Ice Cream Ireland

 In this summer that is not a summer - when we have floods, road closures, train derailments and mudslides, when we have a bad June and July and then the entire average rainfall of August fall in a single day, when August has passed the record for rain with half of the month still to go (and it doesn’t look like it will improve), when everyone is talking about little else and everyone from the postman to novelists are reciting mournful soliloquies on the subject, then I’m just grateful that Ireland is not hosting the Olympics and is unlikely to ever do so.

Imagine the embarrassment we would feel when marathons would have to be cancelled, when sailors would be blown to France in a gale, when hurdlers would slip on the soggy track or when javelin throwers would have to hunt for their spears in the fog. In fact, we’d probably have to come up with our own events, simply to make sure at least some of the games could continue. If there was indeed an Irish Olympics, here would be my suggestions for events that would not be cancelled due to bad weather (and we might even have a chance at a medal):

Ireland’s Top Ten Rainy Olympics Events:

1. Puddle Jumping
2. Main Street Canoe Race
3. Mud Wrestling
4. Sand Bag Piling
5. Rain Dancing
6. Bucket Emptying
7. Wet T-Shirt Contest
8. Climbing the Walls
9. Water Polo
10. Ark Building

Technorati tags: Olympics, Irish, Ireland, event, Top Ten

The schedule is starting to come together for the 2008 Dingle Peninsula Food and Wine Festival. It looks like it should be even more packed and interesting than last year.

Besides the cookery demonstrations in St. James’ Church, wine seminars, and taste trails (oysters and Guinness at John Benny’s, seared scallops at Strand House, etc), there will be a whiskey tasting and a coffee tutorial. There are even representatives from a Tasmanian wine company (with wine) flying in for the event!

I’m still not sure what we’ll do for it, but it will be hard to beat the 16 shades of chocolate we presented last year!

For those of you who want to come to the festival, it’s on the 3rd-5th October, and it would be really, really wise to book ahead both for meals and for lodgings, especially now that the National Irish Food Awards will be happening in Dingle at the same time…

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

 My brother and I going to be on Radio Kerry this evening at 6:00 with Weeshie Fogerty talking about things ice cream. You can listen live here.

 We’ve decided, for the National Irish Food Awards, to make the gold medals from Irish crystal. The photo is a prototype from Sean over at Dingle Crystal. I kind of wish I wasn’t involved, so I could try to win one. It would look quite well in one of the shops! By the way, as you probably noticed from the top link, the website for the awards is up, with an application for download for Irish producers with products in made in Ireland…

There’s a photo I took of one of the ice cream girls in the Irish Times Magazine today along with a “how to” on the frozen banana pops and a mention of the book. They suggest frozen grapes as well, which sounds great!

We’re getting really spoiled here in West Kerry. Anyone lucky enough to be out on the water in Dingle harbour yesterday was treated to not only the usual cavortings of Fungie, but he was joined by a whole pod of frolicksome dolphins. Magic!

Technorati tags: Fungie, dolphin, Dingle, Kerry

 This is a recipe that JP, our production manager, came up with. What makes this ice cream so good is that combination of zest and preserves. I love any kind of citrus zest in cooking - it’s brilliant and fresh and can lift almost anything. The preserves add a richness and fullness that can’t be found with just lemon juice and zest. If you didn’t know what you were tasting, you would recognise lemon straightaway, but there might be some difficulty in placing the earthy undertones that makes this ice cream so distinctive. It’s far more complex than any lemon ice cream I have ever come across, and has regular appearances in our scooping cabinet.

MURPHYS LEMON CURD (LÍOMÓID) ICE CREAM

Ingredients:

• 130 g sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 240 ml cream
• 200 ml milk
• 50 g lemon curd
• Zest (grated peel) of one lemon
• 15 ml (1 tablespoon) lemon juice

What to do:

1. Beat in the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar until thick and pale yellow.
2. Bring the milk to a low simmer.
3. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.
4. Pour the mixture back into the pan and place over low heat.
5. 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!
6. Immediately remove from the heat.
7. Add the lemon curd to the warm custard, stirring until it is dissolved.
8. Add the lemon zest.
9. Cover the custard with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool overnight.
10. Strain the lemon zest from the cool custard (unless you like it in there).
11. Whip the cream until it has doubled in volume (you should have soft peaks - don’t over-whip).
12. Fold the cream (gently stir) into the custard.
13. Add the lemon juice.
14. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer, stirring every few hours to break up the ice crystals.
15. If 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

Notes:

1. To pasteurise the eggs, heat the custard to 73C and maintain that temperature for at least 5 minutes. Use a cooking thermometer, though! If the custard goes any higher than 76C, the eggs will scramble. Immediately cover and place in the freezer until cool.

2. This is one of the recipes in our book.

Technorati tags: lemon, curd, ice cream, recipe

 Julian over at Bubble Brothers wrote a while ago about wine ice cream selling in New York, licensed as regular wine.

Needless to say I was intrigued, and I found out that the company behind it is called Mercier Ice Cream in Boonsville, and their flavours such as Cherry Merlot or Chocolate Cabernet have 5% alcohol content.

I think this is a very cool concept, and anyone would know who sampled or made my champage sorbet, I am fond of alcoholic ice creams! It’s almost worth a trip to the States to try this frozen tipple…

Technorati tags: wine, champagne, sorbet, ice cream, Mercer

I hope you find these as cute as I do.

(Thanks Anna, Aisling and Rúna for posing and thanks also to their accomodating parents!)

 I’m delighted to announce a few new suppliers of our ice cream. First of all, our very first supplier North of Galway is Kate’s Kitchen at 3 Castle Street, Sligo. This what Good Food Ireland has to say about them:

It’s very easy to spot Kate’s Kitchen in Castle Street in Sligo town, its old-fashioned black painted frontage, bay windows and distinctive red and gold lettering makes it stand out from its surroundings. And you won’t be disappointed when you go inside this ‘Aladdin’s Cave.’ The shelves are packed with goodies of all kinds, beautifully presented and laid out in an inspired style. The shop was established in 1982 by Kate Pettit and Frank Hopper and since then, has gone from strength to strength in terms of product range, quality and service. As a result, it has become a destination in itself, attracting customers from far and wide. Indeed, no visit to Sligo would be complete without a visit to this gourmet food and wine shop and delicatessen.

We’re would also like to welcome as customers the Country Market, Howth and Aya Sushi Bar in Dublin.