Ice Cream Ireland

New Home For Ice Cream Ireland

2007-07-09T18:23:00.000+01:00

Ice Cream Ireland has moved house! Please don't dally here but go to: (The New) Ice Cream Ireland for all of the lastest sweet musings. I hope that you will find the new site easier to navigate. I'm having fun with it, anyway! Please update your links if you have linked to me. Thanks, thanks, thanks! New Posts on Ice Cream Ireland:

Rum Raisin Ice Cream (Risíní) Recipe Food Treats in Paris - My Best of… I Love Paris in the… Skelligs Chocolate Co. D-Day in Dingle/An Daingean/Daingean Uí Chuis New Valrhona Chocolate Bars Fudge in Black and White Meringues Let Them Eat (Ice Cream) Cake Pear and Ginger Zabaglione Return of The Scone Pink Champagne Sorbet Blackberry and Apple Ice Cream Blackberry Coulis Playing with Nougat Poire (Pear) Belle Hélène Peach Melba Too Much Chocolate? Frozen Strawberry Banana Daiquiri A Few New Flavours Irish Cream Liqueur Ice Cream Ice Cream and Alcohol Caffe Latte Freddo Chilled Strawberry Soup Ice Cream Truffles Taste of Dublin Harleys in Killarney Baileys Brownies Tall Ship in Dingle Irish Chocolate - Cocoa Bean How to Make a Sundae Andalucia, Part 2 Andalucia Champagne Sorbet Single Estate Chocolate Ice Cream Bank Holiday and Ice Cream The Ice Cream Man Goes Milking Stuck on Sugar Eating Ethnic in Killarney Mint and Mojitos Chocolate Tart and Kerry Cows Baking with Payard, Part Deux Coffee and Milk Speed Dating for Business Out and About in Dublin Raspberry Lime Sorbet How to Make a Banana Split Things to Do in Dingle - Doonshean Special Diets Payard's Lemon Tart Plans for Killarney Chai Latte and Brown Bread Ice Cream Photos and Feile na Bealtaine New Toy - Photographing Food Great Taste Awards Things to Do in Dingle - Diseart Guinness Ice Cream The End of Lent Hot chocolate revisited Chocolate desserts Crepes and Ice Cream How to make a milkshake Buying and storing ice cream Previous Posts: Black and Tans Chocolate Brownies Milltown Market Supermarkets and the Small Irish Food Producer Crema and Coffee at Home Kerry Cow and Agritourism Honey Chai Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies Cafetière vs. Caffè Americano Killarney, Nephews and Playgrounds St. Patrick’s Day in Dingle Belgian Chocolate Return to Chocolate and Sugar Sauce, Ice Cream and Decoration Ode to Sugar and Caramel Sauce Coffee Rant Number Two Information Overload and the Kerry Cow Chocolate and Lent Hot Chocolate for a Cold Day Snow in Dingle & 5 Ways to Improve Coffee Honey Lavender Ice Cream Craquantes and Other Bits and Pieces Chocolate and Chocolate Sauce Raspberries: Using fruit in ice cream Beghrir - Moroccan Pancakes Marrakesh Grilled Fish and Fabbri Amalou Agadir

Just Testing. Why can't I do this on Wordpress?

2006-10-11T18:21:00.000+01:00

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

Rasberry Lime Sorbet

2006-05-26T21:10:00.000+01:00

As we face into summer, there is nothing quite like the fresh taste of a sorbet to cool the head and enliven the palate. Raspberry and lime is one of my favourites and it's actually quite simple to prepare...

It's great either as a dessert or a sorbet course. If it's for a sorbet course, you might want to add another lime to make it more tart. The chocolate sauce recipe I gave here would be a great addition if it's a dessert.

Murphys Rasberry Lime Sorbet

1 Cup (237 ml) Sugar

1 Cup (237 ml) Water

225 gm (8 oz) Fresh, Ripe Raspberrys

4 limes

Yield: 6 Servings

What to do:

1. You will need the zest as well as the juice from the limes, so bring out your grater and work those peels (it's much easier before you cut the limes!). If you have a zester, this step will be very easy...

2. Put the sugar and lime zest in a heat-proof or pan.

3. Boil water in a tea boiler and measure out one cup.

4. Pour it over the sugar and zest, stir until the sugar has dissolved, and let it sit for about half an hour.

5. Strain out the lime zest and discard, and put the sugar syrup in a pan.

6. Add the raspberries and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat.

7. Stir it vigorously to break up the raspberries, then place into the refrigerator until cool.

8. When it's fully cool, add the juice of the limes. If you don't have a juicer, put a sieve over the bowl to catch the pips, and squeeze away.

9. Freeze using a domestic ice cream maker, or cover and place in the freezer.

10. If you use the latter method, wait until the sorbet is about halfway frozen, mix it vigorously, then return to the freezer.

Notes:

1. It's hard to make sorbet without an ice cream machine. You will need to interrupt the freezing process and stir, or you will be left with a block of red ice! The more times you do this, the better the consistency will be.

2. For more information, I wrote about working with fruit in ice cream here.

3. This sorbet is suitable for coeliacs, the lactose-intolerant, and is virtually fat-free. For more on special diets, click here.

Technorati tags: raspberry, lime, sorbet, ice cream, recipe

New Home, Please Update Your Links!

2006-05-01T11:59:00.000+01:00

Ice Cream Ireland has moved house!

Please don't dally here but go to:

(The New) Ice Cream Ireland

for all of the lastest sweet musings.

I hope that you will find the new site easier to navigate. I'm having fun with it, anyway!

Please update your links if you have linked to me.

Thanks, thanks, thanks!

New Posts on Ice Cream Ireland:

Baking with Payard, Part Deux
Coffee and Milk
Speed Dating for Business
Out and About in Dublin
Raspberry Lime Sorbet
How to Make a Banana Split
Things to Do in Dingle - Doonshean
Special Diets
Payard's Lemon Tart
Plans for Killarney
Chai Latte and Brown Bread Ice Cream
Photos and Feile na Bealtaine
New Toy - Photographing Food
Great Taste Awards
Things to Do in Dingle - Diseart
Guinness Ice Cream
The End of Lent
Hot chocolate revisited
Chocolate desserts
Crepes and Ice Cream
How to make a milkshake
Buying and storing ice cream

Previous Posts:

Black and Tans
Chocolate Brownies
Milltown Market
Supermarkets and the Small Irish Food Producer
Crema and Coffee at Home
Kerry Cow and Agritourism
Honey Chai Ice Cream
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cafetière vs. Caffè Americano
Killarney, Nephews and Playgrounds
St. Patrick’s Day in Dingle
Belgian Chocolate
Return to Chocolate and Sugar
Sauce, Ice Cream and Decoration
Ode to Sugar and Caramel Sauce
Coffee Rant Number Two
Information Overload and the Kerry Cow
Chocolate and Lent
Hot Chocolate for a Cold Day
Snow in Dingle & 5 Ways to Improve Coffee
Honey Lavender Ice Cream
Craquantes and Other Bits and Pieces
Chocolate and Chocolate Sauce
Raspberries: Using fruit in ice cream
Beghrir - Moroccan Pancakes
Marrakesh
Grilled Fish and Fabbri
Amalou
Agadir

Guinness Ice Cream

2006-04-18T13:07:00.000+01:00

Easter has been crazy busy in the shops, much more so than expected, and I had to make an emergency run of ice cream today. We ran out of several flavours, so I was up bright and early getting the mix ready and then freezing.

