by Cleo Coyle
It was early evening, a slow night, and Mike walked into my coffeehouse, ordering up his regular, as usual. When I put the double-tall latte on the counter, however, he pulled out an unusual looking piece of paper and dangled it right in front of my nose.
“This is a BOLO, Cosi. And it’s got your name on it, and your license plate number.”
“What is it?”
“A ‘be on the lookout’—for your red Honda.”
“It’s not a traffic summons?”
“Someone driving your car went through a dead stop red light in Brooklyn last week, sped recklessly down Court Street, refused to pull over, and evaded a police chase. So, please tell me that your car was stolen.”
“It wasn’t.”
“You’re guilty of all this?”
“I can explain.”
Mike reached behind him, pulled out his handcuffs, and slapped them down on the coffee bar. “These would be going around your wrists if I hadn’t seen this issued last week and claimed it for follow up.”
“You’re burying the violation?”
“You’re lucky you live in my precinct. I’ll talk to the Brooklyn officer who’s charging you, get him to reduce it to a traffic ticket. But I’m warning you right now, you’re going to owe me.”
“Well, I could give you free lattes for a month, but I don’t know, Mike . . .” I picked up the handcuffs. “It seems to me I could do a whole lot worse than having you use these on me.”
Mike smiled—a rare occurrence. “I told you, Cosi. You owe me. But the cuffs are Stage Five.”
“And where are we?”
He plucked the cuffs from my hands and put them back on his belt. “Stage One.”
“Which is?”
“Dinner and a movie.”
My eyes widened. It was the first real date he’d ever proposed. “When?”
“How about every Saturday night for the foreseeable future?”
I laughed. “What if there are no good movies playing?” The detective took a long, satisfying sip of his latte. “I think we’ll come up with something else to occupy our time. Don’t you?”
“Oh, sure, let’s see . . .” I scratched my head. “There’s Yahtzee, Scrabble, Crazy 8s . . .”
Mike glanced around the coffee bar. “So where’s Zorro?”
“Uptown. His girlfriend’s taken him in. Since his arm’s in a cast, she’s having a high time playing nursemaid. Believe me, he’s living like a prince. I actually think they’re getting serious . . . and speaking of serious. Any word yet from the district attorney’s office?”
Mike nodded. “No plea deal. Van Doorn’s lawyered up pretty well, and he doesn’t want to admit his guilt, so he’s going all the way to trial. But old Neils is going to have a rough time of it. We’ve got DNA evidence nailing him to Ellie’s murder, a security camera showing him leaving the V Hotel near the time of death, not to mention all those witnesses to the Halloween shooting of his wife. There’s more than enough for a conviction on something . . . Gostwick, as you know, was another story.”
“I know . . .”
In the end, Ric wasn’t a stone-cold sociopath. He may have been a serial cheater, but he didn’t really want to see his oldest friend sent up for a murder he didn’t commit. When the police played him my recording, Ric officially confessed. The DA worked out a manslaughter charge of eight years, and he would likely get out in four or less for good behavior.
As for his magic beans, they were contractually in the possession of the Village Blend. If I let Matt’s kiosks have them all, which I intended to, the Gostwick Estate Reserve Decaf would easily last the year. We’d have a good chance of turning those floundering kiosks around . . . and, in the meantime, Matt already found a horticultural consultant for Ric’s family, to help them keep the hybrid crops producing—Norbert Usher.
Ellie’s young assistant at the Botanic Garden was quite eager and knowledgeable, as it turned out, and he’d learned plenty from working with Ellie and Ric over the last eight months. The Gostwick family was only too happy to have him come down to Brazil and work in their nursery and on their farm.
The Dutch International contract for those fake Gostwick Estate decaffeinated beans was voided, and Matt was going to see what he could do to help Ric’s family expand legitimately, albeit slowly.
Ric admitted that his fraud scheme with the late Monika Van Doorn’s company was a way for him to purchase more land and quickly expand his crops. He’d been a little too eager to restore his family’s fortune to what it once had been . . . but all of that was behind us now.
As for my baristas, things were working out well for them, too, although not for me. Gardner had gotten so many solo piano gigs from his single appearance at the Beekman that I was now super short-staffed, and working 24/7 while still looking for good trainee baristas.
Meanwhile, Dante was very close to getting a second gallery show, Esther was after me to hold a Poetry Slam night at the Blend, and Tucker was auditioning for an Off-Off-Broadway revival of The Importance of Being Earnest in the Twenty-First Century . . . or, at least, that was the production’s working title.
Joy and I were back on civil terms. We agreed to call a truce in our battle over Tommy Keitel. I told Joy (again) that I loved her, and I didn’t want to see her hurt. She reiterated her intention to continue her relationship with fiftysomething Tommy, although she did at least acknowledge my worries, and (in what I saw as an encouraging sign of growing maturity) said she was glad to know I’d be there to catch her if she ever fell. And we’d left it at that.
