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There are few greater pleasures in life than travelling, particularly if it’s to a destination you’ve always dreamed of visiting. Cox & Kings, the world’s longest established travel company, offers luxury holidays and tailor-made holidays to help you see the world and get the best out of your trip.
With Cox & Kings, you can take a short break in destinations such as Portofino, Vienna and Bruges or long-haul vacations to Costa Rica, Madagascar, Fiji, Muscat, Rio de Janeiro and many more.
Of course, a luxury holiday doesn’t just mean relaxing by the pool, as Cox & Kings also offer wine tours throughout France, Italy and Spain and RA Worldwide Art Tours. An art expert will lead you through the cultural sights of Lebanon, Rajasthan, Florence, Ravenna or Barcelona.
Ever the intrepid explorers, Cox & Kings kindly brought me back some goodies from their last trip to Brazil – Autêntica Gold Cachaça and Dom Pedro ground coffee. My challenge was to cook up something delicious using these ingredients.
Cachaça, distilled spirit made from fresh sugar cane juice, is mostly used in Caipirinha cocktails and is Brazil’s most popular spirit. Making a Caipirinha just seemed a bit easy, so I tried using cachaça as a marinade for steak.
Simply buy some thick, high-quality steak, you can use hanger steak or medallions like I have, and cover it in a marinade to be left overnight. For two large steaks, I mixed up five tablespoons of cachaça, three tablespoons of soy sauce, two tablespoons of honey, one teaspoon of ketchup, two large cloves of crushed garlic, a dash of olive oil, a squeeze of fresh lime and salt and pepper to season.
Flash fry the steak to char the edges and either finish in the pan or the oven. I served the steak with Gratin Dauphinoise and asparagus, but you can go all out Brazilian and accompany it with rice and bean and Pão de Queijo (cheese bread).
The cachaça gives the steak a subtle aromatic, zesty flavour and was a welcome change to how I usually cook steak with either béarnaise sauce or honey mustard.
For dessert, I made a chocolate and coffee mousse with crushed amaretti and cachaça. I used a regular chocolate mousse recipe and added a splash of concentrated coffee, increasing the thickness to make up for the extra liquid.
Fill a glass ramekin with a small layer of crushed amaretti biscuits and add a tiny drop of cachaça (only to the bottom layer). Then alternate layers of mousse and crushed amaretti and sprinkle some on the top.
It’s perhaps not the most authentic Brazilian dessert, but the crunchiness of the amaretti and a powerful shot of cachaça was a great new discovery. You can even make it in a rush by using ready-made chocolate mousse and drizzling the coffee concentrate over the top.
For more info and destinations, visit: www.coxandkings.co.uk
Where is your dream destination for a luxury holiday? Have you tried cooking with cachaça?