Can you imagine savoring your favorite grilled summer salad with a perfectly paired coffee cocktail? Picture a medium roast Colombian or Guatemalan coffee, enhanced with a hint of honey, served chilled using large ice cubes or ice balls to avoid dilution, and topped with frozen berries for an unexpected flavor twist. That's what food and former Cordon Bleu Chef, Lisa Record, brings to our table in this exciting episode.
Get ready to fire up those grills as Lisa shares her expert tips and tantalizing recipes for grilling our favorite summer delicacies.
But that's not all. Our gastronomic adventure doesn't stop there! We journey with Lisa through Michigan's distinct barbecue tradition and learn how to perfectly grill venison tenderloin. So, plug in your headphones and get ready for a delicious experience that promises to transform your summer grilling narrative. Brace yourself for a thrilling culinary adventure that will awaken your taste buds and leave you craving for more. Get ready to sizzle and savor with Lisa Ricord!
And, of course, a big thank you to our sponsor, Better with a Cup of Coffee, for making this adventure possible.
https://www.instagram.com/betterwithacupofcoffee/
https://betterwithacupofcoffee.com/
Can you imagine savoring your favorite grilled summer salad with a perfectly paired coffee cocktail? Picture a medium roast Colombian or Guatemalan coffee, enhanced with a hint of honey, served chilled using large ice cubes or ice balls to avoid dilution, and topped with frozen berries for an unexpected flavor twist. That's what food and former Cordon Bleu Chef, Lisa Record, brings to our table in this exciting episode.
Get ready to fire up those grills as Lisa shares her expert tips and tantalizing recipes for grilling our favorite summer delicacies.
But that's not all. Our gastronomic adventure doesn't stop there! We journey with Lisa through Michigan's distinct barbecue tradition and learn how to perfectly grill venison tenderloin. So, plug in your headphones and get ready for a delicious experience that promises to transform your summer grilling narrative. Brace yourself for a thrilling culinary adventure that will awaken your taste buds and leave you craving for more. Get ready to sizzle and savor with Lisa Ricord!
And, of course, a big thank you to our sponsor, Better with a Cup of Coffee, for making this adventure possible.
https://www.instagram.com/betterwithacupofcoffee/
https://betterwithacupofcoffee.com/
Hey guys, welcome to Couple Connections. I'm Portia and we're here coming to you from our virtual cafe Better with a Couple Coffee. We are savoring relationships with coffee lovers around the world and sharing their experiences that have been better with a couple coffee. Hey guys, I wanted to introduce you to Lisa Record. We've had another episode with Lisa before because we were talking about coffee and food pairing, and today we're going to talk about coffee and food pairing for some summer foods, summer grilling and some great suggestions on what kind of coffee cocktail will be great with a lovely crisp light salad or some North Carolina barbecue or Texas barbecue or grilled chicken. So welcome my good friend Lisa. How's it going over there in Michigan?
Speaker 2:It is absolutely stunning and this is the perfect season for grilling.
Speaker 1:Right, it may be hot as Hades, but summer produces some of the best foods.
Speaker 2:That is incredibly true. I am a firm believer, especially after living out West and grilling all year long, if possible, either using a gas grill or a charcoal or, if you want to go old school, with some wood pellets. That beautiful smoky flavor that you get off in the grill is nothing like you can produce in a frying pan.
Speaker 1:No, girl, no, I mean smoke. If you're the grill master, you know smokes all in your clothes and your hair and all that and your skin and you just feel like you accomplished something because you know everybody is going to enjoy what you cooked, because when you're a grill master you know, you're not just cooking on the grill, you're a grill master. Now, I can't claim that I'm a grill master. I can cook a tiny bit. But you know those home masters, boy, they be coming up with some stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, a lot of people focus on the meat. They, you know. I mean, I forget that you can grill a vegetable. You can make a gorgeous grilled salad nothing like a good cordobella mushroom that has all the seasonings that you put on the steak and you grill it just to perfection. You don't want to cook it all the way through but pergy dirty clothes and it still has that little bit of toothsome to it and it tastes just like a good grilled steak Girl tell me okay, oh, that was good, that's good today because it's hot over here in North Carolina.
Speaker 1:It's like 90 something, but something on the grill where you don't have to be in the house. But if you've got at your grill you've got your cocktail and then okay, so we're having portobello mushrooms today, right, and then what kind of coffee will be great with that? I figured iced coffee, but you know I can drink hot coffee anytime, but a great iced coffee with a grilled eggplant, what would you say?
