Coffee Liqueur

Making your own infused liqueurs is not only simple, it produces delicious results and the combinations are only limited by your imagination. One of my favorites is Coffee Liqueur, which I use as an ingredient for various recipes and drinks. Coffee Liqueur, according to legend, was first made somewhere in the Caribbean during 17th century when someone accidentally spilled rum into their coffee… Hopefully it was not at breakfast time!

Ingredients

• 750 ml of either: vodka, rum, brandy, or cognac
• 1 cup instant coffee powder
• 2 1/4 cups maple syrup

Directions

1. Decant the 750ml of liquor into a 2 quart glass container, with a tight fitting lid.
2. Add the coffee powder to the container and stir to combine. Allow for infusion while keeping the container away from sunlight in a cool place for a month; shake it three times a week.
3. When the intensity of flavor meets your taste. strain liqueur through a coffee filter into a bowl. Discard any solids.
4. Add the maple syrup to taste.
5. Pour the liqueur into a bottle. Age for one month away from light and heat.

Adding two teaspoons of vanilla extract with the coffee powder will smooth out the flavor.

I recently found this easy recipe for a delicious barbeque sauce made with Coffee Liqueur on Food.com

Photo from: handyrecipes.com

Coffee Liqueur Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 1 tablespoon grated horseradish
• 1 cup orange blossom honey
• 1 cup aged balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 6 ounces espresso (4 shots)
• 1/2 cup coffee liqueur

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat cook garlic for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
2. Add remaining ingredients.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often.
4. Remove from heat and cool for 30 minutes.
5. Pour into a blender and puree to smooth.

I sometimes add a 1/4 teaspoon of dried crushed red pepper to add some extra flavor

I’ve been making the coffee liqueur for a number of years and find that it’s every bit as good as the major brands (which are getting harder to find kosher). I tried the barbeque sauce a few times with chicken, this summer, and found it absolutely delectable.

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

This Week’s Events

This is a great week! If you like food, if you like wine these events are tailor made for you:

Tuesday, February 22nd

Kosher Food & Wine Experience 2011

Tomorrow’s the event of the year!

As always, the star of the show is the food and wine on offer. This year over 300 wines from all over the world will be available from wineries including Herzog, Yatir, Castel, Capcanes, Elvi, Goose Bay and more! In addition, Royal Wine will be launching some new wines at KFWE2011 including the Herzog Special Edition Chalk Hill Warnecke Vineyard 2008, the Oak Knoll Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and a new line of Gamla Reserves. Additionally, the wines of Alexander Winery in Israel will be making their debut in the United States market.

Guests will also be able to taste delicious food from some of the top rated kosher restaurants and caterers in the Tri-State area. “This is an opportunity to try some exceptional wines and great food, we don’t hold anything back,” said Mr. Landsman, “KFWE is our gift to our customers. We want to give people a chance to try the wines they are hesitant to buy, the special occasion wines they read about or see in the store.” Another benefit of this event is its proximity to Passover, giving people the opportunity to trywines that they would like to feature at their Seders.

A notable addition to the event this year will be the attendance of celebrity cookbook authors/food personalities Joan Nathan, Jamie Geller, Suzy Fishbein, Lévana Kirschenbaum and Jeff Nathan who will all be available to discuss food and wine pairing and their newest books.

KFWE 2011 will take place on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 6:30pm at Pier 60 – Chelsea Piers, NYC. For more information on the 2011 Kosher Food & Wine Experience or to order tickets, please visit: http://www.kfwe2011.com .

Don’t forget to enter KSCENE10, as your discount code, when you buy your ticket(s).

Wednesday, February 23rd

Israel Wine Lovers featuring: Barkan Winery

9 Interesting Wines, 2 Great Winemakers and 1 Amazing Evening with Barkan Winery

Nanoosh Hummus Bar

Who’s hosting? Avi Ashman, Raphael Sutton
Price: $36.00 per person
Where? Nanoosh Hummus Bar
171 Madison Avenue New York, NY
When? 7:00pm

Barkan, with vineyards all across Israel, is the second largest winery in the country.  The winemaking team’s quest to produce a variety of quality wines results in Barkan making all of the right moves (including large financial investments) to continue improvements in their vineyards and in the winery. You can always count on Barkan, and it’s Boutique winery Segal, to release quite a few interesting wines.

