Sticky Toffee Pudding by Jenn McKinlay

 Jenn McKinlay: Originally, I was going to write a lovely post about my recent trip to Ireland full of sheep and green hills, rainbows and ancient buildings. But no. I was lucky enough to have a foodie in my crew and the eating was SPECTACULAR on this trip, which is not what one normally thinks of when thinking of the Emerald Isle. Guinness, sure, but food? Not so much.

Y'all, we need to do a rethink. I had some of the best food whilst tripping along the Wild Atlantic Way and I just want to share a few highlights with you. In no particular order, here are my three favorites and it was hard to choose, let me tell you!

All right, who here has watched Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix? My SIL showed the Dublin episode (my first) the night before Mom and I headed out to Ireland and, let me just say, Phil nailed it. His is a food and travel show that is full of heart and warmth and gentle humor. I've become a fan and have mentioned the show to everyone I know who loves food or travel or both. You may know Phil Rosenthal as the writer for Everybody Loves Raymond. 

On the Dublin episode, Phil stops by a place called Gallagher's Boxty House in Temple Bar (if you click the link to their website, there's a visit from Paul Hollywood that's delightful). Our first night in Dublin and we headed out to eat and just stumbled upon it. Felt like fate, so we ate there and it was amazing. Their specialty is the potato pancake (the boxty) reimagined and I have to say it was delicious! My favorite was the boxty chips (french fries made out of boxties with an arugula garlic mayo - OMG!) as an appetizer and then the Gaelic Boxty, finely sliced, perfectly seasoned beef on a boxty. Fabulous. The showstopper for me was their sticky toffee pudding - I still think about it. My friend Annette and I are on a quest to find the recipe. 

Next up was a castle dinner family style at Bunratty Castle. It was glorious! The only utensil they gave you was a knife. You were to eat with your hands! I expected the food to be dashed out as it seemed the draw would be the actors in medieval dress who put on a delightful show (which has been running since 1963). Yeah, no. The food was terrific. My fave being the fresh soda bread and the spare ribs.

And then it was on to Dingle where we happened to luck out and get a table at one of the most popular restaurants in town - The Fish Box.

Family owned and operated, brother Patrick catches the fish on the family trawler and Mom and Dad, Deirdre and Michael, cook it. It was by far the best fish and chips I've ever had. Deirdre is a chef and her batter recipe is a secret - an amazing one, clearly.

So, those are my top three but there were so many more delicious stops along the way - Milano in Temple Bar had amazing dough balls, Gatto Rosso in Galway had incredible spaghetti carbonara and a tiramisu to die for, and for real down home pub grub and trad music, I loved The Celt Pub in Dublin with their Guinness beef stew, ham toastie and mash, bangers and mash, and Granny's bacon and cabbage. Yes, we went hardcore Irish for our last night and it was glorious!

And the really wonderful thing was that the food was not outrageously expensive. Meals were cheaper in Ireland than in the States by far. So, if you're thinking of hitting the Emerald Isle, bring your appetite!

Reds and Readers, what food stops have surprised you in your travels - good, bad, other? Share!

Eating Scotland and Sticky Toffee Date Pudding @LucyBurdette #recipe

"And still the warm round peach pie and the cool yellow cream we ate together that August night live in our hearts' palates, succulent, secret, delicious." M.F.K. Fisher, The Gastronomical Me


LUCY BURDETTE: For me, one of the best parts of traveling is sampling the local food, which becomes a taste memory. Smoked pimento takes me to southern France, tempura to a restaurant in Kyoto, salted caramel to Australia, pimento cheese and vinegar barbecue to North Carolina.

Today I'll take you on a whirlwind tour of some of the taste sensations-soon to be taste memories-from our recent trip, and end with a recipe for sticky toffee date pudding, which frequently found a place on our group's table. (Fortunately, the tour involved a lot of walking so we managed to work off some of the extra calories.)

We started in Dublin with a traditional Irish breakfast. I'm going to dream about this for years to come...