Besides the main flavours, I decided to do a Guinness ice cream, to have another Irish flavour in the cabinet. The recipe is below. Of course, being me, I couldn't resist throwing in some chocolate chips. You don't have to!

Murphys Guinness Ice Cream

1 Cup (237ml) Sugar

5 Egg Yolks

1 1/8 Cups (266ml) Cream

1 1/8 Cups(266ml) Milk

500 ml Guinness

A handful of dark chocolate chips.

Yield: 6 Servings

Instructions:

1. Measure out 100ml of Guinness and set aside.

2. Boil the remaining 400ml Guinness until it reduces to 100ml in volume. Cool.

3. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.

4. Bring the milk to a simmer.

5. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.

6. Pour the mixture back into pan and place over low heat. Stir until the custard thickens slightly (around 70C). Use a thermometer, as at 75C the eggs will scramble!

7. Allow the custard to cool.

8. Stir in both the reduced and non-reduced Guinness.

9. Whip the cream.

10. Gently fold in the custard.

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

Notes:

1. I haven't made this recipe for home use, so I would love any feedback if you try it!

2. The photo of 3 litres of Guinness is what I used. Don't pay any attention to the volume!

3. I combine reduced and non-reduced Guinness because using just reduced loses a bit of freshness in terms of flavour.

4. You don't have to use the chocolate chips of course, but I do think Guinness and chocolate go well together. You could also use this as a companion to a chocolate cake.

Technorati tags: chocolate chip, guinness, Easter, ice cream, recipe, Irish

I'm Still Getting a lot of Traffic Here but...

2006-04-07T21:05:00.000+01:00

Ice Cream Ireland has moved house!

Please don't dally here but go to:

(The New) Ice Cream Ireland

for all of the lastest sweet musings.

I hope that you will find the new site easier to navigate. I'm having fun with it, anyway!

Please update your links if you have linked to me.

Thanks, thanks, thanks!

New Posts on Ice Cream Ireland:

Guinness Ice Cream
The End of Lent
Hot chocolate revisited
Chocolate desserts
Crepes and Ice Cream
How to make a milkshake
Buying and storing ice cream

Previous Posts:

Black and Tans
Chocolate Brownies
Milltown Market
Supermarkets and the Small Irish Food Producer
Crema and Coffee at Home
Kerry Cow and Agritourism
Honey Chai Ice Cream
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cafetière vs. Caffè Americano
Killarney, Nephews and Playgrounds
St. Patrick’s Day in Dingle
Belgian Chocolate
Return to Chocolate and Sugar
Sauce, Ice Cream and Decoration
Ode to Sugar and Caramel Sauce
Coffee Rant Number Two
Information Overload and the Kerry Cow
Chocolate and Lent
Hot Chocolate for a Cold Day
Snow in Dingle & 5 Ways to Improve Coffee
Honey Lavender Ice Cream
Craquantes and Other Bits and Pieces
Chocolate and Chocolate Sauce
Raspberries: Using fruit in ice cream
Beghrir - Moroccan Pancakes
Marrakesh
Grilled Fish and Fabbri
Amalou
Agadir

Black and Tans

2006-04-04T17:49:00.000+01:00

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS JUST A MIRROR SITE AT THIS STAGE. MY CURRENT BLOG IS HERE! IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE DO SO HERE. THANKS!

I just stumbled upon the following website that brought my attention to Ben & Jerry's new flavour in the States: Black and Tan.

Even though I might be considered a competitor in the Irish market, Ben & Jerry's is actually close to my heart because the two founders were two of many reasons I went into this business. They made ice cream more fun. They seemed to have fun at what they were doing. They had a social conscience.

I remember their ice cream as much better than it is now, before they became part of Unilever. I would eat a tub of Cherry Garcia at one sitting, marvelling at the huge chunks of chocolate and amount of cherries. I don't remember any water in the ingredients back then.

A Black and Tan flavour? This is weird on so many levels. First of all, for some of their Irish-American customers, surely "Black and Tan" wont immediately bring to mind the drink but rather unsavoury historical references. Are they not aware of this?

Secondly, their website states this flavour is for "beer enthusiasts" but there is no beer (or stout) listed in the ingredients, just "natural flavours."

It makes me kind of sad. Have they come so far from what they were?

Technorati tags: black and tan, Ben and Jerry, beer, ice cream, stout

Chocolate Brownies

2006-04-03T10:41:00.000+01:00

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS JUST A MIRROR SITE AT THIS STAGE. MY CURRENT BLOG IS HERE! IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE DO SO HERE. THANKS!

I am giving away the fact that I grew up in the US by my love of brownies. The brownies here in Ireland tend to be way too fluffy instead of being dense and decadent, and sadly people often use poor quality chocolate.

The fluffiness is no doubt due to the flour. It astonishes me that it is next to impossible to get flour without rising agents in Irish supermarkets. Even most "plain flour" is anything but when you peruse the ingredients. In my mind, plain flour would suggest one ingredient - flour, but that is not the case (look!). Of course commercially there is a great range of flour options but in supermarkets we have just found two flours that are simply flour - Family Favourite Plain flour from Lidl and Supervalu's Valusaver Plain Flour. So check your flour ingredients list (how strange it is to say that!) and make sure it says nothing more than flour if you want to avoid the brownies rising more than they will naturally with the eggs.

The same goes for the chocolate chip cookie recipe I gave here earlier.

Murphys Chocolate Brownies

Servings : 6 Preparation Time : 00:45:00 (including baking)

Categories : Pastries

Amount / Measure / Ingredient

250 grams Chocolate (55% cocoa content)

165 grams butter -- at room temperature

3/4 tablespoons vanilla

300 grams sugar

135 grams flour

3 each egg

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C.

2. Butter and flour an 10 inch square baking pan. Set it aside.

3. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Mix until smooth.

4. Beat the sugar and eggs together.

5. Add the vanilla.

6. Slowly pour in the chocolate and butter, mixing all the time.

7. Sift the flour, then add, mixing thoroughly.

8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake just until cooked, 25 - 30 minutes (a knife should come out clean).