We are honored that Irit Boxer and Yotam Sharon, two of Barkan’s winemakers, will be with us and present a selected wine list that demonstrates the great quality of their craftsmanship.  This tasting is a MUST and we promise a fun night!!  Where else can you taste two styles of Pinotage (never tasted that grape yet? you have to…) and the effect of 100 meter (300 feet) height difference on Cabernet Sauvignon’s flavor?  Other great wines will be explored as well…

All wines and foods, during the tasting, are Kosher.

Israel Wine Lovers meets at the back of Nanoosh and brings their own food, their own wines, since Nanoosh is not under ANY kosher supervision!!!

CS

Purim Koton at Liquors Galore

This past Thursday evening, Liquors Galore (1212 Avenue J – between 12th and 13th Streets; Brooklyn, NY 11230-3702; Telephone: 718.338.4166) celebrated Purim Koton with an extensive wine tasting, food, live shtetl music, the Zev Brenner Show, a goat for petting and miniature horse rides for the kids.

It was mobbed outside, mobbed inside.

The air was festive, management and workers were merrily dressed up…

Aaron Zimmerman, welcoming one and all!

Aaron Zimmerman has written a four part series for The Kosher Scene on how to buy wine, how to taste it, how to store it, and the characteristics of the different grapes (here, here, here and here).

A nice selection of wines and liquors was served by both the Royal Wine Corporation and Happy Heart Wines.

...and a wine tasting we will go.

From the Chateau Piada Sauternes to the Or Haganuz Cabernet Franc, the wine choices – in all price ranges – were truly outstanding.

It felt like like being at a celebration in the old shtetl, with these musicians…

The two of them, plus a violin and a string bass completed the lively band

All the merchandise was discounted by 20% from the marked price. A nice selection of canapés, kishka and petit fours rounded up the evening. The chassidische owners of Liquors Galore truly know how to celebrate Purim Kuten!!! I can’t wait until their next event, hope it’s soon.

RELATED POSTS

Wine Tasting

CS

Tiberias

Comfortable, relaxed, upscale, delicious… Those words barely describe this brand new eatery in Midtown Manhattan. Tiberias (45 East 34th Street; NY, NY 10016; Tel: 212.481.4222). is under OK supervision, its fare is cholov Yisroel dairy. SYR and I went there yesterday at mid afternoon, less than a week after it opened. It may be brand new but, the two Steinhart brothers have been working in and managing restaurants for the last five years, in spite of their very young ages. This is the realization of their dream, a dream of having a unique restaurant with something different than the standard offerings. If this is how they started, it will not just be a dream!

A partial view of Tiberias Restaurant

SYR started the meal with the Stuffed Mushrooms, stuffed  with fresh vegetables topped with mozzarella and doused in cream sauce.

5 button mushrooms, stuffed with vegetables, topped with mozarella, doused in cream sauce.

She found it very flavorful, each ingredient combined for a delicious, perfect, appetizer.

I had the Gravalax. Homemade smoked salmon with potato crustini and cucumber salad with dill and mustard,  subtly flavored and very good to the palate.

We then shared the Special of the Day, Pasta del Sol. It consisted of penne with cream sauce and cherry tomato culis, topped with a nicely sized grilled Atlantic salmon.

Considering it was a hot, humid day SYR accompanied the meal with a Lime & Srawberry Smoothie, made from freshly squeezed lime juice, a bit of lemon zest,  fresh strawberries and crushed ice. It looked great and tasted even better. I had the Coffee Slim Shake (it’s sugar free, but you wouldn’t believe it from that great taste!), it came with ice cream, skim milk and was topped with cocoa powder. On the table next to us, a young lady was feasting on an interesting looking Affogato de Gelato, her expression told us it must have tasted heavenly. She explained to us that she’s enjoyed it here before, it consists of a large scoop of sugar free vanilla ice cream, in a boiling shot of espresso served in a martini glass…

We ended the meal with their Jack Daniels Cheese Cake, this is a Mozart type cheese cake with 2% percent of Jack Daniels whiskey. It tasted superb  and looked great, served with three ice cream scoops, some whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

Jack Daniels Cheese Cake

SYR had a Torino Hot Chocolate, gourmet hot chocolate with a partially submerged milk chocolate bar… buonissimo, ottimo!!! I had their Cappuccino, an espresso with steamed milk topped with foam, made from Italy’s famed Danesi Gold Beans…. subtly sweet with a pinch of brown sugar, artistically presented.

