“Brewing espresso, unlike other methods of brewing coffee, IS rocket science!” – Knox and Huffaker, Coffee Basics: A Quick and Easy Guide.

We hate admitting it, but most of us are spoiled when it comes to espresso. We just walk in to some coffee shop, put in our order, and whine when it takes the barista longer than twenty seconds to press our double-shot into that little ceramic cup we all love because it makes us feel like we’re giants.

A Bit of Espresso History

Making Espresso

But espresso is much more than just some dark, bitter liquid we hurriedly throw down to help us power through some boring afternoon business meeting.

It is a caffeinated (or decaffeinated) work of art from its brewing to its presentation, and has a history to which we can all relate: it all started with an overbearing, micromanaging boss that felt his workers were taking too long during their coffee breaks.

In the late-19th / early-20th century in Milan, Itay, Luigi Bezzera wanted more production out of his workers, who – just like us – would take coffee breaks throughout the day.

Thinking they spent too much time bringing water to a boil, adding the ground and roasted beans, and cooking the liquid until it “smelled right,” he developed a steam-driven beast of a machine (the Tipo Gigante) that used water and steam forced under high pressure to yield what we know of today as “espresso.”

(To be honest, though, Bezzera’s machine was actually a takeoff from Angelo Moriondo’s original espresso machine patent, but hey…)

By forcing the water through finely ground coffee beans, he cut those coffee breaks down considerably, and production at his plant skyrocketed. He essentially caught lightning in a bottle, and from there, espresso gained worldwide popularity.

Today anyone can make espresso right in their own homes using smaller espresso pots that are used over a stove (like a tea pot).  These are called stove top espresso makers and  can be easily purchased online at places like Amazon.

The Evolution of Espresso to Espresso Drinks

As espresso bars became “the thing” in the increasingly urbanized areas, it was again tampered with, as its bitter flavor was too much for many people to handle.

Thus, the cappuccino was born, adding the sweet creaminess needed to curb the rather pronounced raw flavor (the latte didn’t arrive until the 1950’s, in Berkeley, California of all places).

Latte

When espresso is properly brewed, its signature reddish-brown crema develops like a foam at the top.

The crema is water capturing the coffee’s oils, so the lighter the crema, the fewer the captured oils. (Now, this could be due to the brew time of the espresso or the roast itself, so try not to get mad at your barista if it looks a little pale.)

The Crema

This crema is unique to espresso-making because it is the only method employing the pressure necessary to extract those otherwise insoluble oils from the bean. Oil is fat, and fat is where all the flavor is: thus, the intense flavor of the espresso shot.

Crema is the base by which the quality of the shot is judged, sure, but because it contrasts nicely with the stark white of milk foam, those brewing it developed something called “latte art.”

While pouring the milk and its foam, the barista can actually pour in designs ranging from Christmas trees to hearts to fruits. Good latte artists develop unique followings, and if you ever get your hands on a latte made by one, sit back and admire it for all its worth. It really can be quite impressive.

So the next time you go in and want to order a triple, non-fat, grande mocha drink, resist the temptation, and just order a double shot of espresso. It has less caffeine than a typical cup of coffee, and more quickly gives you what you really want: a burst of energy.

There it is, sitting on your kitchen counter, taking up more space than you realized. “It didn’t look this big online,” you think.

Either that, or you bought it at some restaurant warehouse where it looked a respectable size, placed between the giant dough mixer and eight-burner stove top.

You figured you love meat, this thing’s on sale, why not buy it?

But before buyer’s remorse sets in – before you wonder just how many sandwiches it will take before that meat slicer pays for itself – relax a little: you actually purchased a small Prep Cook.

Yes, this type of slicer does exactly that: it slices meats. So well, in fact, that it even allows you to decide just how thick you want your slices to be.

You know it is without rival when it comes to meats, but it does some pretty other cool things as well – and this is why it can also be referred to as a “food slicer“.

SLICING VEGETABLES

Anytime you’ve got a large group of people to feed, look to your slicer.

sliced tomato

If you’re making sandwiches, throw some fresh, whole tomatoes onto the sliding tray, rest the hand guard on them (you DO have a hand guard, right?), set your thickness dial to ‘2,’ and slice away.

You can slice as many tomatoes as will fit beneath the guard; what you’ll get is cuts of uniform thickness that you can easily portion for sandwiches, or use for a “Wow” factor when presenting a simple and delicious Ensalata Caprese.

Some other slicing uses for vegetables: getting your zucchini paper thin for a no-carb ‘tagliatelle’ or lasagna – just line up the zucchini so that they cut lengthwise, and slice away.

Try using your meat slicer to slice thick cuts of eggplant for frying or baking; cuts of the same thickness cook at pretty much the same time – no pulling out little pieces from the oil so they don’t burn while the larger ones finish cooking.

