Dish of The Week #2 - Wood-Fired Courgettes @ Solera

Solera - 165 Maunganui Road, Mount Maunganui, 3116, NZ

 

- Wood-Fired Courgette -  

mint dressing, spicy whipped tofu, almonds, edamame

$24

 

Who would have thought a couple of courgettes could be the highlight of a meal? Not me as a rampant meat-eater! But these courgettes at Solera were sensational, perfect from a light grilling and with a clever mix of textures and flavours sitting on top. They went very quickly!

 

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Lantern - a great new Papamoa restaurant!

LANTERN

Cuisine: Southeast Asian 

Address: 20 Domain Rd, Papamoa 

Phone: 07-262 3113 

Website 

Drinks: Licensed 

Reservations: recommended 

 

I'm a bit out of touch with Papamoa restaurants which is why I missed the arrival of Lantern, the recent Southeast Asian restaurant and bar occupying a space that I believe once used to house the garden bar of the Papamoa Tavern. It is a lovely spot and surprisingly large.

 

Here it is, easy to miss from Domain Road but spacious inside with airy white wooden buildings and an outdoor-indoor space that also includes (unseen in the pic) a courtyard bar with leaners to the left and a hidden seated area with tables for two amongst the palms round to the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Service was young, friendly and informed and we had a light lunch. But first of all we had the restaurant's two signature cocktails, both tributes to legendary Asian bars. There are also another half-dozen bespoke cocktail offerings and a small but well-chosen and interesting winelist.

 

• JUNGLE BIRD (From the Aviary Bar in Malaysia)      dark rum, Campari, pineapple, lemon     $18
• SINGAPORE SLING (from the Raffles Hotel)               gin, cherry liqueur, Cointreau, DOM Benedictine, grenadine, pineapple, lime, bitters     $20

 

 

The menu is divided into "Garden", "Small Plates", "Curries" and "Large Plates" though the division seems a little arbitrary. I couldn't really work out what constituted "Garden" (which includes the likes of Crab Lettuce Cups / Avocado Summer Rolls / Prawn Papaya Salad / Soft Shell Crab Salad / Wok-tossed Mushrooms) but it hardly matters. Most things were priced between $20 and $35 and I notice the curries all leaned Thai with the menu also encompassing Chinese and Vietnamese flavours.

 

• Duck Pâté - Warm Banh Mi, Umeboshi jelly     $8
• Tiger Prawn Toast - Sriracha cheese sauce, sweet chilli, green rice flake, turmeric sourdough     $20
• Cured Kingfish - Coconut, apple, fish roe, coriander stalk, rice, nahn jim, crisps (GF* DF)     $21 
• Duck Fried Rice - 63 degree egg, confit duck leg, sate, smoked duck fat, corn, pickle (GF* DF)     $24
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the waiter's recommendation we actually had one pate each and initially they did looked completely unbalanced! The quenelle of pate and plum dots seemed tiny against the baguette. But the bread was light and hot and fluffy and the pate really intense so it turned out to be exactly the right amount. Top marks.

 

In fact everything was outstanding. The Prawn toast was a brilliant reinvention of the yum cha snack with thick fried turmeric bread topped with a sriracha cheese mixture oozing cheesy deliciousness, all covered with prawns and a great layer of crispy green rice flakes which replaced the more usual sesame seeds. It looked and tasting sensational - simply fantastic!

 

The kingfish was fresh and perfectly balanced, the crisp apple and coconut foam combining with the pop of tiny fish eggs, the flavours perfect together and cut just right to sit on the housemade rice crisps.

 

And the duck egg rice - the only "large plate" - was brilliant. Perfect duck and the tastiest rice you can imagine: that smoked duck fat elevates the rice to a different plane, especially with the unctuous egg yolk flowing into it. Yum.

 

So that's it. We were blown away. I can't wait to get back and try everything else - y'all in Papamoa are very lucky!

 

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Dish of The Week #1 - Tiger Prawn Toast @ Lantern

Lantern - 20 Domain Road, Papamoa 3118, NZ

 

 — Tiger Prawn Toast —

Sriracha cheese sauce, sweet chilli, green rice flake, turmeric sourdough

$20

 

Starting 2022 with dinner at Solera

SOLERA Wine Bar

Cuisine: Modern New Zealand, sharing

Address: 165 Maunganui Rd, Mount Maunganui

Phone: 07-572 0246

Website

Drinks: Extensive interesting wine list, cocktails

Reservations: Recommended

OK. It's been a while since I blogged. Time to saddle up again. The combination of Covid, lack of time and general impecunity has made it difficult to eat out much in the past few months. But my son Cohen is leaving for Australia (yes - I know - not my choice!) and a very generous friend took us to Solera the other night. I am indescribably grateful to her and it was a terrific meal, so I thought it was time to get that ol' mojo back - let me tell you about it...

Before we start though, you should like/follow the Debt To Pleasure Facebook page. That way when I stop posting these blogs to Facebook groups you'll still know about them. Here we go: A Debt To Pleasure Facebook Page

OK. There were four of us eating and this is what we had. 

Snacks

• Baked Oyster - mornay, ham, chive oil     6
• Aubergine & Tomatoes- avocado mousse, pinenuts, rice paper crisp     6
• Cured & Smoked Salmon- nori, ponzu gel, lime     8
• Beef Tartare - hand diced eye fillet, spicy miso, sourdough      8

 

Thoughts: The salmon was a small beautifully-formed piece of modern sushi-art. The pic doesn't do its loveliness justice and it tasted just as good. 

The aubergine dish was like a posh guacamole - it had pinenuts and other treats but essentially tasted of avo and tomato. Very refreshing.

