Well almost two years ago one of our customers came along to our “Fowl Feast” dinners and kindly bought us some sample packs of chicken crackling to play around with.
It was all the brain child of Robert Jebb an Ad Man who has spent a considerable amount of time and I would think money perfecting the product that was initially called “Fowl Scratchings”
Well it has just had a relaunch and it has already gained some notable exposure as it is being used by chef Simon Hulstone at his London Pop Up in the John Lewis department store… It is a great little product and highly addictive.
Little “Bobby Jebb” as he is now marketing himself as has also recently posted a clever promotional video that has certainly captured the spirit of this new product.
Check out the video here and if you fancy purchasing then just head over to their shop on their web site…
Well it seems Monday 21st August is a total eclipse of the sun in the USA and a partial one in the UK/Europe so we thought for our August dinner we would host an end of the world dinner!
The plan is to gather together like minded individuals who wish to celebrate what historically was sometimes seen as an omen or good portent for the future.
Wars stopped, some even thought it was the end of the world… well in this case it will just be the end of another Hari Supperclub dining night and we would hate for you to miss out on it…
It will take place on Saturday 19th August in our home venue (all will be revealed to diners once you have booked) Diners will be served some simple seasonal nibbles with a welcome drink on arrival and then as a first course we thought a simple salad of summer leaves along with a garnish of freshly grilled squid and king prawns in a garlic butter dressing.
Next we will serve a Teriyaki marinated and baked fillet of fresh Salmon with a garnish of rice noodles and Chinese Pak Choi. A light summery dish that we hope will match the summer mood.
Finally the dessert this month will be a summer favourite – Jelly & Ice Cream but one with a bit of a twist. It will be made using our local Elderflower Vodka from Anno, local fresh raspberries and some homemade Strawberry Iced Parfait served with a warm homemade shortbread biscuit.
Finally we will serve freshly brewed Coffee or Tea with a homemade Petit Fours
We trust it will not be the end of the world after the upcoming eclipse but why not come along and enjoy a sunny supper with us… booking can be made via our booking site from Monday July 31st 9:00am so do not forget to set those clocks /alarms to make sure the end is not nigh!
Date: 19th August 2017
Time: 7:30pm Arrival with Welcome Drink Dinner from 8pm
Venue: Hari Covert’s secret home venue (diners will told a week beforehand where to come to)
Cost: £10 Reservation Deposit via our Ticketing Site Here £15 Balance payable on the night (service not included) cash preferred.
Drinks: Bring your own drinks to consume with the dinner – water and glasses will be provided on the tables.
Menu
Assorted seasonal nibbles with a welcome drink
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Dressed Summer Salad leaves with Grilled Squid & Prawns in garlic butter
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Teriyaki Marinated Baked Salmon Fillet with Rice Noodles & Pak Choi
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Anno Elderflower Vodka Jelly with Kentish Raspberries with Iced Strawberry Parfait, Butter Shortbread
Well with only just less than a week left to book your places for our July Pop Up we thought we ought to explain a little bit more the thinking behind this dining event.
Back in late March just before it finished I joined up with chef Peter Pickering and a few other chefs for a lunch on the roof of Selfridges in London where we were to sample the WastED concept by Dan Barber where the menu highlighted foods that were wasted inspired.
From cod’s heads to kale trees, broccoli stems to reconstituted stale bread or juice bar pulp it was a feast made out of food that would have been wasted and was totally thought provoking.
So fast forward to now and our plans for the upcoming dinner. Hari & Peter are busy sourcing products of waste to put together a menu to delight the diners. We have just 30 spaces and we need all these spaces sold to proceed as it is a mammoth task that will take a great deal of planning and creativity to excite you all.
We have plans for those cheese scraps in everyone’s fridges, overripe fruit that goes in that compost bin to even the whey from a local cheesemaker that gets fed to their pigs or is just flushed down the drain… If you are intrigued as to what we are going to be serving up just reserve those places as soon as possible as without those reservations we cannot start making those commitments to the suppliers and put the final touches to the menu. It will be a veritable feast that will we are sure be a real equally thought provoking and hopefully get you all talking about food in a new light…
We might even have the odd bottle of HP Sauce to embellish it all and make it that bit more palatable… #justkidding
Well for the July dinner event we are doing something just a little bit different. Hari will be joining forces with Chef Peter Pickering.
