Vegan Supper Club with Chef Saurav Nath at Chakra Restaurant Kensington

My family and I love discovering new places for dining out. With the Covid situation now improving the options have opened to allow us to travel to London and visit our favorite restaurants. Being a vegetarian my first choice of restaurants are the ones that accommodate our dietary requirements and offer a good range of dishes not one or two, so that we can enjoy a variety of textures, tastes and flavours. 

We were recently invited to attend the Flavours of a Vegan Indian Spring supper club at Chakra Kensington hosted by Humayun Hussain one of the UK’s leading exponents of Indian food and restaurants and Chef Saurav Nath who is an extremely experienced chef who has headed up the kitchens of some of the finest of Indian restaurants in the UK as well as worked alongside such revered European chefs as Pierre Koffman and Eric Chavot. There are so many amazing chefs in the UK such as Merlin Jabron Johnson, Chet Sharma , Shelly Abe and many more extremely talented chefs who also run restaurants. You can check them out at Square Meal UK

 

We were lucky that the British weather was thankfully in our favour and we were able to dine outside under the stars. We sipped on refreshing Passion Fruit and Rose and Cardamom mocktails. 

The menu presented to us was extremely exciting, especially as a lot of thought and attention was given in choosing interesting ingredients, spices, flavours and textures. Here is the menu we sampled.

AMUSE BOUCHE

Palak & Aloo Chat

Tangy potatoes, sprouted beans, popped lotus seed, pomegranate, tamarind sauce, soya yogurt foam, red onion.

STARTER

Global Artichoke Doughnut

South Indian spiced infused globe artichoke patties, sesame seed & tomato chutney, black onion seed, coriander oil, mooli & peanut salad.

 

MID-COURSE

Beet & Broccoli Tikka

Tandoori spiced, glazed beet root & broccoli tikka, coconut & wild garlic chutney,  shimeji mushroom, golden beet, quinoa & walnut salad.

 

MAIN COURSE

Served with vegetable Yakhni Pulao

Separate grainS of rice, light and fluffy cooked to perfection with subtle flavours to compliment the curries and dhal.

Spring Green Kofta

Melt in the mouth spring green & soya ball cooked in Awadhi kormas sauce.

Tofu Hara Pyaz

Organic tofu tossed in black pepper & coriander flavoured tomato sauce with spring onions.

Dhaba Dal

Channa dal tempered with cumin & garlic.

 

Tandoori Roti

Soft tandoori roti cooked on the griddle, the perfect accompaniment to mop up the delicious curries.

Dessert

Boondi with Poached Pears and Icecream

Boondi pearls dipped in syrup served with poached pears in cinnamon syrup and creamy vanilla icecream.

 

Each and every dish was beautifully constructed, well balanced in look and flavours. I especially liked the fusion touch that Chef Saurav Nath introduced to the Indian cuisine. Using ingredients such as artichoke, beetroot, tofu and quinoa in a very unique way was welcoming and very exciting to eat.

I was a guest at the supper club and would like to Thanks Chef Saurav Nath and Humayun Hussain for inviting me to sample this gastronomical feast. My tastebuds were rocking and rolling all evening as each course arrived. All the thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are of my experience of the supper club. If you would like more details for further information on all forthcoming Supperclubs and dinner events please contact Humayun Hussain or Chef Saurav Nath.

Ghanaian Supper Club with Patti Sloley

I have recently discovered Ghanaian food and my love for African dishes has been rekindled. I am in love with all the spices and all the amazing flavours that are used in the cooking. I have been trying many Ghanaian recipes and over time I shall endeavour to share them on this blog. I recently created a recipe for Jollof Rice with Plantain Chips which was super delicious and has become a firm favorite amongst my family.

Through my blogging journey I am fortunate to get many opportunities to attend events one such opportunity came recently when I was invited to attend a Ghanaian themed supper club hosted by Patti Sloley at Halseys Deli and Eatery in Hitchin. Patti is a chef, a cookery teacher, an author and a remarkable lady. Her personality is so vibrant that within five minutes of meeting her I felt I had made a friend for life. She is extremely passionate about what she does and it clearly shows in her food which I was excited to sample.

The evening started with drinks and nibbles, Plantain chips are moreish and you could nibble at them all night. I love them and I recently made a batch of my own, you can check the recipe here.

Once seated we were served a delicious warm Yam Chowder made with Coco Yam, Yam, Guinea Pepper and Sweetcorn, the non vegetarians had the addition of bacon to theirs. The Chowder was spicy, beautifully flavoured and rich in texture and flavour. It was the perfect starter as the Autumn weather was rather cold.

For the main course menu, there was Egusi , its a type of Ghanaian stew that can be made with fish, meat and vegetables and its thickened with ground melon seeds. The non vegetarian versions had two types one with fish and one with meat. The vegetarian version was made with peppers, onions, garlic,scotch bonnet chilli, okra all cooked in a tomato base and thickened with ground Egusi (melon seeds). 

Patti demonstrated how to make the vegetarian version of the Egusii in front of us. It was a wonderful experience to watch her create the dish live. You can watch Patti cooking this beautiful dish in the video below.

The Egusi was served with turmeric rice, sauteed spinach, cauliflower florets and Spiced Fried plantain. It was comfortably hot due to the addition of the scotch bonnet chilli. The flavours were delicious and the texture of the stew from the Egusi seeds was thick and creamy.The main course was colourful, beautifully presented and simply divine.

With out tummies full and our palates well seasoned from the spice, we were served a palate cleanser in the form of an aromatic fresh fruit salad served in a lemongrass and ginger syrup. It was refreshing and really did the trick.

Dessert of Plantain pudding came next in the form of a moist slice of Light  Christmas pudding. It was served with vanilla and coffee mascarpone cream. It was hard to believe that the Plantain pudding was egg, sugar and butter free. It tasted absolutely delectable. For someone who does not like fruit cake or Christmas pudding I devoured the whole plate!!!!!

Finally the meal was completed with a warm glass of Hissap, a hibiscus drink infused with warm spices.

I was totally in heaven at this super gastronomical feast and my love for Ghanaian food has now been taken to new heights.

I would like to thank Patti, the Halsey Deli  and also Heidi Roberts who invited me to attend the Supper Club. All the views expressed in this post are of my experience of the meal as are all the photographs shown. To find out more about Pattis Supper Cubs do check her website at Patti's Menu

You can also read about Heidi's account of our experience here.