Murphy’s Ice Cream and a new Irish blogger
Listening to Winter Food the other day I heard an interview with Sean and Kieran Murphy of Murphy’s Ice Cream in Dingle. They take presenter Clodagh McKenna through the making of their fabulous ice cream, telling her about local milk, flavourings and types of ice cream (Mango and Chilli – is that exported outside the Kingdom?!), taking her into a freezer room piled high with their produce – brioscaí (Cookies and cream), caramal (Honeycomb), bó bhán (Irish cream liqueur), fanaile (French vanilla) – and treating her, much to Clodagh’s delight, to sú craobh or Raspberry Sorbet. And don’t forget their seacláid – “chocolate, always chocolate’, as Kieran says several time during the interview. No secrets where his heart lies, especially if you check out his blog at Ice Cream Ireland and his decadent recipe for Hot Chocolate.
In my continuing quest to discover the perfect Hot Chocolate recipe, I recently tried out – via an online recipe which has since disappeared – Pierre Hermé’s recipe for Caramelised Cinnamon Hot Chocolate. Basically, it involves carmelising some sugar with a cinnamon stick, adding milk and a little water, then heating the mixture with LOTS of chocolate. It was amazingly rich – I ended up drinking mine with a spoon – and, I think, best served in espresso cups, rather than the cappuccino mugs that I used. The Boyfriend was not hugely impressed, considering that it was more like chocolate soup than the mug of hot chocolate that he had been promised. Next time I think I’ll try Kieran Murphy’s take on hot chocolates. Even though I’ve never been to Dingle I’ve heard many favourable things about their shop/café there and in Killarney and I know from personal experience how good their ice creams are. Even though summer seems a long way off, maybe I’ll just have to grab a tub of ice cream on my way home some evening…and eat it in front of the fire.
Thanks for that, Caroline! Much appreciated.Let me know how you get on with the hot chocolate. It’s a simple recipe, but we keep coming back to it.Unfortunately there is little demand outside the shops (and even there the eyebrows raise) for Mango chili, but we do a mango sorbet in tubs…
I may have to go looking for that mango sorbet and add my own chilli…wasn’t Conor recently talking about someone pouring sweet chilli sauce over ice cream?! I will indeed keep you updated about experiments with your hot chocolate and, if this current cold snap continues, the first experiment might not be too far off…
I actually love the combination of sweet and spicy, which is why I’m mad about Thai. Mango chutney is one of my favorites and gave the idea for the ice cream. It’s also great for keeping warm!
I’m a real fan of chilli/chocolate interactions which has led to interesting comments from guests in the past when I’ve served up a Chilli and Cinnamon Chocolate pudding without warning! When I bought some Mexican chocolate at Aji – a food shop in New Zealand which used to stock the most amazing spices – the owner recommended me to add a little chilli when I used it for hot chocolate and she was right, it gave it amazing depth and zing. I’ve always liked unexpected flavour combinations. Green and Black’s chocolate recipe book has some amazing ones, including one for Vodka Chilli Chocolates…there are some times when I really wish I hadn’t had to leave that book in New Zealand.