Friday 20 January 2012

Week beginning January 23rd - Australia Day - Lamington recipe

Australia Day is next Thursday January 26th, and we think that if you are an Australian who wants to celebrate or impress your friends, or you want to impress an Australian, then one or two of our lamingtons will do the trick very well indeed.

Here at Kaffeine, we will celebrate all week by having an Australian themed menu, including our famous lamingtons, our ANZACS, our vegemite and cheese muffins and Fosters and lamb broth.

Our lamingtons are fairly labour intensive, so if you wish to have some, please do pre-order them with us before Tuesday if possible. If you can't make it into store, we have the recipe here for you.

Lamington sponge recipe:
3 Large Eggs
1/2 Cup Caster Sugar
1/2 Cup Corn Flour
2 tablespoon Plain Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Strawberry Icing:
1x135g strawberry jelly
200ml water
25g butter
375g Icing sugar
Chocolate Icing:
25 g Cocoa powder
25g butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
150ml water
375g Icing sugar
Extras:
Desiccated coconut
200ml double cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon caster sugar

Method:
Preheat Oven to 190oC, line at 6 inch by 8 inch sandwich tin with baking paper.

Beat egg whites until peaks fold over when beater is removed. Slowly add caster sugar to the egg white and continue to beat until the mixture is stiff and sugar dissolved.

Add the egg yolks and beat until well blended. Sift corn flour, flour and baking powder three times and fold into egg mixture gently with a metal spoon. Use and up and down movement. Don't stir.

Bake in prepared tins at 190deg C for 15 - 20mins. Allow to cool in the tins for 5 mins before turning out onto a rack. One tray will cut into 16 squares.

Once the sponge is cut peel the brown top off the sponge as it will make less of a mess later on when dipping in icing.

To make icing you will need 2 small pots, in one pot place the strawberry jelly, butter and water and place on a high heat till the jelly has dissolved. In the other pot place cocoa, vanilla, butter, water and place on high heat and stir till the cocoa has dissolved into the water and makes a syrupy paste.

With electric beater place the strawberry jelly mix into bowl with icing sugar and beat till there are no lumps then place aside.

To make the chocolate icing place chocolate mixture into bowl with icing sugar and beat till smooth and runny.

Place in 2 separate 1 litre containers coconut almost fill to the top, one container is for the chocolate lamington the other is for the raspberry lamingtons.

Dip half the sponge squares into the raspberry icing covering all sides, then dip the lamington in coconut coating the sponge with coconut and place aside onto grease proof paper to set.

With the other half of sponge squares dip into the chocolate icing and repeat the same process.

Whip the cream, vanilla and caster sugar till the cream is quite floppy make sure you don’t over beat as this will turn the whipped cream into butter.

To complete the lamington spoon one dollop of whipped cream onto a lamington square and carefully place another square on top, this is a lamington!


Have a great week, and we hope to see you in and enjoying our menu.


Breakfast
Porridge - served w choices chopped dried fruit, muscovado sugar, golden syrup or honey 2.50
Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 2.90
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 2.90
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.30
(add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta Roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.50
Ciabatta Roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.50
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.50
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 3.50
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Cinnamon and raisin toast 2.00
Banana Bread 2.00


Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.60
Pain au chocolat 2.20
Almond croissants 2.70

Baked Treats
Blueberry and bran muufins 1.80
Vegemite cheese savoury muffins 1.80
Spiced apple friands 1.90
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.20
White chocolate blondies 2.20
Portuguese tarts 1.80
ANZAC cookies 1.60
Afgan biscuits 1.60

Lunch

Soup 3.50 or 4.00
Fosters and lamb

French retro baguettes 4.50
Chimichurri with tomato, bufala mozzarella and spinach
Italian roast ham with gherkin, dijon, red onion, gruyere, rocket

Foccacias with sea salt and rosemary crust 4.70
Aubergine with sweet chilli jam, goats cheese and rocket
Roast chicken with apricots, brie and spinach

Salads 4.50/5.50
Coppa cotta ham with rhubarb, basil, orange, pecorino, baby spinach
Roast sweet potato with corn, feta and pumpkin seeds
Edamame with sticky chilli and sesame

Tart 4.00 or 6.50 with salad
Tuna and vegetable bake

Thursday 12 January 2012

Week beginning January 16th - Thank you for the music

When I was planning Kaffeine, one of the tantalising things about it was the fact that I would be able to play the music that I like and thought would be perfect. Music that made me smile, made me happy, kept me going, motivated me, or brought back memories.

I grew up in the 80's in suburban Melbourne, so know all the words to Guns and Roses, Midnight Oil, INXS, Billy Idol, Bon Jovi, Pink Floyd and gangsta rap such as NWA and Ice T. But we were not going there.

Over the years electronic music has taken over, especially when I was living in London from 95 to 98, when it was all about house, rave, trance and chill out.

Through the 2000's and life slowed down a bit, so it really was more about the quality, the beat, the mixing, the production and just a slower tempo overall.

