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My arse, my dad, heat and ash at The Underground Lunch

April 19, 2010 18 Comments Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

Shhh, don’t tell The Underground… (Pic: Gavin Rodgers)

Morel mushrooms from L.Booth in Borough Market

Rigatoni Puttanesca…or whore’s pasta, ‘puttana’ is Italian for prostitute (pic: Gavin Rodgers)
Lenny and Adam helped out…

Les tricoteuses…a group named Eat1Knit1.

So nice when guests dress up…so cheering
Fish waiting to go into the oven (pic: Gavin Rodgers)

Sea bass with morels and potatoes
Blood orange, fennel, pomegranate and mint salad

Cheeses from Neal’s Yard:
plus feijoa, a guava-like fruit that can be eaten like an apple, pecan nuts and my fig confit (braised for three weeks in red wine) (not pictured)

Rhubarb fool

I left the rhubarb syrup on the Aga overnight and by the morning it was rhubarb flavoured caramel
Tits and tats: an illustrious and illustrated guest…who fell wearing perilously high heels the night before and broke her nose…

Yes in the corner that is MsMarmitelover typically wearing too short a dress. All kitchen staff and most guests have, by now, seen my arse. Which is quite pert as it happens. (pic: Gavin Rodgers)

Such hot weather that guests took dessert and coffee in the garden… (Pic: Gavin Rodgers)

As ash paralysed and quietened the skies of Europe, it was a beautiful day for The Underground Lunch … if it carries on like this, I’d like to have tables outside. If anyone has any garden tables and chairs they can donate please get in touch.

On one table we had les tricoteuses, knitting between courses; on another, sat my parents, my brother and his wife. My dad talked to one of the knitters:

“I had a nice chat with that girl with the tattoos. She’s a single mum, likes crochet and she’s not a lesbian.” He told me, looking pleased with himself.

“You asked her that?”

“Well, yes”

Groaning internally I went over to her and, trying to make light of my family’s very own Prince Phillip, chortlingly asked:

“Did my dad ask if you were a lesbian?”

“Sure” she drawled forgivingly in a Californian accent “but hey, that’s ok. I was hoping he would kiss me. I don’t know why he didn’t”

“Um, maybe because my mum would have objected?” I ventured…thinking now that would be an event, my dad getting off with a guest…

Her eyes widened “Well he never mentioned her…”

Menu:

Kir Royale

Rigatoni Puttanesca (for me, a Sunday lunch should start with pasta)

Seabass with morel mushrooms and potatoes

Veggie Option: Morel gratin (really bloody delicious, the veggies aren’t fobbed off with leftovers here)

Blood orange, fennel, pomegranate, mint salad with citrus dressing

Cheese board: Sleightly’s (goat), Childwicksbury (goat), Milleen’s (cow), Berkswell (cow), Colston Bassett Stilton (cow), Snowdonia Cheddar (cow). Homemade fig confit, pecan nuts, feijoa fruit, cheese oatcakes and St John’s sourdough bread.

Rhubarb fool

Coffee by Douwe Egberts (vintage blend)

The Underground Cooking class on Saturday went well, we learnt to make focaccia and fresh pasta then sat down to eat.

Charity shop haul this week…constantly need new vintage china and glasses. I’m collecting cut and pressed glass at the moment.
Babycham glasses found in Portobello Market
Recipe for the salad:
Peel the blood oranges, slice thinly
Slice fennel thinly
Pick the seeds from a pomegranate, save to scatter over the top
Some torn mint leaves
A citrus dressing: I used the juice of a blood orange, some lemon, some lemon mustard, olive oil, Malden salt.
Slice up the oranges and fennel.
Layer and marinate with the dressing.
Add the pomegranate seeds and mint leaves
Recipe for the morel gratin:
Potatoes
Butter
Double cream
Vegetable or mushroom stock
salt
Bay leaves
Morel mushrooms
Cheese, say cheddar or caerphilly, grated
Slice potatoes thinly, layer nicely in a buttered baking tin
Do three layers of the potatoes
Dot with cubes of butter
Add a little veg stock, half way up tin
Add enough double cream to cover the potatoes
Slice morels into half, scatter cut side down onto potatoes
Stick in a couple of bay leaves
Salt to taste
Cover with a layer of grated cheese
Bake in a medium oven for 45 minutes

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Comments

  1. Miss Whiplash

    April 19, 2010 at 5:33 pm

    Slavering over your morels picture…
    Were they horrendously expensive?

