National Irish Food Awards

 Here’s a bit of breaking news:

I’m delighted to announce that a group of us have secured funding for the 1st Annual National Irish Food Awards (Blas na hÉireann), to be held in Dingle during the Food and Wine Festival. The awards will be open to Irish food producers (except sponsors like me) and will be a way of recognising the talents in this country. Entries will have to be commercially available.

I will post more as we get up the website and tighten up the dates and rules of entry…

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Eason’s Offering 10% Discount

 While Amazon keep frustrating us by listing our book as “out of stock,” I’ve just been told that Eason’s is offering 10% off, when you buy it on-line (here)… You can also pick order it from Mercier or Hugh’s and Hugh’s (or support your local bookshop and buy it locally (in Ireland).

If anyone has any ideas of how to convince Amazon to stock a book, I’d love to hear it…

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Two Scoop Cone

 The other day, I set out to take some photos of a two scoop cone, and I’m kind of proud of the results.
I’m very lucky in photographing ice cream (never an easy job) in that I have an ice cream shop right there to help me, and so have a pretty good chance of getting a good looking cone. All that’s left then is to try to capture it before it melts.
With these photos, I set up simple blue and green sheets of paper next to the window in the office upstairs and used the natural light and the camera on a tripod with a fairly slow exposure.
The photo on the right was my brother’s favourite, and it’s aready up as a poster in our shops.
It’s still astonishing to me how quickly one can do things if you do it in house (well, not the poster printing)…
Anyway, it was a good creative break in a season that keeps getting busier. I’ll be doing more scooping than blogging, so please bear with me if I don’t post quite as regularly as I should…
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Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream

Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream Here’s another recipe from the book, and it’s one of my favourites. I tasted it first at an ice cream shop in Boston, and I didn’t expect to like it half as well as I did. Now, as I play around with the ice cream and learn more about chemistry, I know that the tannins in tea cut sweetness. Earl Grey tea generally has a mix of different black teas, including Darjeeling and China tea, but it is the bergamot that really make it distinctive. If you want an adult ice cream that will surprise your guests, this is one to try. It’s especially fantastic with a chocolate cake!

EARL GREY (TAE) ICE CREAM

Earl Grey TeaIngredients:

  • 130g + 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 240 ml cream
  • 250 ml milk
  • 6 Earl Grey tea bags or the loose leaf equivalent.

What to do:

  1. 1. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.
  2. Bring the milk to a simmer.
  3. Add the tea and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
  4. Bring back to a low simmer, stir, and remove the tea bags.
  5. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.
  6. Pour the mixture back into the pan and place over low heat.
  7. Stir continuously until the custard thickens slightly (around 65-70C) and just coats the back of a spoon. Don’t over-heat, though, because at around 76C you will scramble the eggs!
  8. Immediately remove from the heat.
  9. Transfer the custard into a small container, cover, and refrigerate until cool (5C).
  10. Whip the cream until it has doubled in volume (you should have soft peaks – don’t over-whip).
  11. Fold the cream (gently stir) into the custard.
  12. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer, stirring every few hours to break up the ice crystals.
  13. Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream CloseIf you’re using a domestic ice cream machine, transfer to a freezer-proof covered container when the ice cream has achieved a semi-solid consistency (around 15 minutes). Place it in the freezer, and continue to freeze until it is solid.

Yield: 8 servings

Note:

To pasteurise the eggs, heat the custard to 73C and maintain that temperature for at least 5 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

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Notes from Dublin

 Wilde and Green I am now back in Dingle, with my trips hopefully behind me for a bit, and today I spent much of the day happily making loads of chocolate sorbet for the shops.

However, I wanted to pass on a couple tips from Dublin:

1. If you live in the Milltown area, check out the new food shop, Wilde and Green (photo above). It’s really beautiful inside and has a tasty array on offer (including a good selection of our ice cream). It also contains a Liz Earle shop – more on that here. Shop address: St. Anne’s, Milltown Road, Dublin 6.

2. Morton’s has added a cafe as part of their refurbishment of their Ranelagh shop. The coffee was excellent, the whole places looks fantastic.

Happy eating!

Eating My Way from Kinsale To Mallow

Ardmore Just a little recap of the rest of my Cork sales trip:

In Kinsale, I visited Mange Tout, a little, tasty shop for delicious food on the go and a good place to grab a cup of coffee.

Gwen's ChocolatesI also learned that Gwen’s Chocolates has opened a branch in Kinsale, and any chocoholic will find their new place irresistible. It’s a stylish, continental-style chocolate cafe, and you can indulge in a cup of the hot stuff, pick up a bar from a good-sized range, or arm yourself with tongs and fill a bag from the mouth-watering rows of truffles.

I made it to Cork City in time for lunch, and managed to find a table at my favourite restaurant there – Cafe Paradiso. Dennis Cotter has been working his magic for a long time, but it feels as fresh as ever. The risotto I had with Bluebell Falls goats cheese, avocado and fresh peas was one of the best dishes I’ve tasted in a long while.

O'Keefe's Food Shop, CorkWe have a few new accounts coming on-line in Cork, notably JJ O’Driscolls and the Spar on the Douglas Road. This is great news for us, since finding our ice cream in the city has been difficult. The Blue Olive still has a selection, as does the brilliantly old-school O’Keefe’s gourmet shop in St. Luke’s Cross.

I spent the night outside Youghal in Ardmore (why not?), where the bed and breakfast lady turned out to be a regular Kerry visitor and customer in our Dingle and Killarney shops. The town is a gem, and the stunning cliff walk (photo top) is balm to the soul.

The next morning, I visited another new account – Grandon Fine Foods in Sallybrook near Glanmire. A gleaming shop attached to a petrol station, it seems to be quite a popular stop for a snack.

UrruOn the way back to Dingle, I stopped at Urru in Mallow. Ah, to have an Urru in Kerry! Any foodie who hasn’t visited one of their two branches is seriously missing out. And, if you’re lucky, you’ll find food blogger supreme, Caroline, behind the counter in Mallow. She served me up a bit of the aforementioned goat’s cheese and some smoked crackers to help me survive the trip back home.

It’s a lot of driving, but I must do this more often!

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