Ice Cream Ireland

 Here’s the third in the series. It’s great to know that the Greens like ice cream! 

I met John Hickey, the Green candidate at the Dingle farmers market. He was kind enough to come back to our shop for a photo. He lives locally (near Annascaul), and we had a good chat about how we could use green energy in our factory.

Here’s the fact file:

• Candidate: John Hickey 
• Party: Green
• Constituency: South Kerry
• Flavour: Caife (espresso and kahlua ice cream with chocolate shavings)

Technorati tags: candidate, Irish election, John Hickey, Green Party, Kerry, ice cream

 A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Eoin of Mercier Press, who expressed interest in the possibility of an ice cream book. So my brother and I went down to Cork to talk to him, and I think it went well. It’s quite an exciting prospect!

Obviously there is nothing definite at this early stage. I’ll keep you posted on developments…

Eoin, by the way, has an excellent blog about the love of books and publishing issues. You can find it here… 

Technorati tags: cookbook, Mercier Press, ice cream, Irish, publishing

 I have written about Francois Payard’s book Simply Sensational Desserts a couple of times here. It really is my favourite pastry book.

I had a severe chocolate craving a couple of nights ago and tackled his chocolate souffle, which is made in individual ramekins. This is a superb dessert. 

He suggests pistachio ice cream as an accompaniment, and I found the pairing spot-on. (In case you are wondering why our pistachio is not green - well, we don’t use food colouring…)

The photos don’t really do it justice, since the souffles should be served  right out of the oven, and had fallen quite a bit by the time I got to taking a photo (the next morning).

Again, if you love baking, the book is certainly worth the price.  

Technorati tags: cookbook, chocolate, souffle, Payard, dessert

 Here’s the second in the series! I think for the next one I should ask some pertinent questions such as “What’s your position on ice cream?” If anyone has any ideas for ice cream, chocolate or coffee related questions for the candidates, let me know…

In case anyone was wondering, here’s the fact file:

• Candidate: Jackie Healey Rae 
• Party: Independent
• Constituency: South Kerry
• Flavour: Fanaile (Vanilla)

Technorati tags: candidate, Irish election, Jackie Healy Rae, Kerry, ice cream

 Maman Poulet writing on Irishelection.com a little while ago, put the idea into my head that I might get a photo of Jackie Healey Rae with an ice cream.

I’ve been thinking it isn’t a bad idea at all. In fact, my brother and I had always talked about a “Caught with Ice Cream” series, where we might stick our ice cream into the hands of various people and take the photo.

If we were to start with candidates in this tight election year, how many would pose?

Today I received a tip that Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach, would be in Killarney. Why not? I grabbed the camera.

Deirdre, from our Killarney shop, kindly assisted by scooping and passing the cone to Bertie so that I could snap the shot.

Although there was a big crowd around him, we got through, and the Taoiseach was gracious. I didn’t get as many photos as I had hoped since I was muscled out of it by members of the legitimate press who couldn’t resist the ice cream photo opportunity. Still, it was a good start.

Now, who is next?

Technorati tags: Killarney, Irish election, Bertie Ahern, Taoiseach, ice cream

 We have long wanted to improve the chocolate squares we serve with coffees in our shops, and I’m sure our customers will be delighted to know that we’ve reached agreement with Valrhona to serve their little chocolates in our packaging.

We have a choice in terms of which chocolate we use, so feedback please!!!

Technorati tags: chocolate, valrhona, coffee

 As summer is coming on, we wanted to make a floral ice cream. I’ve also wanted to make ice cream with Manuka honey for a long time. This strong flavoured New Zealand honey comes from a plant used by the Maori for medicinal purposes. We decided to combine it with essence of orange blossom, and the result was delicious!

Murphys Manuka Honey and Orange Blossom Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 Cup (237ml) Sugar
5 Egg Yolks
1 1/8 Cups (266ml) Cream
1 1/8 Cups (266ml) Milk
1/2 Cup (118gm) Manuka Honey
1 Teaspoon Orange blossom water

Yield: 6 Servings

1. Mix the sugar and egg yolks and beat until thick and pale yellow.

2. Bring the milk to a simmer.

3. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.

4. Pour the mixture back into pan and place over low heat. Stir until the custard thickens slightly (around 70C). Use a thermometer, as at 75C the eggs will scramble!

5. Stir in the honey.

6. Allow the custard to cool.

7. Add the orange blossom water.

8. Whip the cream.

9. Gently fold in the custard.

10. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer, stirring every few hours to break up the ice crystals.

Notes: 1. We used a natural French orange blossom water (aroma). You might well need to adjust the volume depending on the flavouring you find.

2. I like a strong honey flavour. If you want something more subtle and floral, use half the given amount of honey.

3. The discerning horticulturist will know that those are apple blossoms in the photo. Sorry for that, but orange trees are in short supply in these parts!

4. I haven’t yet made this recipe for home use, so I would love any feedback if you try it!

Technorati tags: manuka honey, orange, blossom, ice cream, recipe, Irish

 I must be lacking the male gene associated with the love of roaring car engines, for my least favourite time of year in Killarney is during the Rally of the Lakes. It’s a weekend I associate with noise, traffic, fights on the streets at night, and hundreds of boy racers creeping along in thundering custom cars and drinking cans of lager in the parking lots. It’s the kind of scene that scares away most of our regular customers, who try to put as much distance between themselves and the town as possible.

Driving to Killarney today to visit our shop there, the traffic was indeed horrendous, and to make things worse, rally cars tore up the middle of the road sending normal motorists veering out of the way to avoid them. It was not a pleasant experience…

On a positive note, after I did my business in the shop, I headed to Tesco to try to find ripe avocados (a difficult task in Kerry) and noticed that they are selling home ice cream makers for €19.99. Not a bad price at all! So if you were ever tempted to try some of the ice cream recipes on this site, it might be a cheap way to get started!

Technorati tags: Killarney, rally, lakes, Tesco, ice cream machine

 Anyone listening to RTE Radio tomorrow morning at 10:00am will hear a feature on us on The Business…

PS. You can find the archive of the show here.

Technorati tags: the business, radio, RTE

 Pat, our coffee salesman brought us some of his better beans this week for our tasting pleasure. Included was a bag of Jamaican Blue Mountain, Yauco Selecto from Puerto Rico, and Mysore from India.

We’ve been toying around with the idea of offering an upscale cup of coffee for connoisseurs, or maybe offer a selection of several. It can get extrememly pricy for these beans, but it might a great treat for a coffee lover.

All of the coffees are more subtle than our current Organic Fairtrade bean. Our favourite so far was the Yauco Selecto - nice balance and not bitter in the slightest…

Technorati tags: Blue Mountain, Yauco Selecto, bean, coffee, organic, Ireland