Another thing about using this type of slicer is to slice vegetables: cutting larger vegetables like squash and eggplant to a uniform thickness is the first step to doing some impressive knife work for presentation’s sake.

If you have the first slice of your vegetables at the same thickness, you can more easily make prettier juliennes, cubes, and dices of that vegetable. Not only does that serve an aesthetic purpose, but things cut to matching sizes cook more evenly. Just try it for a ratatouille or scalloped potatoes, and you’ll see what we mean.

SLICING CHEESE

This one’s a no-brainer: the guy at the deli does it all the time. We only mention this because so many people are so wowed at his command of the meat slicer that they’re intimidated and won’t slice cheese at home.

Look: the only reason that guy can slice cheeses with ease is because he’s got considerably more practice than you. Using caution (and common sense), you can slice your cheeses just like he does right in your home.

Just be sure always use your hand guard (and chain-metal glove, if you’ve got one), and choose the firmer cheeses. Soft cheeses slice well, yes, but unless your rotating blade is extremely sharp, they can bind up the wheel and gears.

Once you get the hang of using your slicer, you will have a hard time ever returning to your set of kitchen knives. Nothing can crank out such good looking vegetables and cheeses for salads or meats for antipasti in such a short amount of time.

And while they can get pretty expensive, we all know that time you save in the kitchen really is invaluable.

I confess, I’m a gadget junkie. I admire Alton Brown’s streamlined kitchen with his policy to not use any single purpose devices. Every few months, I attempt to organize my kitchen and weed out the excess volume, but it never seems to work. I just can’t bear to give up my toys.

However, as much as I love these one hit wonders, not many of them have managed to make it to my list of favorite gadgets. In most cases, it’s the basic tools that I can’t live without.

Counting down, here is a list of my top five favorite kitchen gadgets:

5. Toddy Cold Brew System

There is nothing quite as delicious as a foamy cappuccino in the morning. Between you and me, though, I don’t always have the time or focus to take out the moka pot and make espresso for it.

The toddy cold brew system has changed everything. I’ve discovered that coffee concentrate makes a smooth tasting, low acid cup of coffee first thing in the morning. The system can make a week’s worth of coffee concentrate for nearly instant drinks. All I have to do is add a splash of concentrate to a mug of milk and heat in the microwave.

The concentrate also makes fantastic frozen drinks. Freeze the concentrate in ice cube trays. Pop a few cubes out and blend with cold milk, a scoop of ice cream and some flavored simple syrup. It tastes a lot like those overpriced frappes at the coffeehouse but for a lot less money.

4. Candy Thermometer

A candy thermometer only serves one purpose and many cooks insist that it’s entirely unnecessary with enough experience. I understand the concept of testing sugar syrup in ice water, but frankly I don’t have want to do it that way. I like to stick in the thermometer and watch the numbers go up.

Electric thermometers have alarms to let you know when the pot has reached the desired temperature, but I haven’t found them worth the extra expense. I recommend a sturdy thermometer with a metal frame around it to prevent it from touching the bottom of the pan.

When you’re making candy like torrone, it’s critical that you take the syrup off the heat at precisely the right moment. It sounds intimidating, but candy making is actually fairly simple and always gets rave reviews from guests.

3. Immersion Blender

I can’t imagine getting through summertime without my trusty immersion blender. Between making yogurt smoothies for breakfast, cold fruit soup for lunch, and herbed vinaigrettes to go with dinner, it seems like my blender is always being used. If you get the immersion blender with the food processor attachment, it’s just the right size for fresh pesto for a family meal needing to worry about too much left.

2. Pressure Cooker
My husband loves to cook with a pressure cooker. It can make a homemade meal in a fraction of the time that it takes to cook in a regular pot. Pressure cookers are life savers for a working parent.

I’m well aware that the second generation pressure cookers have layer upon layer of safety features, making it nearly impossible to have an accident. I can’t help being afraid anyway. For years, I cowered in another room while he cooked dinner for us.

Then came the happy day when we discovered electric pressure cookers. These Japanese machines use a computer to program, making it easy to set up and walk away. It doesn’t make scary noises and it doesn’t take any longer to cook than a stove top pressure cooker.

They’re not perfect, I admit. They’re teflon lined, which some people don’t like, and they’re only made in small sizes. Electric pressure cookers have cycles of high and low heat, so they can’t be safely used for pressure canning. Despite all that, I adore them.

My family loves to eat butternut squash risotto made in the pressure cooker. Unlike traditional risotto recipes that require constant stirring, this can be put into the pot and left unattended until finished cooking. Steel cut oats cook as quickly in a pressure cooker as rolled oats take to cook on the stove top.

Grains aren’t the only thing that come out well in pressure cookers. Vegetables, meat and even dessert can be cooked in a pressure cooker. I highly recommend purchasing any of the pressure cooker cookbooks by Lorna Sass to get you started.

