start with about a quarter cup each ground chicory root and ground coffee beans. Both should be the texture of rough sand. Place both the chicory and the coffee beans in the bottom of the French press.

Boil enough water to just about fill the French press. Use filtered water if possible. As the water comes to a boil, pout it into the press. The beans and chicory root will float to the top of the water. Press the French press plunger down just far enough to hold the grounds under the water.

Allow the mixture to steep for about five minutes. Press the plunger in all the way to compact the grounds and release their essence into the water. Pour into cups and sweeten with a cube of sugar or artificial sweetener and milk or cream.

The spent grounds make a great lawn and garden fertilizer. If you compost, adding the grounds will infuse nitrogen into the resulting soil. Worms will swarm to your compost and garden to munch your grounds.

Gourmet Chicory Coffee

If you don’t want to experiment at home, then you can also get New Orleans-style coffee with chicory roasted and ground to order from specialty coffee roasters. Chickadee Brand coffee is a popular organic, Fair Trade coffee roasted by Big City Coffee and available throughout Louisiana and online at http://BigCityCoffee.com

Recently there has been a major shift in medical opinion regarding the consumption of coffee. In fact, it might be said that in the old adage ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ the word ‘apple’ has been replaced by ‘a cup of coffee’.

Before anyone rushes out to brew up a gallon or two, it’s still wise to remember that drinking multiple cups of black, highly-caffeinated coffee on a daily basis isn’t a healthy option. The instant buzz of an espresso shot comes at a price – palpitations and raised blood pressure being just two of the things the addicted coffee drinker will experience after a caffeine overdose. Everyone is very aware of the caffeine content of coffee, but it’s only recently that the positive health properties of coffee have been investigated.

This has to be good news for coffee aficionados. The bad news is that drinking caffeinated coffee to excess can still be bad for your general well-being. Nevertheless, as with all things in life, sensible coffee consumption can have beneficial effects. So sticking to the recommended two or three cups a day can actually do you good.

Current research has elevated this everyday beverage to the Number One antioxidant in America, having ten times more antioxidant properties than red wine or tea, traditionally the two big front-runners in the battle against free radicals. But what are free radicals, and why do we need protection from them?

Unlike fish, the human body needs air to survive; in other words, we cannot exist without oxygen. We breathe it in, and it is transported, via the blood stream, to every cell in the body. Put simply, this essential ingredient can become unstable and produce ‘free radicals’

So we generate these ‘baddies’ as a natural by-product within our cell structure but, at the same time, the body is exposed to outside influences such as cigarette smoke, air pollution, and ultra-violet rays, in daily life. Therefore, our bodies are suffering a double attack, from both internal and external forces.

In the light of this information, we are constantly searching for the magic ingredient to ward off health problems brought about by these renegade ‘free radicals’. In high doses however, antioxidants can actually produce a reverse effect, promoting pro-oxidation, or free radical production, but as long as antioxidants are sourced from natural products, and included as part of the daily diet, there will be no problem with over- dosing, and the body will be well protected.

Coffee beans contain chlorogenic acid, which is a potent antioxidant, and a 200 ml. cup of arabica coffee can provide up to 200 mgs. of chlorogenic acid. It’s the roasting process that actually activates the antioxidants, and beans roasted for ten minutes to produce a medium to dark roast are the most beneficial.

The addition of a small amount of sugar and milk are said to boost the antioxidant properties as well. The process of de-caffeination seems to have little effect on the beneficial effects, which is good news for those who suffer from high blood pressure or insomnia.

Ka-Boom! OK, please don’t try this indoors.
Foreign Policy magazine reports on soldiers – and a few intrepid civilians – heating their coffee with C4 military grade explosives; the same stuff used by the burned-balls terrorist on the flight to Detroit…

FP quotes retired Col. John Meyer:

“I’ve heated many a cup of coffee on C4, rolled into little balls…the trick was to never try to stamp out the fire when you were finished.”

I guess I’ll just stick to Sterno.

Here’s a cool DIY coffee cup holder I found at LifeHacker…

A fabulously creative New York City blogger who goes by the name “AP” is all about devising clever ways to eat outdoors with flair. She’s come up with ways to turn a lunchbox into a plate and a fire hydrant into a table, but we really dig her magnetic coffee cup holder.

