Kieran

Coconut and Rum Ice Cream

Coconut Rum Ice Cream We have a new restaurant customer in Dun Laoghaire, the Gastro Pub, and they requested a coconut ice cream. Being a big fan of alcohol in ice cream, and given that coconut can be overpowered in the mix, I suggested a coconut and Malibu rum ice cream. The recipe is below if you like things coconut…

Murphys Coconut and Rum Ice Cream
1 Cup (237ml) Sugar
5 Egg Yolks
3/4 Cups (175ml) Cream
3/4 Cups (175ml) Coconut milk
3/4 Cups (175ml) Desiccated (dried and shredded) coconut
1 1/8 Cups(266ml) Milk
4 tbs. (65ml) Malibu Rum
1 tbs. (15ml) Lemon Juice

Malibu RumYield: 6 Servings

What to do:

1. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together 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. Add the coconut milk.

5. Stir until the custard thickens slightly (around 70C). Use a thermometer, as at 75C the eggs will scramble!

6. Refrigerate over night.

Dessicated Coconut, Toasted7. Toast the desiccated coconut over medium heat in a dry saucepan, stirring all the time, until they turn a golden colour. Allow to cool.

8. Stir the toasted coconut, rum and the lemon into the refrigerated custard.

9. Whip the cream and gently fold in the custard.

10. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer.

Notes:

1. Coconut milk has all different strengths, so taste it and make sure you’re happy with the flavour. You can always add a bit more, but remember there will be more coconut flavour coming from the desiccated coconut and rum.

2. 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.

3. I haven’t tested this recipe for home use, so I would be delighted for any feedback…

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A Bit of Publicity

Radio Ice Cream Ireland I’m still on a bit of a buzz from the awards in Dublin, and it’s been good publicity for us. Today there was an article in the Irish Times, and tonight I’ll be on the Right Hook on Newstalk 106 sometime between 6:30 and 7:00 if you want to have a listen…

Now I must catch up on the real business of ice cream!

Ice Cream Ireland Scoops Two Awards

Irish Blog Awards I’m delighted to announce that we have come back from Dublin with two awards from the Irish Blog Awards – Best Business Blog and Best Specialist Blog. Thanks again to everyone who voted in the first round, to the judges, the sponsors, the organisers, and to all our readers and customers.

Rick O'SheaIt was a good night. Rick O’Shea did a great job as MC, and of course Damien pulled the whole thing off with style. The best moment for me was when Bernie Goldbach pressed his award on Damien, who certainly deserves acclamation. Pure class.

I enjoyed meeting fellow bloggers, including the nominees for the business award who were very gracious and definitely worth keeping an eye on. Krishna De, by the way, has posted the podcast of all of us here.

Others I finally met were Conor O’Neill (congrats!), Copernicus, Winds and Breezes, Vals Kitchen, Keith, and more…

Congratulations to all of the winners and all of the nominees.

I wish my brother had been along, because he would have enjoyed it. Besides, Sean is much more outgoing than I, and I’m sure we would have met many more people! My mother was kind enough to join me, and I thank her for it…

Lunar EclipseI was tired from all the travel and didn’t stay very late. However, when leaving, we had a good look at the lunar eclipse. I didn’t have at all the right camera or lens, but this will give you an idea if you missed it.

It seemed a perfect way to end the evening, standing outside the hotel in the middle of Dublin with a big group of other bloggers, watching the moon disappear…

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Get the Scoop

Coffee Cone Microphone For anyone interested and near their radio, I will be on Drivetime with Dave Fanning on RTE Radio 1 this evening some time between 7-8pm talking about the Irish Blog Awards and ice cream.

(You can listen to the show here if you missed it. Damien Mulley is also on…)

This morning, I took part in my first ever podcast with the other finalists for the Business blogging award. It was organised by Krishna of Biz Growth News. I will post a link for it when it becomes available…

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Ice Cream Helps Fertility?

Pregnant Mom Sky News covered a story yesterday that’s been going around the media: ice cream can help women conceive. The study, done by Harvard School of Public Health nurses, involved 18,555 women, aged 24 to 42, with no history of infertility.