But what to play? And how do we play it? It was very important. I wanted to it have that background beat, to be quiet in the mornings when we are quiet (the build up), to pick up during the day during service (the peak) and to drop down at the end as we are closing and we are a bit quieter (the chill out). Basically, an 11 hour long DJ set.

The first person I asked was of course Mrs K, and she suggested setting up playlists on the iPod that go all day long. Daylists, we call them. So that was easy. Now it was just a matter of building them. Easy to start with. The 20 or so playlists we started with lasted a while, but then just got repetitive and boring. The staff started asking for 'better, more varied music please'.

Luckily, one of our baristas, Justin, was a music genius who loved the same style and he started creating playlists on his iPod in his spare time, now I am lucky to also have our lead barista and another music genius James doing the same. So we had a bit of variety.

We have gone through phases. Deep house to 80's rap such as De La Soul, to current rappers such as Common and DJ Format, 80's cheese, 70's funk and soul to pop such as Jamiroquai and Groove Armada. For a while there we had Groove Armada on so much we banned it. Awful.

We have a c.d that when it comes on (J-Boogie - Dubtronic Science - Live in the Mix), we usually get really busy, seriously. We have c.d's that will live on in the memory as Kaffeine legends (Cut Copy - Bright Like Neon Love, Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams, Mark Farina - Mushroom Jazz series).

I truly believe that music is such an important part of the ambience and style of the business, and we are as particular about it as we are our food, coffee and service. We adjust the volume as the peaks and troughs of service happen during the day, we plan our playlists to set the style of the day and to flow with the service, we do not let the music stop, it must always be on in the background, but not too loud, not too quiet, not obtrusive or offensive, just right, just there. It must also be, for our staff's sake, varied and interesting.

Keeping these playlists going is a challenging but fun process, researching the artists/labels, getting recommendations, listening to samples, but it's time consuming!. Here are only some of the albums/series/labels that we love and recommend, if you have/know any, please email me, we are always on the look out for new ones.

In the meantime, we say thank you to the music, and please enjoy our menu for this week

Om Records
(Artists such Miguel Migs, Mark Farina, Derrick Carter, J- Boogie, People Under the Stairs, DJ Chuck Love, Blue Six)

Series
The DJ Kicks - Stereo MC's, Apparat, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Thievery Corporation, Kruder and Dorfmeister
Another Late Night - Rae and Christian, Zero 7, Fila Brazilia
Back to Mine - Groove Armada, Faithless, Nick Warren, Adam Freeland

Artists
Groove Armada
Common
Whitest Boy Alive
Cut Copy
Buzzin Fly series
Lemonjelly
Ben Westbeech
Booka Shade
Jurassic 5



Breakfast
Porridge - served w choices chopped dried fruit, muscovado sugar, golden syrup or honey 2.50
Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 2.90
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 2.90
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.30
(add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta Roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.50
Ciabatta Roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.50
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.50
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 3.50
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Cinnamon and raisin toast 2.00
Banana Bread 2.00


Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.60
Pain au chocolat 2.20
Almond croissants 2.70

Baked Treats
Nectarine 1.80
Courgette, herb and cheese savoury muffins 1.80
Spiced apple friands 1.90
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.20
White chocolate blondies 2.20
Portuguese tarts 1.80
ANZAC cookies 1.60
Pimped up ANZACS (oat, dried fruit and nut) biscuits 1.60

Lunch

Soup 3.50 or 4.00
Spiced sweet potato and ginger

French retro baguettes 4.50
Chimichurri with tomato, bufala mozzarella and spinach
Italian roast ham with gherkin, dijon, red onion, tomato, gruyere, rocket

Foccacias with sea salt and rosemary crust 4.70
Smoked salmon, aioli, capers, dill, red onion, rocket
Mushrooms with Welsh rarebit and spinach

Salads 4.50/5.50
Tandoori chicken with cucumber, cherry tomato, yoghurt dressing, cos lettuce
Chicory with prunes, coriander, avocado, pommery mustard dressing
Fennel braised in sesame oil with toasted sesame seeds

Tart 4.00 or 6.50 with salad
Beetroot with parmesan crust

Monday 9 January 2012

Week beginning January 9th - Restaurant coffee

There was conversation and in fact a poll last week, organised by Colin Harmon who is the owner of 3FE espresso in Dublin and who was the Irish barista champion and 4th in the world in both 2009 and 2010, about coffee in restaurants.

The topic was about how often the coffee in many restaurant establishments is of poor quality, especially when you compare it to the high quality of the food, wine or service and that a restaurant is (or can be) the 'ultimate podium for all things culinary'.

The blog post is here http://colinharmon.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/coffee-in-restaurants-and-what-colin-did-next/

I totally agree and I hope that not just restaurants, but all establishments that serve coffee, start to put as much effort into what they serve at the end of the meal as to what they serve at the start or in the middle.

I also agree that it is not always easy to complain, especially as you may feel a bit 'dickish'. Perhaps other coffee people feel the same way. But, if your pint was flat, or tasted wrong, or if your glass of wine was corked, or if the bread was stale, or if your meal was cold, would you complain/ask for better?

