Russell Up Supper Club

I’m terribly late writing about my first ever supper club experience. However, Russell Up's Bread and Butter Supper Club was such a memorable evening that it is worth writing it about several months later. 

Russel and Greg plating up desserts

Having heard about the concept of supper clubs for a while and being tempted myself to host one in the future, I was delighted to hear the announcement of Russell Up’s Supper Club back in January and indeed, I was the first person to book two spots for me and my partner - a wise move as places were limited and snatched up pretty quickly. My expectations were high, even more so after I had coincidentally met Russell on an evening meal out with the Edinburgh Total Food Geeks. Well, I was not disappointed, if anything the supper club exceeded all my expectations. The location was a flat in Granton on the 8^th floor with a stunning view over the harbour, sea and city, which set the scene perfectly for the dinner.  On arrival, we were greeted by Russell, his friend and chef Greg, and 16 other diners. Everything including the menu card was set with great attention to detail and lots of care. 

To start, there was sourdough bread and goat butter on the table. Despite the theme of the evening, I tried to resist the temptation of filling myself up with this admittedly very special bread and butter, but guessing (correctly) that there was a lot of excellent food to come.

Roast celeriac purée, roasted hazelnuts, 
alexander leaves

And I didn't have to wait long for the first starter: Roast celeriac purée, roasted hazelnuts and alexander leaves; a great light start that boosted my appetite and my enthusiasm for the following courses even more. Possibly my favourite course of the evening was the second starter: Terrine of pigs head, served with apple, watercress and a vanilla-balsamic dressing. It was amazing how beautiful and appetizing a pig’s head looked on the plate!

Terrine of pigs head, apple, watercress, vanilla-balsamic dressing

Next, the fish course consisted of grilled mackerel with black quinoa, pennywort and sea beets; lots of exciting new ingredients for me to try ans that complemented the fish very well. 

Grilled mackerel, black quinoa, pennywort, sea beets

 The star of the evening must have been the succulent beef rib and cheek that were served with onions, purple carrot, wild leeks and a delicious sauce. I was so tempted by it that I started eating before taking a picture, hence the missing bit of the carrot and slightly destroyed presentation - sorry!

Beef rib and cheek, onions, purple carrot, wild leeks

Both desserts that followed were purely indulgent but also very exciting. First, a baked duck egg custard with mandarin mousse and butternut squash jelly was served in a black stone ramequin and had left everyone at the table amazed including my partner whose favourite dish it was (that was before we found out he had a duck egg allergy!). The second dessert of banana cake with chocolate, salted caramel and coffee ice cream didn't disappoint either and was just as delicious!

Baked duck egg custard, mandarin mousse, butternut squash jelly

Banana cake, chocolate, salted caramel, coffee ice cream

By the time we were served the much-needed coffee accompanied with chili-flavoured truffles, we had missed our last bus, but the prospect of taking a taxi back home after this extraordinary fine dining experience was much more adequate anyway!


And my conclusion from my supper club experience to date: It’s a great way to meet like-minded people in a relaxed atmosphere, an unusual dining experience, and most importantly an opportunity to eat delicious food prepared with care and respect!  
If Russel hosts a supper club again, which I very much hope he plans to do in the future, I will make sure I get my name on top of the list again! 

A Bavarian snack in the Guardian

Following  the publication of my crumble in the Guardian, I was delighted to hear that another recipe of mine was selected by Guardian's Felicity Cloake & Co for the Reader's recipe swap section of the COOK magazin. The theme was DIP and I suggested Obatzda. This cheesy dip is a traditional Bavarian recipe served with pretzels and radishes in beer gardens, and at the Oktoberfest of course. It is made out of squashed camembert – hence the name obatzda, which means something like "squashed" or "crushed" in colloquial Bavarian. 

Serves 6

• 250g ripe camembert, at room temperature
• 50g unsalted butter, softened
• 80g quark or fromage frais
• 2-3 tbsp wheat beer or lager
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped chives, plus extra to decorate
• ½ tsp caraway seeds
• 1 tsp sweet paprika or to taste

Squash the camembert with a fork, then beat it into the butter and quark until well combined. Mix in the beer until you have a creamy, smooth paste. Add the onions, chives and caraway seeds and season with lots of paprika, salt and pepper to taste. Chill for one hour and decorate with a few sprigs of chives. 
I think it tastes best on rustic sourdough bread and with raw vegetable sticks dipped into it. Give it a go!

Kicking off Lent with a Parsnip Tarte Tatin

With Carnival and Pancake Day over, some might remember (or would rather forget) the period of Lent that follows all the fun and food indulgence. I see Lent as a suitable period to remind ourselves of the rich and abundant life that we live and to try and give up one or two indulgent habits. As such, I am planning to cook more Vegetarian food until Easter and hopefully carry on afterwards! Though my partner and I love and eat  a lot of vegetables, we don't count ourselves as big fans of veggie food. In fact, we'd almost always go for a nice piece of animal (British!) protein on our plate if we had the choice. Missing out on it for a few days every week for a longer period seemed like a good effort to make, at least in our view.

So, to get Lent on to a good start, I tried to change our perception of vegetarian food with a simple parsnip tarte tatin. It really was delicious and we only marginally missed our beloved meat!

