Papas Rellenas

Every new menu has one dish that becomes the one everyone talks about before they've even sat down, and on Selkie Cove, that's the Papas Rellenas.

If you haven't come across them before, they're crispy potato croquettes with a spiced beef centre, finished with a salsa that has just enough kick to wake everything up. We do a garlic mushroom version too, for anyone after something a little softer. Either way, they disappear fast — they're one of the first things to run out on a busy night, which in the kitchen we've decided is a good problem to have.

They came about because we wanted Selkie Cove to feel properly ours — not just another sharing plates menu, but one that mixes the flavours our chef genuinely loves cooking with the produce we can get our hands on down here. The croquette itself takes proper time: cooked potato, worked through with the spiced beef, formed by hand, then fried until the outside shatters and the inside stays soft. It's the kind of dish that looks simple on the plate and isn't simple at all behind the scenes.

They're built to share, like everything on the Selkie Cove menu — order five or six plates between two of you and let them land as they're ready. Papas Rellenas (PAP-ass reh-YAY-nass) alongside our miso caramel wings and a glass of something cold is about as good as a Wednesday evening gets, in my very biased opinion.

Selkie Cove runs Wednesday to Sunday. Book a table through the website, or just wander in and see what's fresh that day.

Kelly x