Gourmet Garden

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In my previous posting I have written about wine tasting, this post I will dwell on the concept of coffee cupping or tasting. The concept of coffee tasting is call coffee cupping and it shares some similarity with wine tasting. Even the jargons have a lot in common.

Variety of Coffee Served

Before we go on to the technicalities of coffee tasting, do everyone tastes’ things the same? The answer is no because of the different responsiveness of individuals’ taste buds which is determined by their genes and also the care taken for their taste buds. Thus, the opinions of flavours will greatly differ from individual to individual. The skill or techniques of coffee cupping was created to address this shot coming for certain individuals, so that are able to enjoy coffee as others do.

Coffee cupping involves deep sniffing of the coffee followed by a strong or loud slurping of the coffee so that every spec of taste buds on the tongue are covered by the coffee’s characteristic, especially the back of the tongue. In coffee cupping one attempts to measure the characteristic or aspect of coffee, which include the body or texture, acidity, aroma, flavour and aftertaste. The coffee aspects or characteristics are briefly introduced as follows:

• Body, is the texture feeling in your mouth or viscosity of the liquid. Viscosity is the thickness or liquidity flow of a liquid, an example comparison would be water and honey or heavy/full body as opposed to light/thin body.

• Acidity is the sensation of dryness in the back region and under edges of your mouth, and it should not to be confused with the taste sourness. Without acidity the coffee would taste flat and will lack live and taste character.

• Aroma is the sensation of smell from variety of odours or fragrances. In coffee and like wine you may find hints of floral, fruity, nutty, smoky, citrusy, medicinal, and many more fragrances. With absence of these aromas coffee would taste dull with just taste of sweet, sour and bitter.

• Flavour is the combined sensation of both taste and aroma which in coffee cupping can be characterised as balanced, full bodied and complex.
  • Balance brings tohether a harmony of flavours and aroma without any particular outstanding aspects.
  • Full body means richness in fragrance and taste.
  • Complex presents a multi spectrum of flavours and odours.

• Aftertaste is the persistent lingering of the flavour after the coffee has been swallowed.

Desirability of certain coffee bean or bean mixture is dependent on an individual’s flavour preference. In general people would normally shun from coffees that contain  over bitterness, bland, carbon, earthy, flat, grassy, muddy, musty, rubbery, sour, water and turpentine.

"Fresh" Espresso

After discovering what to look for in your coffee, let us now look at how to make a good cup of coffee. If some of you have watched “Black Hawk Down” there was catchy phrase by Ewan McGregor, ‘It’s All About The Grind’ which is very true. Different grind sizes are used for different methods of brewing to extract the most flavours from the coffee bean without producing the bitter compounds.

• Drip brewing may use medium to fine grinds,
• French press requires coarse grinds,
• Espresso pressured machine uses extra fine grinds,
• Vacuum coffee pot brew with coarse grinds,

Good coffee also needs fresh beans, balanced water, good control of water temperature, good timing, patience and passion.

The general rule is as follows:

• Coffee to water ratio should be 55g to 1 litter of filtered water,
• Water temperature should be at a range of 90.56-96.11°C
• Coffee should be brewed for 4.5 to 6 minutes depending on brewing method,

Some of the brewing methods I have seen in our local coffee outlets are the Ice Drip Coffee Tower, French Press, Automated Espresso Machines, Drip Coffee Makers, and Vacuum Pots.

Ice Drip Coffee Tower

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One of the most popular breakfast that are shared by many Malaysians regardless of their ethnicity would be a nice warm rich plate of soft boil eggs. Depending on ones preference it could be runny or thick, my preference is always fluffy whites with and near solid yolk to give it texture and aroma. I am not the type that likes the egg all watery.

My decision to research on soft boil egg was mainly due to our fruitful exploration in Kluang. In fact, it was one of the most memorable soft boil eggs that we had out of home.  The eggs were not under cook nor over cook, it had just the right consistency, smoothness and was fragrant. The eggs were served whole and we had to crack our own eggs, like what we used to do at home.

Some may choose to cut off the top egg with a knife or egg scissors, or tapping gently around the top with a spoon. Some may spoon out the content, some may drink from the shell, some may pour it on to a piece of butter toast, etc. Any way it is cracked, enjoyed and preferred, the main objective is to get every single drop of protein goodness from the egg shell.

