Ice Cream Ireland

 I’ve written here before about the Pink Champagne Sorbet, and it proved popular enough in our own shops that we have decided to launch into into a few select shops in Dublin and West Cork in 500ml tubs.

If you want to try it, it is available in:

• Mortons, Renelagh 
• Fresh, Southdocks
• Thomas’, Foxrock
• Ennis Butchers, Rialto
• Urru, Bandon (as of the next week or so)

We have always wanted to make some of our super, super-premium flavours available in tubs, and this will be a limited run. A word of warning - it won’t be cheap! The RRP is €20 for a tub. Then again, it’s simply packed with champagne!

Technorati tags: Murphys, pink, tub, champagne, sorbet, ice cream

 I promised a little while ago to post the strawberry and sage ice cream, which is pretty much sold out in the shops by this point, but anyway, here it is!

Murphys Strawberry and Sage Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 cup Sugar 

5 Egg Yolks  

1 3/8 Cups Cream

1 1/8 Cups Milk    

1 Strawberry Sage Coulis Recipe

What to do:

1. Make the strawberry and sage coulis (recipe here)
2. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow. 
3. Bring the milk to a simmer. Remove from the heat.
4. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.
5. Pour the mixture back into pan and place over low heat. 
6. Stir until the custard thickens (around 60C).
7. Allow the custard to cool.
8. Whip the cream until you have soft peaks. Do not over-whip!
9. Fold in the custard and coulis.
10. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer.

12 Servings

Note: To pasteurise the eggs, heat the custard to 73C and keep at that temperature for three minutes. Use a cooking thermometer, though, and keep stirring! If the custard goes any higher than 76C, the eggs will scramble. Immediately cover and place in the freezer until cool.

Technorati tags: strawberry, cream, sage, ice cream, recipe, Irish

It might have been a rash purchase, but I ordered in a slushie machine. I know it’s a strange purchase for a company dedicated to the highest quality, but I got to thinking about what would happen if you used the best ingredients to make a high-class slushie.

Good idea? It remains to be seen. I’m busy playing away trying to make a frozen moccha with espresso and lots of dark Belgian chocolate…

Technorati tags: slushie, frozen, ice cream, moccha, chocolate

 Mercier Press has approved our book proposal, so it looks like there will indeed be an Ice Cream Ireland book, which should be out next April. I’m quite excited! It will be a wonderful opportunity to get back in the kitchen again after a summer of scooping ice cream and get the creative juices flowing!

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

 I can hardly say the ice cream we gave him when he visited on the campaign trail played any part in it, but the Examiner reported today that one of the demands from Jackie Healey Rae in lending his support to the Government was that Dingle be given back its name and that the official name would reflect the will of the townspeople and be “Dingle/Daingean Uí Chúis.”

Apparently the Taoiseach has agreed, and all going well, the fractious and divisive battle over the name should soon be a thing of the past. Let’s just hope it happens fast enough to change the signs back to stop confusing tourists over the busy summer season!

Technorati tags: Dingle name, change, Jackie Healy Rae, Kerry, ice cream

 I had a rainy day off, and what better way to spend a few hours of it than a trip out to Tig Aine’s in Graig, Ballyferriter.

Aine is a woman of many talents, and besides running a cafe serving a range of foods including her famous warm scones and tea, she also finds time for painting and weaving. So there’s lots to peruse.

It’s a great afternoon stop for anyone taking a tour of the Slea Head and needing a bit of refreshment. The view is stunning, and the atmosphere is tranquil.

She has a brand new restaurant under construction, so there will be full evening meals soon.

Anyone who knows Aine can be fairly certain that the new addition will be a very special place to eat. You’ll have to ask her if the ducks will be on the menu…

Technorati tags: Ballyferriter, food, Tig Aine, cafe, restaurant

 I have written about Sweetbank Farm several times, the fruit farm in Wicklow. Well, we have just received our first fruit from them - trays of luscious strawberries.

It’s good timing, because I’ve had strawberry and sage on the brain for a while now.

I’ll get around to making ice cream from it, but I started by making a coulis, which can be used as a sauce for many different desserts. It’s an easy recipe, and I was eating it over vanilla ice cream within 15 minutes of starting out!

Strawberry and Sage Coulis 

Ingredients:

300g fresh, ripe strawberries
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon lemon
2 teaspoons sugar
2 fresh sage leaves

What to do:

1. Rinse and hull the strawberries.

2. Put them in a food proccesor or blender and pulse two or three times. You don’t want a puree here! Just break them up a bit.

3. Chop the sage leaves in to fine pieces. (If you use dried sage, use about a half teaspoon).

4. Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Don’t bring it to the boil. Cook it slowly simply to infuse the strawberries with the sage.

5. Serve hot or cold over ice cream or with another dessert.

Technorati tags: strawberry, sage, coulis, sauce, ice cream

 I’ve been involved with a group planning for a Dingle Food and Wine Festival for this coming October (12-14th). It’s a very exciting prospect, indeed!

It will consist of tasting menus in restaurants, cooking demonstrations, and food trails. There is still much to finalise, but we did get Valerie O’Sullivan, a Killarney-based photographer, for a photo shoot with about 20 Dingle chefs, so we could start putting some marketing materials together.

The festival website is here, but it is still under construction. Stay tuned!

Technorati tags: Dingle, food, festival, wine, feile, gourmet

 I wrote here already about one of my favourite treats - the Affogato al Caffe, but I thought I’d revisit it after trying it with the Kahlua Espresso ice cream. I thought it was sublime, so if you do make the ice cream (here), definitely try it! The warm espresso and cold ice cream, with a huge coffee kick, is pretty close to heaven.

To make an affogato, you simply take a scoop of ice cream (we like to serve it in a small coffee cup) and pour over some espresso (we use a single shot run long, in other words, an espresso lungo). In the shops, we serve the shot of espresso on the side and let the customer do the pouring.

Technorati tags: espresso, caffe, affogato, coffee, cafe, ice cream

 It was a busy weekend in the shop, and one highlight was Copernicus stopping in for some coffee. Another big highlight was that my brother Sean’s baby Una had her first taste of ice cream. Una’s grandmother is visiting, and as we all know, grandmothers can be much easier to convince than mothers. Sean’s wife, Wiebke, has been very strict about keeping ice cream away from the baby, but when Una was in the care of her grandmother and reached for the ice cream, she got it.

It’s wonderful to see the expression on a baby’s face at the first taste of ice cream. It’s so different from what they have experienced, especially in terms of temperature, so there is always puzzlement, shock, and delight.

Of course, Una found it just as interesting to stick her fingers in the ice cream as she did eating it…

Technorati tags: baby, Una, ice cream