Saturday 19th Supperclub

What a night!!

This was one of my favourite supperclubs to date! 14 people coming down, there was a thick blanket of snow outside, and a good chance that TFL would grind to a halt leaving me with nothing else to do but eat food and cry a little. 

But no! everything went pretty much according to plan, I even managed to nip down to the Growing Communities people in Stoke Newington and collect my leaves, greens and crown prince pumpkins. Slightly precarious I admit was the cycling down the hill by our flat with a rucksack full of food and three newly purchased fold up chairs around one arm, scary but time was very much of the essence! The guys in the shop were laughing at me, but also help attach the chairs to my bag so at least if one went, we all went!

Friends old and new came along, some i'd known since I was 4years old but hadn't seen in nearly ten years, the power of social media!! 

This is the menu that we ended up doing:

Oysters

Mignonette & Rockafella

Clapton Sourdough, Kamut Sourdough, Malthouse Rolls

Browned Butter

Salamagundi

A many component salad from the 17^th Century

Jerk Prawns, Caribbean Mojo

Venison, Marinated Beetroot, Roasted Onion Puree, Radish, Herbs

XO Pork Belly, Crown Prince Pumpkin Puree, Chard, Spring Greens

Fennel & Lemon Thyme Granita & Roasted Cumin Palette Cleanser

Chocolate Delice, Frozen Spiced Junket, Passionfruit Curd, Sesame Wafer

Homemade Fortune Cookie

Pistachio & Burnt White Chocolate Macaroon

Dark Chocolate & Lime Leaf Truffles

Oysters!! We keep them cool in a pile of snow

Rockafella is basically wilted spinach with garlic, shallots and butter, topped with parmesan, breadcrumbs and chervil. 

Mignonette is traditionally with champagne vinegar but I used balsamic to really boost it up and make  it sweet and sour with much more moody depth, plus shallots of texture and sweetness and again some chervil

It was quite amusing. I arrived home late on the Friday evening (1:30am) and decided that one type of sourdough wasn't enough, so split my mudda into three and feed them heavily with their respective flours, wholemeal and spelt for the Clapton sourdough, Kamut (an old Egyption grain, very creamy) and then a malthouse mix with whole grains. Shame no pictures, only this one from a few days before!!

fun salad!!

more fun salads!

I really like this salad, its got whatever I can find in it. I made a red pepper puree & a basil puree which I smeared across the plate, then some of those lovely Growing Communities leaves, fresh herbs, thinly sliced beetroots, radish, some pineapple, pomegranate, celery, apple, pear, carrot, sugar snap peas, samphire and others i'm sure but just cant remember! It was inspired by Michel Bras' Gargouillou, Ben Spaldings 35-55 piece salad, and a 17th Century British salad called Salamagundi which includes the addition of nuts, meat and fish.

Jerk marinade

Jerkin up the prawns

I love jerk anything: pork, prawns, lobster, chicken, anything. Today I went with some lovely looking prawns and spiced them up woth my secret jerk recipe

XO pork belly about to enter the oven!!

This contains dried prawns, dried scallops, soy, chilli, ginger and is a Hong Kong sauce that is extremely potent, rich and downright tasty. Highly recommend making some!

Venison, nice n pink, marinated beets a hit!

Roasted onion puree for this was delicious, marinated beets (with soy, honey, sesame oil) a winner with guests and the venison was deep, meaty, cooked to the rarer side of medium rare and throughly enjoyable, though I only managed to taste a very small amount!!!

homemade fortune cookies with handwritten fortunes, very amusing!!!

Finished off with some of my favourite petit fours: macaroons, truffles and fortune cookies. Had the idea that next time I will put my favourite Dylan lyrics in them, this time I went for quotes off the internet, which were still pretty cool and a lot quicker to compose too!! I tried to use peoples favourite quotes off facebook, but the only favourite quote I could find from a guest was very inappropriate!!

Many thanks to all who came, it was a real pleasure!

The next event is a Vegetarian Supperclub which is already fully booked, but after that we are planning a Sea & Air Feast for Friday 15th and Saturday 16th February, so if you fancy either of these dates, please RSVP, get in touch and let me know. The idea is to continue the stylings of the most recent menu but to only use meats and fish from the sea and air, an idea suggested by a close friend!

Also, on Sunday 3rd February, we're holding a brunch pop up at Cakey Muto on Chatsworth Road in Clapton. There's also the growing Chatsworth Road market  happening so definitely worth a trip down!

This a taster menu:

BRAP- bacon, rocket, avocado, spiced pineapple chutney

Braised beans smoked ricotta, pork belly and chorizo on Clapton sourdough;

Ricotta hotcakes with passion fruit curd or poached pear or roasted fruits or spiced butterscotch and banana;

.....this menu constantly changes so anticipate surprises..


Awesome, hope to see you all soon,

Warmest regards as ever

ix