The Ultimate Rich Chocolate

I have three brothers, all older than me, Johnny, Mike & Pa, 37, 39 & 42, all born in January & all love chocolate cake, especially Pa, so every year we celebrate their birthdays all at once & this year I decided to make the birthday cake with a little help from my daughter Ella. It had to be a chocolate cake because thats their favourite, so this is how it went.

Ingredients:
Cake
400g  good quality plain chocolate
350g butter  room temp
350g caster sugar
8 eggs separated
230g ground almonds
150g self raising flour
30g coco powder
3 crushed flake bars
2 nine inch or 23cm greased & lightly floured cake tins

Ganache:
400ml cream
400g chocolate 70% coco

1:I recommend making the ganache first as it takes awhile to cool down & set. Put the cream into a saucepan & when it comes to the boil take it off the heat & stir in the chocolate until its all melted, leave to cool & refrigerate.

2: For the cake,melt the chocolate over a pot of simmering water, mean while whisk the egg whites until it forms soft peaks and leave to one side.

3: Cream the butter & sugar together & then add in the egg yolks one at a time 

4: On minimum speed add in the ground almonds and melted chocolate, then add in the coco & the flour

5: Fold in the the egg white.

6:Transfer to the prepared tins & bake for around 40 mins on 170 degrees 

7: Turn out onto a wire tray & allow to cool & then cut both cakes in half. Spread some ganache between each layer of the cake & put it all back together again, then spread the whole outside of the cake with the ganache, then sprinkle some crushed up flake onto the sides & with a hot pallet knife smooth out the top of it.

The perfect end to a perfect day ..........

Goatsbridge Trout Farm Article

Goatsbridge Trout Caviar

A surprising number of small producers are bucking the system at the moment, doing well in businesses that you’d never expect to succeed in recession. One of these success stories is still in the making in deepest Kilkenny, where Ger and Mags Kirwan continue to develop theGoatsbridge Trout Farm at Thomastown, building on the established success of their excellent quality fresh and smoked rainbow trout.

But their latest product to reach the market may seem surprising in the current climate, as it’s one that has always been associated with luxury: caviar.

Caviar is basically salt-cured fish eggs, a speciality food that’s used mainly as an appetiser or garnish. The term is usually taken to refer to the ‘king’ of caviar, the inky black sturgeon roe, which is extortionately expensive, but other fish eggs can be used to make a similar product – and trout caviar, being a pretty red, is much more attractive than ‘real’ caviar.

Goatsbridge Trout Caviar has been going down a treat with chefs since March 2012, when restaurant trials began. More recently, they’ve brought this jewel-like treat to the consumer market, where it has also been well received – and what better time than Christmas to indulge, or to buy it as a novel present for a foodie friend.

It can be used in the same way as ‘regular’ caviar, and an ideal way to introduce it to friends and family over Christmas would be to use it as a garnish with smoked salmon: blini with smoked salmon and soured cream, topped a little spoonful of trout caviar would be delicious – and very festive.

Goatsbridge Trout Farm is a member of the Kilkenny Food Trail and has always welcomed visitors by arrangement, but the welcome is growing along with the product range as a new visitor centre is due to open shortly. They’ll have a demo kitchen and a little smoke house and they’re also putting in an Aquaponics unit. They expect this to be a great attraction for school kids, and a friend has written a Syllabus which uses the idea to teach many aspects of science to children.

This is a highly sustainable business - previous generations of Gerard Kirwan's family took over where the Cistercian monks of old left off in this area, ensuring there's trout a-plenty here in the crystal clear Little Arrigle River in the Nore Valley. Enough, in fact, for the restocking of lakes, rivers and fisheries all around the country, and they deserve great credit for the way they are managing and developing their business, especially in these challenging times.

Along with their other products, Goatsbridge Trout Caviar is available through LaRousse as well as specialist shops around the country, including Cavistons, Donnybrook Fair,Fallon & Byrne, Nolans of Clontarf, Ardkeen Food Stores, Kilkenny Design Centre, and Keoghans of Cork.

They can also offer free delivery to anywhere in Ireland; just email details to info@goatsbridgetrout.ie or call Mags Kirwan on 086 818 8340. Goatsbridge Trout products, including the caviar, are also available online from Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese (www.knockdrinna.com), where Trout Caviar costs 50/100g jar €11.00/19.95 respectively.
 

