Wednesday 24 February 2016

Late Winter Warmers: Rich Spicy Broth with Pork Slivers & Tagliatelle . . . and coffee ice cream affogato

My having roasted a rack of pork for our Christmas dinner allowed reserving the bones for stock. The rest of the Médoc wine along with a bouquet garni, black peppercorns, onions, and mushroom stemsthe caps were braised and served with the porkwere tossed into the pot. The scrumptious result was strained, reduced, and then frozen only to be thawed recently when a chilly, windy day became the perfect time to do so. As there also was homemade chicken stock in the freezer, that got added along with strips of left-over pork, red pepper flakes, minced ginger, crushed garlic, and broken-up tagliatelle. All were simmered until the pasta was tender which takes about fifteen minutes.

Its exquisite shade of burnt umber comes from 'room stems & lush red wine

An earthy soup such like this can easily sport the sun in the form of a poached egg.

The garlic was harvested from our potager last summer

If you love eggs like I do, then you have an inexpensive and delicious way of boosting your nutritive intake by topping grain dishes, soups, and toast with poached beauties. Decades of our ignoring the dire health claims made against them have been vindicated. In this case, an egg was poached in a small amount of broth, the raggedy bits trimmed, and added to a bowl of steaming goodness.

I eventually will sample eggs other than chicken like duck & quail

Now you would be right in doubting the warming effect of ice cream, but then you would be underestimating affogato's flair. Though usually it's made with vanilla ice cream, the earth-coloured theme can continue along with a double dose of coffee by subbing coffee ice cream.


Purists insist that affogato is a beverage and not a dessert. I say just drink it after the meal! And what an adaptable drink it is. For summer, put more ice cream than coffee, for winter, more coffee, less ice cream. Make expresso or very strong coffee in which your favourite coffee liqueur could be added. Put the ice cream into a chalice or a cup and pour on very hot coffee. The melting ice cream will cool down the coffee just enough so you can imbibe the creamy warm beverage with ease. A spoon can assist in securing a few extant lumps of ice cream.

Don't tell anyone I used freeze-dried coffee!

À la prochaine!

RELATED POSTS

Making chicken stock (some photos have become corrupted in this old post, but the info remains correct.)
Broth with chicken, pasta, greens, Parmesan, poached egg & bread crumbs

RELATED LINKS

How to make your own coffee liqueur