All in all, it had been a rather trying week, and I figured I’d earned a coffee break. Reaching toward the burr grinder, my hand shifted to the one with the green tape. A decaffeinated espresso actually sounded like a nice, calming alternative for the night.
I took a seat beside Mike at the bar. “So are you about ready to accept some help furnishing that apartment of yours?”
“Yeah . . . that would be nice. The mattress on the floor currently has all the charm of Sing-Sing solitary.”
“I’ll tell you what else would be nice.”
“What?”
I turned on my stool, reached my hands around his waist, grabbed the cuffs again. “Jumping forward on a few of your ‘stages’ . . .”
“Oh, no, Cosi. You’re on my watch now . . .” He pulled my wrists away from his belt, repositioning them around his neck. “And I’m a procedures kind of guy. I don’t skip stages. That’s what I tell my rookies, you know?”
I arched an eyebrow at that. “First things first?”
“Or second,” he whispered. Then his smiling lips covered mine; and although they kept moving, they finally stopped talking.
RECIPES & TIPS FROM THE VILLAGE BLEND
Visit Cleo Coyle’s virtual Village Blend
at www.CoffeehouseMystery.com
for more coffee tips, trivia, and recipes.
BUZZKILL
While coffee is my business, everyone has their threshold for caffeine consumption. If you’re worried about ingesting too much, try replacing one or more of your regular daily cups of coffee with decaf. Or try ordering a cup that’s half decaf and half regular. Remember a demitasse of espresso has less caffeine than a regular cup of your typical Colombian morning brew, and be aware of what foods and beverages have caffeine besides your favorite cuppa Joe. Here’s a short list . . .
1
Coffee Milk
Coffee Milk is a seventy-year-old tradition in Rhode Island, and the official state drink. Our barista Dante Silva explained to me that it’s very much like a glass of chocolate milk, except the syrup used is coffee flavored instead of chocolate flavored. The origins of the drink is believed to be with the Italian immigrants who settled in the region. At the Village Blend, many of our customers order it made with steamed milk, much like a hot cocoa.
2 tablespoons of sweetened coffee syrup (regular or decaf)
8 ounce glass of milk
Mix together and enjoy cold or w
armed.
Homemade Coffee Syrup
If you wish to make your own coffee syrup, there’s the traditional way and a modern method. I would recommend the newer recipe, but if you’re adventurous and have a percolator on your stove, give old school a go.
COFFEE SYRUP THE MODERN WAY
Step 1- Make super-strength coffee by brewing coffee (regular or decaf) at a ratio of 1 cup—yes cup—of ground coffee to 16 ounces cold water.
Step 2- In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of super-strength coffee.
Step 3- Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar.
Step 4- Lower heat and simmer for about three minutes, stirring often.
Step 5- Let cool and refrigerate. This method will yield one cup of thick syrup.
Coffee syrup can be stored in the refrigerator, in a tightly sealed container, for up to one month.
COFFEE SYRUP THE TRADITIONAL WAY
Step 1- Percolate one pot of coffee (regular or decaf), then discard the grounds.
Step 2- Add fresh grounds (regular or decaf), percolate again, using the coffee as liquid instead of fresh water. Step 3- Do this three times.
Step 4- Measure the finished coffee mixture. (The amount may vary.) Combine sugar and coffee in a medium saucepan at a ratio of 1 cup of sugar for every 2 cups of coffee. Heat until boiling and sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly.
Italian Sesame Cookies
This sophisticated cookie has just a slightly sweet flavor. When you want your beverage to be the star—be it coffee, tea, or wine—this is a nice, subtle accompaniment whether before or after dinner, and it pairs beautifully with most cheeses.
This recipe makes about 18 cookies.
½ cup butter
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Milk
1 cup sesame seeds
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla and blend well with an electric mixer. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, blending into a rough dough. Turn out the dough onto a floured flat surface and knead 1 to 2 minutes until the dough is smooth.
Now you can begin to break off small pieces of dough and shape them with your hands into small logs about 2 inches long and 1 inch thick. Dip the logs in milk and roll in sesame seeds. Place the cookies on the cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart. Use a non-stick pan or try parchment paper, otherwise make sure your pan is well greased so the cookies won’t stick. Bake in a 350º F. oven for 20 minutes.
Optional: For a richer, sweeter variation, try dipping half of this small cookie in melted milk or dark chocolate. Let cool before serving.
Carne Con Café “Matt’s R agout”
Matt was actually a pretty good cook during our marriage. Those rare times he was home more than two days together, he taught me that coffee could be used as a meat tenderizer or as a marinade. In this dish, it acts as an earthy flavor enhancer. This recipe is actually a variation of a traditional Mayan dish from El Salvador that Matteo enjoyed. He recreated it for me in our kitchen one afternoon.