9. Allow the brownies to cool slightly. Then cut them into squares and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

10. Serve with ice cream and chocolate sauce for a truly decadent dessert!

Technorati tags: brownie, pastry, chocolate, ice cream, recipe

Milltown Market and Petrol Heads

2006-04-02T14:25:00.000+01:00

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS JUST A MIRROR SITE AT THIS STAGE. MY CURRENT BLOG IS HERE! IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS POST, PLEASE DO SO HERE. THANKS!

For anyone travelling between Killarney and Dingle, I highly recommend a stop in Milltown to visit the market there. Set in one of the prettiest buildings of any Irish market, it is certainly worth a browse, especially on a Saturday, when there are rows of organic farmers, bakers, etc. selling their wares. With a good range of natural products, organic and biodynamic wines, food, and gardening and farming supplies, it makes a very pleasant break to the drive. At the very least you will come away with some snacks, and if you have a green thumb and room in your car, you might come away with all sorts of treats for your garden.

You will find it on the right as you come into Milltown, down from the school and opposite the petrol station.

The opening hours are Tues-Fri 2-5 and Saturday 10-2.

Meanwhile, unless you're car mad, avoid Dingle each year during the rally, which is this weekend. Dingle town is at a standstill today and the roar of cars echo around the peninsula.

At times like these I get that parallel universe feeling as the whole town is taken over by an entirely different crowd of people than the usual visitors. Besides the racers there are spectators, hawkers of all sorts of racing merchandise, chipper vans just for the event, etc.

The roads are closed to the West, and even Dingle town is virtually impassable as boy racers rev their engines and creep along the streets looking to impress. Confused tourists wander around shell-shocked, a free day on their hands after being told they can't visit sites or tour around the place.

At least this event is not marred by the violence that seems to accompany the Killarney rally, and I guess it is a wonderful thrill for people who life for their cars...

Technorati tags: Dingle, Killarney, rally, Milltown, market, tourism

Supermarkets and the Small Irish Producer

2006-03-31T23:42:00.000+01:00

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS JUST A MIRROR SITE AT THIS STAGE. MY CURRENT BLOG IS HERE!

One of the biggest challenges for the small Irish food producer is to negotiate and deal with supermaket chains. Inevitably they have all the power, and since you are small, you are very much at the mercy of their whims. Whether you remain on their shelf or not is of little interest to them, no matter how much they like to tell eveyone how important the Irish producer is to them. "Irish" is a good selling point for getting customers in the shop and feeling good about it, but inevitably Irish specialty lines will not perform as well as the huge multinationals. I don't know how many zeros you would have to add on to our marketing budget to bring it up to the level of Haagen Dazs/Diageo (not to mention Ben&Jerrys/HB/Unilever), but it would be many indeed. It will be a long time before we shift as many tubs out of a shop as they do!

Bord Bia can be helpful to some degree at least in terms of information, but anyone going down the supermarket route must be wary. In our own case, we decided to avoid the big chains because we've heard the stories of specialty producers who think they've hit the lotto when they're listed, spent a fortune ramping up production for the huge orders, and then a year later go bust when they are unceremoniously dropped.

We decided to go into Superquinn as a supermarket trial, and have been in their shops for about a year. Yesterday, they threatened to de-list us. I don't know if it's a ploy to try to hammer us down on price, or if it's that the new frozen food buyer wants to get rid of all lines except the very best sellers, which is standard practise when they want to optimise sales per square metre. For us, being dropped would not be the end of the world, as we are only in a few of their shops and it's a small percentage of our overall sales. However, it's very frustrating in so far as many of our best customers are in areas served by Superquinn, and we know that they are delighted to be able to buy our ice cream without having to travel.

The point of all of this is not to complain about things being unfair. We drop products all the time in our own shops for a whole variety of reasons. It's that I hope that eventually this site will be a better way to keep in touch with customers than mail and our website. That it also can be a way to mobilise customers in circumstances like these. Right now we have hundreds of customers who buy our ice cream in Superquinn every week, and they have no idea that it's quite likely that buying the ice cream will soon become a lot harder (at least we have many other accounts in the Dublin area, but it's too much to expect customers to regularly go out of their way). If we could generate 100 or more emails to Superquinn from Superquinn customers, they would have to pay attention (at least I hope they would). I know that if even three customers begged us to keep a product we had dropped from our own shop we would stock just for them.

I would love any feedback or suggestions.

A great (though depressing) reference on how supermarkets work is Joanna Blythman's book Shopped. Also, Conor O'Neill has written a great article about small producers and blogging.

Technorati tags: ice cream, supermarkets, food, books, artisian, Irish

Coffee at Home and Crema

2006-03-29T18:14:00.000+01:00

Copernicus over at Midnight Court wrote in a comment here about having trouble getting good crema on his espresso using a little stainless steel espresso pot at home. Given that he said he spent time working in Italy, I assume he means one like that shown above. Practically everyone who has had a meal in someone's house in Italy would have seen these. My grandmother, who lived on the Lago Maggiore used hers religiously every day.

I can only get very inconsistent crema myself making coffee made by this method. However, I think that the importance of crema is overstated in terms of home use. In fact, it's only a guide (though a good one) even in a cafe. There is a excellent article on Virtual Coffee in which the author says that while he believes crema is important, the mere presence of crema does not mean that the espresso is a good one, and that an espresso with great crema can be burnt and bitter.

A friend in Dingle is so fixated on crema that he has ordered a La Pavoni pump machine like the one above after I have him a loan of mine. It's a beautiful machine, and it's probably the best possible option for making espressos at home, but frankly it's a bit fussy for my taste.

When I stagger downstairs and into the kitchen in the morning, I want a coffee that tastes good, and I don't need it to look perfect. In a restaurant or cafe, it's a different story, and I expect both. That's the standard for our own shops. But if my morning coffee doesn't have any crema, I'm not going to worry as long as it tastes as I expect it should.

I think my grandmother would have stared blankly at any mention of "crema" regarding her coffee pot, as would probably most Italians making coffee by this method. They would probably say, "If you want crema, go to an espresso bar. If you want a good coffee, stop babbling nonsense, and I will serve it to you."

So if you're happy with your coffee, be happy - crema or no crema! If not, switch beans. If you're still not happy, try making coffee by another method.

If you want to try the cafetière method, it's cheap and easy, but the coffee will be less like espresso than the above method. I bought the one below in Roches, and I even get a decent crema! Use good coffee and let the water cool slightly after boiling. If you want a French-style café au lait, use a dark roast ground medium-fine, make the coffee strong, warm the milk (don't scald it) and combine about half milk and half coffee. Bring on the croissants!

Technorati tags: cafe, cafetiere, Italian, coffee, crema, Irish

Apologies

2006-03-29T00:00:00.000+01:00

I haven't had the time to post because I've decided to move house (host). The lack of categories in Blogger has been making me crazy, and this is just early days for me...

With suggestions from the very helpful Conor O'Neill, I have been brave and got a proper host and domain.

I'm much better at ice cream than html, but here is what will be soon the new home of

Ice Cream Ireland

I guess I'll keep both of them going for the moment.

