"It works particularly well with chilli, smoky foods, barbecued meat and chocolate" Tom Hunt/The Guardian
Well we sort of knew that coffee went well with chocolate, and chilli goes well with chocolate, but did we really know that coffee went well with them both? Sort of I think. I was dimly aware that coffee rubs were a thing, so today I decided to look into it - after all I had writted it in my ideas book some time ago.
The lovely photo above comes from an American website called Hey Grill Hey which is the brainchild of this lady - Susie Bulloch. Back in 2015 she set up a website to "To help people make better BBQ" and having now perused a lot of blogs, both well-known and not and everything in between I would have to say that hers is one of the better ones when it comes to specialist barbecueing. She lives in Utah with her husband and now, with him, runs a buisiness of ten people. They have the website and all the associated social media sites, as well as a big business selling what looks to be quite a big range of sauces, glazes, rubs and so on. Maybe I'm prejudiced, but the team look very American in, dare I say, a Donald Trump, Wild West sort of way - big and beefy kind of guys. The kind of people who barbecue. But it is an excellent site for all things BBQ - well if you live in America anyway. I'm guessing that all of their products, and the products they review are not really available here. I mention it because it was the first website that came up when I Googled 'coffee rubs' so I thought I'd look at it and do one of those mini website reviews.
It's all very American and people seem to think, somewhat vaguely that America is where the idea of coffee and meat began:
"If the story is to be believed, the Cowboys coming west used to cook their steaks over an open campfire & used coffee grounds as a rub for them." EGGhead Forum
It sort of rings true. Be that as it may, having now checked out more than a few sites with coffee rubs, this very American Coffee rub from Hey Grill Hey does indeed look to be one of the more interesting out there. Which just goes to show you should never ignore the first response on the Google list even if you have never heard of the website.
There are heaps of recipes on the site for what to do with this rub - and others - but mostly I think they are based on using their own products. The recipe for the home-made version does include some tips on how to use it though. It's got lots of other spices in the mix.
As I progressed through the net, I realised that there seems to be a variety of opinions as to whether one uses, instant coffee, ground coffee or even spent coffee grounds, not forgetting liquid coffee as well. Hey Grill Hey uses instant coffee, explaining that:
"Another reason this seasoning works well for high-heat cooking is that it uses instant coffee granules as opposed to coffee grinds from the whole bean. Coffee grinds burn quickly and become quite bitter, so using instant coffee seasons the meat without having to worry about the granules overcooking on the grill." Hey Hey Grill
Another chef - this time an English one, Si Toft, in an interview on the Guardian website, explains:
"Quantities will vary depending on the size of the joint, but he suggests mixing equal amounts of coffee granules and brown sugar, adding any herbs or spices you like (Toft is fond of cumin with beef), and enough balsamic vinegar to create a paste."
Which sounds like instant coffee too. Certainly easier - if you have instant coffee in the house that is. The constants however, in addition to the coffee - whatever sort - seem to be sugar and chilli. The rest is very varied.
With respect to spent coffee grounds - also great for the compost heap by the way - Tom Hunt on The Guardian website tells you How to turn spent coffee grounds into a rub. This is just general guidelines, but he does report that a Copenhagen chef Matt Orlando, uses them to roast beetroot - Spent coffee roast beetroot, saying that:
“The coffee grounds themselves take on a sweeter, earthier fragrance. If you like, these can then be dried, along with the beet skins, and turned into an oil in which you could marinate the cooked beets before you serve them.” Matt Orlando
A bit over the top earthy I guess.
Whilst on vegetables however, I also found, late in the day - Coffee glazed roast vegetables with mascarpone polenta from a website called Floating Kitchen. Although I guess this is not quite a rub - maybe I should leave glazes for another day. Interesting, however, that the big names don't have a monopoly on interesting combinations of ingredients.
Beef seems to be the favourite meat for coffee rubs, so here are a few recipes for beef - I'm afraid I have forgotten who used instant, who used ground coffee and who used spent grounds. Beef rib-eye with coffee rub - Heston Blumenthal/delicious; Rubbed Steak Kabobs With Stout Molasses Pan Sauce - Marvin Gapultos/Serious Eats; Coffee crusted kebabs - Not Quite Nigella - which, I have to say, look really good.
There are, of course, many, many more. So moving on to lamb I found: Coffee basted lamb roast - Woolworths, which is another variation in that the coffee here is the liquid kind which bastes the lamb - looks much less interesting I have to say, but it's a thought; Coffee crusted lamb - Australian Good Food Guide; Coffee and cumin lamb leg - Anthony Huckstep/The Cook Up; Lamb and coffee (espresso) stew - Simply Beef and Lamb - this might be the liquid kind as well - but it was different so I included it - and this is sort of similar - Coffee-braised spoon lamb - My Recipes
Moving on to game - the Brits have several venison recipes - this one is from the British version of delicious. - Coffee-marinated roast venison saddle which uses spent coffee grounds. Here in Australia we do kangaroo - Kangaroo with roasted carrot, beetroot and walnut - Charlotte Binns-McDonald/delicious.
When I looked for pork there were a long list of recipes for Singapore coffee pork ribs - this one is from What to Cook Today. So obviously this is a Singapore speciality and probably deserves a post of its own. I was running out of steam by the time I got to pork, so did not go any further, but I'm sure there are other offerings.
I have left chicken to last because one of these is an Ottolenghi recipe - Coffee and chilli-rubbed chicken koftas with grilled onions; which I printed out a while ago to cook for dinner. Coming across it again today, reminded me that it was sitting in the kitchen waiting for me to act upon - so that's what will be for dinner tomorrow. Then late in the day I found Coffee and chipotle-grilled chicken with coffee spice rub fromThe Spice Adventuress - an Indian lady.
Mind you if I cook the Ottolenghi dish tomorrow that will be two Ottolenghi dishes in the week, because David persuaded me to make his Curried cauliflower cheese filo pie for dinner yesterday. And it was supremely delicious and actually quite fun to make. Probably the only way I shall do cauliflower cheese from nowon. And there are leftovers to come.
POSTSCRIPT
August 1 - my first son's birthday - perhaps I should choose something to cook from these posts for his birthday party on Sunday.
2019 - Porridge
2018 - Two short updates courtesy of the RACV - vanilla slice
2017 - Maybe we were all celebrating my son's birthday
2016 - Haveli - his favourite Indian restaurant
Comments