Peter is a London based chef who has a veritable who’s who of a culinary training. He has trained under Michelin starred chefs the Galvin Brothers and was part of the opening teams at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Café Royal and also with chef Nuno Mendes at Chiltern Fire House.
Hari and Peter will for one night only be planning and cooking a 4/5 course menu (dependent on purchases) that will & can only be revealed on the night for a very good reason…
wastED – Selfridges London
The inspiration behind this dinner was a very thought provoking lunch that Hari & Peter were lucky to sample together at the “WastED” concept earlier in 2017 that was a pop up on the roof of Selfridges department store in London.
We also plan to highlight produce from local producers and utilise often neglected and forgotten items such as fish scraps, cheese whey along with misshaped fruit and vegetables as well as excess supermarket stock that would just be wasted and disposed of.
This concept is the brain child of the American chef Dan Barber that wowed packed houses of diners for a five week pop up residency of innovative food following over a year of planning by the Selfridges team putting it together.
Hari & Peter (HP) will also look to source (pun intended) as much local produce that is deemed to be waste by the food & retail industry (you will be surprised what this entails) and create an innovative and tasty menu.
There will be an inordinate amount of planning and cajoling of suppliers that will go into this event and the menu we will be able to cook will be subject to what we can eventually find.
Peter Pickering
There will only be thirty dining places up for grabs. Plus we can only proceed with this event if all these places have been reserved/sold by 5pm on Wednesday 21st June.
If not all sold by this date then the event we are sorry to say will have to be cancelled…there is too much risk and uncertainty to rely on late or last minute bookings.
Please note if we unfortunately have to cancel then full refunds will be made for the booking deposits made so there is no risk on your part to make those reservations!
We do hope you will support us with this very unique and exciting event… our culinary brains are already working overtime to come up with dishes that will excite you and provide much discussion.
Go on be brave and join us for a “journey of culinary discovery”
Date: 1th July 2017
Time: 7:30pm Arrival with Welcome Drink Dinner from 8pm
Venue: Crowborough Community Centre , Gallery Community Café
Cost: £10 Reservation Deposit via our Ticketing Site Here £30 Balance payable on the night (service not included) cash preferred.
Drinks: Bring your own drinks to consume with the dinner – water and glasses will be provided on the tables.
N.B. Reserve by 5pm 21st June (all 30 places will need to be sold) otherwise the event will not take place.
So we must be a bit mad in the height of summer moving our Pop Up concept to Rochester and the showroom of The Stove Hub where we will be converting their showroom space into a Pop Up space for two nights!
On June 16th & 17th we will be using their Charnwood wood fired stoves to demonstrate their cooking potential as well as cooking alfresco in the front of the showroom over our gas fired pans as they have no kitchen for us to cook with! We do so love a challenge.
We will have to rent in tables, chairs and crockery to set this dining space up so it will be a major undertaking but we think something a little different…
To kick the evening off we will welcome all with a complimentary drink and some simple seasonal nibbles – some of which will be cooked on the wood fired stove top!
The first course will be a simple salad that will be topped with a piece of marinated fish (that we will cook on top of the wood stove) Next we will then serve up a dish cooked alfresco in our large paella pan… Moroccan Spiced Chicken will be married to some green olives and home preserved lemons and served with some minted cous cous and bowls of dressed salad leaves… All will be prepared before your very eyes to ensure it is all fresh tasting and in true pop up style with an element of theatre!
Next we will then serve our little individual cheeseboards with a selection of cheeses and our now infamous porridge oat biscuits.
To complete the meal we will then serve up a classic summer dessert of Eton Mess… homemade meringues with Kent strawberries and cream… a perfect summer pudding.
With the coffee we will then griddle some shortbread biscuits on top of the stoves and garnish with a dollop of homemade lemon curd and a fresh raspberry… a great way to finish what we think will be a truly unique event in a very “quirky venue”
Guests are invited to bring their own drinks to consume with their meal and we will provide glasses, ice buckets and water on the tables.
You can reserve your dining places via our ticketing site here
Dates: 16th & 17th June 2017
Where: The Stove Hub, 86 King Street, Rochester, Kent ME1 1YD
Time: 7:30pm Welcome Drink & Nibbles
Dinner: 8:00pm Prompt
Suggested Donation: Early Bird Tickets before May 30th £30 person after this date -£40 per person (service not included)
Menu
Griddled Marinated Fish with Dressed Salad Leaves
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Moroccan Chicken, Green Olives, Preserved Lemons
Minted Cous Cous
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Hari’s Cheese Selection with Porridge Biscuits
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Eton Mess with local Kent Strawberries
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Coffee or Tea, Griddled Shortbread with Lemon Curd
Menu subject to market purchases and ingredient availabilty
Following on from the success of our dinner events back in January with what we called “Pot Luck” we are going to repeat the format at our May 13th dinner that will take place at the Crowborough Community Centre in their Gallery Café.
