Lea Hogg

I share with you today a photo from the party on Friday hosted by Ambassador Hennessy which many of you have asked about. The Dancers on a special visit to the island for St Patrick’s gave a magnificent performance. They wear blue which was the original color associated with St Patrick but over the years the tradition changed to the color of three leaf clover which St Patrick used to teach about the trinity.

And to carry on our Irish theme, Nadia and Adriana prepare a wonderful dessert of Irish coffee bread and butter pudding. It is divine and it will take you to another planet. It is made up of layers of bread dipped in butter and layered with apple and giant raisins, baked in an oven and then topped with a light custard of Irish Coffee. We even tried some pudding with a scoop of the girls’ home-made Caramel ice cream on top.

And you will need:
300ml double cream
2 spoons Irish Whiskey
300ml milk
8 egg yolks
175g sugar
25 g golden giant sultanas
1 vanilla pod
1 apple
Few drops of lemon juice
8 slices bread of your choice, each slice cut into 4 pieces
125g
125g melted butter

Soak the raisins and chopped apple in water in a saucepan with a few drops of lemon juice, add the skin of the vanilla pod for flavor and scrape out the seeds to use in the Irish Coffee cream. Bring the saucepan to boil and turn off.

Brush each triangle of bread with the melted butter

Overlap the bread slices and cover the bottom of an ovenproof dish

Drain the raisin mixture and spoon a layer of the mixture onto the bread slices
Cover with another layer of bread slices and a final layer of raisin and apple mixture,
Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
Beat the eggs, irish whiskey, cream, milk and sugar and pour over the bread pudding.
Sprinkle some flaked almonds and bake at 160C for 40 minutes.

Take out of oven and leave to rest for 20 minutes before serving.

For the Irish coffee sauce:
250ml whole milk
250ml double cream
50g caster sugar
50g coffee beans
6 large egg yolks
60ml Irish whiskey

Put milk and cream in a heavy-based saucepan with 1 tablespoon of the sugar ( the sugar will prevent the milk from boiling over). Add the coffee beans and slowly bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, using a ballon whisk, beat the egg yolks and remaining sugar together until pale and creamy. When the liquid is on the point of boiling, pour about a third of it on to the egg mixture, whisking well. Gradually pour in the rest of the milk, whisking continuously.

Pass the mixture through a strainer, add the whiskey and return the mixture to the pan, stirring. Cook on a very low heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until it thickens slightly enough to thinly coat the back of the spoon.

If you draw a finger down the back of the spoon it should leave a line. Remove the pan from the from the heat and strain again. Chill.

For St Patrick’s Parade in the City this morning, we had fine weather, although a bit cool…

and from the heart of the Mediterranean, I wish you a very good evening and big fun day tomorrow …