WIN A CHOCOLATE CLASS w BAKE WITH MARIA

Do you like chococate...? Silly question!? I'm pretty sure most people like chocolate, and if not all types, then they at least have a favourite type. I'm a dark chocolate person myself - I love the rich, slightly bitter flavour. And while I know what I like, I didn't actually know that much about how it's grown and where it comes from. So spending an evening at Bake with Maria was exactly what I needed to fill in the gaps.

The evening started with homemade bread, cheese and lemonade (a good start) before we settled down to learn more about chocolate.

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#CURRYSINTHEKITCHEN

Last week I was invited to the Underground Cookery School, near Old Street, for a cookery class with 20 other food bloggers, hosted by CurrysPCWorld, for #currysinthekitchen. All week I was wondering what the correlation between a computer shop and a cookery class was (bar the obvious fact that we food bloggers use computers to blog - which I didn't think was the link) but all became obvious when we arrived - CurrysPCWorld now stock kitchen gadgets! Ta-da - the reason we were there!!

Despite my best efforts to arrive cool, calm, collected and on time, I arrived half an hour late, flustered and in my normal state of everything at a million miles an hour. I was greeted by the CurrysPCWorld team, their PRs and the guys who run the cookery school, who had an apron waiting for me, ready to don for our cookery class. Camera out, apron on, I was given a glass of bubbles and told to help myself to trays of arancini, sausage rolls and smoked salmon on biscuits to nibble on before we got busy in the kitchen.

I have to say at this point, that although I had a super fun evening, I was a little disappointed at the level of cookery class we were given - it was all a bit... basic. I didn't learn anything. We were cooking a chicken curry, and a pear soufflé, but lots of the ingredients were pre prepared, due to time constraints, and it was more like a cooking demo than what I'd imagined the cookery class would be like.

We started with the chicken curry, for which we boned and chopped chicken drumsticks, then added various ingredients to the pan, most of which were chopped, mixed and ready made for us. Onion, garlic, ginger and chilli went in, followed by the curry sauce the chefs had made earlier for us, coconut milk, our chopped chicken, and some pre-chopped carrot and potatoes. A quick stir, and we poured it into mini Le Creusets, which went into the oven while we moved onto pudding.

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SAT 14th - NEXT A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS SUPPER CLUB

Next Saturday, 14th December, I'm hosting another supper club/pop up restaurant at my house in West London, and there's still a few tickets left, available through Grub Club, if you want to come along.

The last event was such a great success that I really can't wait for this one! We had such a varied group of people come on the night, from students, to photographers, to food journalists (eek!) - from all walks and ages of life. It was a brilliant night at our house, a chance to meet new people and rekindle old friendships over a long and plentiful dinner, and I've been very fortunate to have had great reviews of the night.

My supper clubs focus on using seasonal, British and really well sourced ingredients. I have visited the farms that produce the food I'm using and have seen the cows that the meat I'm using in my main course and the cheese for the cheeseboard comes from! Everything on the night is handmade by me, at home, promising the freshest and yummiest food around.

The menu for the 14th is as follows:

To start - Cornish mussels cooked in cider with baby leeks, served with the crustiest, fluffiest homemade bread (I normally cook wholemeal fruity bread, but this wouldn't go well with the mussels, so I was perfecting the crusty white bread all of last weekend and literally could not stop eating it!)

For mains - This is the part I'm most excited about feeding everyone. I'm serving a beef and beer pie, with the most extra-ordinary meat I could find. The rare breed highland beef comes straight from Oxenpark Farm (more info here) who rear very few animals each year in order to ensure the animals are reared in the best way possible.

The cows are fed on 100% grass and clover and the taste of the meat is just incredible. This will be served with horseradish mash, star anise glazed carrots, greens and an ale gravy. Perfect winter grub! 

Something sweet - After a litte post-mains break, next up is a sweet and decadent pear and almond tart. Pears are poached in a ginger syrup and then made into this sumptuous, gluten free tart, served with a homemade butterscotch creme fraiche to take the edge off that sweetness! This is one of my personal favorties! I'm also serving a MAD pudding wine with this for everyone to enjoy.

Cheese and more - Once the pudding has been served it'll be time for cheese. I'm using the excellent Montgomery cheeses, straight from their small Somerset farm, and serving these with some of my salty, herby, wholemeal crackers and a cherry tomato chutney on the side.

To finish - Finally, and if you've still got room left, I'm serving the least British sourced part of my menu - I have special a Guatemalan and Brazilian coffee blend, or a selection of herbal teas to round off your meal with some of my ginger shortbreads.

It's £30 a head for the evening, and includes all of the above! It's going to be a really fun, food filled evening and I hope as many of you as possible can come along!

You can get your tickets here.

If you can't make this date but are interested in future events, do check back on my blog - there's a link on top right to A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS POP UPS and I will keep that updated with details of my events.

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BUTCHERY COURSE AT THE GINGER PIG

For my birthday this year, amongst other very lovely presents, I was spoilt with a magimix from my parents (how I've longed for one!) and from my very generous brother and his girlfriend, a voucher for a beef butchery course at The Ginger Pig.

So last night, apron in tow, I headed to The Ginger Pig on Moxton Street for a night of beef!

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