Phil Howard’s Nespresso Coffee Cheesecake
Nespresso Chef ambassador, Phil Howard has developed a number of recipes inspired by coffee, and in this video his can be seen making a delicious coffee cheesecake using the new U machine.
Nespresso has just launched their U machine and at only £119 for the latest in coffee machine technology, it’s the ideal gift for coffee lovers this year.
Not only can it be used for making amazing coffee but it can also be used to make a huge array of coffee fuelled treats!
Here are Phil’s top 10 coffee tips for Nespresso:
1. Be open-minded about how to use coffee in your cooking. See coffee as simply another ingredient as opposed to the drink we have come to love! Coffee and chocolate are both used in cooking in their regions of production and with careful use it can enhance both savoury and sweet dishes bringing its magnificent aroma and/or its heavyweight background flavour.
2. There are two ways to impart the flavour of coffee into dishes. The first, as espresso is the more aggressive and requires strong bold flavours to deal with it. It also mellows with cooking and in doing so helps to bring out key flavours of the other ingredients of the dish. The second is the addition of coffee grounds to the dish which imparts more of an aroma than an intense flavour.
3. Coffee is most successful in savoury cooking when included in recipes which have inherent sweetness already present in them (like spare ribs) – or where the dish would be served with a sweet accompaniment (like chicken liver parfait with a fruity chutney).
4. Coffees with a touch of Robusta, like Nespresso’s Ristretto Grand Cru, are often intense and with roasted notes. They also support fine cremas and their strength and richness go well with the texture and flavour profile of desserts with cereal or toasted ingredients or with granola style preparations.
5. Coffee can be applied as a simple dressing to both sweet and savoury food and works particularly well with nut oils. A chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and a dressing of espresso and hazelnut oil works fantastically well.
6. Whilst coffee works fantastically well with chocolate, be sure to serve an intense and bitter coffee with a milk chocolate based dessert, or a mellower coffee with a bitter chocolate preparation. This allows allows the pairings to balance and the flavours to sing loud and clear.
7. Marinate meat that is to be chargrilled with some coffee grounds to achieve a simple and effective aromatic finish. This then works particularly well with a sweet relish or sweet curry dressing
8. Always add the coffee at the beginning of the cooking process rather than the end – this allows it to harmonise with the other flavours it is surrounded by and give the flavours added depth. You can really see how well this works for example, with the Coffee glazed shortrib of beef.
9. To appreciate coffee as a more mellow flavour incorporate it into rich, creamy desserts such as rice pudding or crème brûlée. People quite often enjoy milk in their coffee and by blending the coffee with the richness of cream, and neutralising bitterness with sugar – a similar taste experience is achieved.
10. Use coffee as a seasoning in pastry work or desserts by adding small quantities of coffee grounds to biscuit mixes, pastry doughs or cakes. It doesn’t have to be the dominant flavour if you don’t want it to be. Add it to recipes that have flavours which work well with coffee in the first place – such as those containing nuts, chocolate or orange.
Tagged in Recipes Food & Drink Coffee