AeroPress Coffee

I’ve been using a french press for years.  I use the darkest, oiliest coffee I can find.  Grind it fresh just before using it.  And make it just course enough that most of it the grounds don’t make it through the screen.

Then a friend told me about the AeroPress, and I was pretty skeptical.  Then that friend actually bought me an AeroPress.  I’ve been using it ever since.

The AeroPress is basically an inverted French Press.  Instead of pushing the grounds to the bottom of your carafe and letting the finished brew pour off the top, the AeroPress pushes the water down through a filter, and directly into your cup.

Because the AeroPress uses a paper filter, you can grind the coffee finer than you can with a french press.  You end up with richer flavor.

It makes just one cup at a time, so every cup is fresh.  I thought that would make it too bothersome.  But it’s fast, simple, and easy to clean up.  I don’t mind making a cup whenever I need it.

The AeroPress design is that it is very portable.  If you travel, you can bring it with you with less trouble then a french press.

When you have company and need to serve coffee for 10 people, you’ll still want a traditional coffee maker.  But when it’s just one or two of you, the AeroPress will give you an unequaled cup of coffee.

Sambal Oelek, Brother of Sriracha – Low Carb, too!!

 

If you love Sriracha sauce (as I do) and you are trying to eat low carb (as I am), then read on.

Sriracha is not low carb, and Rooser Sauce is not the only Sriracha.  You may already know both of these things, but they were news to me.

What I call “Rooster Sauce” is an example of a common chili pepper sauce from Thailand.  It is made by Huy Fong Foods, which had an interesting story, but you can look that up on Wikipedia if you are so inclined.  Sriracha is a generic name for the sauce, and the version produced by Huy Fong is often referred to as Rooster Sauce because it has a rooster on the label.  The stuff is delicious.

But, while working on a low carb diet, I discovered, much to my distress, that there is sugar in the recipe, and that doesn’t work well for a low carb diet.  What to do, what to do?  Enter Sambal Oelek.  Insane.  Why “insane”?  Because it is even better than the Sriracha, and it has no sugar added.

If you haven’t had it yet, get yourself some Sambal Oelek.

Uncle Billy’s Habanaro Sauce

Had lunch at Uncle Billy’s, a fine restaurant and brew pub in Austin.  As the server handed me the various made-on-site sauces, he said “this one’s hot”.  It was.  Hot, and tasty.  I put a little too little on the first half of my sandwich.  It was good, but wanted more hot.  I put a little too much on the second half.  If you want a deliciously flavorful and sharply spicy sauce, give the Uncle Billy’s Habanero sauce a go.