There are a few methods to make the perfect soft boil egg that one would like. The local or Asian way is to pour boiling water into an enamel or stainless steel mug or a ‘soft-boil egg maker’ and let the egg soak for five to six minutes depending on the preferred firmness. To achieve the pour-all-out effect, after the preferred cooking time place the egg in a cold bath for 2 minutes or so to rid off the residue heat from further cooking the egg and to prevent the egg whites from sticking to its shell.

The Western method is to place the egg into a small saucepan and fill it with cold water until it covers the egg, then turn on the stove to the max. When the water starts to boil reduce the heat and simmer for 3-5 minutes depending on how firm or easy you prefer your egg. Or alternatively, simmer the egg for 1 minute, then let soak in the hot but not simmering water for about 6 to 7 minutes or so.

To go hand in hand with a rich creamy plate of soft boiled egg, a perfectly toasted bread smudged with sufficient amount of salted diary butter (not margarine) and a cup of thick aromatic kopi ‘o’ or ‘kopi suss’. Breakfast from haven!

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The cooking process was done by May, My Brother’s girlfriend, who is original Thai. Thanks to her original Thai Tomyam receipy. There are 2 types of Tomyam, as we usually get in malaysia is almost in red hot version with put in alot of tomyam paste & coconut milk. Another one is clear version, without any red hot tomyam paste but with the distinctive aroma from the combination of herbs. i & Gill love the clear soup more than the red one.

The herbs above used in making  traditional Tomyam Soup. These herbs that you see here needs to be soaked in water to bring out its taste and aroma. Starting from the top and clock wise, the pinkish root is lengkuas(a.k.a galangal), Serai stock(a.k.a lemon grass), kaffir lime leaf and coriander leaves and roots.

The Lengkuas or Galangal is sliced into thin pieces then soaked in water. We only need a few pieces and not the whole thing.

The lemon grass stocks are cut to size and beaten to induce a more potent flavor to come out.

The root of the coriander is also extracted and soaked with the galangal and lemon grass.

After the herbs are all cut to size, then all are soaked togather for some time before we proceed to boil them in hot water.

While we wait for the herbs that are soaking in water, we also proceed to cut up some red onions, chili padi and garlic. And also prepare some lime that will be squeezed for the juice to give the tomyam that tangy taste. Garlic is used in the tomyam soup because we will be using prawns too.

All the above mentioned ingredients that are needed to give the distinct taste and aroma of the tomyam soup are all boiled together.

After the aromatic ingredients have been boiling for a while, it is time to add in some coconut milk. You may exclude it if you want a clear soup.

After the coconut milk is added, we now add in the tomyam paste for additional kick and spice.

After the step of adding the tomyam paste, the only thing to do now is to put the rest of the ingredient, mushroom, vegetables, chicken, fish, prawns, etc. Then some tasting is required, seasoning to be done and to give it the acidity it needs.

Time to squeez in the lime juice to give it the acidity it needs.

Now everything is all cooked, and the chopped coriander leaves and spring onions have been sprinkled on. The only thing to do is to eat, drink and enjoy.

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Dear Floggers, i am going to post everything related to food, cooking & travel story in this blog from now on, rather then separate into 2 blogs (my second blog is feelthefood.blogspot.com). Heee…..have more topics to post mah…..lol

i will try to copy feelthefood.blogspot.com posted content to here. Stay tune!

This time im going to share Raw Ingredient with you. Have you seen “Perut Ikan” in raw before? Is not the fresh fish stomach digged out from the fish im going to share, but is Fish Stomach pickled in salt. Usually the perut ikan should cleanly wash and soak with salt for preservation, and kept it in a glass container. And rinse the salt before cooking.

The Fish Stomach is commonly found in one of the famous Nyonya Dish, called “Perut Ikan“.

Perut Ikan just spooned out from the glass container….not wash yet….kinda smelly

Have to soak in the water and wash for several times…..

Never discovered they has beautiful visual marking! Did you see the white dots? is salt…

Oh….its transparent too

After many times of washing and cleaning process…..
See….like a cloth floating in the water…haa

Its string after cooked! No wonder we barely find Fish Stomach in the Perut Ikan dish!

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