For the love of Gin… a right royal appointment…

For our October dinners we are going to be popping up once again in the village of Marden.… we can now reveal once again we will be hosting two dinners in the Anno Distillers distillery with those lovely chaps Andy & Norman

Anno Distillers Artisan Drinks

This time however I will be joined by a fellow chef and new supper club host who is in the process of setting up his own pop ups.

Chef Visen Anenden will be joining us to cook a few courses alongside yours truly. Visen is an accomplished chef who trained with the Roux family at Le Gavroche and then worked on events for celebrity chef Anthony Worral Thompson.

He has most recently however been the personal chef to HRH The Prince of Wales household where for nearly ten years he worked in the assorted homes of the Prince and travelled with him on assorted foreign trips.

We have tried to ensure the dishes we are preparing highlight not only the handiwork of those clever guys at Anno but local produce and we hope a few stories peppered into the evening of both Visen’s and Hari’s experiences.

There will be just twenty two spaces available each night for this rather unique and exclusive event and we will have either Andy or Norman on hand each night to provide an insight into the workings of their still and the fruits of their labours.

So onto the menu… we will kick the evening off with assorted welcome nibbles served with a welcome Gin & Tonic whilst you will get an introduction and tour from the makers into how they make their Gins and Vodka.

First course prepared by Hari will be an unctuous Duck Rillettes served with a jelly made from Anno’s Sloe Gin.

Visen will then serve cured salmon that will have been cured using Anno’s Elderflower Vodka and a classic beetroot and horseradish garnish.

Chef Visen will then be in charge of the main course where he will be serving up a Pork inspired dish of the belly and a cake of black pudding.  I am intrigued by his mushroom, lettuce – fenugreek sauce – his love of spices must be part of his Mauritian heritage.

Hari will be picking the cheeses and sticking local with Winterdale

Winterdale Shaw

Shaw unpasteurised Cheddar and then a Kentish Blue from Staplehurst.

To complete the meal Visen will be in charge again and his dessert will be an Anno Gin soaked sponge, raspberry, and burnt-butter-vanilla cream, all served with a glass of sweet wine.

Dates: Friday 21^st & Saturday 22^nd October 2016

Venue: Anno Distillers Marden

Time: 7:30pm Welcome 8:00pm Dinner Served

Suggested Donation: £50 per person (service not included)

Menu

Nibbles with an Anno Gin & Tonic

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Duck Rillettes with Green Peppercorns & Sloe Gin Jelly,

Sour Dough Toast

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Salmon cured in elderflower vodka, chickpea blini, pickled beetroot and horseradish

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Pork belly, pressed potato-black pudding “cake”, mushroom and lettuce-fenugreek sauce

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Winterdale Shaw Cheddar & Kentish Blue with Banana Jam & Porridge Oat Biscuits

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Gin soaked sponge, raspberry, and burnt-butter-vanilla cream + small shot glass of Muscat de Rivesaltes

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Coffee & Petit Fours

Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availability

To book your places please complete the following form and we will contact you within 24/48 hours to confirm your booking with a credit card number

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Date Required(required) Friday 21st October 2016 Fully Booked - Wait List Only Saturday 22nd October 2016 Fully Booked - Wait List only

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Summers passing… our September events…

We thought with summer now becoming a distant memory our menu would reflect the change of seasons.  We felt it should perhaps include some of the bountiful produce still available and represent the seasons.

Following a welcome drink and assorted nibbles we felt to kick the meal off we would start with a dish inspired with Mackerel and gooseberries – a combination made in heaven as the fruit cuts wonderfully with the oiliness of the fish.

The main course will be a slow cooked shoulder of lamb with a Moroccan influenced spicing served with Cous  Cous and a bean salad dressed in a yogurt and mint dressing

This will be followed by our selection of cheeses served with the porridge oat biscuits that take some three days to make… then finally for dessert a fresh plum and almond cake served with mascarpone.

This will then be served with a glass of Muscat de Rivesaltes specially imported from our french home.

Dates: Friday 23rd & Saturday 24th September 2016

Time: 7:30pm welcome drink 8:00pm Dinner served

Suggested Donation:  £35.00 per  person (service not included)

Menu

Mackerel & Gooseberries – our interpretation

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Spicy Moroccan Lamb Shoulder served with a herb Cous Cous

Green Bean Salad with a yogurt & mint dressing

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Hari’s selection of cheeses with Porridge Oat Biscuits

& Homemade Banana Jam

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Plum & Almond Cake served with mascarpone cream

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Coffee or Tea served with petit fours

MENU SUBJECT TO MARKET PURCHASES

AND INGREDIENT AVAILABILITY 

To book your places please complete the following form and we will contact you within 24/48 hours to confirm your booking with a credit card number

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Dinner on a hot lead roof…

We did say never again but well our arm was twisted and it is all in a good cause!

