We’re pleased to share with you our menu for our May Jerusalem event.
We can’t believe how quickly this event has come around, it feels like only 2 minutes since our last one!
Avid readers will know we’re slightly obsessed with Yotam Ottolenghi. We love his relaxed attitude to food and we love even more his amazing summery flavours.
Expect fun Middle Eastern flavours and a few surprises thrown in…
Roll on the 11th!
As you may know, we do love to flex our baking muscles and crack out our whisks and rolling pins! We’re both keen bakers and we do like to hold the occasional afternoon tea at the Manor.
And that is just what we’re up to this Friday! Whilst this is a private event we thought that you’d like to have a sneaky peek at the menu we’ve designed. We’ve planned a spring theme, given we’ve FINALLY seen the last of the sub zero temperatures!
We’d love to know what you think, would our evening supperclub guests be up for coming round for afternoon tea if we to hold a one-off event?
We’ll be announcing dates soon, so be sure to follow our blog to be the first to know when tickets will be available.
This Saturday saw a bit of China come to the Manor. It was hard work, but using Ken Hom & Ching He-Huan’s book Exploring China, we were able to pull off what we hope was an authentic feast! The book is a really good introduction into the regional cuisines within China and shows that Chinese food is definitely not all MSG laden and greasy, which is unfortunately the misconception we have in the UK. Dan and I were immediately attracted to the Sichuan dishes within the book and most of the dishes we served up followed that lead.
Up next is our April event – this one sees me going back to my “roots” and we’ll be cooking up a delectable feast of Chinese dishes from Ken Hom and Ching He Huan’s 2012 book Exploring China.
In a departure from our usual proceedings, we’ll be serving up an array of dishes “family style”, which is exactly the Chinese way. There are also a couple of surprise additions, which will be served up on the night – don’t worry, we won’t be serving up chicken feet or other such delicacies!
We’ve tested the recipes and think that whilst familiar, they will give a great spin on traditional Chinese dishes. This event will be exciting and interactive, and one we’re both looking forward to.
We’ll see our guests on the 20th!
We’re going all French later this month in homage to Rachel Khoo and her popular book of 2012 The Little Paris Kitchen.
Her modern take on French classics are a refreshing change – we used her book for a couple of private events we’ve held at the Manor and we’ve been so impressed that decided to dust it off again!
With the weather taking (we hope!) a turn for the better we’ve created a menu with a springtime theme to it.
We hope our guests enjoy!
Bonsoir! As you may have seen, our next event will have a French theme, where we will be using the wonderful Rachel Khoo as inspiration I was lucky enough to be in Paris at the beginning February so I took it upon myself to do a little bit of R&D before our March event! Laduree, Pierre Herme and a few other places were ticked off my list and I can’t wait to use some of these sweet ideas next month!
Another thing I wanted to do was attend a Parisian supperclub, but not having enough any French conversational skills made me write off the idea, until…
Eight strangers, one table, Paris. Four Brits, six Americans, (two living in London, relocating to LA, two living in the States and two living in Paris) this was truly a global dining experience! Yes, I was lucky enough to be part of an Anglophone, Parisian communal dinner at cult restaurant Verjus!
Run by American couple Braden and Laura, Verjus is a labour of love and passion for food. The child of now defunct secret supperclub the Hidden Kitchen, where Laura and Braden used their supperclub to meet new folk, they took the massive steps to open their own bona fide restaurant.
I had been looking for a restaurant for Nick and I to visit over the weekend in Paris and having learned about Verjus’ story, I immediately wanted to visit. I emailed to reserve a table for two, and to my surprise Laura responded saying that they were holding a communal dinner in their newly refurbished Barnaby Room and would we like to come! A communal dinner? In Paris? If I could’ve bitten Laura’s hand off I would!
Eight courses, with paired wines for €100. A bargain to my mind and waited in anticipation!
The restaurant itself lies in a small passageway overlooking the Theatre du Palais-Royale and inside the dim lit interior was intimate, warm and welcoming and at 8.00pm was already full. Shown upstairs to the private dining room, we were the second guests to arrive. Introductions were made with our dining pals (Them = glamourous US marketing types currently in London, relocating to LA. Us = Less glamourous Yorkshire folk 
) then we got to look at the menu for the evening… treating ourselves to a glass of champagne as we perused. Needless to say I was salivating…
This was truly a menu which was a clash of different cultures and flavours – harrissa, kimchi, sauerkraut and peanut butter all on one menu? To my mind it made me think of US, and indeed UK culture – it is now a mish mash of flavours. How it should be!
