What I’m reading: to be completely honest, I haven’t read a single page this week! But I do have a recommendation regardless - I always keep an eye on Shit You Should Care About (on Instagram and Substack), for digestible news and light entertainment etc.
What I’m listening to: Donal Ryan on Blindboy. I loved this conversation, partly because the accents are deeply comforting to listen to, but also because Blindboy and Donal Ryan must be two of the most creative Irish authors at the moment. Highly recommend.
What I’m eating: the new dish at Forest (below) - radicchio potato balls with tomato butter, cider and pine nuts. Incredible work as always by Plabita, 10/10
This week’s newsletter is going to be short and sweet because I have been a busy girl! I’m doing a two-week long pop-up at Roses in Auckland, making all sorts of yummy (I hope) things for dinner. There’s a 7-course set menu, or you can just come for a snack and a glass of wine - Karl and Ophelia stock some incredible New Zealand wines that I’ve been sipping on mid-service. I’m still baking at Mor, so the days have been long - but it’s very rewarding, and I realise I’m lucky to have the opportunity to do fun things like this. More updates on the pop-up to come next week, but here’s the menu, if you’re curious!
Normally, it’s a 6-course set menu (meant to be shared between two people, so you get one of each dish between two), but I insisted on doing two desserts: a poached quince jelly/buttermilk panna cotta, and a sticky toffee coffee pudding. The sticky toffee coffee pudding has been going down pretty well - it’s almost properly winter here, so it feels like an appropriate dessert. I borrowed Plabita’s ice-cream machine to make several batches of coffee ice-cream, and then infused the cream for the toffee sauce with coffee - if you want the recipe for either of these, give me a shout as I haven’t got them written up yet, but they do complete this dish quite nicely.
The base of the sticky toffee pudding is a date loaf. It’s super easy to make, and keeps really well. I actually batch-made a bunch of loaves on my prep day and froze them, so I can take out however many I need for service each day. The whole dessert is very prep-heavy, which is my favourite way to cook. If you have an anxious disposition, I recommend that you focus on cooking things that you can prepare at least partially in advance - even for dinner parties and the likes. It really sets your mind at ease knowing that you only have a couple of things to do to get your dish on the table. For this particular dessert, the ice-cream is in the freezer (obviously), ready to be scooped, the date loaf is ready to be sliced and flashed in the oven to warm through, and the toffee sauce is standing by, ready to be heated and poured over the top. I’ve been doing a table-side toffee pour for the tables I really like, which is very kitsch but also kind of fun.
Hopefully I’ll get better pictures of the sticky toffee coffee pud in all its glory this week, but for now, enjoy the pics I took during the testing phase, which was fun for all (but especially my housemates).
recipe: date loaf
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