Highly Enthused is a newsletter, once a podcast, concerning all the best things to consume in life. It’s written twice per month by Sophie McComas-Williams and Sophie Roberts, and today’s dispatch is written by SoRo! The majority of each newsletter is free, but there are five extra recs in each for paid subscribers. That’s often where the gold nuggets lie. Thanks for being here!
We survived the torrential, biblical rain! We sat on the couch and binge watched our new fave show. We roasted the worlds best chicken, rediscovered the fun of card games and got the best haircut we’ve had in years. We ate our weight in strawberries and turned the rest into icecream. We’re planning our spring wardrobes and a girls weekend in Byron. A pretty good August!
I realised when looking through the last few editions of the newsletter that I’m as obsessed with sharing chicken recipes now as I was with chickpea recipes a few years ago. I told myself I should try to do something different this month, but Ixta Belgrade’s Roast Chicken Curry with Curry Leaves was so insanely, lip smacking, text-your-friends-and-tell-them-to-make-it good that I it felt rude to deny it from you.
The hardest part of this recipe is spatchcocking the chicken. Once you’ve conquered your fear and handled the job with your sharpest kitchen shears, then you slather the skin in the marinade (a mix of mayo, olive oil, curry powder and cayenne) and throw everything for the sauce into the blender to blitz. Sauce goes into the baking dish, chicken goes on top and the whole thing goes into the oven for 40 minutes. If you feel like being fancy you can crisp up curry leaves with sliced chilli to artfully drizzle on top - but it’s delicious with or without that last step.
The sauce that this makes is fucked up good. So good the chicken itself is almost incidental - you could definitely fiddle with the timing and do a whole head of cauliflower, or white fish fillets or even my beloved chickpeas or tofu. You will definitely be bookmarking it and making it again.
I was never a fan of Downtown Abbey, so The Gilded Age (Paramount, Prime or YouTube) - by the same writer/showrunner - passed me by when it came out in 2022. A shame because it means I’ve gone three years without enjoying its perfectly pitched, high budget, high production value, deliciously soapy trash! Railroad tycoons! Robber barons! Opera box wars! Nouveau riche social climbers! Bitchy old money widowed aunts! Debutante balls! Very low stakes yet very high drama! Oscar Wilde shows up? Don’t think just watch!
When my family was down in Hobart, there was a moment on our first night where I looked up and we were all staring at our phones (myself included) and I got annoyed that we weren’t making the most of the time together. I guilted everyone into playing a game of Monopoly Deal, but before long we moved onto “President and Asshole” and got so competitive about it we played it off and on for the rest of the weekend. The goal is to get rid of all your cards first by putting down cards of higher value than the previous player. Like most games, it’s a little annoying to learn to start with, but once you get the hang of it you don’t want to stop playing - because the result of the previous hand impact the rules of the following ones. If you win - next round you’re the President! (Or the king, emperor, goddess etc etc). If you lose you’re the asshole. Once the cards are dealt the asshole has to give the president their two highest cards, and the president gives them whatever two cards they feel like. It can feel like you’re stuck on asshole forever, but if you manage to make the climb out and up to President it feels so good. God it’s so basic but it’s so FUN. Card games!
A quick-fire rundown of the miscellaneous finds we’ve loved this month. In this edition: A nourishing broth to warm you up, my newest tin fish fave, a silly little tube top, perfect salad bowl and the best spontaneous decision!