Magnetic Coffee Cup Holder

Drinking coffee has an effect on weight loss, but not all kinds of coffee have the same impact, and coffee affects different dieters in different ways.

The caffeine in coffee is a benefit to dieters who drink coffee regularly. A clinical trial at the University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, found that habitual drinkers of caffeinated coffee tend to have a milder response to stress.

Among people who have to have their morning coffee to wake up, emotional stress results in less release of the stress hormone cortisol. Since cortisol is associated with deposits of belly fat, drinking coffee on a daily basis results in less belly fat and lower weight.

Among people who drink decaf or who usually don’t drink coffee at all, drinking coffee had the exact opposite effect. A sudden jolt of caffeine, if you are not used to it, raises blood pressure and increases the production of cortisol.

In the Swiss clinical trial, blood pressure in drinkers of regular coffee increased to an average of 130/74 in response to an experimental emotional stress. But average blood pressure in non-coffee drinkers and decaf drinkers rose to 151/83 under the same conditions.

The sudden rise in blood pressure was due to cortisol, and this is the same cortisol that encourages deposits of belly fat.

If you are not used to caffeine every day, caffeine causes weight gain. But if you can’t get started without your morning cup of coffee, caffeine in coffee assists weight loss. This effect is even more pronounced for high-caffeine coffee drinks like espresso.

Maybe this only applies to rodents…
A study by Temple University, Philadelphia, reports that coffee can cloud your judgement when you’ve drunk alcohol

Slate quotes a BBC news report that coffee simply makes it harder for people to realize they’ve had one too many, and does nothing for their sobriety. That means the ‘co-use of caffeine and alcohol could actually lead to poor decisions with disastrous outcomes,’ says the lead researcher in the study. The study involved giving mice alcohol and caffeine to see how well they could navigate a maze and avoid unpleasant sensations. The result? The mice were relatively alert and relaxed but ’still incompetent at sidestepping nasty shocks.’

Delicious Homemade Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1.5 cups whole milk
.75 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan, mix the previous ingredients. Stirring to dissolve sugar, simmer over medium-low heat.

Add .25 cup roughly ground coffee beans. I like to take some whole organic coffee beans, put them in a bag, and hit them with a rolling pin until I get a quarter cup. Cover, remove from the stove, and let the beans steep for 30 minutes. After the half-hour is up, strain the liquid in to a clean saucepan, doing away with the coffee grounds.
Bring the mixture back to a simmer.

Beat 2-3 egg yolks (large) in a bowl.

Stir around a 1/2 cup of the milk blend in to the eggs yolks, slowly. Then, stir the milk-egg blend back in to the saucepan. Stir constantly, cook over a low heat until the mixture reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit, and coats the stirring spoon. Under no circumstances should this mixture boil! Put the liquid in a bowl, and let it cool in the refrigerator. When cold, mix in:

1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream

Pour this in to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the directions.

Alternatively, if you have to ice cream maker, instead of pouring the mix into an ice cream maker, pour it in to any freezable container and put it in the freezer. Stir it every half hour to make sure it freezes properly. This will not yield quite the same creamy texture as the ice cream maker will, but it’s still delicious.

Enjoy!

Have a Safe and Fun Halloween!

Happy Hallobean from Big City Coffee!

SusieQTPie tries making a espresso latte with just cold water and an AreoPress coffee maker…

I was really excited to win this cool coffee maker! Because it is such a cool coffee gadget, I decided to make my first cup of espresso into a Iced Cafe Latte. Make note that I am not a cold coffee drinker! I had read somewhere that someone used a French Press to make a cold espresso. I gagged thinking about it but decided to try it out…It is best to use a fine-drip grind coffee. I used Cafe Pergolesi Espresso from Big City Coffee. I wanted to make the double espresso so the instructions said to use two AeroPress scoops of grind…

Visit the Scraps of Life blog to read the whole review and the results of the taste-test…http://cafescrapper-scrapsoflife.blogspot.com/2009/09/aeropress-iced-latte.html