The other guests filtered through, some previous guests, some new. All excited about the prospect of the menu but I also think equally excited about the prospect of spending several hours with strangers! Which I think is the most exciting thing about what we do at the Manor – yes the food is important but for us its the prospect of meeting new people that spurs us on!
Anyway, I won’t go into a long essay describing each and every course because I don’t actually think I’d be able to do the food justice if I did. You don’t need me to use the words “yum” “nom” over a hundred times! Needless to say the food was stunning. The ingredients we so fresh! Braden later told us that they only work with a handful of regular suppliers and that Verjus basically have to try and adapt their menus depending on whats available to them, which I love.
Highlights for me were the scallops – so soft! The warm egg yolk, the hangar steak and definitely both puddings! The citrus curd was clean, sour and palate cleansing whilst the peanut butter mouse was the equivalent of an all American heart attack. Delicious!
We were even given a surprise unadvertised course – a salad of shaved foie gras, baby spinach, pickled grapes, hazelnuts and shaved crimini mushrooms. A great way of serving such a rich ingredient.
Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures – as a group we all got on so well that I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of conversation with my flash going off every course! I did manage to take a couple, of the scallops and the peanut butter, which will give you an idea of how beautifully everything was presented.
Coffees and petit fours were served (Habanero pate de fruit!) and before we knew it, it was unfortunately time to leave…past 1am! We couldn’t have met the nicest group of people to share an evening in Paris with. It’s a testament to Braden and Laura that they have been able to create such a real “supperclub” feel to their restaurant with these communal dinners. Subjects we all chatted about ranged from the Oscars, football, rugby union (and the nude calendar the French team posed for – who knew!?) and Cats. The food all the while bringing us together.
Conversation at the end of the night turned to meeting up again at Verjus in a year’s time. Will we? Who knows? All I know is that it was a wonderful way to spend an evening in Paris, one I won’t forget in a long time.
Verjus, 47, rue de Montpensier, Paris, FR.
The annual Dinner at the Manor vegetarian event is coming up in just over two weeks, and this time we are using River Cottage Veg for inspiration!
We love the challenge of cooking meat free feasts, we really hope our guests look forward to sampling our efforts on the night.
There will be some familiar tastes and some intriguing ones too to get our guests thinking about new ways with veg, they’ll definitely be getting their 5 a day on the 16th!
Let us know what you think, what are your favourite ways with veg?
Here at the Manor, we’ve been inundated with requests for new dates, so we’re pleased to announce a handful of dates for April – June. Book on now to avoid disappointment!
Saturday 20th April – A Chinese culinary adventure - Sold Out
This event will be inspired by the book that accompanied the hit BBC show by Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang. This will be an exciting event as it will take Dan into a new culinary territory and Susie back to her Chinese roots!
Saturday 11th May – Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem - Sold Out
This event will be inspired by Ottolenghi’s colourful and exciting Jerusalem book and will help us bring a true Mediterranean feast to West Leeds!
Saturday 15th June – An Indian Summer - Sold Out
For this event we’ll be using our favourite Indian cookery books to put together a grand and spicy banquet, we hope this will ensure that summer is started with a bit of heat!
Places are limited at all all of these events and we expect them to get booked up fast – book now.
Saturday 20th April
Sorry, this event is sold out
We’ll be taking our diners to the East for our April event, using Ken Hom and Chin He-Huan’s book Exploring China. I’m really excited about this one, as although my father is from Hong Kong and I eat a lot of Chinese food, I can’t say I cook lots of it and hopefully will bring me back to my roots.
For those of you that saw the accompanying TV show, the pair travelled through China and its provinces to explore the different cultures and food each region has to offer.
Don’t expect your average Westernised Chinese grub, this is going to be an explosion of flavour and hopefully a surprising one!
Sorry, this event is sold out
The past weekend saw the return of Mexican flavours at the Manor – it may have been chilly outside, but we brought some much needed warmth, spice and sunshine! We didn’t quite get through a hundred limes, maybe around fifteen, but we did use thirty six eggs, thirty eight passionfruits and made over fifty tortillas! Hard work, but worth it! As soon as we held our last Mexican event in 2012, we were keen to make a return. This time we used Thomasina Miers’ second Mexican book, Wahaca – Mexican Food at Home, another book that has been a favourite of ours in 2012, which we both cook from regularly as unfortunately there are no Wahaca restaurants north of the M25 – Boo! Fresh, punchy flavours were the order of the day and our lively guests, some returning diners, some new to supperclubs as a whole, seemed to love them too!