Speaker 2:I would definitely say a nice medium and, believe or not, colombian coffee would go really good with that.
Speaker 2:Yes, I can taste that because of the citrus notes that you would have, or even and I would say definitely sticking in the medium roast area.
Speaker 2:So if you like, puerto Rican or Guatemalan or Colombian, as long as it's a nice medium roast, that goes perfectly. And then just a little lemon peel in that, as I, I'm old school when it comes to making iced coffee, so I actually use a percolator and so I brew my coffee and then I like to add just a little bit of raw sugar to it, not a lot, just a tiny bit to balance out that citra, or the acidity, I should say, and it actually enhances the citrus notes just a tiny bit more. You get at that same point in time to drop a couple of women fields in there and let it really bring out that own natural citrus notes that exist especially in those three regions, and then just cool it off, chill it, put it in the refrigerator, let it just hang out, pour it over some beautiful ice and make sure, when you're making your ice, that you're also thinking about how your ice your water. Okay, so a good sultured water to make your ice. So then that way you're not adding other flavor of the profile.
Speaker 1:Right, you know when you started saying that. And especially with iced coffee, and if you have a coffee that already has the citrus notes or you know it's a little bit more acidic but it has a citrus note, you can talk about Ethiopian coffee. It's, you know, blueberries, but it has that berry-ish kind of flavor. When it gets colder you taste the citrus even more.
Speaker 2:Yes, and sometimes as I mentioned before.
Speaker 1:you know, sometimes people will say, gosh, why does it taste even stronger? Or when they add milk to it, as we discussed before, it kind of curdles a little bit and that's because of the citrus note. It actually curdles that milk. But it will be perfect with iced coffee with, of course, without the milk. And then you know, when you're talking, you and I are in or come from the hospitality industry, working in the hotels, and so now we're talking about the, not just the regular ice chips, you know, but you can create the ice balls where the ice doesn't melt very fast.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Now you can even do a like a two by two ice cube as well. You can do the spheres or you could do a two by two ice cube. Funny enough, amazon actually sells those style of silicone ice trays and so you can make that larger ice cube and just like you would treat like a really good whiskey or bourbon, because you don't want the water to dilute the actual flavor but you want that chilled factor. So the larger the cube, the less it dilutes to your point. Yeah, but like you said, like with the Ethiopian coffee, you take some frozen blueberries or raspberries and just after that coffee starts to cool off.
Speaker 2:You don't want it when it's really hot, you want it when it's just slightly cool. You throw those berries in that it'll on hands the natural berries flavors that already exist in that coffee. Same thing with the citrus peels, when you're talking like Costa Rica and Guatemala, and they're Colombian. The other nice thing too, if you're not a big sugar person, you do some really good honey and, depending on the honey that you select, adds those floral notes and undertones to the coffee that you're putting it with. Some people like a little sweet, some people like a little sweeter, but you can add just a little bit of funny, and it does the exact same thing. You just don't want to put too much, because then now it's going to taste like honey versus coffee.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and you know what I was thinking, liz, when you're talking about grilling some veggies, or even when you have a nice crisp salad, maybe some dark leafy leafy green salad. I had this idea. When is the Asian pear ripe? Is it generally in the fall?
Speaker 2:I do believe so yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's too bad. You know it would be a great cocktail and I thought about, I thought about how great this would be for for summer cocktail. Because you know the Asian pair is very watery and it's crisp and it's generally, when you get it right, is sweet right. But then when you get close because I eat the core I love I just eat the whole apple. So when you eat, when you bite into the core, it's sour. It's like it's the perfect combination. It's amazing. Girl, wouldn't it be great if you could get the Asian pair and all of the complexities of it and make a summer cocktail, because you have the sweet, then you have the sour and then you would mix it with.
Speaker 1:I know you could add a tiny, the tiniest bit of honey if you wanted to, and then like some type of liqueur with it, like a Saint Germain's maybe, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that was an elderflower to it. Oh, most definitely, or if you wanted to keep along that citrus line, you could do it. Just a light bit of lemon cello.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, yes, lemon, oh yes, that would be perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that would actually help that sourness that you're trying to bring out just a tiny bit more.
