Our First Supperclub
Last night we hosted our first ever supper club at the Vegetarian Cookery School. Helen Lawrence and Jo Ingleby, both former head chefs of Demuths Restaurant and current tutors at the cookery school, where there with their chef's aprons on to serve up a scrumptious seasonal taster menu. But more importantly, we had a fantastic turnout - it was the guests who made this a fun, convivial evening of great food and superb conversation. So thanks, everyone, for making our first supper club a success.
We were deliberately vague on the menu - largely because we didn't know what we'd be cooking until our trip to Castle Farm on Wednesday morning! There we picked up armfuls of fresh herbs, edible flowers, courgettes, raspberries, blackcurrants, fresh peas, broad beans - we went a little crazy. So we took it all and turned it into this menu:
- Salmorejo with handmade picos (recipe here)
- Salad of fresh peas, broad beans and purple potatoes with Homewood Park Ewes Cheese
- Chili and almond mojo rojo
- Lebanese flatbreads with sumac, courgettes and Homewood Park pickled ewes cheese
- Slow roasted baby aubergines with tomatoes and peppers
- Saffron pilaf with caramelised onions
- Wild herb and edible flower salad with blackcurrant vinegar dressing
- Strawberry and rosewater granita
- Summer berry tartlets with our own cassis coulis
Given all the empty plates, with think everyone enjoyed their meal. If you were there, what were your favourite dishes? If you weren't there, what do you think would have been your favourite dish? Let us know - we're very happy to share recipes and, who knows, we might run a blog series (or dare we say a book?) of your favourite supper club recipes.
We had such a fantastic time last night that we're already thinking about our next supper club - we're thinking definitely one in November, to take advantage of our great view of the Bath fireworks. But who knows if we can wait that long... watch this space for updates.
In the meantime, here are some pics from yesterday. Thanks again to everyone who came, including Tweeters SandySom, scrapiana, EmmmaB, RealGandy, jazzcleo and KingMonkeymedia. It was a joy to have you for supper at the cookery school and hope to see you again soon at the next one.