Let me know what you think!

Kerry Cow and Agritourism

2006-03-26T15:34:00.000+01:00

I mentioned the Kerry cow in an earlier post, and this afternoon I braved the lashing rain to visit the Dingle farmer with whom we've been working toward using the milk in our ice cream. One of his cows had twins last week, and that means the some Kerry cow milk will be coming our way again soon!

I apologise about the quality of the photos, as the rain made it hard to get a clear shot, but hopefully you can see that the Kerry cow is different from the Friesian (Holstein) cows that you usually see about the place. It is an indigenous breed that is smaller, hardier, and generally much more alert and healthy looking.

I can't wait to try making ice cream again with it!

What really excites me is that I think projects like this (i.e. farmers working with artesian food producers) can be one way that small Irish farmers can survive in the future of deminished or abolished subsidies.

Another way would be agritourism. It certainly seems that more Irish farmers should be looking at it, especially in Dingle or other places that are lucky enough to have a good flow of tourists.

They are mad for it in Italy, where people pay a fortune to pick olives, and in the US even movies have been made about city boys paying to round-up cattle at a dude ranch. Farmers gain income by offering lodgings and meals and can not only avoid having to hire help at harvesting time but get people who pay handsomely for the privilege. What could be bad about that?

Perhaps the problem here is that so many Irish people couldn't wait to leave the farm themselves and move to the city to try to make a better living (my own family included). Perhaps the farmers who are left are so used to this state of affairs that they can't see why anyone would want to come back, even as a tourist. But many city people see a week on a farm as a way of bringing balance back into their lives, and I think this trend will grow.

In fairness, agritourism does exist in this country in various forms, and even in Dingle with its pet farms and corn maze. There are other Irish farms at it including Sweetbank in Wicklow with its sublime fruits and farm shop/cafe, which an excellent example of how it can work...

Technorati tags: agritourism, ice cream, farm, cow, Kerry, Dingle

Honey Chai Ice Cream

2006-03-24T09:38:00.000Z

One of the best and most rewarding trips I've ever taken was to India. From the tea plantations in Darjeeling to the beaches of Goa to the Ganges and colours of Rajisthan, it's an amazing country.

The eating was fantastic (as long as you do as they do and avoid meat) and the drink of choice, outside of Goa with it's exotic fruit drinks, was chai. Served up in cans by chai wallahs (vendors) it was sweet (they use lots of condensed milk) and fragrant.

Feeling nostalgic for the warmth of India in this seemingly endless winter, I made a chai ice cream today, and decided to add a bit of honey for additional sweetness. I also tossed in some (but not too many) dark chocolate chips because I wanted some kick!

To the right is what the finished product looked like...

If you want to try it, the recipe is below. You'll notice it's almost identical to the recipe for Honey Lavender ice cream from a previous post.

Murphys Honey-Chai Ice Cream

1 Cup (237ml) Sugar
5 Egg Yolks
1 1/8 Cups (266ml) Cream
1 1/8 Cups(266ml) Milk
6 Chai teabags
2 Cups (475ml) Water
1 tablespoons liquid honey
A handful of dark chocolate chips.

Yield: 6 Servings

1. Boil the chai in the water until the water has reduced to 1/10th of the volume.
2. Remove from the heat and strain. Stir in the honey.
3. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.
4. Bring the milk to a simmer.
5. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.
6. Pour the mixture back into pan and place over low heat. Stir until the custard thickens slightly (around 70C). Use a thermometer, as at 75C the eggs will scramble!
7. Allow the custard to cool.
8. Mix in the lavender/honey and chocolate chips.
9. Whip the cream.
10. Gently fold in the custard.
11. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer.

Notes: 1. I suggest you use a simple, liquid honey. Darker or more complex honeys will have a very strong flavour, so in that case use less!
2. If you can't find chai in your supermarket, you'll find it in the tea section of your health food shop. I used organic Clipper chai (see top photo).

Technorati tags: chocolate chip, chai, honey, ice cream, recipe

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2006-03-22T09:22:00.000Z

Since we were a little shy of cake in the Dingle shop, I went baking. Nothing fancy, just some yummy chocolate chip cookies.

I like my cookies dense not fluffy, and these make a perfect combination with vanilla ice cream, if you want to try them.

Here's the recipe:

Murphys Chocolate Chip Cookies

135g plain flour (no rising agents)
115g butter
75g sugar
90g light brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
150g 50% good quality chocolate chips or chunks

1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2. Combine sugar, and brown sugar and melted butter and beat until light.
3. Beat in egg.
4. Slowly add flour, mixing all the time.
5. Add vanilla.
6. Stir in chocolate morsels.
7. Spoon onto a lightly buttered baking tray.
8. Bake 5 min.
9. Remove tray, rap on counter.
10. Bake another 4 minutes.
11. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Yield: 7 large cookies

As always, good chocolate and vanilla will make all the difference in how these taste.

The photo with the mixer is a triple recipe, so don't worry if your mixer doesn't look that full!

Let me know how it works for you!

Technorati tags: chocolate chip, cookie, chocolate, ice cream, recipe
File as: Recipe1

Cafetière vs. Caffè Americano

2006-03-20T19:32:00.000Z

With apologies to Markham and others who have given up coffee for Lent, I am going to return briefly to the subject, because I think we've made a break-through. It's not anything earth-shattering, but still I think worth talking about.

For the last years we've been struggling with making a simple cup of coffee. It might seem a humble option in a board full of caramel lattes, and affogato al caffès, but still I feel it's like vanilla ice cream - a bench mark. If I go to an ice cream shop, I often taste their vanilla because often the simplest flavours are both the hardest to do and the easiest to judge.

In our shops, we've been serving Caffè Americanos when people ask for "coffee." The Americano is perfect for the many people who like it, but it's not perfect for all coffee drinkers. Although many people think it's a strong coffee because it comes from an espresso machine, the name means quite the opposite. Italians called it "Americano" years ago because it tasted like American coffee to them, the kind you still find in US diners. In other words, it was very weak to their palates.

After a lot of tasting, we've decided on the French-style plunger, or "Cafetière," for our regular coffee. We've chosen an organic, fair-trade bean from Maher's and grind it quite fine. The result is a deep, rich flavour for those who like their coffee very strong. For everyone else, there's still of course the Americano.

Technorati tags: caffe, cafetiere, americano, coffee, latte, Irish
File as: ccof

Killarney, Nephews and Playgrounds

2006-03-19T22:15:00.000Z

Today my brother and I left Dingle to spend a Sunday working in the Killarney shop. It was a pleasant affair, with a lot of regulars and many new customers in, mostly from Cork. I worked the espresso machine, my brother scooped, and Misha did most everything else.

Toward the end of the day my nephew showed up, and he and I headed off to the new playground in the National Park. It's opposite the cathedral, and I highly suggest it to anyone with kids. It's really a big step up in terms of sophistication from most of the playgrounds around with multiple climbing contraptions, swings, slides, but all on a bigger scale than usual.