Speaker 2:Another one that would be really good would be a cumquat. Oh, because you have that bitterness and then you get that nice bright citrus that just pops so quickly. You could take those and you could dust them in a little bit of a cinnamon and nutmeg and a little tiny bit drizzle of honey, throw them on the grill really super quick and get a really nice like little char going on them, pop them off and he didn't put those into a cocktail. You don't even have to muddle them. You just drop them in there with your ice and shake the stuffings out of them with like a really good vodka and then you just literally just pour that. And if you really wanted to enhance it, that's where your cold iced coffee could come in by a little splash on that brings out that smokiness of the coffee a little bit more. God if.
Speaker 1:I drink alcohol. That sounds so good girl.
Speaker 2:Well, you could also do just a fabulous mocktail doing that, that's true.
Speaker 1:And you know, mocktails are in too, and now I've seen more and more coffee mocktails. I had this coffee mocktail. It was during it was still spring, late spring, and it tasted like ice cream. It was so delicious, it was smooth. Of course, it was with an espresso Expresso and it was divine. Okay, so now we're going to talk about grilled veggies and then the type of coffee that can go, either mocktail coffee or regular cocktail coffee that will go with the veggies, the grilled veggies. What about some barbecue, some meat? Now, over here, north Carolina, we're known for our North Carolina barbecue. As you called it, gold North Carolina gold Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Because we have it's more. Vinegar based in Texas is different. Does Michigan have something? Do you guys add your own spin to barbecue? Like barbecue?
Speaker 2:at a pork, we actually use cherries. Oh yep, michigan is known for their cherries. There's a lot of barbecue saucers that are enhanced by either the dried cherry or cherry juice itself, so you get that little bit of that tenuous and slightly sweet. Michigan cherries are different. They we have the same varieties as most other areas. We have what are called like the deer cherries, which are red and yellow, and then we have the black cherries and then we have the standard red. The black cherries are what are absolutely the best. You take those and smash them up a little bit and you add a little bit of you know what, the skin in it Do? You add a little bit of that cherry meat to it? Yeah, and just like you would with a good Texas barbecue, you know, you have your garlic and your black pepper and you get all of that put together. We do like to use white basal match, and that's the change with the Michigan barbecue is just using a little bit of white basal, I get the vinegar base.
Speaker 1:Well, what's the difference, for example, north Carolina barbecue has what is it, apple? Please forgive me, I don't really eat North Carolina barbecue. So I'm sorry guys, but I do know about North Carolina barbecue, but the components of it. What's the difference, as far as taste, between that Vinegar and the white ball?
Speaker 2:Well, like dark basal make itself, it has that little bit more of that hint of like molasses to it. Okay, where, with white basal make, it's like the difference between a white wine and red wine. It still has that tang to it, but it's a clearly different flavor profile than even like a white vinegar or white wine vinegar. It's got a little bit more light to it, not as citrusy, but still a subtle. It's very smooth, it's a very light vinegar. So it adds. It doesn't take away where some believe. When you start getting into, like apple cider vinegar or basal make itself, that those vinegars, you know what you're tasting. You absolutely 100%. Now that's what you just taste it. Where, with a white basal make it that almost have a question mark. Hmm, there's vinegar in this. So what kind is that mystery?
Speaker 1:Right, yes, so it makes it Well wait a minute though. So, with all of those ingredients, those beautiful, delicious ingredients, what is that? Those type of ingredients match well with the pork or the beef, or or you guys use both.
Speaker 2:We use both typically, but a lot of poultry. Actually, here venison is a really big thing and venison is a more lighter flavor of a red meat. It's got a little bit more of that gaminess, so kind of like when you you eat a duck breast compared to a chicken breast.
Speaker 1:So you don't have to. So venison is deer correct, correct.
Speaker 2:So you get a good venison tenderloin and you put the cherry barbecue sauce on it, start out with a light little rub you don't want it too heavy on anything Little black pepper, some sea salt, maybe just a hint of onion and garlic powder and a little light paprika. You rub it on there, get your tenderloin going Nice, little grilled sear, and then put that barbecue sauce on there. You just let the barbecue sauce just start to get nice and sticky and then you pull it off, cause a good medium on a venison tenderloin is perfect.
Speaker 1:And then the nice little fat right, Correct.
Speaker 2:And then you can also do a grilled romaine salad. So you just take a cut of romaine, cut it in half, drizzle of your favorite extra virgin olive oil, little salt, little pepper, put it on the grill. It literally takes you less than a minute. You grill it face down, so flat side down, flip it over couple of grill marks and it is the best tasting salad you'll ever have in your life. The only thing you got to do maybe a little zest of lemon on it, Little sprinkle of some fresh Parmesan oregano and your salad done. You don't need to add anything else to it. And then, with that venison tenderloin, it is absolute perfection.