The tartare was very different from the previous tartare here, with a softer texture. I guess you'd call it very fancy mince on toast. It tasted great but might disappoint those wanting more texture from their beef.

The oysters? The oysters were outstanding. The cheese sauce was brilliant, the oysterts just cooked and still fresh and salty, and the combo excellent. I could have eaten a LOT of them.

 

From there we moved to every small plate on the menu:

 

Small Plates

• Grilled Australian Prawns - paua roe, sambol mayonnaise     21
• Cured Snapper - nam jim, tomato, tapioca crisp     23
• Chargrilled Octopus- fermented lettuce, apple ssamjang, tomally     22
• Smoked Venison Tataki- kawakawa berries, caramelised garlic, yuzu, bonito     25
• Lamb Ribs- rendang, pumpkin seed dukkah, beetroot labnah     25
• BBQ Duck Leg- szechuan glaze, sultana puree, cucumber salad     28

 

Thoughts: once again everything was excellent. I had one single reservation which was about using tomato with cured snapper. Perhaps it's just me but I found the combo slightly disconcerting.

The lambs ribs - meaty, tender - and the duck were both pretty perfect, and the prawns very nice. 

We didn't initially order the octopus and I generally avoid eating these intelligent creatures (irrational though I know that is), but since Cohen is in hospo and was about to leave the country friends in the kitchen sent it over as an extra. And - despite my reservations - it was incredible, the most tender I have ever tried and with a rich crisp charred coating and complex accompanying flavours. Really good.

But it's that other dish that fascinates me. It is such a cool minimalist presentation and the last thing you'd regularly expect from a tataki, with the meat and accompaniments all hidden under a scattering of bonito. It looks like nothing but tastes so intricate and balanced and reminds me of some of the early food from Attica in Melbourne. It is simply sensational. And that minimalist look impresses me so much, here's another more close-up pic...

 

We also had one of the Vegetable Plates:

• Purple Kumara- hoisin, peanut, sesame, pickled shallots     28

It was pretty as a pictures and immediately devoured by the kumera-lovers at the table.

As you'll notice we ordered no Large Plates. We wanted as much variety as possible and those big plates do fill you up. 

We also drank quite a lot of wine from the very interesting winelist but if I start listing it all here this blog will go on forever. There is much I would recommend on the list and Nick keeps it updated with interesting and unusual Kiwi wines. 

All in all, as I've mentioned before, I can't recommend Solera highly enough for those happy to share food. I guess you could go there and not share but I'm sure it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. And you wouldn't get to try so many different exciting flavours...

The great 3-ingredient dessert - Lemon Posset!

Lemon Posset is one of my favourite desserts. Right up there with Lime Posset. I like it for two reasons beyond the obvious one, and the obvious one is, of course, because it tastes lip-smackingly delicious. Next is that it is absolutely dead simple to make: this is a classic three-ingredient, do-in-advance dessert.

But I also like it because it is English and the English tend to get grief about their cuisine. The French in particular - regarding themselves as Kings of the Dessert - rather pooh-pooh sweet English offerings, a tad mean since the English can claim everything from a raft of steamed puddings to the Crème Brûlée, which conceivably originated as the humbler-sounding Cambridge Burnt Cream. But even Britain's legendary Spotted Dick pales for me in comparison to the mighty Posset. Take that Monsieur Frenchie!

It is actually a dessert so simple that I wouldn't have though of sharing a recipe except my son asked me to show him how to make it. So we did. And now I pass it on to you. If you haven't ever made a posset, prepare to meet your new best friend for dessert! And the hardest thing in the recipe is boiling the cream. But that process - boiling the cream with sugar - breaks it down so that when you then add lemon juice and chill, it naturally sets to a wonderfully smooth sweet tangy dessert not too far in texture from pannacotta or crème brûlée.

WARNINGS: before we start, a couple of things. If you for any reason have a problem with cream or sugar, best to move on right now. That's two of the three ingredients. And one other warning - if you want to see a pic of the finished dessert, sorry, you won't find it here. Of all the things to forget... 

One more thing - the pics show a half-size of the recipe, three servings, because I happened to only have a small bottle of cream... 

Here's the regular 6-serving recipe:

Ingredients

• 600ml cream
• 160g caster sugar
• 10 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice

 Method 

• Heat cream and sugar together in a large saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. 

 

• Boil for 3 minutes 
• Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice
  

• Leave to cool for 5 minutes then pour into 6 glasses (or tea cups, or any vessels of your choosing). It's about 150ml each serving. I'm a sucker for cheap thrills so lean towards the martini glass.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Cover with gladwrap, allow to cool, then chill in fridge to set for 3 hours

And that's it. This is where the pic of the final product should go. But I forgot and we ate it. Bugger. Instead I took a pic after we finished...

 

We regularly have this just on it's own which is all it needs but I've also served it with macerated blueberries, madeleines, and other things. Imagination and good taste are your only limits - give it a crack!

 

ONE IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE: As I mentioned, the hardest thing here is actually boiling the cream. If you haven't previously had the pleasure of boiling milk or cream you will discover that when it starts to boil the cream will rise up the saucepan and immediately boil over. It's quite quick and dramatic (and messy). So you need to be pretty active for the three minutes of boiling. 

 

But it's not a problem. Firstly, use a much bigger pot than usual, like cooking pasta. Then, each time the cream starts rising to overflow, lift it off the heat and stir (I use a long wooden spoon) until it subsides again. You'll need to do this several times. It's only three minutes but keep an eye on it - things can get real messy real fast.

 

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                                                            All the best,