Recipes by Zola - Irish Coffee - ArcaMax Publishing

ArcaMax Publishing > Home & Garden > Recipes > Recipes by Zola

Your email address is safe with us. View our Privacy policy.

Food and Wine Pairing Guide:

Match the perfect wine with your recipes using our Wine Pairing guide

The Funnies:

Get free jokes, comics, and more! See them all on
our funnies page

Weather:

Accurate national, regional, and local forecasts on the weather page

Irish Coffee

Zola Gorgon

"Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat."
-- Alex Levine

Those of you who are long time readers know how Irish I am. Way back, I did have a Scots-Irish great-great grandfather but I know he spoke Gaelic and my mother said he was really Irish, (from Northern Ireland) so I count that. Otherwise my family is pretty much all Irish. Our family left Ireland in 1837. That's even before the potato famine. I guess they were already broke and decided to make a new way in the New World.

My family immigrated through Canada rather than Ellis Island. Why? I don't know. I do know that on my father's side they got on a boat that went through the St. Lawrence River and on through the Great Lakes. They stayed on until the last stop at Waukegan. They were told it was time to get off the boat. They settled there and had farmland that is now part of Great America (the amusement park). We didn't get the advantage of selling out to the Marriott folks. No, to the contrary, my uncle lost the deed to the farm in a poker game decades before Marriott showed up. Sounds pretty typical-Irish, doesn't it?

If you ever get to Chicago to celebrate St. Patrick's Day you will not be sorry. Most of the festivities have moved to the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day instead of on the day itself, so keep that in mind when you schedule. I sort of dislike the moving of the parade to an earlier date, but Chicago doesn't seem to mind. This gives them an even greater excuse to extend the holiday. This year the flowing of the green beer will begin Friday night on the 14th and go right through Monday. We live above an Irish pub so we don't have far to go to celebrate either. Yesterday I saw the pub crew putting up the big Irish flags that flap in the breeze out front. The holiday has arrived; a sure sign of spring.

My favorite part of the Chicago festivities is the dying of the river. Early in the morning the plumbers go out in small boats on the Chicago River and with grand celebration, they pour a dye into the water. (Have no fear, the dye is environmentally friendly). The dye turns almost electric green. Odd thing is the dye starts out orange! The river current carries the dye along and within an hour the whole river flows this bright, emerald green and lasts much of the day. Thousands of people come to watch. I'm afraid this year I'm going to have to miss it.

My husband was blown away the first time I dragged him to the parade. He could not get over the number of red heads.

If you want to get a glimpse of one gorgeous red head click on the link below. You'll see this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade Queen and you can link to the story of the dying of the river.

www.chicagostpatsparade.com/

I wish you all a Happy St. Patrick's Day.

For a fabulous Irish coffee, follow the recipe below and if you want to take it a step further I've given you instructions on how you can make decadent Irish coffee brownies. My treat!

And my favorite Irish Proverb: You've got to do your own growing; no matter how tall your grandfather was.

Cheers, Enjoy Zola

Irish Coffee

1.5 oz of Irish whiskey. (Jameson is one brand)
1 tsp of brown sugar
6 oz of hot coffee (decaf is fine too)
Heavy cream

Put the whiskey, brown sugar and coffee in a mug and stir. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Then float the cream (your preference on amount) on top. Don't stir. Just enjoy the white moustache while you sip your brew.

Irish Coffee Brownies (the easy way) with chocolate-coffee or mint-chocolate frosting

1 box of your favorite brownie mix water, eggs and oil as specified on box -- only for Irish coffee brownies you are going to switch the water to Irish Whiskey (Jameson)

Bake the brownies according to the box instructions.

Cool.

Chocolate-coffee or mint chocolate frosting for your brownies

6 oz of deep, dark chocolate. (60% cocao or stronger), finely diced
3 oz of heavy cream
1 Tbl of instant coffee granules or 2 tsp of mint flavoring

Heat the cream in a small saucepan. As the cream begins to form bubbles on the edges put in the chocolate and coffee granules and stir until it melts and the coffee dissolves. Do this off heat so it doesn't scorch the cream or the chocolate. If it doesn't completely dissolve, put back on the heat momentarily to get it warm enough to heat the mixture so you can be sure it will all melt. This makes a chocolate-coffee glaze. You can put this on the cool brownies earlier in the day and it will form a solid frosting or you can wait and pour it warm over the sliced brownies and it will be more like a luscious sauce. I opt for the latter if I can.

You can also serve a la mode. Mint ice cream would be in keeping with the holiday. You can also use 2 tsp of mint flavoring if you want chocolate-mint frosting instead of chocolate-coffee. In this case leave out the coffee granules.

This news arrived on: 03/17/2008

Share this Story