Speaker 1:Wow, so you grilled your romaine lettuce. That's pretty awesome. Okay, so if you got all, you have all of that your venison and then your grilled romaine lettuce. That is so cool. I have to try that, and then, your coffee of choice would be.
Speaker 2:I would actually go with the Costa Rican medium roast. If I'm going to do a full cocktail, I would do a little. This one I would probably choose. I'm a vodka fan. I'm a sucker for a good vodka and Belvedere is my favorite. So I would do the Belvedere lemon infused, so it's already light and lemon, little splash of that and Costa Rican medium roast chilled coffee. Shake it up. I'm a sucker for honey, so I would do especially because lavender is very big here in Michigan I would do some wild lavender honey, just a tiny little drizzle in there, shake it up, pour it over my ice and it's good to go. It doesn't need anything else. Girl, stop. Wanted to see in the mocktail realm? Then I would do the iced coffee shaped with some little muddle of a dried Michigan black cherry and lemon. Slightly muddle it together, pour your coffee in there, little drizzle of lavender wild honey, shake that up and you now have yourself a mocktail.
Speaker 1:Oh my Lord. But okay, this is when you want you know, when you realize your life is just bland, like when you eat is bland, what you cook is bland, when you go out to get, when you want to go to a restaurant is bland. This is when you're spicing it up. You want something different and it doesn't take very long to do it. And that's the issue with a lot of people when they feel like they don't have enough time or this, feel like it's a waste of time to prepare this type of food and drink. But it's not.
Speaker 1:It really isn't, because you don't want to spend that much time anyway in the summertime with cooking and preparing, but grilling is fast.
Speaker 2:Oh it is. And especially when you're talking about vegetables, they cook incredibly fast and whatever your favorite green is, because, like, even like you're doing, like, if you're a fan of kale, you can get one of the big heads of a kale and you can do the exact same thing with it. It'll take a little bit longer to grill. So, instead of doing, you know, two minutes on the grill with a large head of romaine, you take a head of kale, you do the exact same thing to it. Now you're talking maybe two minutes.
Speaker 1:What if? Because you know, with kale you want to tenderize it and a lot of times you they say that you can actually squeeze it. Yes, and what about if you do that? You know you squeeze it to break down the leaf and then you put it on the grill.
Speaker 2:Yes, most definitely. That can be even more tender. Oh, yes, it would. And then if you add only kind of acid to it while you're grilling it, which will help tenderize the kale leaves even better.
Speaker 2:So if you're a fan of oranges, it doesn't matter. Anything that's citrus. You give a little squeeze of that on that kale while it's grilling. It's going to come out tender and beautiful and a flavor you never expected, and then it'll enhance your grilled citrus flavor. So cut your lemon in half first, put your orange in half first, put it on the grill, get some grill marks on it, let those natural oils start to come out of the citrus brine and when you go to squeeze it you make sure that you are squeezing that rye. It's not just about the juice, it's about the oil that comes off on that and it will give it such a beautiful, bright flavor.
Speaker 2:And pretty much with any of the coffees it's whatever your choice of coffee is, but for summer I always recommend for iced coffees and cocktails to use the medium roast Colombian, guatemalan or Costa Rica, because of the natural nutty, caramel hints and citrus that comes off from those three regions the most. They pair so beautifully with anything grilled and going into the Carolina Gold or the Texas barbecue. Those three regions of coffee are the coffees of summer's choice.
Speaker 1:Ooh well, what if, for example, myself I love a dark roast. I just can't get past it. Medium dark, but mainly dark Now, just like a steak and a cab. They pair very well together. What?
Speaker 2:would you?
Speaker 1:say what type of meat would you choose for a dark roast?
Speaker 2:A dark roast. You could grill some duck up, which would be perfect. You can score the skin nice, slow and low on the grill comes out perfect. I'm also a fan of bison. That's another one. It's another nice lean meat.
Speaker 2:Not everything has to be about beef itself, but those of you who can't eat beef but you like to eat chicken, good chicken thigh. You can even go boneless, skinless chicken thigh and, for that matter, because you like a dark roast, you can also add just a tiny bit of, like two ounces of your favorite iced coffee. That's a dark roast. Two of the marinade, and get that chicken thigh with some shallots, a little fresh thyme or tarragon and a little bit of. At that point I would say, liza's, you get that in there and a little bit of that coffee and you let those thighs marinate at least a minimum of six hours, like your favorite extra virgin olive oil. At that point I would say, with a dark roast, I would go with Spanish extra virgin olive oil and then a little salt, a little pepper, and then really kick it up just a tiny notch. Get some pink peppercorns, crush them, throw them in there and you put that on the grill. It's gonna create almost like its own barbecue sauce.
