Happy Thursday folks! It’s just past mid-week and we’re staring Friday in the face. We’re almost there. We need coffee. How about some cafe de olla?
It’s been an interesting week over here. I haven’t had a roommate in literally years, but Crawley and I are settling in like peas and carrots. He’s a lap kitty, quite a change from Sneakers, who is the king of dirty looks. That is, unless he wants a good belly rub. Crawley, alternatively wants to be cradled like a baby most of the time and, since he’s too cute, I can’t help but oblige. Also, I’ve sadly established the rule in the house as “one must not disturb the comfortable cat,” which I’m sure will lead to sleepless nights as I work to contort my body around his. Still, I wouldn’t want it another way.
I promise to do my best to keep cat stories and pictures to a minimum, but for all you pet parents out there, you know what I mean when I say it’ll be hard.
What’s not hard is today’s recipe. Coffee. Café de Olla. Mexican spiced coffee, a recipe borrowed almost unaltered (gasp!) from next month’s cookbook club selection, Eat Mexico.
It’s quite simple: coffee is brewed and boiled with brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves and served steaming hot in clay cups. I don’t have clay cups, but in all the other particulars, I did the job. I think this would be fantastical over ice during the summer, and since I lack the ovaries of steel necessary to drink any sort of coffee black (or black-ish), I had mine with some frothy milk.
In all the ways, this one is a winner, for breakfast, tea time or the post-dinner warm up (and…the perfect accompaniment to Saturday’s surprise).
Recipe notes:
The original recipe called for piloncillo rather than dark brown sugar. I had the latter, so skipped the former.
I didn’t have cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer, so regular coffee filters did the trick. High tech equipment, as you can see.
Written with one hand, whilst distracting Crawley with the other.
Cafe de Olla
Clove and Cinnamon spiced Mexican coffee drink
Ingredients
- 4 TB dark brown sugar
- 3 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick, about 3"
- 4 TB medium roast ground coffee
- 4 cups water
Directions
- Step 1 Pour the water into a medium saucepan. Add the cinnamon stick, sugar and cloves. Cook until the sugar dissolves and bring to a boil. Add the coffee grounds and boil again. Reduce to simmer for 3 minutes.
- Step 2 Turn off the heat, and let the coffee grounds settle, about 10 minutes. Drain using a cheesecloth, fine mesh strainer or coffee filters. Serve, authentically, in clay mugs.
Looks delish! My cuban gramma used this method to make coffee and has said brewing through cheesecloth makes the coffee taste better because it takes off the harsh edge. I’ll have to get you piloncillo next time I see you.
Woo!
Snuggly kittens and hot coffee sounds pretty great.
Thankfully after traumatic car rides, snuggles still happened.