If you own a hospitality establishment, are you putting as much effort into your coffee as you do everything else? I do not believe that espresso is necessarily the answer for all, and Colin, when asked suggested any of the immersion methods available today, check this for example http://prima-coffee.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-immersion-coffee-brewing.

I am not recommending this particular blog post, but if I was a B & B or a small restaurant or a hotel, it would be one place to start as would this one http://brewmethods.com/.

We had a very good espresso based coffee yesterday with our brunch at the restaurant Kopapa, sister restaurant to Providores in Marylebone, in fact when we arrived in London on 2005, Providores was one of the first places we were told to get 'good coffee'. I also highly recommend Caravan in Exmouth market as a place that is putting a great effort into everything they do.

But I guess one thing that will help is not just operators identifying the need, researching the possibilities implementing the options and training the staff, but also us as the customers starting to ask, why can't this be better?

I humbly tell this story. One of our regulars once told me how she was in a restaurant and the table next to her sent their coffee back and told the waitress, 'this is not good enough, you need to go to Kaffeine to see how they make coffee'.

That is a huge compliment of which I was very grateful, but with the world of coffee and the accessibility to making great coffee at the best it's ever been, I hope it's a small step towards having great coffee for everyone.



Breakfast
Porridge - served w choices chopped dried fruit, muscovado sugar, golden syrup or honey 2.50
Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 2.90
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 2.90
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.30
(add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta Roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.50
Ciabatta Roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.50
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.50
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 3.50
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Cinnamon and raisin toast 2.00
Banana Bread 2.00


Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.60
Pain au chocolat 2.20
Almond croissants 2.70

Baked Treats
Plum muffins 1.80
Tomato, sesame, lemon and parsley savoury muffins 1.80
Carrot cake friands 1.90
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.20
White chocolate blondies 2.20
Portuguese tarts 1.80
ANZAC cookies 1.60
Pimped up ANZACS (oat, dried fruit and nut) biscuits 1.60

Lunch

Soup 3.50 or 4.00
Spiced sweet potato and ginger

French retro baguettes 4.50
Tuna with rouille, rocket and capers
Pancetta with parmesan butter, fig jelly and spinach

Foccacias with sea salt and rosemary crust 4.70
Italian roast ham with brie, cranberry jelly, red onion, spinach
Bufala mozzarella with basil, aioli, rocket

Salads 4.50/5.50
Duck with lychees, baby spinach, orange and rosewater dressing
Blood orange with radicchio, pomegranate, feta and poppy seeds
Honey roasted chantenay carrots

Tart 4.00 or 6.50 with salad
Fennel gratin

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Week beginning January 3rd - Welcome back

It was a very quick, but a very much needed, 10 days off. I do apologize if you missed us over the holiday period, or tried to come but found we were not open, but we had to close to do some major renovations works in our basement storage area as well as have a fresh coat of paint throughout the shop.

However, we are very much looking forward to a fresh start in 2012. The Olympics, Euro 2012, Wimbledon, The Queens Jubilee, amazing weather. We are hoping for a few British winners this year.

As for us, at Kaffeine we are here to focus on this business as well as our concession One Tree Coffee at Lend Lease and make to sure they are as perfect as possible. But we believe that a few other, perhaps quite notable places may open this as well this year which will be very interesting indeed.

We think the media in general will continue to focus on specialty coffee, partly because of these new openings. New roasteries will also open, bringing more interest and opportunities to the industry. We believe that more people will start to make their own coffee at home, not using espresso machines but grinding their own beans to use in an aeropress, cafetiere or pour over.

And we think that if the general consumer continues to demand and expect better quality food, coffee, wine, service and the industry continues to excel at and provide these important and integral components of a hospitality business, 2012 will be a great year all round.

Happy New Year and let's make 2012 an amazing one.



Breakfast
Porridge - served w choices chopped dried fruit, muscovado sugar, golden syrup or honey 2.50
Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 2.90
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 2.90
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.30
(add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta Roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.50
Ciabatta Roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.50
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.50
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 3.50
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Cinnamon and raisin toast 2.00
Banana Bread 2.00


Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.60
Pain au chocolat 2.20
Almond croissants 2.70

Baked Treats
Blueberry Muffins 1.80
Sweet corn and herb savoury muffins 1.80
Carrot cake friands 1.90
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.20
White chocolate blondies 2.20
Portuguese tarts 1.80
ANZAC cookies 1.60
Pimped up ANZACS (oat, dried fruit and nut) biscuits 1.60

Lunch

Soup 3.50 or 4.00
Pumpkin and chili
French retro baguettes 4.50
Coppa cotta ham with gruyere, dijon, gherkin, red onion and rocket
Bufala mozzarella with puttanesca sauce, tomato and spinach

Foccacias with sea salt and rosemary crust 4.70
Smoked salmon with aioli, red onion, dill, capers and spinach
Mushrooms with Welsh rarebit and spinach

Salads 4.50/5.50
Chicken adobu with wild rice, rocket and coriander
Blood orange with radicchio, pomegranate, feta and poppy seeds
Broccoli with oyster sauce

Tart 4.00 or 6.50 with salad
Tomato and four cheese