(My mother, shown pregnant with my brother Sean above, was not part of the study, but certainly favoured her ice cream!)

Researcher Dr Jorge Chavarro said those wishing to get pregnant “should consider changing low-fat dairy foods for high-fat dairy foods; for instance, by swapping skimmed milk for whole milk and eating ice cream, not low fat yoghurt.”

I always knew that ice cream could make you happy and relaxed, and that it’s a great addition to a romantic evening in, but this is good news indeed! I look forward to meeting some Murphys Ice Cream babies (if there aren’t some out there already)!

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Hot Fudge Sauce

Hot Fudge over Vanilla Ice Cream We have been serving chocolate and caramel sauce in our shops for the past six years, and I feel we’ve pretty much perfected them. Hot fudge sauce, however, is something that I miss from time to time. It can be time-consuming to make, but it is so tasty that I’ve been considering adding it to the mix. I feel I’m pretty close with the following recipe, and I’ve also worked on a method of cutting the time down for preparation (some recipes take upwards of two hours to make). If you want to try it:

Hot Fudge Sauce

Ingredients:

150g 70% chocolate
100g butter
100g cocoa
300g sugar
150ml cream
100ml milk

What to do:

1. Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler over simmering (not boiling) water.

Fudge cooking2. Add the cocoa and stir until it is completely integrated.

3. Keep the chocolate mix warm in the double boiler.

4. Combine the sugar, milk and cream in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until the mixture boils. Remove from the heat.

5. Add the hot milk mixture to the warm chocolate mixture as follows – add one sixth of the liquid, stir until the liquid is completely incorporated, then add the next sixth, stirring again, and continue thus until all the liquid has been added.  

Hot Fudge Sauce6. It will clump at first, and it may separate, but keep adding a bit of the milk mixture and stirring it in until the sauce is glossy and smooth.

7. Serve the fudge sauce warm over ice cream! 

Note: This makes quite a bit of sauce, but you can keep it refrigerated for a couple of weeks (if you have that kind of self-control!) 

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Fógra: Tourists Beware!

An Daingean/Dingle Sign Killarney Almost everything we do centres on making our customers happy, and we pride ourselves on doing so. Recently, however, we have been getting feedback from more and more customers who are angry about something that is out of our control – road signs.

An Daingean SignA few months ago, just before the An Daingean/Dingle/Daingean Uí­ Chúis plebiscite to decide the town name, which I wrote about here, the government taped over the name “Dingle” on all road signs leading to the town. The name of the town is in limbo at the moment, but the road signs only point to “An Daingean.”

Dingle is in the Gaeltacht (designated Irish speaking area), and road signs within the Gaeltacht are in Irish only (rightly so, in my opinion). However, when tourists arrive in Killarney, Tralee, or Farranfore, which are all outside the Gaeltacht, most of them are looking for the town of Dingle. They don’t know about An Daingean.

And so we listen to tales of woe from people who have wasted precious hours of their holiday driving around in circles, searching in vain for a town that is in guidebooks and on maps as “Dingle” but on the road signs as only “An Daingean.” 

The Irish language is a valuable asset to the area in many ways, including tourism. Tourists will have exposure to the Irish language when they arrive in West Kerry, and it will enrich their experience. The purpose of road signs in Tralee, Farranfore and Killarney, however, should be that tourists do arrive and do so as quickly and easily as possible.

Sign SpiddalWhat sense does it make to remove the Dingle name from signs outside of the Gaeltacht without any coordination with maps, guidebooks, GPS systems, etc.? We are dependent on tourism in West Kerry, and the signs are confusing many of the people we are trying to attract, making their first experience of the area a negative one.

Signs are bilingual elsewhere in the country outside of Gaeltacht areas (see photo right), and I cannot understand why the same can’t be true in Kerry, at least until there is agreement on the town name and full coordination with all relevant publications.

In the mean time, if you’re heading this way, make sure you have a good bi-lingual map – one that has the Irish names of towns in a legible font size. Better still, get a GPS. You’ll find “Dingle” listed on all of them.

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