We are hosting another dinner on the roof of Yalding Church… in fact we are inviting 20 couples to come along for a Paella themed supper and on the night there will be a further prize draw and three couple will be invited to partake of their dinner on the roof!

To be able to partake of this event we are requiring you enter our prize draw by heading over to our fundraising page here

For every £1 donation your name will be placed in the virtual hat one time. So a £5 donation will mean it will be there five times… and so on

It will be a fun night and the whole raison d’etre is to help this charity raise much needed funds to continue its support of the upkeep of the fabric of this building and hub of the village community.

Just remember it could be dinner on a “hot lead roof” with a great view and some fascinating company so just get donating!

Flaming June…

Well with the weather warming up we are thinking about our June events and the menu we are going to produce. We have decided to reprieve some of our favourites and we hope you will like them…

We will serve a selection of seasonal nibbles to kick the evening off along with a suitable summery drink. We will then as the first course serve a South American inspired starter of a “Ceviche” a mix of smoked haddock and raw prawns that are marinated for a few hours in a citric marinade and then served shaped like a tartare with a celeriac remoulade (dressed in a mustard mayonnaise)

Main course will be a roasted fillet of beef served with a mixed wild mushroom sauce a rosti potato cake and our veritable “haricots verts” (green beans).

For our cheese course we will make it a selection of suitable cheeses served with our infamous Porridge Oat Biscuits and home-made Banana Jam.

To complete the meal we will serve Damian Allsops “Water” Chocolate Mousse. A really light and flavoursome chocolate mousse that allows the true flavour of the chocolate to shine through as it contains no cream!. Some local summer berries and also serve up a cold pressed iced coffee to help wash it all down.

It will hopefully be a warm and sultry night and we look forward to welcoming old and new guests to our secret venue (well to the newbies at least)

To Book please complete the booking form below and we will contact you normally with 24/48 hours to confirm your booking with a credit card number.

Dates: Friday 10th & Saturday 11th June 2016

Time:  19:30 Welcome Drink & Nibbles

Dinner: 20:00 Dinner Served

Suggested Donation: £40.00 Per Person (Service Not Included) 

Menu 

Ceviche of Smoked Haddock & Prawn with Celeriac Remoulade, served with corn bread 

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Roasted Fillet of Beef served with a Wild Mushroom & Cognac Sauce, Crispy Rosti Potato Cake, Haricots Verts

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Hari’s Selection of Cheeses served with Porridge Oat Biscuits & Banana Jam

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Damian Allsops “Water” Chocolate Mousse, Summer Berries & Cold Pressed Coffee Milkshake

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Coffee & Petit Fours

Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availabilty

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Fiesta de la paella at Scallywag Café – Tunbridge Wells…

Looks as good as it tastes!

Well our May dinners will be a bit of a Spanish Fiesta with us cooking an authentic Paella freshly before your very eyes in central Tunbridge Wells.

The plan is over two nights we will be  based at the Scallywag Café where we will taking over the premises on the Friday 20th & Saturday 21st May on each evening.

We will serve up a simple selection of Tapas to kick the evening off and then serve up a classic one pan Paella comprising of Chicken, Chorizo and Prawns (Vegetarian option is also available)

To finish it all there will be a simple Almond Tart Served with Taywell’s Honeycomb Ice Cream.

There will be a selection of drinks available for purchase direct from Scallywag Café and owner John is also planning some live Iberian themed musical entertainment to get you all in your own sombrero stomping mood!

To book the event you can do so via our dedicated page the Billetto ticketing web site here.

No bookings can be made directly with Scallywag Café or via the Hari Covert web site they can only be made via the Billetto ticket site.

We have limited spaces each night so please do book early to ensure you get the places your require.

Dates: Friday 20th & Saturday 21st May

Venue: Scallywag Café, 45 Mount Ephriam , Tunbridge Wells, TN4 8AA

Time: 7:30pm for 8:00pm

Menu

Assorted Tapas –

Gazpacho Shots, Deep Fried Croquetas, Pan Catalan, Tortilla Bites, Manchego & Honey

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Freshly Cooked Paella –

A mixture of Chicken, Chorizo & Prawns cooked with peppers, green beans & Mussels

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Pastas de Almendra with Taywell Honeycomb Ice Cream

(Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availability)

Wines & Drinks can be purchased on the night direct from Scallywag Café

Live Entertainment – format to be confirmed.

