Yes, you can drink your coffee, but what about using it as an ingredient in your morning oatmeal? Or in the sauce for baked chicken wings? In the vinaigrette for a dish of Italian sausage and quinoa? Or in the glaze for roasted vegetables like beets?
“For many of us, coffee serves a singular function in our daily routines. We drink it out of necessity day in and day out. So when it pops up in a recipe, it’s a surprise, but it’s also a familiar and comforting flavor,” said Richie Hicks, director of retail for Atlanta-based Brash Coffee Roasters.
Hicks thinks about coffee a lot — not just as something to savor as a beverage, but as an ingredient.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
With access to coffee purchased directly from farmers across Central and South America, he recognizes that each has distinct flavor notes that develop depending on where it’s grown and how it’s processed. Coffee can taste of nuts or of fruit. It can taste floral or chocolatey. And those notes can make certain coffees a better match for certain dishes.
Even so, when cooking with coffee, Hicks says it’s fine to use whatever coffee you have available. The most important thing to remember is that when you’re using ground coffee in a recipe, you are adding concentrated coffee flavor. “Look for a coffee in a medium-roast range, ideally one that’s freshly roasted by your local coffee roaster. And you want it to be very finely ground.”
One of the many things Jarrett Stieber did before he opened his Summerhill restaurant, Little Bear, was operate a pop-up out of Steady Hand Pour House coffeehouse. “We incorporated a lot of coffee into our food. I found that coffee became an unexpected all-purpose condiment.”
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Around that time, he was also developing recipes for Atlanta meal kit company Garnish & Gather. “They asked me to do something with quinoa and to use coffee from Cloudland Coffee Company. How coffee beans are fermented and roasted brings out the aromatics, and I remember that particular coffee as having notes of hazelnut, so it made sense to incorporate hazelnuts into the sausage and quinoa dish I created for them and to use coffee in the vinaigrette.”
Now at Little Bear, coffee is often used in the kitchen and behind the bar. “We make Chinese-style chile crisp and incorporate finely ground coffee. We make our own version of espresso liqueur. We like how using coffee lets us dial in the flavor and make our dishes a little more sophisticated.”
Rachel Anderson, director of operations for Garnish & Gather, said the company continues to source coffee for its meal kits from Johns Creek-based Cloudland Coffee Company, and it continues to search out ways to incorporate coffee into its meal kits. “We find it can really enhance a dish and take it to the next level. Add it to a rub or use it to punch up the flavor of chili, a soup or a stew. And, of course, adding coffee to chocolate desserts makes them taste sweeter and even more chocolatey.”
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Adriana Frazier, director of operations and innovation of Suwanee-based Volcanica Coffee, agrees. She’s developed dozens of recipes pairing chocolate and coffee, including her chocolate-coffee toffee crunch muffins. But she also thinks of coffee as an ingredient for savory dishes such as a coffee rub for prime rib or for chile coffee sticky wings.
“When I started working here, getting to know the more than 150 different coffees we import from volcanic regions around the world, I started experimenting with coffee a lot more in the kitchen,” she said. “I started with espresso brownies, putting coffee into the batter, and other sweets, then I started developing recipes using coffee in main dishes and sides. What I’ve learned is that coffee is a really dynamic ingredient that can transform a dish.”
RECIPES
Atlanta coffee roasters and chefs offer four suggestions for how to use coffee to flavor your meals, whether adding finely ground coffee to a rub or vinaigrette or a bit of brewed coffee to a savory glaze.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Caffeinated Overnight Oats with Maple and Winter Spices
Richie Hicks, director of retail for Atlanta-based Brash Coffee Roasters, was inspired to create this recipe by the Vermonter, a seasonal drink they just launched on their menu, an oat milk flat white with maple and winter spices.
Hicks recommends using a robust maple syrup and likes the Minor Figures barista oat milk they use at Brash. If you have a home espresso machine, he suggests you could substitute 1/4 cup freshly pulled espresso for the ground coffee listed in the recipe.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Chile Coffee Sticky Wings
Adriana Frazier, director of operations and innovation of Suwanee-based Volcanica Coffee, developed this recipe using Volcanica’s organic Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee. “It’s our best-selling coffee, a medium roast and high in acidity with notes of lemon, blueberry and blackberry, making it a great match for these wings, which are both sweet and savory.”
The recipe produces wings that are packed with flavor, sweet and savory, but also spicy.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Roasted Beets with Balsamic Coffee Glaze
When she was developing the glaze for this recipe, Adriana Frazier, director of operations and innovation of Suwanee-based Volcanica Coffee, used their Colombian Supremo coffee. “Most people are familiar with Colombian coffee with its flavor notes of chocolate, caramel and a hint of orange. I love how it pairs with balsamic vinegar, smoothing out the flavor and bringing out the nutty overtones in the vinegar.”
You want about 4 cups raw greens for this recipe. If your beets don’t come with their tops or the tops are skimpy, augment with spinach or arugula.
Coffee Balsamic Reduction
This simple glaze brings out the best of its four ingredients. We found ourselves adding leftover glaze to other roasted vegetables like Brussels sprouts and making a second batch to use with grilled pork tenderloin.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Sausage over Hazelnut Quinoa with Roasted Carrots and Coffee Vinaigrette
Several years ago, Jarrett Stieber of Summerhill restaurant Little Bear created this recipe for Atlanta meal kit company Garnish & Gather to come up with a flavorful way to serve quinoa.
“Quinoa was growing in popularity at the time, especially because it’s easy to cook and high in protein, but it can taste very bland,” said Stieber. The coffee vinaigrette solves that problem deliciously.
Our nutritional analysis uses pork Italian sausage. Consider chicken sausage if you’d like a lower-fat version.
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