The children (and parents) all seemed delighted, and I had to practically rip my nephew away at the end of an enjoyable hour.

There definitely are some treasures in the park besides the landscape and wildlife!

Tomorrow it's back to making ice cream...

Technorati tags: Killarney, Dingle, national park, playground, Ireland

St. Patrick's Day in Dingle

2006-03-17T15:19:00.000Z

A few photos from the parade in Dingle, which is a pleasant and very local affair. There was a great turnout in spite of the cold day, and of course the Dingle/An Daingean controversy played its part...

I'm too busy in the shop serving coffee and ice cream to write more!

Technorati tags: coffee, Dingle, St. Patrick, parade, saint

Belgian Chocolate

2006-03-16T18:49:00.000Z

One of the best things about being in this business (besides ice cream) is that many days you have treats such as coffee and chocolate arriving in the door, making for happy eating and drinking.

Today, one of our great customers, the mysterious Lady K from the greater Dublin area, dropped in a gift of some Pierre Marcolini chocolate she had picked up from their store in Belgium. It's truly delicious. What a treat! For those interested, they also have a boutique in Kensington and New York.

Then a salesman arrived in from Nairobi coffee, and it was double espressos all around. I don't think we'll switch from our current supplier, but it certainly gave the afternoon a good buzz!

Technorati tags: coffee, chocolate, ice cream, Belgian, London

Return to Chocolate and Sugar

2006-03-15T20:25:00.000Z

Today in the factory, JP and Neill were busy making ice cream in preparation for the St. Patricks day crowds-to-be in the shops. Since they needed some help, and I'm happy for any excuse to procrastinate from paperwork and administration, I went making hot chocolate.

Going through the process yet again, I thought I'd add that if you want to make our hot chocolate, (or the chocolate sauce recipe), make sure you follow the instructions about heating the milk and adding it to the melted chocolate. It really is the only way to get a good emulsion, and your sauce or hot chocolate will be smooth, glossy and professional-looking.

For anyone interested, I learned almost everything I know about chocolate by taking the chocolate course offered by Valrhona (courtesy of our distributor Odaios), and there are many worse ways to spend a few days!

Finally, with the news of the closing of the Mallow sugar plant, it occurs to me that it would be a great business opportunity for someone to buy the plant and make organic sugar. Keep the jobs, keep the farmers happy, and go some way to redressing the huge organic trade deficit in this country. It would be one less thing we would have to import!

Technorati tags: sugar, sauce, recipe, chocolate, ice cream, Ireland

Sauce, Ice Cream and Decoration

2006-03-13T20:07:00.001Z

After passing on the recipes for chocolate and caramel sauce, I thought perhaps it might time for a brief mention of dessert decoration.

Now I am not a dessert chef but an ice cream man, and I tend to think in terms of quality of product, not quality of presentation. It is inescapable, however, that good presentation not only impresses your customers or dinner guests, but it also actually makes the dessert taste that little bit better.

The cool thing about a bit of decoration is that you can take something as simple as a scoop of ice cream and get a certain "wow" factor from the lucky recipients with a tiny bit of effort.

Since not everyone has access to cream dispensers, chocolate cups, sugar sticks, and other tricks of the trade, here's a dead simple tip. Go down to your local shop that sells basic kitchenware and invest in one or more little plastic ketchup/mustard bottles. Make sure they have a narrow tip.

Fill them up with your sauce(s) and you can decorate away to your hearts content, basically drawing patterns! I'm sure you can come up with cooler designs than me!

A bit of fresh fruit and cream would dress it up even further, and with two different sauces you really can go wild.

If you use a big plate as your palette, the dessert will look better. Also, a white plate probably shows off your artistry best.

By the way, our chocolate sauce recipe has so much chocolate that it will go hard when it gets cold. You will need to reheat it, and the easiest way is to stick the bottle in a cup of hot water...

Thanks to Dan for his hand and design in the top photo!

Technorati tags: caramel, sauce, recipe, chocolate, ice cream, decoration

Ode to Sugar and Caramel Sauce

2006-03-11T10:08:00.000Z

As we've been refining our caramel recipe, it occurs to me again that sugar is amazing. Especially as Irish sugar production is dwindling, it seems like a little paean of praise is in order.

You have this white, hard substance that dissolves into a clear liquid, sweetens everything it touches, turns into candy when cooked to a certain temperature, and it can be spun, pulled, and hardened. In all its various forms, it provides happiness to people every day. There might be health concerns and visits to the dentist, but we still have dessert at the end of a meal because it makes us feel good, and that's not a bad thing at all.

The crusaders brought the first sugar back to Europe (and it got to the Mid-East from Polynesia via India, Persia, etc.) along with numerous enlightening discoveries learned from the Arabs. I am happy that they did, and surprised and grateful that they didn't eat it all on the long trip back home. Otherwise, we'd be working with honey, and you can't make caramel sauce with honey!

Here's a recipe if you want to try it. Good luck. It's not the easiest thing to make. Please take care, because melted sugar is dangerously hot!

Murphys Caramel Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:
200g Sugar
100ml Water
250ml of Milk
100ml of Cream

1. Put the sugar in a large saucepan and evenly pour water over it.
2. Place over medium heat without stirring, until the sugar solution turns a deep amber colour, and most of water has evaporated.
3. Take off the heat and add the milk.
4. Immediately add the cream and stir vigorously. (If you don't add it immediately, the sauce will go lumpy).
5. It may be necessary to reheat in order to fully dissolve the ingredients.

Note: If you have problems cooking the sugar evenly and it starts to brown only at the edges, you can use a whisk to stir it, but you might have to pass the finished sauce through a sieve as it tends to make the sugar clump...

By the way, I know that not everyone can eat sugar, and regarding diabetics, I'm still on the frustrating search for a natural way to make diabetic ice cream. If anybody has any ideas...

Finally, thanks to Conor O'Neill for providing this link regarding chocolate and health. It helps with my chocolate is not a sin argument!

Technorati tags: caramel, sugar, recipe, sauce, ice cream, Irish
File as: Recipe1

Coffee Rant Number Two

2006-03-09T19:09:00.000Z

OK, I know I might be getting a little repetitive and negative here as I've already ranted about coffee on this blog, and I promise to sweeten things up with the next post.

However, after going in for a couple of coffees in an un-named cafe in Kerry, ordering a cappuccino and latte, and being served watery, scalded drinks that were identical except the cups, I have to ask again, how can so few people care about their coffees, especially when the Irish coffee-drinking culture is exploding?

At the very least, baristas could be trained in basic definitions of the drinks and know that a cappuccino and a latte are not the same. It's not a guarded secret! The information's out there. Lavazza Training Centre and Espresso Planet are two of about 1,900,000 sites that came up when I typed "Espresso terminology" in Google.

