Irish Coffee

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!

     Here is the Irish Coffee recipe I promised you in my last blog post. Irish Coffee is one of those things that I have always known existed, and I know many that love it, but for some reason it never really came up on my radar to attempt myself. I wanted to post something festive in honor of the Emerald Isle, but I didn't want to do a lot of baking in the house, as my mother gave up baked goods for Lent and I didn't want to tempt her. Irish Coffee seemed like a good balance :)
    Let me tell you, my friends, making Irish Coffee was a rather large culinary risk for me, where my own palate is concerned. As some of you probably know, although I love the smell of it, I don't really care for coffee (unless it's iced and flavored to the point that it no longer tastes like coffee). Also, with very few exceptions, I don't care for whiskey either. So, Lynn doesn't like coffee, and Lynn doesn't like whiskey, what on earth would posses her to make a drink that contains both? The hope that the resulting concoction would be more than the sum of it's parts. That kitchen alchemy would take place and the resulting brew would be, pardon the pun, *magically delicious* (I'm sorry, I had to).....

I was not disappointed:)

     My Dears, Irish Coffee is YUMMY. Smooth, warm, sweet, creamy, comforting, and with just the right kick. (I'm sure some of you already know this, but I'm a newbie, let me revel:). To my taste, it's a cold weather drink, but I can see it being enjoyed on a chilly or rainy night any time of the year. It is traditionally an after-dinner drink, but I doubt it'd be out of place on the breakfast table.
   I did not go out to any bars tonight because, frankly, I have better things to do than be groped by an inebriated frat boy. Instead, my Michael came over after I got out of work, we had a quiet dinner and an Irish Coffee nightcap. It was absolutely perfect :)

    This drink goes together really fast and it is ridiculously easy. Also, if you're interested, there is a video tutorial on how to make Irish Coffee on the Food Network website (the ingredient proportions I list here are based on that recipe) that was filmed in the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin, view it here :)

Irish Coffee
For each cup of Irish Coffee you will need:

- 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (because we were drinking this in the evening, I used decaf coffee, and the flavor of the drink was unaffected)
- 1 tbsp. brown sugar or to taste (some recipes call for white sugar, but really, I wouldn't. The brown sugar gives the drink a rounded, deep sweetness, white sugar would be too cloying in this case. At any rate, they use brown sugar in Ireland, and that's good enough for me:)
- 1 jigger Irish Whiskey (A jigger is 1-1/2 oz. or 3 tbsp, or, if you don't feel like measuring, it's about a shot of whiskey) I used Jameson, but use what you like :)
- 1/2 pint of heavy cream, softly whipped (I only used half of the container, but I was only making coffee for three people)

* If using the traditional glass Irish Coffee mugs, be sure to pre-heat the mugs by filling them with hot tap water while you prep the rest of the ingredients. This is to ensure that the mugs don't crack when you pour the hot coffee into them. If you're using regular coffee mugs, you can skip this step.

-Brew a fresh pot of coffee
-While the coffee is brewing, pour the cream into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes until the cream is thickened, but has not yet started to form peaks. Ideally it should just be thick enough to coat the beaters, like this:

- When coffee has finished brewing, empty the warm water from the mugs (see * above) and place about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar in the bottom of each coffee mug.
- Pour hot coffee into each mug until the mug is about 3/4 full.
- Pour whiskey  into each mug and stir to dissolve the sugar (when I did it, I actually did this backwards and put the whiskey in before the coffee and everything was fine, so the coffee/whiskey order doesn't seem to matter).
- Top with whipped cream. The easiest way to do this is to pour the cream over the back of a spoon into the coffee so that the cream rests on the top of the drink and doesn't mix into it. The video tutorial shows you how to do this, they also suggest that you warm the spoon before pouring the cream over it. I did not this, but go for it if you like. When the cream settles on the top it will look like the foam head on a glass of beer. Ideally you should drink the coffee through the cream topping.

May the saints protect you, may sorrow neglect you, and bad luck to the one who doesn't respect you :)

Slainte :)
Lynn