Coffee Foundry

Here's a blurb I use when describing my interests: I love coffee, cake, and coffee cake. Cake and coffee just go so well together, right? Well, meet my friends Norm and Wilson. They've been roasting single-origin coffee locally for the past several years, but within the last year, they opened shop at The Coffee Foundry in the West Village. This video by local menswear label 3sixteen highlights cool things being done in their jeans (and they did a whole series featuring other creative professionals).

Singularities: The Coffee Foundry from 3sixteen on Vimeo.

Now, I've definitely come a long way from my hatred of coffee at first taste. Me - hate coffee? Yes, I was 8 years old, and what I thought was a glass of iced Coke was in fact my mom's glass of olieng, or sweetened black coffee. But since then, I've had quite the coffee journey, and it looks a little like this:








My coffee journey can be summarized as disguising the coffee with sugar and cream to learning to appreciate the coffee itself and simply experience it. Last year I discovered a lot of West Coast roasters with the help of Citizen Bean, but I'm also lucky to have access to locally roasted beans by Norm and Wilson. The Coffee Foundry is a place where I can sit back and have their roasts brewed on the spot, and like 3sixteen, I think what they're doing is really cool.

The Coffee Foundry
186 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10014
coffeefoundry.com

If you're an NYC blogger interested in joining a cupping event at The Coffee Foundry please email me at talidabakes at gmail dot com.

Azuki (Red Bean) Filled Mochi

新年快樂! Happy Chinese New Year! I wish you all a prosperous year, and may your celebrations be filled with lots of food and warmth!

It's been terribly frigid here, and in the city that never sleeps, I'm still expected to go into work as long as the subways are running. Luckily my commute only involves strapping on my boots and walking (though with this week's weather, ice skates would have been more fitting).

In these frosty conditions, nothing warms me up like food, friends, and family. Tonight we will feast on lots of Chinese food, and I'll be snacking on this azuki mochi throughout the day.

Tiny Urban Kitchen featured a post of Chinese New Year recipes, and the nian gao (年糕) post spoke to me. I love making (and eating) mochi, but I usually cook it using steam. So I thought I'd try out a baked mochi cake, stuffed with red bean paste. Thanks for the idea and the recipe, Jen!

If you haven't eaten anything like this before, think of it like a super-chewy-Asian-flavored-brownie. Or blondie. It's super easy to make, and even easier to eat!


Azuki (Red Bean) Filled Mochi
adapted from Tiny Urban Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 lb sweet rice flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups and 1 tablespoon milk
1 egg yolk, beaten
2 cups azuki (red bean) paste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9"x13" baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt.
3. Add 2 beaten eggs and 2 cups milk into flour mixture and stir together until well combined.
4. Spread about half of the mochi batter into greased baking pan. Spoon the azuki paste on top of mochi layer and spread evenly. Cover with remaining mochi batter.
5. Whisk together egg yolk and tablespoon of milk to make egg wash. Brush top of mochi with egg wash.
6. Bake in oven for 60 minutes until golden brown.
7. Let cool 10-15 minutes then slice into squares.