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Subrosa, 8756 Haast Highway, Okato (2026)

27/04/2025

CHYSANTHEMUMS 😍

How did these fabulous flowers ever go off trend 🤷🏻‍♀️

Mine are still in pots because I was a touch useless, but nevertheless they are still putting on a gorgeous show and I am a big fan.

Gorgeous wee plants from Plant 4 Life Nursery

24/04/2025

Not so much a recipe…just a little simple delish wee number that we served in Little Trench and I like the photo, so here we go.

sourdough toasted, topped with an olive oil based mayo heavy egg & chive salad. Flake on some hot smoked salmon (we cured & smoked our own, and you should too, it’s beautiful fresh sans packaging and weeks in a fridge) and if you are a bougie wee thing, a little salmon caviar doesn’t go amiss (from memory this was from )😎

My cure involves salt, brown sugar, dill seed, fennel seed & Aleppo chilli flakes 🥰 and smoking over the classic Mānuka.

Garnished with fresh dill and cress. Stunning.

You have your healthy fats, plenty of protein & carbs and you have just nailed that balanced meal 😉 that is sure to impress. Best enjoyed outside, in the sun, with some locally roasted coffee 🤎

09/04/2025

It’s nearly time…🌱

This is sweet pea Mahogany. I believe it is one of Dr Hammetts incredible creations. Luckily I have seed to sow for this beauty tucked away in the fridge ready for this season, along with about fifty other varieties 🤗🤓

Better get the climbing frames sorted down at my little flower patch 🤍

Any Taranaki tips for sweet peas appreciated. I am growing all my flowers outdoors as nature intended, so fire your insights my way xx

09/04/2025

My smoked white fish tartine with salsa verde was always a winner and so simple to make.

Mix some smoked white fish (we smoked our own) with creme fraiche (I used about a 3:1 ratio), chopped chives & chervil, chopped preserved lemon, tobasco, lemon zest, lots of black pepper and flakey salt.

We banged it up on top of some toasted sourdough (heavy on the olive oil) which had a generous smear of house salsa verde applied post toasting.

Garnished with whatever is going, one of my favourites was onion w**d & flowers 🤍 but chives or chervil will do the same thing.

It’s a pretty flexible wee scenario, so add in your favourite bits/flavours, omit the things you don’t like…and away you go. Some pickly bits and a poached egg will level this up to a special kind of brunch…best enjoyed with something sparkling 🥂😉

08/04/2025

Re-creating this pizza fritta currently.

One of my favourite ridiculously simple but addictive dishes that never made it to any of my menus but really should have. It’s little things like this that tug away at me and make me think there is one more little hospo space left in me…

But, for now, it’s recipe development/writing, treasure hunting & flower growing in my spare time 🤍 Some of which I’ll share here, some of which I will tuck away for safe keeping, just in case.

📸 My marinated mushrooms sitting atop a picant super garlicky aioli perched on a semolina dusted deep fried pizza dough. Finished with extra olive oil, chilli, fresh thyme and flakey sea salt ….not for the faint hearted…

08/04/2025

After ten days in the elements I finally decided to pick this little lonely guy, Howdy Do, to enjoy inside. Unfortunately no one else has decided to join him in his random re-blooming.

Such an impressive cut flower, I can’t wait to have more (fifty or so varieties) come spring/summer 🤓

The nerdy little seven year old flower loving & growing child in me is still alive and well 🤍

07/04/2025

APPLE & PRUNE LUMBER JACK CAKE

A beautiful recipe that I found somewhere many moons ago, in an obscure book from memory. I tweaked it a touch, as one does, but I have no idea where I found it, so credit goes to some clever soul out there for the original. Thank you friend.