    Reply
  2. MsMarmitelover

    April 19, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    L.Booth were selling them for £35 a kilo. They were like truffles…perfumed the dish…

    Reply
  3. aforkfulofspaghetti

    April 19, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    Ha ha! Fair play to your dad 😉

    Looks like you all had a lovely time – and blessed by the weather, too. Long may it continue!

    Reply
  4. neil

    April 19, 2010 at 8:13 pm

    Is that Cherie that fell on her face ? If so I've seen her do that before.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    April 19, 2010 at 9:15 pm

    Knit 1 Eat 1!

    Reply
  6. KarlB

    April 19, 2010 at 11:12 pm

    You had Feijoa's! I thought I would never see them used in the UK. As a New Zealander I love them, but apparently many people here don't (especially 42 Below Feijoa Vodka which I think is delish).

    Reply
  7. theundergroundrestaurant

    April 20, 2010 at 4:14 am

    I really liked them Karl, but they are expensive here, a quid each…
    neil yes that is Cherie. What a woman…

    Reply
  8. boy und schwester

    April 20, 2010 at 9:29 am

    Can I ask how you made the rhubarb syrup? I'm making a rhubarb trifle/tiramisu/fool thing tomorrow night and rhubarb syrup would be perfect!

    Reply
  9. theundergroundrestaurant

    April 20, 2010 at 9:41 am

    I braised the rhubarb with sugar…no water, for 45 minutes on a slow oven. Then strained the juice out and reduced it to half. I then left the pan on the closed aga and overnight it became caramel…a really acidic rhubarby caramel…gorgeous.

    Reply
  10. 365 Tage

    April 20, 2010 at 10:02 am

    Ilovethis blog

    Reply
  11. Suffolk Restaurant

    April 20, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    That was such a lovely post, feltlike I ws there thank you. Have added you to my favorites.

    How would I find out if there are any events in my area?

    Thanks in advance

    Reply
  12. boy und schwester

    April 20, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    Thanks! I'm going to try the same, on a gas stove… overnight… hmm!

    Reply
  13. Julie

    April 20, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    Just wanted to say that I had a lovely time at this lunch. Fab food, lovely people, great atmos and just a very nice, unique experience all round.

    Also wanted to say thanks for the singles supperclub advice! Cheers… Will take heed though may still try our luck.

    Thanks again.

    x

    Reply
  14. LexEat!

    April 20, 2010 at 7:39 pm

    Your lunch looks lovely! I particularly love the beautiful photo of the rhubarb fool.

    Reply
  15. Plum Kitchen

    April 20, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    A quid each?! My sister keeps turning up with bags of the sodding things from her tree, I cant keep up (would post some over if I could!)…….wish I could attend in person, love the blog, and the concept. Tried in vain to find something similar here in Auckland, so am starting my own!

    Reply
  16. theundergroundrestaurant

    April 20, 2010 at 10:37 pm

    Boy: the thing about leaving it on an Aga all night is I just left it on top because it's warm all the time.

    365: thanks

    Suffolk Restaurant: I'm not sure in Suffolk. I know there are some in Norfolk. check http://supperclubfangroup.ning.com/ to see if there are any in your area.

    Julie: it's worth a shot. And if you get any decent men who aren't too young, let me know!
    Lex: thank you!
    Plum: they were so delicious…
    Brilliant, yes start your own. My friend @curdnerd is going to start one in New Zealand when he returns home…

    Reply
  17. cherie...

    April 21, 2010 at 2:39 pm

    it was so lovely to meet you and your father and the rest of the underground kitcheners. look forward to spending many more sunny afternoons in your company…and gracing you with a bit of yarnbombing sometime.

    and yes neil it was me…
    luckily i am healing well and nothing a bit of make-up can't cover!

    cherie xxx

    Reply
  18. MsMarmitelover

    April 21, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    Thanks Cherie…would love to be yarnbombed! x

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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