“Assume Nothing!” A mantra for The Crown as we worked towards opening our doors in March of 2019, the phrase became a Menu section, encouraging our visitors to drop their preconceptions and be open to new and delicious experiences. And now it’s the title of a recipe series, for you to recreate at home. Here’s to a year of assuming nothing!
Impeachy Queen
A light, summery treat.
Ingredients:
- Ice
- 1.5 oz Peach Ginger Syrup
- 10.5 oz Cold Brew Coffee
- Basil Whipped Cream Topper
Recipes:
Peach ginger syrup:
- 4 11oz cans of peaches in nectar
- 20g peeled ginger, roughly chopped
- 500g white sugar
- 1L water
Put all these ingredients into a pot on medium heat. Stir at least until the sugar is fully dissolved. Let the mixture come to a rolling boil before lowering the heat so that the syrup sits at a simmer for at least 30 minutes. Strain out peaches and chunks of ginger, and store in a refrigerator. Will Keep for 4-6 weeks.
Basil whipped cream:
- 1-pint heavy cream
- 2.5g basil leaves
- 25g sugar
- Pinch of salt
Put cream, basil, and sugar together in a pot on low heat. Milk that is heated too quickly or brought to too high a temperature may curdle. Go low and slow, stirring continuously to keep from damaging the milk and to prevent a skin from forming on top. If you notice the cream getting too hot, turn the burner down even further! Keep this up for a bout 15 minutes but give it a taste test before pulling; you should get a hint of the basil, especially in the finish. If you’d like a more powerful punch of the herb, feel free to add more leaves – we like keeping this pretty subtle. Similarly, if you’d like to make a sweeter cream just add more sugar!
Let cool and add a small pinch of salt for balance. At the Crown, we use iSi whippers to make and dispense this whipped cream – if you’re using a hand mixer at home the salt will also help with creating a luxurious texture for your cream.
Directions:
This resulting syrup is mild in flavor, and not particularly thick. We used a 1:8 ratio of syrup to cold brew coffee for this recipe, meaning that in a 16 oz cup we put about 1.5oz of syrup and 10.5oz of cold brew into a full cup of ice. This leaves about an inch and a half of room at the top – enough to add a good cone of basil whipped cream! In service, we must make sure there’s enough room to put a lid on our compostable to go cups, but at home I encourage you to use as much cream as you like! I enjoy trying the sweetened cold brew and the basil cream separately, before mixing them up thoroughly into a mildly sweet cream soda – the perfect refreshment for a hot day.
Description:
In Oakland, it’s finally summer. June and July were balmy – we enjoyed weeks of true Bay Area weather with overcast mornings and sunny but cool afternoons. Now, August has come at us unrepentantly with 90-degree days. The heat might be worse wherever you’re reading from, but the denizens of the Bay simply are not equipped to handle such extreme temps.
And, of course, it’s been a quarantine summer. No barbecues, no lake parties. There’s a lot about summer that we’ve missed as a result of the pandemic. As a South American, the art of the “asado” is a crucial part of my culture, and nothing is more emblematic of summer than spending all afternoon by a grill cooking pounds and pounds of meat.
I’ll tell you a secret though – one of my favorite things about these all–day affairs are the dessert: grilled peaches. There’s nothing quite like a perfectly ripe and juicy peach, and to be honest most of the time I’ll eat it whole before there’s time to even think about throwing it on a grill. But when a grilled peach crosses my path I’m blown away by the symphony of sweet and smoke in one perfect summery bite.
The other symbol of summer for me are juicy tomatoes. In fact, I think summer peaches and tomatoes are some of my favorite things. In the same way I’m always surprised if a peach survives long enough to be grilled to the next level of deliciousness, tomatoes often get eaten over the sink like an apple. However, tomatoes also have the potential of becoming spectacular caprese salads: meaty tomatoes, fresh summer basil, and just a splash of acid from the balsamic.
What does any of these things have to do with our new sigbev??
Imagine sweet Ethiopian coffee over ice, flavored with a touch of peach and ginger syrup and topped with a basil–infused whipped cream. That’s the Peachy Queen. Come by the Tasting Room to try it in person, or follow the recipe above to start experimenting with it on your own!
