Who says Dublin is expensive? My brother managed to find 10 euro rooms in a four star hotel in Dublin. The Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, Newlands Cross, has an offer on of 1,000 rooms for 10 euro. Sean managed to snag two of them. And, as you might be able to tell from this post, there’s even free broadband in the rooms. It’s not the most scenic location, just off the Naas Road, but it’s perfectly comfortable, and at 10 euro, who’s going to complain?
TV Trip to Dublin
Sean and I are heading to Dublin today, since we’ll be on Ireland AM on TV3 tomorrow morning (Tuesday) at around 7:30. It’s part of Christmas in Killarney publicity, and I’ll be bringing along some Aztec Hot Chocolate to warm everybody up!
Video here (although we were actually on for three segments).
Lorge Chocolates in Killarney
I’m delighted to announce that we now have a mini Lorge chocolate shop in our Killarney Dessert House.
For those of you lucky enough to have visited Benoit Lorge’s shop on the road from Kenmare to Bantry or found his chocolates elsewhere, you’ll know how happy I am.
We’ve had Lorge Chocolates in our shops in a small way, but over the Christmas season we will have a much wider range as well as a delicious selection of loose truffles for mixing and matching or devouring with a coffee.
For the holiday season, Benoit has made chocolate Santas, snowmen, and best (and most random) of all, he has chocolate boots and shoes filled with truffles. We also have his chocolate bars and award-winning nougat.
There’s usually not much chocolate on offer in Killarney, but that’s definitely changed. Not only do we have Lorge, but we still have our own chocolates, Valrhona bars, and a selection from other Irish artisan producers…
Cranberry Sorbet
Here’s something for the holidays – a sorbet that works well as a sorbet course, a dessert, or an alternative partner to the Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey. Cranberries are tart and beguiling – an explosion of flavour, and the sorbet is the same.
If you want to add a bit of orange, you can do so by substituting 150 ml orange juice for 150 ml water.
Murphys Cranberry Sorbet
Ingredients:
- 260 g sugar
- 400 ml water
- 450 gm fresh or frozen cranberries
- 150 ml cranberry juice
What to do:
- Cook the water, sugar and cranberries together until they reach a low boil.
- Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the heat.
- Use a blender or hand blender to blend until smooth.
- Pass through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and bits of skin, using a rubber spatula to press as much pulp through as possible.
- Cover and refrigerate until it is completely cool.
- Add the cranberry juice.
- Freeze using a domestic ice cream maker until it has a semi-solid consistency. This could take up to 20 minutes.
- Transfer to a freezer-proof container and freeze until it is solid.
- Otherwise, simply place in a covered, freezer-proof container and place in the freezer, stirring every two hours to break up the ice crystals.
- Remove from freezer and allow to thaw for about 15 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
Yield: 8 Servings
Technorati tags: cranberry, holiday, sorbet, ice cream, recipe
Study Shows Coffee Not Great for Study
The Sunday Times has a story that the National University of Ireland, Galway has released a study showing that the effects of coffee are over-stated. In fact, the study shows that coffee has no stimulating effect on the brain and that it does not counter-act sleepiness. They say that people are confused about coffee because the positive effects they feel have to do with countering caffeine withdrawal and not any inherent coffee benefits.
If that’s a total buzz-killer for you, cheer up – there are still many reasons to drink coffee. Studies at Vanderbilt and Harvard have found that coffee reduces the risk of diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
One would certainly hope that they don’t publish the Galway study in France, because seems that cafes in France are seriously under threat, with two closing every day. The smoking ban and other factors are cited. Can you imagine Paris without cafes? Perish the thought…
Technorati tags: National University Ireland, Galway, study, coffee
A Little Bump
I wrote some time ago about ice cream and fertility, and it would appear that ice cream is indeed powerful, since my girlfriend (and serious ice cream-o-holic) has become pregnant. As you can see from the scan above, there is little doubt as to the father.
So there it is, and fingers crossed. The times they are a changing. God willing, there will be another little ice cream eater in this world come May.
Moulding Ice Cream
With Christmas coming up, I just wanted to remind everyone that it is perfectly possible to mould ice cream to make your ice cream dessert more decorative.
There are a variety of baking moulds that work well. You can use a springform cake tin if you want to make an ice cream cake (a cloth dipped in hot water will help the form to release once it’s set).
There are also more and more rubber moulds available from kitchen or baking suppliers, suitable for baking and perfect for ice cream, since you can peel them off the ice cream quite easily once it’s set. You can also use chocolate moulds, ideally those made with a pliable material.
All you need to do is remove your ice cream from your ice cream machine a little softer than normal and use a spatula to spread it in the mould. Transfer to the freezer until it is set, then remove the mould and decorate…
Study Time
With my Christmas present already here, I’ve been doing some studying to make the most of it.
I have bought two books, and I think either would make a great gift if you have a chocoholic in your life (or something to add to your wish list if you are one). The first is Chocolates and Confections, by Peter Greweling, which is more technical, and Making Fine Chocolates by Andrew Shotts.
From what I’ve read so far, either one has a lot of information, interesting recipes, and good tips for making chocolates.
The only problem is that the books might prove very popular and hard to keep to one’s self (see photo right)!