Coffee

When I was about 14 I discovered the delights of drinking coffee. In those days it was laced with sugar but I soon realised that the taste was much more intense without the sweet stuff.   

In the Guardian this week under the delightfully-named Flavour Thesaurus I discovered even more gems of wisdom about this popular beverage:

Roasted, the coffee bean contains notes of blackcurrant, clove, vanilla, chocolate and nuts, all of which make great flavour companions -

Coffee and Beef: Caffeinated red meat. Something to serve your most militantly health-conscious friends! Why not add a garnish of lit cigarettes?  Coffee is used in the southern US as a marinade or rub for meat.  It's also been spotted in fancier restaurants, perhaps because there's a well reported flavour overlap between roasted coffee and cooked beef.  But beware, this can give the beef a gamey flavour.

Coffee and blackcurrant: A mysteriously good pairing that often crops up in wine-tasting notes.  Captured in a vacherin - layers of meringue , blackcurrant sorbet, whipped cream and coffee ice-cream with a sprinkling of toasted almonds - it's absolutely delicious.
  
Or you could try a variant of pavlova - coffee-flavoured meringue with cream and a blackcurrant compote.  Or even blackcurrant jam in a coffee gateau.  This sounds akin to our old favourite, Black Forest Gateau (cherries and chocolate).

Coffee and hazelnut:   If you find yourself at an ice-cream parlour in France or Italy and you suffer an attack of selection anxiety, remember coffee and hazelnut is pretty good.

Tiramisu - garnished with coffee beans and basil leaves

Coffee and orange: Breakfast companions.  What about orange and coffee marmalade?  or burnt orange and coffee ice cream?  Also orange and coffee tiramisu is nicer than it sounds.   This could be made with the recipe for orange and coffee-bean liqueur (see below).

Coffee and Chocolate: Forget hot drinks.  Coffee and chocolate work much better in mousses, truffles and cakes.  Or use them as uncredited flavour boosters.  A little coffee flavour in chocolate dishes can make them taste more chocolatey - and vice versa.

Coffee and Cinnamon: Cinnamon has the strength and sweetness to cope with coffee flavours in baking.  In many places cinnamon is sprinkled or stirred into coffee.  Tastes good!

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Orange and Coffee-Bean Liqueur - the '44' recipe:
Take a large orange and make 44 slits in the skin, then put a coffee bean into each orifice.  Put 44 sugar cubes in a jar, position the orange on top and pour over 500ml brandy, rum or vodka.  Leave to steep for 44 days, then squeeze the juice out of the orange, mix it back into the alcohol, strain and pour into a steralised bottle.