This recipe makes about eight servings.
2 to 4 tablespoons vegetable or corn oil (cover bottom of pan)
2½ to 3 pounds beef chuck, cubed
3 cups diced sweet onion
1 cup sliced red bell peppers
1 cup poblano chile peppers
1 cup chopped ripe tomatoes
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2½ cups strong coffee
6 oz. tomato sauce
8 small carrots, halved
¼ cup tomato catsup (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil and brown the meat over moderate heat, turning often. Add the onions, peppers, garlic, tomatoes, tomato sauce. Mix and bring to a boil, add the coffee and catsup (optional). Cover the pan and continue to cook over a low heat until meat is tender— approximately two hours. Stir often. Peel and halve the carrots and add to the pot in the last twenty to thirty minutes, cook until carrots are tender. The resulting sauce will be thick and bright and quite savory. It can be served as a stew with crusty bread or ladled over rice. You might even try it tossed with rigatoni or penne.
No Biggee Coffee Cake
Here’s a simple recipe for a quick, delicious coffee cake, from one of my old “In the Kitchen with Clare” columns . . .
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup butter (½ stick)
1 egg, beaten
½ cup milk
1-½ cup flour (sifted)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
STREUSEL INGREDIENTS
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Make the cake batter: Cream the sugar and butter together. Add the egg and milk, and mix with an electric mixer until blended. Dump in the sifted flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix together until a smooth batter forms, but be careful not to overmix.
Now make the streusel filling and topping: Melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan. Add the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mix well, but don’t worry if the mixture is lumpy.
Assemble your coffee cake: Grease an 8×8 square pan, pour half the cake batter. Note that the batter will be a little doughy. Use a rubber spatula to spread batter into pan corners. Spoon half your streusel filling over the batter. Now cover the filling with the remaining cake batter and top with the rest of your streusel. Bake at 375º F. for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool and cut into squares.
PB and Nutella Sandwich
Peanut butter
Nutella2
2 slices of bread
In this sandwich, the jelly in your PB&J is replaced with Nutella. What is Nutella? It’s a wonderful hazelnut chocolate spread that originated in Italy, where the hazelnut is king. Most major American grocery stores now carry it. Look for the jar in the peanut butter aisle. And speaking of peanut butter, if you actually need the recipe, here it is:
Spread peanut butter on one slice of bread. Spread Nutella on the other. Put the slices together and enjoy. (Hey, didn’t somebody once say peanut butter and chocolate go well together?)
I also enjoy Nutella on crackers, bread, and fruit slices, especially bananas.
Clare’s Cappuccino Muffins
The sour cream is the secret to making these muffins taste rich and delicious. Pair them in the morning with your favorite Breakfast Blend, a medium roast Columbian blend, or a cappuccino.
This recipe makes 12 big muffins.
2 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons darkly roasted ground coffee beans
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped hazelnut or almonds
1 teaspoon orange zest minced
½ cup (1 stick) butter softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup whole milk
2 eggs
¼ cup espresso or double strength drip coffee (cooled)
Paper muffin cup liners
Preheat oven to 375º F. Sift flour and mix with the dry ingredients including the cocoa, chocolate chips, nuts, and orange zest. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, mix together the butter, sugars, sour cream, milk, eggs, and coffee. Fold in dry ingredients with a spoon, just until moistened and smooth (don’t over mix). Place paper liners in 12 muffin cups and bake approximately 20 to 25 minutes, until a knife inserted in muffin comes out clean.
SWEET FROTHY TOP
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanill
a extract
2 tablespoons milk
½ stick butter
After the muffins have cooled, whip ½ stick butter with an electric mixer. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. Mix together until well blended into a smooth icing. Lightly smooth glaze on top of cappuccino muffins.
Don’t Miss the Next Coffeehouse Mystery FRENCH PRESSED
Chef Tommy Keitel runs Solange, one of New York’s hottest French restaurants, and Clare Cosi’s daughter, Joy, has become his favorite intern—in more ways than one. When Tommy’s competitive kitchen literally turns cutthroat, Clare worries her daughter may be in real danger. Resolved to spy on Joy’s workplace, Clare makes a deal to micro-roast and French press exclusive blends for Tommy, a man she wouldn’t mind seeing roasted and pressed himself. Then Tommy ends up dead, and it’s Joy who lands in hot water with the NYPD. To clear her daughter of the crime, Clare knows she must catch the real killer, which is why she’s determined to solve this Coffeehouse Mystery, even if it leads to a bitter end.
www.CoffeehouseMystery.com Where coffee and crime are always brewing . . .
1
Source: Wall Street Journal, April 13, 2004
2
Helpful hint: never refrigerate Nutella, even after opening. Treat it like peanut butter and keep it in your kitchen cabinet or pantry.