Booking closes: 18th May 2016 at 5pm

On “yer bike” coffee…

Velo Coffee Co

The roasting machine

The green beans before roasting

– precise temperature control…

Some clever branding…

We are showcasing a fledgling company with our next dinner when it comes to our coffee service at the end of the meal.

The brain child of Maidstone Boys Grammar School  6^th Former Dan Westby, he has been a big fan of coffee for a number of years. After much internet searching along with a loan from the bank of “Mum & Dad” he set himself  up with a coffee bean roasting machine.

Dan has thought through the whole business he has set up from the very clever name to the whole structure and set up. Velo Coffee is designed to be sustainable by selling their roasted beans at local farmers market in Bearsted each month to then being hand delivered by bike as that is Dan’s second passion.

So after much research and some clever branding Velo Coffee was born and Dan now sources his bean choice with the help of his customers and effectively small batch roasts to order the coffee to ensure the maximum freshness.

His current choice of bean is from Rwanda , and precisely Gashonga a small region close to the Congo and Burundi.

This “Red Bourbon” Variety is hand-picked  by smallholders at 1600 plus meters above sea level in ideal growing conditions that is then fermented and dried at the “Gashonga Station”.  He describes them as having a Chocolate & Brown Sugar flavour with a citrus acidity and a syrupy mouth feel.

Dan will normally buy 30kg of the chosen green beans  that he will then roast to order in batches of 250g at a time – a process he will do at last minute before delivery by bike to ensure they are at their optimal freshness. He will then also grind the beans for the desired method of brew. A finer grind for the filter method and a coarser grind for a Cafetiere or “French press”

The smell is evocative as the beans roast in circa 12 minutes and Dan brewed me a fresh cup on my visit to his set up that illustrated well the citrus notes of the light roasted bean that when drank black and without sugar was a perfect way to appreciate his passion.

He has promised to be on hand each night to talk about his business and the way it operates from his monthly stall at Bearsted farmers market to the subscription service that he offers to local residents where he delivers a freshly roasted pack by bike or for those further afield he will also send by Royal Mail.

For someone so young it is an enterprise to be admired and what is so evident is the passion he shows for the product – the care and attention to detail from the branding to processes involved is to be commended. I trust you will come and support him at our next dinner.

Velo Coffee Co – www.velocoffeeco.co.uk

Facebook – velocoffeeco  

Twitter – @velocoffeeco

Instagram  @velocoffeeco

“Cuckoo Cuckoo” its April…well nearly!

Well things are getting warmer and we seem to be enjoying longer daylight hours as the clocks are about to change… Spring really has sprung and we are keen to reflect that further in this next month’s menu and event.

As the 14th April is deemed to be “St Tiburtius’ Day” when cuckoos start to sing we will be celebrating this event with a suitably seasonal menu!

Following a welcome drink on arrival – “a glass of sparkling perry with the addition of creme de cassis”  served along with some seasonal nibbles we will then as a first course be serving a classic combination of wild garlic pesto spiked risotto garnished with some sweet tasting crab meat. I really love making a risotto and the challenge is always to get it creamy and unctuous with a full flavour.

We will then move onto the main course of a pink roasted Rump of Lamb that will be served  with a piquant tomato and ginger sauce and a compote of spring onions. The vegetables served with this will be Green Beans (Haricot Verts) and duck fat baby roasted new potatoes.

Our cheese course next will reflect our market purchases and we will also serve our porridge oat biscuits infused with Ile de Re Sea Salt along with our homemade Banana Jam.

Finally we will complete the meal with our pudding… a Vanilla Panna Cotta, a lightly set cream that will be topped with a compote of fresh Rhubarb and then more than likely we will serve some warm fresh out the oven Butter Shortbread biscuits. A great combination and we hope a fitting end to this month’s meal.

Coffee this month will be courtesy of Velo Coffee Company  of
Bearsted – we will be showcasing their freshly roasted single origin coffee from Rwanda. More about that in another post!

Suggested Donation: £35.00 per person (Service not included)

Dates: Friday 15th & Saturday 16th April 2016

Arrival: 7:30pm – Welcome Drink & Nibbles

Dinner: 8:00pm – Served

Menu

Crab & Wild Garlic Risotto

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Roasted Chump of Lamb, Tomato & Ginger Sauce

Green Beans, Roasted Baby New Potatoes

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Hari’s Selection of Cheeses, Porridge Oat Biscuits & Homemade Banana Jam

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Vanilla Panna Cotta with Poached Rhubarb Compote,

Warm Butter Shortbread

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Velo Coffee or Tea & Petit Fours

Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availability

To reserve your places please complete the booking form below – we will contact you within 24 to 48 hours to confirm your booking.