Speaker 2:The sauce will help it all turn into this beautiful place on its own. Oh my god, you could put some um mustard greens, um, if you have a grill basket like the kale, kind of massage them a little bit, throw your mustard greens in your grill basket. Same thing, just a little drizzle of that Spanish olive oil, a little salt, a little pepper, some paint, peppercorns crushed on there, throwing on the grill while your chicken's cooking. Boom, you're gonna have to get a green salad.
Speaker 1:Grrr, you have just made me extremely hungry and I was just gonna saute oh, my god, I was just gonna saute some shrimp and we pulled out this humongous zucchini from the garden. So I was just gonna chop something, some of that up, and just lightly saute that. But god, now like grilling?
Speaker 2:Ooh, I should just grill those that are not that big, I'm gonna cut it into small pieces oh yeah, that's, especially if it's a good size zucchini.
Speaker 2:Instead of cutting it into um adaliens, cut it into sticks, toss it and whatever olive oil you have, a little bit of salt, a little bit of pepper, throw that baby on the grill. Same thing with your shrimp Shrimp. You don't have to grill for very long. You can actually grill them faster than you can saute them. You can get on the grill when, with the saute, sometimes because of that extra moisture, you oversteem them and now you have a rubbery bouncy ball shrimp and nobody wants that you have just left me and coffee lovers and grill lovers something simpler that they can make, and you know stuff that they probably already made.
Speaker 2:Nothing has to ever be complicated when it comes to coffee or syrup. Yeah, same thing with wine. Like you like dark roast coffee, you can buy that all year long, but you can utilize those same two items and everything that you grill. There's no longer that rule of thumb of red wine goes with red beans or white wine has to go with white meat. It's what you prefer, is what you do.
Speaker 2:Add a little spice. Uh, you can use chipotle chili powder and you're going to elevate it in a smoky sweetness. You can even do that with your shrimp and you can still have your dark roast coffee. Chill, but add a little bit more citrus to it. Everybody can buy in a Clementine that's they're in season or good navel orange. Add a couple of those peels to your coffee while it just before you add a little bit more, because it'll extract more of that flavor and just play with it. Don't be afraid of that. When you're making a cocktail, add a one crushed red pepper to it, just to add a little something. In that back note that goes ooh what's that?
Speaker 1:Ooh, and, as you know, you mentioned the peppercorns. I remember when I was in college and I went to college and they would have these red peppercorns to this dish and I'll never forget it because it has such a different flavor and so you mentioned. You said white peppercorns. Pink pink peppercorns. So, that's interesting. Does that have a different flavor, slightly different flavor than the red peppercorns? I mean they are all.
Speaker 2:yes, every one of them has a different flavor, and pink peppercorn has more of a different flavor. This is one of my favorites to use for the summer.
Speaker 1:I have to try some of this. I'd love to grow Now the cherries.
Speaker 2:that's very interesting for a sauce in addition to the sauce, for whatever area that you're in, utilize what's around you, something that your local farmers have as an interior repertoire, and I mean I don't know if you've heard about it, but find that coffee that just really delights you. Here in Michigan we have several independent coffee boasters and it's really fun to get to know them and if you're a true coffee lover, find one that's close to you. Find out what they have. Where are they bringing their beans in from. Find that unique roast that really just makes you feel good about coffee and sometimes just to stop, take a moment and enjoy Peppa coffee, because, again, what Everything's better with.
Speaker 1:Peppa coffee. Hello, speak the truth, tell it like it is girl.
Speaker 2:Everything is better with coffee Most desionate.
Speaker 1:Well, all right, my love, I am so grateful for just your, your knowledge and just your understanding of what I come up with.
Speaker 2:Most definitely, it's always my honor to have you take your time to watch and listen to me ramble about some of my favorite things.
Speaker 1:Girl, you're rambling, If you want to call it that. It's priceless, so we're grateful. I will chit chat with you again and we'll have to do another episode on something else about coffee and food pairing a little bit later. What do you say? I'm Portia White and I hope you've enjoyed today's conversation. I'd like to give a special thanks to our sponsor. Better with a cup of coffee, dot com. If you like what you heard, please rate and review our podcast and join us in one of our connecting