Gaelic Escargot

A love of escargot developed during a holiday in France led to business venture

Eva Milka: “We decided to make a business out of it and got ¤15,000 from the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers programme. Everyone thought we were mad, some still do

First published:Mon, Jul 22,After returning from a holiday in France, where she developed a love for eating escargot, Eva Milka was very disappointed she couldn’t buy snails for consumption in Ireland.

The Polish national, who moved to Carlow from Czestochowa in southern Poland five years ago, missed them so much she decided to import some and breed them for her family and friends.

She initially set up her snail farm in the bedroom of a rented house, before finding suitable accommodation for a commercial venture at Garryhill in Co Carlow with her partner Lucas Kurowski. The venture – Gaelic Escargot – is currently Ireland’s only snail farm.

“Initially, we hadn’t a clue what to do so we consulted ‘Uncle Google’ to see how we could breed snails. We then spent a week with a huge producer in Poland to see how his business worked. Our first year was a disaster as we couldn’t buy certified snail food in Ireland so their shells didn’t develop. We also didn’t have netting over the field, so all the birds ate them.”

Despite the initial hiccup, she says the Irish climate is very suitable to snail production. After doing some market research, the two discovered there was a huge international shortage of escargot, especially in France.

“We decided to make a business out of it and got €15,000 from the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers programme. Everyone thought we were mad, some still do.

“We imported 21,000 snails and each snail produces about 20 to 200 eggs at a time. The baby snails initially spend eight weeks in a polytunnel before being transferred to a field.”

The development of a snail follows a number of cycles: the first is the mating and egg laying stage, which begins in February, next comes the incubation and hatching of eggs. The infant snails spend up to eight weeks in a polytunnel before being moved to a specially adapted field, where they are fed a mixture of rape, beetroot and dried food.

For export, the snails are hibernated. This occurs as a result of refrigeration, or dropping the temperature to less than 5 degrees.

The couple hope to have one million snails or 10 tonnes ready for export come September, which they will send to a Polish distributor, who already supplies to the French market. They hope to do 30 tonnes the following year.

Helix Aspera Muller, the common garden snail found in Ireland, is growing in demand, especially from France and Italy, where there is a shortage of escargot. Demand in Italy averages around 194 million tonnes each year, while in France it is 115 million tonnes, she says.

“As we’re so new to the business, we don’t have any contacts with French distributors so are going through a established Polish one. We’re hoping to make contacts over the next year.”

While her current plans are to export all her produce, she would like to develop a market in Ireland, although she says many Irish people seem reluctant to try escargot which is such a delicacy abroad.

Coconut Meringue Roulade With Lemon Curd Cream & Raspberries

Ingredients:

5 egg whites

225g caster sugar

50g desiccated coconut

For the filling:

100 to 150ml of double cream (whipped)

150ml lemon or lime curd 

250 to 300g fresh or frozen raspberries

Icing sugar for dusting

1 mint leave

23cm X 33cm 9 X 13inch Swiss roll tin

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 or gas mark 4. Line the Swiss roll tin with grease proof paper . Give the tin a light coat of veg oil so the paper will stay in place and give the grease proof a light coat also to stop the mix sticking to it and to ensure the roulade comes off easily.

2 

2. Place the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl and whisk until white & fluffy. Continue to whisk and then add in the sugar bit by bit. Whisk on full speed for about 4 to 5 mins until stiff peaks form.

3. Using a large metal spoon fold in the coconut firmly & quickly. Smooth the meringue into the prepared tin with a pallet knife & bake for 15 to 20 mins or until faintly brown.

4. Allow the meringue to cool slightly for a few mins & then turn out onto a sheet of grease prop paper, turning it up side down in the proces. Allow to cool completely.

5. Spread the curd cream evenly over the meringue leaving the long edge nearest to you free for about 4cm. Cover the cream with the fruit 

6. Now for the fun bit. They say a picture speaks a thousand words so here goes.

Decorate as you wish. It should be served the day it's made as it doesn't hold together very well but it does freeze good and can be served half frozen.

                    Lemon Curd 

Ingredients: 

3 eggs yolks beaten 

125g/4oz caster sugar

2 lemons juice & rind

50g/2oz butter

Method:

1. Over a low heat melt the butter, add sugar, juice & rind. Then stirr in the well beaten egg yolks

2. Stir over a gentle heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from the heat & pour into a bowl, it will thicken as it cools.