This one is for 😘

2 cups water
3 cups pitted prunes
2 tbsp baking soda

250 g softened butter
2 ½ cups caster sugar
2 eggs (room temp always)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups plain flour
2 ½ c diced apple (can use fresh or tinned)

Topping
1 ½ cups soft brown sugar
125 g butter
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup thread coconut
175 ml milk

Preheat the oven to 150C and prepare your cake tin, I line the bottom and sprayed the sides (I used my bigger 10inch…25cm springform for this cake from memory) you want room left after the cake has baked for the topping to then be added.

Pop the water and prunes in a saucepan and simmer gently until very tender about eight minutes. Remove from the heat and add the baking soda.

While the prunes are simmering, cream the butter and sugar until nice and pale & fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla. Mix in the sifted dry ingredients, diced apple and then the prunes, water & baking soda from the saucepan.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake until a skewer comes out clean. This may take up to an hour depending on the size of the tin. I was generally pulling mine out at 50 minutes, when it was only just done, I did have a big commercial oven though. Warning* don’t pull her out too early or the topping will sink through the unbaked cake batter. I know this from experience….you can’t rush perfection.

To make the topping combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat until melted and combined. Spoon over the cake and then bake for a further 20-30 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.

Let cool. Slice and serve. Beautiful by itself but warmed with ice cream and butterscotch sauce is phenomenal 🐽

07/04/2025

WATER LILLY 💜 COCKTAIL RECIPE

I thought I may as well share one of my favourite cocktails, The Water Lilly, since we are sharing things. Pictured here with one of my other favourites The White Lady 🤍

It is super easy to make, classicly beautiful in its simplicity and I am yet to meet someone who doesn’t enjoy it.

It’s a gin based number with a beautiful violet hue…

Bang into a shaker over ice equal parts gin (I use ) Cointreau, Violet liqueur (I use Briottet creme de violette from ) & freshly squeezed lemon juice. 30mls of each is a good starting point for a small drink for uno person.

Shake. Strain. Enjoy. No need for fluff, just find your most elegant coupe or Nick & Nora glass to compliment this beauty.

03/04/2025

Since I won’t be venturing back into hospitality any time soon, I thought it was about time I shared the recipe for the best scones in the world.

CHEDDAR BUTTERMILK SCONES
(makes 8-9)

1 600ml carton buttermilk
500g grated tasty cheese (works best with pre-grated for some reason 🤷🏻‍♀️)
620g self raising flour
1 level tsp salt
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 200 fan bake **

Prepare baking tray with baking paper.

Mix buttermilk, cheese, salt & cayenne in a bowl well.

Sift in self raising flour and mix until just combined. I start with a big spoon then switch to my hands (gloved of course). Turn & flip the dough carefully & break it apart gently to expose the runny bits of buttermilk & try to mix the dry in as best you can without too much aggression. Too much mixing will over develop the gluten in the flour and make tough scones.

Shape into eight-nine balls (I make them slightly cylindrical to ensure a nice tall scone, but only slightly cylindrical , I am not talking skinny towering dough, just slightly taller than they are round…give them a wee squeeze) and bake for around 15 minutes on lined baking tray or until crispy and golden brown.

They may need to be rotated around halfway through baking or even switched about on the baking tray dependent on how even your oven is. I generally set a timer for about 8 minutes then assess the situation, have an old switch-a-roo if required and then set a timer for another 6-7 minutes, watching like a hawk.

They should have nice golden brown bums and not be too soft when you pick them up. You can almost feel the rawness when you pick them up if they are not cooked fully through, they have quite a bit of ‘give’ if underdone…you will get what I mean after a couple of batches…😉

**Do not put scones in the oven until this temperature is reached. It is vital to them puffing up and holding their shape. A cooler oven will result in the cheese melting before they puff up and creating flat dissapointing scones.

Serve hot with loads of 🧈

I’d love to know if you make a batch, how you go…snap a wee pic and share/tag it my way 🤗🥰

Subrosa

27/04/2025

24/04/2025

09/04/2025

09/04/2025

08/04/2025

08/04/2025

07/04/2025

07/04/2025

03/04/2025

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