The crazy thing is that I do not at all consider myself a coffee expert. It's just that I can't understand how people can't inject a greater level of care in what they do...

By the way, in the other coffee post, I wrote a tip for making a good espresso. One way to tell if it's a decent one is that an espresso should look like a mini Guinness, and an espresso without crema is like a pint without a head. You wouldn't serve it.

If you're in the business or have an espresso machine at home, pull an espresso (above) and/or an americano (right) into a glass, and if it's a good one you will see that it even settles like a freshly-pulled pint, turning from a bubbly brown into black!

Technorati tags: espresso, Kerry, cappuccino, coffee, latte, Irish

Information Overload and the Kerry Cow

2006-03-08T08:53:00.000Z

Even before my recent introduction to blogging, I was suffering from information overload. I have at least five books half-read, from "Leonardo da Vinci" to the interesting and disturbing "Shopped." I just managed to finish Tim Richardson's excellent book Sweets, (see right) so at least I can put that aside, but the stack of books either being read or waiting to be read is alarming.

Then there's the Irish Times, which we get every day in the shop, the food magazines such as Food and Wine that I could read all day, and my chronic addiction to the New Yorker.

I won't even get into to trying to descripe the alarming stack of papers, leaflets and booklets on everything food and ice cream that is balancing in a huge pile in my inbox.

Add to this the wealth of available blogs, not to mention excellent Irish blogs, and I think my brain will crack! You could spend a lifetime trying to get through it. I think I need to get away from it all and just make some ice cream!

By the way, with the weather warming up and the cattle back on the grass, we should be able to get back to working with a local farmer here who has some Kerry cows.

The milk from this indiginous breed is fabulously smooth and creamy, and the preliminary tests we did last year with our ice cream were extremely positive.

We'll be going out to the farm in the next couple of days...

Also, Clodagh McKenna just told me she has a cookbook coming out in November and has included one of our recipes. There's a heap of Christmas gifts sorted, and it's only March!

Technorati tags: ice cream, Kerry, milk, books, cookbooks, Irish

Chocolate and Lent

2006-03-06T16:34:00.000Z

We are into Lent, which is a sad time for us. Customers come in looking a little mournful, and you try to cheer them up talking about the exciting new organic chocolate from Valrhona that's just arrived and is truly excellent. They look even more desolate and say, "I've given chocolate up for Lent." Yes, chocolate and Lent are anathema in Ireland.

As you know, chocolate is very dear to my heart, and the point of this certainly is not to undermine Lent. You might also think I'm just being greedy in a holy time, which is not the case at all. In fact, we more than make up for any loss of chocolate sales with lots of coffee (or even more tea, if customers have also given up coffee), chocolate-free cakes and ice cream. I guess people have to make up for that empty chocolate part of their soul.

Which makes me digress and think of my grandmother Kitty, who had a pub in Cork. She dreaded Lent because all the fellows gave up the drink. Mind you, they didn't give up her pub, which did a flying trade. They gave up the porter, and for the whole period before Easter, got more sloppy drinking sherry, port, etc. than they ever would have done if they stuck with their usual pints.

No, what I question with this giving up of chocolate, and you might find this a bit literal, but as far as I know the concept of fasting had to do with meat. Look at the pre-Lenten festivals - "Carnival" means "Farewell to meat" in Latin. I've never heard of "Chocolate-val." People who took a more stringent line on the fasting would also give up wine, and the real penitents would shun all animal products and basically become vegan. However, being vegan means you can eat natural bittersweet chocolate, which shouldn't have milk in it.

In fact, I found this snippet in the Catholic Encyclopedia in reference to fasting during Lent: "...the custom has been tolerated of taking a cup of liquid (e.g., tea or coffee, or even chocolate) with a fragment of bread or toast in the early morning..."

"Hold on!" you might say. "What about chocolate eggs at Easter? Shouldn't we undertake a penance for all the chocolate we will devour?" That's good thinking, but perhaps such a fast is better suited to children.

If you study the history of Easter, the chocolate egg is a recent phenomenon, and the whole "eggs as renewal" metaphor was pagan anyway, as was the Eostre holiday. The druids certainly didn't have any chocolate with which to cheer themselves up (or give up).

"But it's an unhealthy sin! You should give up fags, drink and chocolate!" Is it unhealthy? The other two have serious health consequences, but there have been numerous studies to the contrary about chocolate. Check out CNN, Newsday, BBC, and the Irish Examiner to name just a few sources.

Now I couldn't really say, "Eat chocolate, and do away with meat!" as I don't eat meat anyway, and so Lent is a breeze. Besides, I feel in my heart for local butchers, who have a terrible time with the multiples squeezing them out of business, and forty days of lost sales would be more than any retailer could handle.

Still, I feel chocolate really is getting rough and perhaps mis-guided treatment... Might I suggest some sort of middle ground? The following list mixes penitence with a complementary feel-good factor:

List of Things to Give Up for Lent:

1. Chocolate with zero cocoa content
2. Pre-packaged meats from supermarkets
3. Tinned prawns
4. Wine in gallon jugs
5. UHT milk and cream
6. Processed cheeses
7. Non-free-range eggs
8. Anything with food colouring
9. Instant coffee
10. Fast food

Technorati tags: ice cream, Lent, chocolate, Ireland, cork, Irish, sin

Hot Chocolate for a Cold Day

2006-03-04T16:36:00.000Z

I shouldn't be in the office on a Saturday, but it's snowing outside, and besides the plumber and refrigeration guy have come to try to fix our water chiller, showing such diligence on a Saturday, that here I am.

A couple of days ago, I found a blog called The Big Drought that made a mention of this site, and he talked about the hot chocolate he drank in our shop. Given the weather, and given the fact the fellow's off drink for the year, I thought I'd give up the recipe for our bittersweet hot chocolate.

It's thick, rich, and not for the faint-hearted!

The ingredients are simple, but the process is important if you want a smooth result.

Murphys Bittersweet Hot Chocolate

125 g chocolate (good quality 70%)
500 ml milk
45 gm sugar (2 tablespoons + 1.5 teaspoons)

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave.
2. Heat the milk and sugar together to about 45C and make sure the sugar is dissolved.
3. Add the warmed milk to the melted chocolate in small parts, mixing all the time, to create a smooth emulsion.
4. Warm to drinking temperature (55C).
5. Garnish with grated chocolate and/or whipped cream and enjoy!

Four servings.

Notes:

1. The quality will really depend on the quality of chocolate that you use. I suggest Valrhona, Callebaut, or Lindt dark chocolate.

2. The amount of sugar will vary depending on the chocolate. Obviously you can add more if you want it sweeter. Adding less won't necessarily make it more "chocolate-y" as the taste buds need some sweetness to bring out the flavour of the chocolate.