It will be a seasonal menu that will kick off with a welcome glass and some simple nibbles and then we will serve up a three course menu that will also involve an element of theatre!!! You will only find out the menu on the night! We will however aim to cater for any dietary needs like Vegetarian/Gluten Free wherever we can and as long as requested when making the booking.
We are requesting a £10 per person reservation fee when you book and then on the night a minimum donation of £10 per person – however if you feel it was worth more then please feel free to leave more in the table envelopes (cash preferred)
As with all our events you are invited to bring your own wines/drinks to have with the meal and we will provide glasses, ice buckets and water on the tables.
We hope you will come and join us for this “Covert” dining experience… just look at some of the comments left in our guestbook from our last visit to this venue…
Guest comment from March event
Guest comment from March event
Guest comment from March event
To book your places just head over to our ticketing site here
We look forward to welcoming you all to our Pot Luck again event that will be a little bit of May Madness…
Well we thought we would celebrate the recognition of being deemed “Officially Quirky” by hosting a quirky dinner featuring some unusual ingredients and flavour combinations.
Having met with the owner of “Quirky Kent” recently we felt it was only proper and fitting to offer the chance for all those lovers of things quirky the chance to sample a Hari Covert event of the same name!
So for two nights (Friday April 21st & Saturday April 22nd) we will serve up a four course supper at our secret venue for the all inclusive price of £30 per person.
So what is on the menu… well following from a welcome drink (we are dreaming up something Quirky) and some quirky seasonal nibbles on arrival we will kick the dinner off with a panna cotta… now I know you all think why start with dessert well we are turning it on its head and starting with a savoury one infused with the flavour of wild garlic and we will garnish with toasted Kent Cobnuts and some crispy Ikan Bilis the Asian dried salted anchovies I have imported especially from Singapore. This will be a interesting combination of flavours and textures.
For the main course we will then serve shredded pork cheeks that
Pork Cheek with “Mole” Sauce
will have been slow braised in a rich Mexican inspired Mole Sauce with just a hint of chocolate. Some freshly cooked Spätzli (pasta) and red cabbage will garnish what will be a flavour packed dish.
We will then serve what many consider to be a quirky way with the cheese course (it is in fact the French way so very quirky by English standards) – just the one,but one of our
Winterdale Shaw – Picture @TWFoodie
favourites… Winterdale Shaw Cheese from the top of Wrotham Hill, an unpasteurised carbon neutral cheddar. The milk comes from 200 yds down the road from the Friesan dairy herd and a 1000 gallons needs little heating using their solar panelled heat exchange pumps! Some 10 months later the cheeses matured in their flint lined cellars are ready for eating! Homemade Porridge Oat Biscuits and our homemade Banana Jam will be served with it.
Finally to complete the quirky nature of our dinner we felt it should be chocolate beer and sauerkraut… in a cake form… yes you heard right we combine chocolate, beer and pickled cabbage as a cake – we promise you it really does work!
Coffee & Tea (thinking of getting a Quirky Blend for the night) will complete the evening.
Well that date is fast approaching when couples habitually inhabit those tables of two’s in a restaurant and look lovingly into each other’s eyes across the dinner table!
You can tell I am a fan of this night of romantic love big time – Not!
It is generally hype to fill perhaps a quiet week night (a Tuesday this year) and dreaded by restaurants when it falls on a weekend night as they fill up in under capacity!
I have such strong memories of a “Valentine Night” in a restaurant I was working in when a couple came in for dinner who had obviously had a row and I think the guy was there under duress.
They ordered two” well done” fillet steaks and requested they be served with peas (we were upmarket and served a medley of vegetables)
I sent the waitress back with the message “Old Chinese Philosopher Confucius says Man who eats “Meat and Peas” on same plate is very unhygienic”
The waitress thought for moment and then giggled and said I can’t tell them that… I said please try!
Some restaurants get all creative with overpriced pun induced menus using not in season produce – e.g. Asparagus, Strawberries etc or pink coloured foods! I even tried one year doing a Valentine themed dinner here for my Supperclub and found it a tortuous night so vowed never again!
