The menu for the Autumn Pop-Up will completely change every month, reflecting both the changing seasons and the range of dishes I have to showcase.
Here is a sneak peek of a couple of recipes from the menu for September.
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Salt caramel brownies with banana ice cream
My brownie recipe is barely changed since I first made it aged 14 or 15 from a Gary Rhodes cookbook in my parents kitchen. The book has disappeared but the recipe was long since committed to memory. The only changes I made were to swap flour for almond meal (about 10 years ago) and adding a salt caramel cheesecake swirl (circa 2011).
The ice cream pairing was inspired by G&D’s on Little Clarendon St who put chunks of brownie in their banana ice cream – I don’t think there’s any flavour that goes better with the rich dark chocolate and the sticky-sweet caramel.
Baba ganoush blinis with roasted red peppers
Baba ganoush was one of my first posts when I started Smoke and Thyme as a food blog back in 2013. You can read it here.
“It’s the smoky flavour, caused by blackening the skin of the aubergine, that for me is the enchantment of this dish. The alchemy of combining the tastes of grassy aubergine, smoke, nutty tahini and the acid of the lemon juice creates an elixir that in France is called, without exaggeration, “caviar d’aubergene”.”
I still love the dish and love the photos I managed to get of it (beginners luck with my brand new camera). Much like the brownies, this dish has barely changed since its inception and has earned its place on many of my menus over the last five years.
Fried chicken with potato salad and sweetcorn salsa
But for every dish that comes easy, there’s one you have to work really hard for. This fried chicken has been through a dozen iterations – with and without buttermilk; flour, polenta and gram flour crust; spicy/not spicy; 3 different pre-marinades (as well as the option of none at all). My fried chicken recipe will probably never be set in stone, not so long as I have new ideas to test out, but its the best I’ve ever had (at least until the next batch).
Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks about dishes on my September menu among many other things.
Don’t forget to book early to try these delicious dishes yourself!
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