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Fondue Fancy…

I bet you thought the headline said a “Fondant Fancy”… yep that little garish coloured cake – alas not…something far better in fact!

Following from the success of our pop up last year in Tunbridge Wells we thought we would offer a repeat of a couple of themed cheese fondue nights in our secret home location.

It is a classic time of year to enjoy this Alpine classic of hot melted cheese with bread dipped in and we felt it was very worthy of another airing.

We will have two tables of 6 people on each night – you will have to share but what could be more convivial than such a feast.

We will kick it all off with a simple bowl of lambs lettuce salad (Nussli in Switzerland) topped with walnuts and chopped egg.

Then the main event will be the hot melted wine and cheese fondue with bread cubes – some little extras like chopped ginger (an innovation and tip given by a local Swiss resident)  or a  smoked chipotle paste will give it all another flavour dimension.

To finish it all we will then serve a light Orange & Polenta cake with a generous dollop of Greek yoghurt. A tangy  sweet finish after the excesses of the wine & cheese. We will provide a little glass of Muscat de Rivesaltes with this as well

Finally tea or coffee along with some Swiss Chocolate as a petit four will complete the meal.

It should be a convivial night and a great way to make new friends. Just remember it is important not to bring a red wine (it clots the cheese) or drink ice cold drinks (it will also clot the cheese) – a full etiquette on the whole procedure will be provided on the night.

Arrival: 7:30pm Welcome Drink & Nibbles

Dinner: 8:00pm Prompt

Suggested Donation: £30 per person (service not included)

To Book please complete the form below and we will confirm your spaces normally within 24 to 48 hours.

Menu

Welcome Drink and Nibbles

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Nussli Salat Mimosa und Baumnussen

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Cheese Fondue with suitable accoutrements 

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Orange & Polenta Cake with Greek Yoghurt

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Tea or Coffee, Petit Fours

Menu subject to ingredient availability and market purchases 

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Sausage Fest…

After all those excess of Christmas and New Year we thought what better way to kick the new year off than with a more simple and frugal supper event.

We felt we would kick the evening off with a warm glass of mulled Perry to warm the cockles on what we suspect a cold night! For the starter we would then serve up a selection of cold salamis and salads served with our freshly made & warm beer bread.

We will then serve a classic “Choucroute” (Pickled Cabbage flavoured with Juniper Berries) and also some classic Swiss Dorrbohnen (the dried green beans we often use as a salad) along with assorted styles of sausages including a “Krackauer Schinkenwurst we have especially imported from Germany all served with simple boiled potatoes and a selection of mustard’s!

To complete the meal we will serve a warm chocolate bread & butter pudding with some crème fraiche and a glass of Muscat Tuile (a sweet red wine from the south of France)

We have also thought the frugality will be matched by the suggested donation price of just £25 per person – what we are calling our January giveaway!

A great way to start the year and partake in some great winter comfort food!

To Book please complete the form below and we will confirm your spaces normally within 24 to 48 hours.

Menu

Welcome glass of Mulled Perry & Nibbles

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Cold Salami Platter, Salad & Bread

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Choucroute & Dorrbohnen, Wurst mit Salz Kartofflen

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Warm Chocolate & Cardamom Bread & Butter Pudding

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Coffee  or Tea & Petit Fours

Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availability

Suggested Donation : £25.00 per person (service not included)

Arrival:  7:30pm

Dinner: 8:00pm Prompt

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Date Required(required) Friday 29th January 2016 Saturday 30th January 2016

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2016 Dates…

Happy New Year…

We have had a hectic festive period and are now recovering from a 1200 mile trip to Switzerland between Xmas and New Year to visit friends and stock up on Mrs HC’s chocolate supplies.

We have now just released some of the dates and themes for our 2016 events.

Do take a look here.

We will be revealing more details soon but our first event at the end of January will be what we have named a sausage fest – we will be serving up cured salamis and for the main course a classic Choucroute with smoked sausages. Menu just in the final stages of tweaking.

February will be the return of a couple of Fondue nights and then we will have yet to be confirmed dates a return visit of Chef But and we will also be taking Hari Covert to foreign shores with a pop up planned in Switzerland at some stage during 2016.

We will be doing a charity alfresco theme in July that will take “Underground Dining” to new heights.

So there will be plenty to keep us busy during the coming year. We hope you will also come and join us.

Please keep watching this space for all the latest news…