3. See also Chocolate and Chocolate Sauce

Technorati tags: hot chocolate, chocolate, hot, ice cream, recipe
File as: Recipe1 Chocolate1

Snow in Dingle & 5 Ways to Improve Coffee

2006-03-02T22:40:00.000Z

Today, with quite a bit of work and stress, we managed to get the Dingle shop back open. It was an odd thing to open an ice cream shop with snow all about Dingle. What an impressive sight first thing in the morning, although the snow melted quickly everywhere except the mountains.

There are so many bits a pieces after four months of being closed, that you end up running around for days collecting, cleaning, buying.

However, it's a great feeling to having the shop back in operation, and it's a wonderful thing to have the espresso machine up and running. My day certainly improved with a double caffe moccha!

Now, please forgive a rant... What astonishes me is the dreadful quality of coffee most places in Ireland. So many of us have become coffee drinkers, but somehow quality hasn't followed as quickly as I would have thought. We're travelling to countries that serve decent coffee, and most Irish people know the difference between good and bad, so why aren't more baristas about the place upping their game? It takes relatively little effort to make decent espressos etc., and I'm amazed that more people don't do it.

Here are five ways to instantly improve coffee drinks:

1. Run an espresso shot to 1 oz. Anything longer will bring in a watery taste and bitterness.

2. If you're making a latte or cappuccino, don't overheat the milk! There is a reason that in Italy you will never burn your mouth on a latte. There is as reason that you're supposed to simmer milk, not boil it. Over 65C, the milk proteins change and the fat separates out. We have such great milk in this country. Why ruin it?

3. Get the grind right. If it's too fine and packed too tight, you will get a burned taste. If it's too coarse, the shot will be watery. A good shot should have a head like a pint of porter without being burned.

4. Filter the water coming to the espresso machine.

5. Grind your beans fresh! It's amazing how quickly ground coffee can taste stale.

There are lots of places to learn about coffee. Bellisimo is one of a million helpful sites.

Finally, I have to thank Pauline, one of our customers-who-have-become-friends, who rang to let us know that our ice cream was poorly displayed in Superquinn - Sundrive. It's an amazing thing to have customers looking out for us, especially now that we're selling through a distributor and have less contact with the shops than we used to. How can we thank them?

For now, just... Thanks!

Honey Lavender Ice Cream

2006-02-28T16:02:00.000Z

A couple of years ago, I traveled across the South of France with a friend, eating our way from town to town. It was May, the weather was perfect, and the eating was mostly very good. The taste that really stayed with me after the trip, was a pot of honey infused with lavender that I bought at a food market in San Rémy.

It's a funny thing, sometimes I think that we are fools here to work so carefully with ingredients and process. Most ice cream makers would buy their mix and flavours in big tubs from companies such as Pregel and Fabbri. They are the smart businesspeople, and I really mean that. If you want to make money with an ice cream shop and want to make your own ice cream without too much bother, that is how you do it. You save a fortune on labour and ingredients, and a good percentage of customers aren't too bothered.

Still, I suppose the world needs a few fools, and I can't get past the taste thing. Fresh ingredients just taste better, and besides it's much more fun to play. For example, I've never seen Lavender and honey ice cream from a mix company! So last year, I put my mind to making it, and I think it's a wonderful flavour. Recently I was asked for the recipe, so I've modified it for home use.

Here it is, if you want to try it. Chances are your kids (if you have any) will hate it, so you can eat it all yourself. Let me know how you get on.

By the way, this may sound strange, but it's a great partner to chocolate cake!

Murphy's Honey Lavender Cream

1 Cup (237ml) Sugar
5 Egg Yolks
1 1/8 Cups (266ml) Cream
1 1/8 Cups(266ml) Milk
2 Tablespoons Lavender Flowers
2 Cups (475ml) Water
3 tablespoons liquid honey

1. Cook the lavender flowers in the water over low heat until the water has reduced to 1/10th of the volume.

2. Remove from the heat and strain. Stir in the honey.

3. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.

4. Bring the milk to a simmer.

5. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.

6. Pour the mixture back into pan and place over low heat. Stir until the custard thickens (around 70C). Use a thermometer, as at 75C the eggs will scramble!

7. Allow the custard to cool.

8. Mix in the lavender and honey.

9. Whip the cream.

10. Gently fold in the custard.

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

Yield: 6 Servings

Notes:

1. I suggest you use a simple, liquid honey. Darker or more complex honeys will have a very strong flavour, so in that case use less!

2. Lavender flowers should be available at your local health food shop.

Technorati tags: lavender, honey, flower, ice cream, recipe
File as: Recipe1

Craquantes and Other Bits and Pieces

2006-02-25T12:04:00.000Z

Still on the subject of chocolate, I received a sample yesterday of Valrhona crunchy chocolate pieces from our supplier Odaios (see left). It surely is a wonderful thing to be in this business and get such presents! I'm practically sick from them; they are so good, and the sample size is so large! If there are any left on Tuesday, they will make a great addition to a batch of ice cream.

The factory was also brightened by the lovely Clodagh McKenna and Aoife, the producer for the excellent RTE radio show Winter Food. They recorded us and various factory noises. We should be on next Saturday's show so listen in if you can.

Clodagh wanted a recipe for ice cream. I was thinking of white chocolate and rose water. I guess I can't get chocolate off my mind!

Since I can't, I might as well mention that my friend Conor brought back chocolate covered espresso beans from Caffe Sant'Eustachio in Rome, who make some of the best coffee in the world. As I munch away I think that it's a pity he couldn't bring back a cappuccino to go with them! Happily the Dingle shop will be open on Wednesday, and I'll be back in the coffee again.

As we're on that subject, I have been trying to do something with the interior courtyard in the shop. We inherited a half-plastered wall and have left it that way for the last six years. Finally I've decided to tackle it and tried painting it with a wash of our blue. It's a bit electric, though. I don't know what I think! I should be in there today painting away and getting ready for the opening, but I'm feeling lazy and besides we've given over the shop to the West Kerry Mental Health Assn for the weekend so they could raise some money by selling books.

Finally, this whole blogging thing is still quite new to me, but it's quite exciting to see what's out there, and what they are writing about. conoroneill is an interesting gourmet site, and I just did a search to see who's writing about our company, and he was one of them! Sometimes one can feel a bit isolated as a foody in a rural part of Ireland (mind you, Dingle has its fair share), and this should help!

Chocolate and Chocolate Sauce

2006-02-24T09:42:00.000Z

We have been spending a lot of time these days talking about chocolate, and being chocoholics there are worse conversations to have!

Over the last six years, we have had an on-going discussion about Valrhona vs. Callebaut. We originally used the Callebaut for everything, then switched to Valrhona two years ago. The difference in taste is immense - the Callebaut is deep and rich, the Valrhona is clean and simple on the palate. Valrhona is a much smaller company, and they have a top reputation among the gourmet community. In terms of eating chocolate, we wouldn't touch another. But things get complicated with ice cream. Often "cruder" flavours taste better when they are combined with the ice cream mix...

