Three weeks ago we announced the 2nd Plate Lickers Supper Club, this time with a Middle Eastern theme. Places filled fast and before we knew it, our chosen day, Friday 13th July had rolled around and myself and Ivana (Miss Igs) were embarking upon a very busy day of last minute preparation and cooking ready for our full house of 30 hungry Cambridge foodies! We were still buzzing from our first event back in May and although the feedback we’d received from our guests was wonderfully positive we were determined to up our game and push the boat out even more this time!
We concentrated on using as many local suppliers as possible, one of whom was fruit & veg afficionado, Twitter veteran, Managing Director of Cambridge Fruit Company and serial Foodcycle donator Mr Neil B. Neil was great…he gave us advice on seasonality, price and quantity and then sourced and delivered delicious veggies straight to our door with a huge smile…
We were particularly excited about our secret venue…which we revealed the day before the supper club to be St Paul’s on Hills Road. I’d like to give a big thank you to John, the Centre Manager for all of his help and for allowing us to borrow the church, which we set about dressing in true Plate Lickers style…
and unveiled our Middle Eastern inspired menu…
At 7.30pm our guests arrived…
and were greeted with a pomegranate & vodka cocktail…
and homemade hummus and aubergine dips…
When everyone had settled down at their tables we handed around teacups of our green gazpacho, a refreshing mix of spinach, cucumber, green pepper, chilli, garlic, parsley, yoghurt and ice…
and then it was time for the main event…pork belly, a whopping 8.5kg of Dingley Dell pork belly to be precise…
I’d like to give a very special shout out to the lovely butchers at Andrew Northrop Butchers on Mill Road. When I popped in to have a chat and order our meat they were so helpful, advising me on quantities, whether to cook it on or off the bone (we opted for on) and more importantly, imparting their wisdom on exactly how to make sure our crackling was awesome! They scored the skin for me and then told me that their top crackling tip was to dampen your hand and lightly wipe the surface of the skin wetting it just enough to give the salt something to stick to without soaking it as this would be detrimental to your crackling! As you can see their advice worked wonders!…
You’ll need to keep your eyes peeled on Miss Igs blog to find out exactly how we cooked this beaut, but I can tell you that we ended up with the most tender, fall off the bone, melt in the mouth pork belly, which we served with a couscous salad and a green bean, sugar snap, orange and hazelnut salad and my homemade gooseberry, ginger and elderflower relish (recipe to follow)…
After a refreshing little course of mint tea and orange blossom sorbet we served up the dessert…nut stuffed baked peaches in cinnamon & rosewater syrup with polenta & almond cake…
By this time the light was fading, the atmospheric church setting was coming into its own…
and the wine and conversations was flowing…
We’ve well and truly caught the supper club bug…watch this space for our next date or if you’d like us to keep you informed sign up to our all new mailing list here.
A final thanks to all of our lovely guests, of whom a nerve wracking majority seemed to be food bloggers and writers! We’ve been bowled over by the lovely write ups, mentions and tweets we’ve been receiving since Friday. Here are the ones we know about so far…
Aoife wrote a lovely post about us on her Gastronomic Girls blog here.
Nora has posted about us on her Nora the kitchen ‘Splorer here.
Ireena wrote this on her blog ‘Oh! Not another food blog’
Heidi wrote this fab review, which is also on Local Secrets here.
Afternoon Tease 