These were the specialty cocktails at Mulberry Garden in Dublin. The one with the flower was a passion fruit rum punch, and the green was simply spectacular--including cucumber liqueur, Hendrick's gin, and black pepper:

This we ate in the village of Moffat in Scotland, it's called coronation chicken (curry) served here on a baked potato:

A common dish was fish and chips, served with mushy peas:

Many, many scones were eaten; one particular stand-out was a banana-date version but the cheese were wonderful too...often paired with a creamy vegetable soup:

In the van hurtling between destinations, we were introduced to a Scottish candy called "tablet" which is basically butter, cream and sugar. We ate it until we were sick:

And I became obsessed with the cheese plates offered as a dessert alternative (ditto, ate until sick...):

This was the closest I personally got to haggis--it's a statue at Robert Burns' birthplace and it's called "haggis." We dubbed the photo "three men and a haggis."

And here are two traditional Scottish desserts, the taller one is called Cranachan (whipped cream, honey, toasted oats, and whiskey), and the other was the group favorite--sticky toffee date pudding:

Are you feeling a little peckish? Here's my pared-down, elegant and luscious version of the sticky toffee date pudding. Don't skip the caramel sauce!

Ingredients

3/4 cups pitted, quartered dates
3/4 cups water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

 
For Sticky Toffee Sauce:
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, place the dates, water and vanilla and bring to a boil. Simmer until soft (might take 5 minutes.) Remove from the heat, add the baking soda, mix well. Let the mixture cool. Meanwhile... 
Cream butter with sugars. Beat in the eggs. Add the dry ingredients, and finally the cooled date mixture. (Do not worry about leaving little chunks of dates--they will provide some nice texture.) Pour the batter into a well-buttered cake pan. (I also added a layer of parchment paper and buttered that for good measure.) Bake at 350 about 40-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn the cake out onto a platter. 

For the sauce, mix brown sugar, cream, butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer until thick, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and add a splash of vanilla. 






Poke holes in the cake and pour the sauce overall. 










Serve warm if possible, with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Do you have a food memory from a trip you've loved? 

And just for fun, look at this photo I found buried in my files...circa 1969, Lucy performing with fellow Highlander dancers from Governor Livingston Regional High School:

I guess the Scottish Highland is in my blood...

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING

DEBORAH CROMBIE: The first time I had Sticky Toffee Pudding was in London, at the Oriel Brasserie in Sloane Square. A very English desert for such a French restaurant, but oh, my, I was hooked. They served it warm (as it should be) with a swirl of toffee sauce and a dollop of creme fraiche (and I still think the slight tanginess of the creme fraiche makes the perfect foil for the sweet, steamed cake.)

Alas, the Oriel took the Sticky Toffee off the menu, and now the Oriel itself is gone, a victim of redevelopment. I've had many Sticky Toffees since, but am still looking for one to compare.

Nor have I made it, as the recipes always seemed a bit overwhelming, but here is one that I'm definitely going to try, from the gloriously English Nigella Lawson. Apologies for the metric measurements, but if you go to the recipe on Nigella's web page, there's a handy conversion table. (Oh, and muscovado sugar is dark, raw sugar, so a good US equivalent would probably be Succanat.)

Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 
• 

FOR THE CAKE:

• 100g dark muscovado sugar
• 175g self-raising flour
• 125ml full-fat milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 50g unsalted butter, melted
• 200g chopped, rolled dates

FOR THE SAUCE:

• 200g dark muscovado sugar
• Approx. 25g unsalted butter in little blobs
• 500ml boiling water

Method

Serves: 6-8.

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5 and butter a 11/2-litre capacity pudding dish.
2. Combine the 100g dark muscovado sugar with the flour in a large bowl. Pour the milk into a measuring jug, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter and then pour this mixture over the sugar and flour, stirring - just with a wooden spoon - to combine. Fold in the dates then scrape into the prepared pudding dish. Don't worry if it doesn't look very full: it will do by the time it cooks.
3. Sprinkle over the 200g dark muscovado sugar and dot with the butter. Pour over the boiling water (yes really!) and transfer to the oven. Set the timer for 45 minutes, though you might find the pudding needs 5 or 10 minutes more. The top of the pudding should be springy and spongy when it's cooked; underneath, the butter, dark muscovado sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce. Serve with vanilla ice cream, creme fraiche, double or single cream as you wish.