1.Kitchenaid Stand Mixer
My all time favorite kitchen appliance is my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. I suppose technically it’s more than one appliance since I have a set of accessories to use with it, but I figure that if Alton Brown says it’s one, I can too.

When you purchase the machine, it comes with a dough hook for making bread, a paddle for mixing semi liquid foods and a whisk for beating liquid. This is the machine that I rely on for making my homemade marshmallows as light as a cloud, but it just as easily kneads several loaves worth of whole grain bread.

I use the Kitchenaid Stand Mixerto make fresh ground meat and sausage. The extruder attachment is perfect for making homemade pasta. They even sell an automatic ravioli filler attachment that makes three rows of large ravioli. I just don’t have enough good things to say about my stand mixer.

What these items all have in common is their ability to save me countless hours of work. With these tools, I am able to make my family meals more easily and with less stress. I suppose I could cook without them, but I definitely wouldn’t enjoy it.

My husband, mother and I took a trip this past Saturday morning to go to our local Farmer’s Market.

I’m trying to get more into the local farmers frame of mind but I have a few reasons why I’ve been a little late to the party in that area (but I’ll save that for another post).

So we’re at this market and see that one of the vendors is selling 100% grass fed beef.   We were happy to see that so we decided to buy 2 lbs of the ground beef.

It is at that point I wish I could turn back the tables of time, but let’s move on.

Tonight we decided to make some hamburgers.   Now let me tell you grass fed beef smells different than grain fed beef.   It is a milder smell and not as strong.  It smells good.

Local Farmers Market

My husband decided to make them over the stove in a frying pan rather than on the grill.   He commented that they looked really fatty.   I took a look and sure enough lot of white fat could be seen.

That’s unusual I said – I would have thought it would have been much leaner.   So he started frying them and commented on how much grease was coming out.

It was then we figured they must have added in some fat so it wouldn’t be so lean.    Keep in mind healthy beef should not be supper fatty.   We do not know this for a fact that they added in extra fat so we plan on asking them next time we see them… but the seed of doubt has been planted.

Then he said, you know – we should have bought a slab of meat and ground it ourselves.

Knock knock… is anyone home up there?  We have a meat grinder here at home, why didn’t we think of that?!

I write about this so much – the advantages of grinding your own meat and here I lived it first hand.   Had we bought a chunk of meat and ground it ourselves we would have known for sure if anything had been added to to the grind and have total peace of mind.

Oh for the love of cooking… I should have thought of this before.   I wish I could turn back the clock.   Now we have another pound of fatty meat and I’m not happy about it.   I won’t use it in a meat loaf because I don’t want the grease, and I can honestly say that this grass fed beef would taste excellent in a meatloaf without the extra fat!

So there you have it – an honest to goodness example of why grinding your own meat is better than buying it already ground!

By the way, if you are interested in getting a meat grinder for yourself, check them out at Amazon and you’ll find them at real decent prices.

Liz
Simpleitaliancooking.com
Meat Grinder Reviews

As some of you may or may not know, I have a review of the Cuisinart 11 Prep Plus food processor on my website.   At the time I wrote it, I did a lot of research about it as if I were looking for one.

To be honest, after all my research I wanted one so badly, but couldn’t purchase it yet.   So long story short, when I finally got around to buying one with the renovation of our little kitchen, this was a must have.

I am so happy with it.   I felt like I had already owned one from all my research and writing.

One of the first things I did with it was use it to make a base for a lentil soup.   I chopped my carrots, celery and onion with the chopper blade and it took a fraction of the time it would normally take me to do the chopping.  I’m a pretty fast chopper too mind you.

But it chopped everything so nicely that I just poured all the contents in the container (you can do them all at once) into the water.  Prepared my lentils and added them in.  Brought it to a boil and then simmered until the lentils were cooked – about 30 to 40 minutes is my liking.

Add a dash of salt and I use Romano cheese when serving which has a saltiness to it, so that adds even more flavor.

It’s not an Italian dish per se that I know of.  I just like the Romano with it and you can add in some parsley too.   It’s a basic soup.

Back to the point of my post – the Cuisinart (and I understand other brands can do the job just as well) not only saved me time – but space.   Which is funny because you’d think that “another appliance” would just take up space.  Well, yes if you leave it on the counter all the time in the way – mine goes in a pantry once dried and put back together.   But it literally took less space to do the chopping, have a place to put everything and keep the place neat and tidy.

Final point – it cleans real easy.   I tend to wash it by hand and it’s easy to dry with a hand towel.   However they can go in the dishwasher, but don’t put the blades in because they may get dull.   A good rule of thumb.

For new recipes I come out with over the next few months you’ll probably hear me talk about it from time to time.   If you do a lot of cooking, I recommend one of these.  You can get them from Amazon at really good prices.  I chose the Cuisinart over other brands because I liked the technology it has for the dough feature – finding the right speed to adjust for consistency.  It’s pretty cool.

Liz
www.simpleitaliancooking.com
Italian kitchenware reviews