Tiberias Cappuccino

A great experience in a brand new eatery with a nice ambiance; as SYR puts it, NO-GUILT DELISH! This definitely calls for an encore…

CS

Great Summer Drinks

I don’t know how it is for all my foodie friends out there, but come summer, I crave tall, cool icy quenching drinks – and healthy interesting salads.  Heavy food just doesn’t cut it! Summertime used to mean throwing Tahiti parties with my son in the back yard – good music, fun books on the lounge chairs, a kid’s wading pool, a sprinkler, water guns, fun drinks, a great salad, a relaxed head space and a handful of silly playfulness. I return each summer like a salmon swimming upstream against the passing of time to partake of tasty tumblers, full of those sweet reminiscences. My blender is my best friend in this heat.

Come April-May, I switch from hot to ice coffee, and often take a cupful of ice, equal portions of water and  low- fat-milk, two sweeteners, a teaspoon of my favorite coffee… blend it all and NIRVANA! There are some really cool sugar free, fat free, kosher syrups and creamers available out there now. Our favorite pick is DaVinci Gourmet® (Khof-K certification) which has dozens of sugar free flavors-all the standards plus exciting gourmet ones like Dulce de Leche, English Toffee, Irish Crème, KAHLUA® Flavored Sugar Free Syrup, Toasted Marshmallow and a host of fruity flavors as well.  A 750 mL bottle runs $7.99.  You can order directly from their site http://www.davincigourmet.com/products/sugar_free_flavored_syrups/. The possibilities are all tasty, endless and delightfully guilt free.  Of course they also have all the classic and natural flavored syrups flavors.  Oh, don’t miss their gourmet dessert syrups all at surprisingly affordable prices. A little goes a long way. I’m going to try the Chai tea, sugar free concentrate, I spotted on their web site.  Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found any cholov Yisroel low fat sugar free creamers, let us know if you find any on the kosher market scene.

For smoothies I like making my own these days. Sunflower Café on Kings Highway (Brooklyn), corner of13th Street, makes a really good smoothie – they call them fruit frappes; they offer flavors like melon, peach, strawberry, kiwi, apple, mango and banana, or you can ask for two flavors mixed (with milk or without).  They’re delicious, tall but pricey at $6 a glass. I like buying my own fresh fruit and blending up my own creative fresh combos. When day turns to night, throw in some rum, pineapple juice, a couple of tablespoons of coconut milk, some strawberries and voila! instant yumminess with that special chill factor.  One of the reasons I like making it at home is for the sure savings plus I know the approximate calories Ive put in.

Check out www.smoothieweb.com, http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/smoothies,www.allrecipes.com/Recipes/Drinks/Smoothies/Main.aspx, or www.flowercarole.com/.  Obviously you’ll have to make kosher substitutions where necessary.

Strawberry Banana Supreme Smoothie

It is worth trying to find strawberry nectar to make this smoothie hum. This is a very popular smoothie as it contains strawberry flavors and banana.

Ingredients

• 1 cup strawberry nectar or apple juice
• 1 cup milk
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries
• 1 cup strawberry yogurt

Directions

Pour all liquid ingredients into the blender. Add all frozen ingredients. Blend at MIX setting for 30 seconds then blend at SMOOTH setting until smooth. While the machine is running, move the stir stick around counter-clockwise to aid mixing. Serve immediately.

Yield

Each recipe serves 3-5.

Sugar-Free Orange Guilt Free-ze Milkshake

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon DaVinci Gourmet Raspberry Sugar Free Syrup
• 1 scoop orange sorbet
• 1 scoop raspberry sorbet
• 1 scoop vanilla non-fat ice cream or frozen yogurt
• 1 cup cold non-fat (skim) milk

Directions

Combine the milk, syrup and two scoops sorbet, in a blender. Blend until thick and creamy and pour into a glass. Top with remaining frozen yogurt or ice cream.

Yield

one 16-ounce serving

Send in your favorite smoothie recipes.
The sender of the best tasting, thirst quenching recipe will receive our Summer Smoothie Kit.

SYR