I am much more in favour of seeing you all cooking something special at home and perhaps pushing the boat out with a meal lovingly prepared for a loved one. It makes much more a statement than splashing out on a substandard meal in a restaurant.
So this would be my suggestion on a good seasonal menu
You will note I have provided links for all the recipes so why not give it a go and impress a loved one and cook them up this special treat… it will not break the bank and I am sure it will impress the other half!
Failing that why not come along later in the month for our February dinner event that we are calling “Game On“ as we will be featuring assorted Game dishes from Venison to Guinea Fowl. You can book the dinners here on our dedicated ticketing site!
Alternatively if you what to learn how to prepare these or any other dishes there is always the Covert Cook School where we can help you build your confidence and assist those untapped wooing skills…
Far better than going out with all those other sad ones!!!
So it has been six years since our last “Game On” dinner when we dedicated the menu to a “Game” themed one.
We felt it was long overdue as winter months are a perfect time to enjoy this much forgotten and often not appreciated culinary treat. So this months menu will feature heavily three types of game.
We will kick the meal off with a Carpaccio of Venison, this is thinly sliced slivers of raw venison loin that we will marry to slices of pickled beetroot and some walnuts all dressed with a horseradish cream.
Next we will serve up a classic risotto that will have the addition of creamed sweetcorn that will then be topped with slivers of roasted wood pigeon breasts and roasted baby corn. I am drooling just thinking of this!
The main course will be a breast of Guinea Fowl that will be studded with a force-meat of the legs mixed with Prunes. The breast will then be roasted off and served on top of a potato rosti and garnished with a red wine & prune sauce and some wilted spring onions. Then of course green beans will also feature.
To complete the meal we will then serve up a warm bread and butter pudding laced with chocolate and orange marmalade. We will keep it simple by serving it with some pouring cream – just a few extra calories.
Dates: Friday 24th & Saturday 25th February 2017
Venue: Hari’s Secret Location
Time: 7:30pm Welcome 8:00pm Dinner Served
Suggested Donation: £40 per person (service not included)
Menu
Welcome drink and seasonal nibbles
🌽 🌽 🌽
Venison & Beetroot Carpaccio
🍽 🍽 🍽
Roasted Wood Pigeon & Sweet Corn Risotto
🌽 🌽 🌽
Breast of Guinea Fowl, Prune & Spring Onion
Haricots Vert
Potato Rosti
🍽 🍽 🍽
Chocolate & Marmalade Bread & Butter Pudding
🌽 🌽 🌽
Coffee, Tea & Petit Fours
Menu Subject to Market Purchases & Ingredient Availability
So after the excess of the festive period and in a good retail tradition we will for our January 27th & 28th dates trial something just a little different.
STOP PRESS:
SOLD OUT FOR ALL DATES… WAIT LIST ONLY
FEBRUARY DINNERS – GAME ON – BOOKING OPENS 20TH JANUARY 2017
Beer Bread
We will not be publishing a menu as we will not decide what to cook until we start our normal purchases as we will just take “Pot Luck” on what is around at the time.
We will however make it a three course meal and include tea or coffee at the end. The other little twist we will offer on this occasion is only ask for a minimum of a £10 donation for the meal. However, we will say to diners if you think it was worth more then feel free to be more generous in the table envelope!
As with all our events you are invited to bring your own wines/drinks to have with the meal and we will provide glasses and iced tap water on the tables.
So the challenge for us is to come up with a tasty balanced three course menu that you feel is worthy of more than a £10 donation. The risk for you is you will at the beck and call of what might be available when we make our purchases. So you will need to be adventurous and up for the odd culinary challenge!
So if you are feeling brave and want to partake of this event then please do complete the booking form below. Please note it will be very much a first come first served on the booking front so do not delay in booking and then also please do let us know if you have any major allergies or dietary requirements as this will help us in the planning of the whole menu when we come to make our purchases.
So who is up for a bit of “Pot Luck” secret dining? If you have never been now is your chance to be surprised!
Arrival: 7:30pm
Dinner: 8:00pm – A 3 course menu will be served
Suggested Donation: Minimum £10 – we will accept more if you think it was worth it. (service not included)
Well almost two years ago one of our customers came along to our “Fowl Feast” dinners and kindly bought us some sample packs of chicken crackling to play around with.