In any case, we did a test for chocolate sauce using both, and liked the Valrhona better on its own, but the Callebaut better when served over vanilla ice cream.

If you want to try our recipe, here it is:

Murphys Ice Cream Chocolate Sauce
150 gm chocolate (Valrhona Araguani or Callebaut 72% is what we used. If you can't find either, just use a very good quality bittersweet chocolate. Note that it will only taste as good as the quality of chocolate you use!)
75 ml cream (42% fat)
20 gm cocoa (We use Green and Black Organic)
175 ml milk
75 gm sugar

Follow these instructions carefully if you want a velvety, glossy result:
1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler to between 34 and 45C (you can use a mixer bowl in larger pot with water in it)
2. Mix together the sugar and cocoa.
3. Put in a pan with the milk and warm to about 45C until dissolved.
4. Add the milk mixture to the melted chocolate in small parts, mixing in between until it's incorporated. Keep this up until you have a smooth emulsion. (The chocolate will clump at first and look dreadful, but don't worry, trust the process!)
5. Add the cream.

Murphys Ice Cream

Technorati tags: chocolate sauce, cocoa, chocolate, ice cream, recipe
File as: Recipe1 Chocolate1

Raspberries: Using fruit in ice cream

2006-02-21T19:56:00.000Z

I am now back in Ireland and back to work. The cold shouldn't be such a shock, but it is!

I made ice cream over the last two days, including most of our usual flavours, but the interesting thing is that I retrieved something special from the freezer. In Wicklow, there is a farm called "Sweetbank Farm," and they grow some of the most amazing fruit. They have a farm shop and are definitely worth a visit during the season.

Last summer, they gave us a good amount or raspberries, tayberries, and other delectables and delighted many customers.

We also froze some raspberries, and I dug them out to make some ice cream, thinking that there is nothing better in the cold of February than a taste of summer. So I made two batches, one simply with raspberries, the other with raspberries and dark chocolate shavings.

Putting fruit in ice cream can be tricky as the water in the fruit turns to ice, making it quite unpleasant. There are two tricks - alcohol and sugar. Soaking fruit in alcohol (rum raisin is an obvious example) keeps the fruit soft in ice cream. Soaking or cooking it in sugar also does the trick.

Since the raspberries were off the farm, I decided cooking was the best route, as it also pasteurises away any bacteria that might be lurking. I used about 10% sugar to volume, added about 5% lemon juice, cooked to a boil (see above), and then cooled immediately. If you try this, don't cook it for long, or the fruit will lose all its fresh taste and will taste like jam!

Anyway, the result was very tasty indeed, and we'll see what our customers say when it hits the shops!

Beghrir - Moroccan Pancakes

2006-02-16T20:50:00.000Z

In Tafraoute, the landscape is miraculous with strange rock formations like pink Henry Moore sculptures and a swathes of yellow flowers that turn dazzling in the sun. The almond trees were in blossom - ghostly white, and snow capped the mountain tops. Tafraoute has fewer tourists than it should, and it certainly was a highlight of the trip.

The breads in general were excellent, the best we have tasted so far, as were the breakfast pancakes called Beghrir. Both are made with semolina and maybe its the water there or the mountains - in any case how simple and wonderful. The pancakes in the morning served with honey and accompanied by a cafe au lait, the bread after a hike in the hills...

I will post a recipe when I get home and try it out myself. I bought a Moroccan dessert cookbook in French and so it will take a little work!

I am back at the coast now and the sunset was glorious. Two weeks is not a lot to spend in this country. I recommend it very highly, and it was a bargain (€379 including flights from Shannon and accomodation in Agadir though Sunway, which is so cheap that you don't skipping out of town and making your own way around).

I will miss Morocco!

Marrakesh

2006-02-15T20:39:00.000Z

There is a such romance about the Djemaa el Fna , with the exotic expectation of the snake charmers and fire-breathers that the reality leaves one a little disappointed. The cobras seem small and doped up - the charmers have to flick at them to get them to stand up. As for the stalls, there is little that we haven't seen in other towns around Morocco, although the spices are better displayed!

Still, there is a great pleasure in looking at the bustle of it all - the seething crowds, the darting mopeds, and hearing the clamour of the music and storytellers, especially when drinking deliciously cold, fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice and munching on dates...

Mind you, a much better way to spend time in Marrakech is to sneak away to the Jardin Majorelle and spend some time among the plants and beautiful colours. (You could even bring along the dates!)

Grilled Fish and Fabbri

2006-02-12T22:09:00.000Z

In Essaouira, there is a fish market and you can choose the fish you want to eat and they grill it for you on the spot. We chose sea bass, and a massive fish it was too. They patted it down with spices and the skin was crispy and the inside perfectly moist. What a great place for a meal, under the ramparts, watching the town go by and the sea gulls trying to steal a snack of prawns...

On the down side, the gelateria on the square proudly displayed Fabbri (pre-manufactured mix and flavouring company) labels, when you would think they would be ashamed. How sad it is to go into an ice cream shop in such a far-flung place and see the generic ice cream.

It really seems that ice cream is a dying art as more and more places go for the easy option... Even on our recent trip across the North of Italy, the shops that made their own ice cream from scratch were tiny minority...

Amalou

2006-02-10T22:01:00.000Z

The mountains around Agadir are beautiful. It is certainly worth renting a car in Agadir and getting out of town. It is easy to drive in Morocco, and for the most part the roads are deserted once you get out of the cities. The best part of the trip for me was in these areas - from the mountains to the edge of the Sahara - the people are wonderful and the scenery is breathtaking. Also, the food is very good though quite simple.

One thing these parts are known for is honey. The most exotic comes from the pollen of the Argan tree - better known for its nuts that are made into oil for cooking and cosmetic use. The strangest thing is that the process of extracting the oil involves goats climbing the trees, chewing the fruit and leaving the seed on the ground for easy collection.

But I digress, for the goats have nothing to do with the honey, and the honey is excellent. You can buy it on the side of the road, and it is amber in colour and has a caramel taste that is like no other honey I have tried.

An especially tasty option is Amalou (sometimes spelled "Amlou") - a mixture of honey with almonds and argan oil. I think it would be a great companion to crepes...

Agadir

2006-02-09T21:10:00.000Z

I am starting this blog in the middle of a trip to Morocco. Why now? Well it is raining, and that is a good enough reason for somone well used to the stuff and more likely to take refuge in an internet cafe than suffer it.

I don't know much about blogging, but I will talk about food on this site, and especially now because I just had a great meal in Agadir. It's a bit of a tourist trap, and not an attractive town, but there are good places to eat. Nothing fancy, but in my opinion the best tastes are most often the simplest. Avocado juice was a revelation and and couscous with seven vegetables. Just enough spice.

Most restaurants here in Morocco are full of cats - this one has an edge by having what I think are wild turkeys wandering around as well... There is much to be happy about when it comes to food here, as long as the turkeys stay off the plates.