Sneaky Chorizo

This week we put on a few hits including our signature "Fish and Chips" which we were told we totally undersell by calling it that. The tuna sashimi together with my homemade crunchy chips always pleases our guests and their reaction to it is always lovely to hear! Uyen's carrot and coriander salad with it's super refreshing dressing, always makes my taste buds tingle with delight : )

I had a bit of fun doing the test runs for one of the the seared trout with ginger and lemongrass broth, will post recipe later this week. Who would have thought this:

Turns into this!!!!

This weeks menu:
Turkish Garlic Bread w/ Beetroot Dip
Sashimi Tuna & Chips
Spicy Chicken, Carrot, Mooli & Corriander Salad W Prawn Crackers
Miso Aubergine
Rainbow Trout w/ Lemongrass, Lime & Ginger Broth
& GlassNoodles, Pak Choi & Beansprouts
Sweet Potato w/ Chorizo Red Wine Jous & Rocket
Lime & Chillie Chocolate Topped Mousse

I love our guest's reaction to the Egyptian Beetroot dip, it's sooo bright purple, looks like it should be used to colour in crazy cartoons! "I don't really like beetroot but the dip is fantastic!" Yup, especially when combined with some fresh garlic turkish bread, golden with butter from the oven, soft on the inside and crunchy on the out, fantastic combo! (So I'm told that is...) 

Dip me, dip me!

Love to load a bit of refreshing salad onto one of these babies, taste explosion loveiness!

Sometimes we have a little battle about my menu designs, and Uyen insists on dropping something, and sometimes rightly so (pretty rare tho!), this weeks menu was all over the place in terms of geography, South East Asia, Africa, Mediterranean, and America- key limes - India would have been there too but the spicy coconut mushrooms got culled. I'm glad I insisted on keeping the chorizo, soft and juicy spicy sausage cooked in red wine and served with roast sweet potatoes and rocket, drizzled with the red wine jous, cracking! Our guests liked it too, which is always nice specially if we've not put it on the menu before, there's always a bit of trepidation, only one leaf of rocket came back : ) taking that as a good sign! 

Must add a little note, I picked up the chorizo from a great little place just off the Holloway Road, I cannot emphasize enough how good it is. It's a cafe deli combo and they take a great deal of care in sourcing their ingredients as you can tell when you bite into anything they serve you. It's called Le Peche Mignon and I totally recommend it: great coffee, great food and very friendly folk!

Lime and Chilli Chocolate Topped Mousse

Where's mine? Do I get some? Do I? Do I?

This weeks guests were lovely - we've been very lucky in this respect - including Cass Titcombe, Chef/Owner of  Canteen and also has a funky book out called 'Canteen, Great British Food'.

Doing more test runs this week recipe posts to come! Sx

Immy At 33

Last December, Immy booked in to eat at our supper club – and she loved it so much, she asked us to cook for her birthday in May. Since then, she had been back to eat and  we have met a few other times over dinner and bottles of cabernet to discuss plans, menus, schedules, timings etc as well as many heart to hearts as it turned out. We always had a great time with Immy – she is one great lady.

Immy is always full of smiles and giggly banter – perhaps if we had a lot of clients, we would say that she is the ideal client, but we don’t – and she is a great client to start with! A strong and determined character, Immy planned everything from scratch – from where the location was to every detail on the table setting. This event, themed 40s Vintage, was going to be full of love, full of Immy and we were really lucky to have been asked to collaborate on such an event at such an amazing place in Central London, so famous for its parties.

What tied our small worlds together is that Immy works for an advertising agency who did the After Eight Campaign with Jim Haynes – our supper club hero has been hosting Sunday dinners for over 30 years. (Check our event with him here). It was a great coincidence that our worlds collided. Some would say that there is a reason for that… Immy played a very influential role in this as she has tried out a lot of supper clubs and loves new, emerging and underground things.

This is the first time that Simon and I entered a professional kitchen and hell – we loved it! We have cooked everything in seven or eight months in my tiny bachelor’s kitchen – here, we had double huge sinks, large steel surfaces, 2 ovens, 12 hobs, a real fryer and space! We could get on with our prep without being in each other’s way and bidding over one work surface. It was fantastic! We loved it!

We prepped for one full day before, shopping, and pre prepping. We got all our equipment together in a taxi and headed over, prepping non-stop til we executed everything one hour prior to service. We were so on time because we had so much space to work in and not having to wait for one person to finish. We forgot our chopping boards but apart from that – everything went to plan.

(Humming Bird Cupcakes)

(Beef Wellington Preparation)

The main room was immaculately set out by Immy and her friends Olivia & John who arrived amidst the set up chaos and were thrown in to help last minute. As dusk set through the glass ceilings, the atmosphere in the room changed from a sunny summers day to a warmly candle lit banquet, fantastic for Immy and her friends and family.

We got a round of applause at the end and felt really chuffed that everyone enjoyed all the food and had a wonderful night – creating great memories of being with Immy for her birthday.

Like so many professional women of today, who work so hard and are independent, I relate and aspire to be like Immy: Strong, funny, with a positive outlook and in control of her own destiny and getting on with things surrounded with love and without ties to convention.

Another perfect example of how ‘Hector’ in his ‘Search For Happiness’ would find that - happiness is about having inner peace and being around people we love, in celebration, accepting who we are, as we are.

 

If you would like us to cook for your party, please get in touch to discuss: bookings@fernandezandleluu.co.uk