Parsnip Tarte Tatin

For 1 medium-sized tarte

• 3-4 large parsnips
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
•  2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp finely chopped fresh chili
• 2 tso finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 tsp fresh thyme
• 1tsp of brown sugar
• 2 tsp of clear honey
• Salt, pepper and nutmeg
• 50g grated cheddar
• 4 sheets of filo pastry

Preheat the oven at 200°C. Peel the parsnips and the onion. Finely slice the onion and cut the parsnips into 1cm slices. Parboil the parsnips and onions in salted water for no more than 5 minutes. In the meantime, mix together 1 tbsp olive oil with the garlic, ginger, chili, thyme, sugar, honey and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Spread the mix into the base of a pie or flan dish and place into the oven for 5 minutes. Once the oil is hot and the sugar and honey have melted, arrange the drained vegetables into the dish, season well with salt, pepper and nutmeg and scatter the grated cheddar on top. Cover with one sheet of filo pastry making sure the edges of the pastry are tucked well down the sides of the dish. Brush the pastry with olive oil and repeat this step with the remaining 3 sheets of pastry. Bake the tart for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and crisp. I would suggest to serve it hot with a green salad or steamed green vegetables; or actually a nice piece of succulent meat would also got quite well I imagine, if the intention was not to create a vegetarian meal!

Petits Choux au Citron

Having terribly failed at making éclairs once for my mum's birthday several years ago, I felt it was at the time to give choux pastry a go again. In preparation for a Gâteau St Honoré that I had planned to bake for the event "East meets West" back in January organised by the Edinburgh Cake Ladies, I decided to make a few choux buns filled with the traditional cream "crème chiboust" but flavoured with lemon instead of vanilla. Sadly, a nasty virus prevented me from baking the final gâteau and going to what looks like was a great event. But I'd like to share the following recipe for a few choux buns as they are not as difficult to make as I thought and very pretty and light. I turned to my trusted book, the "Larousse Gastronomique", for the recipe and was very pleased with the result.

The following ingredients will make about 15 choux of the size of a golf ball - if well-risen, that is :-)

Ingredients for the choux paste: 

• 80ml water
• 13g butter
• 1/2 tsp caster sugar
• small pinch of salt
• 30g flour
• 1 medium egg (I found that large eggs make the paste too liquid)

Heat the water, butter, sugar and salt until the butter has melted. Add the flour in one go, remove the pan from the heat and stir with a wooden spoon. Add the whisked egg and beat the mixture very hard. You really have to work on this one. Fill the paste into a piping bag or, as I did, use a sandwich bag with the corner cut off and pipe walnut-sized balls on a baking tray lined with greased baking paper. Bake in a hot oven at 200 °C for 20-25 minutes until nicely puffed up and golden. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Crème Chiboust: 

•          125ml full-fat milk
•          1 lemon, zested
•          1 egg, separated
•          30g caster sugar
•          3g powdered gelatine
•          15g cornflour
•          small pinch of salt

Soften the gelatine by adding 1 tsp of water to the powder. Heat the milk with the finely grated lemon zest. Using an electric mixer, whisk together the egg yolk and sugar until fluffy. Stir in the cornflour. Add the warm milk slowly while mixing and return the mixture to pan. Bring to the boil and whisk in the softened gelatine. Cook over low heat while constantly mixing with a hand-whisk until the cream starts to thicken. Take off the heat and chill for at least two hours.

Assembly

When set, fill the cream into a piping bag. Pierce small holes into the bottom of each choux bun using a chopstick. Insert the nozzle of the piping bag into the hole and fill the bun with cream. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy!

Small choux filled with lemon crème chiboust

My pumkin and apple crumble recipe in the Guardian

The Guardian's new food magazine - issue 3

Recently I heard about a "Readers' recipe swap" in the Guardian's new magazine about food and drink called "Cook". Every week, food writer Felicity Cloake chooses a theme and invites recipe suggestions. The best tried-and-tested recipes will appear in the following Cook issue. I think it's a great idea! When I heard about it, the current theme was crumble. Vaguely remembering a sweet, spicy, warming and comforting crumble that I cooked a year ago on a cold winter day, I decided to send it to the Guardian. And two weeks later, I was told it would be published as the winning dish! I was very very pleased. You can see the article and a photograph of the dish taken by the Guardian's photographer here.

The recipe is a sweet pumpkin and apple crumble. I added some apples for extra freshness and replaced half the butter with rapeseed oil, which gives it a nice nutty taste and adds some omega-3 fatty acids. The Guardian called it an innovative take on pumpkin pie and wrote further: "The combination of sweetly spiced squash, tart apple and a nutty, treacly topping is inspired"! 

Here is the recipe to serve 6:

•    400g pumpkin
•     2 star anise
•    2 British apples, such as Cox
•   10 Medjool dates
•   50ml British runny flower honey
•   30g walnut pieces
•   75g  plain white flour
•    75g fine oatmeal
•   50g unsalted butter
•    50g rapeseed oil
•   100g dark muscovado sugar
•   1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C. Peel and cut the pumpkin into small chunks and place into a buttered ovenproof dish. Break the star anise into little pieces and mix with the pumpkin. Drizzle with 25ml of the honey and bake for 10 minutes. 
2.  Meanwhile, peel the apples and cut them into cubes. Remove the stones from the dates and cut them into thin slices. When the pumpkin has softened a bit, add the apples, dates, remaining honey and walnuts to the dish and toss well.
3.  Prepare the crumble: In a food processor or with your fingertips, combine the flour, oatmeal, butter, oil, sugar and cinnamon to crumbs and sprinkle on top of the pumpkin / apple mix. Bake for 30-35 minutes until bubbly and golden brown. I would serve it with home-made custard or simply a dollop of crème fraîche.