|Last night was amazing and what a fantastic gathering of guests. I know that Saira will be adding to this post but am aware how busy she is with her show at the South Bank. Went to see ‘ The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner ‘ today – fantastic!!!

I just want to THANK our small gathering of 8 guests who donated an amazing £230 in aid of  our chosen charity – ‘Cancer Research & Breast Cancer Awareness’.

We hope someone from the charity will be posting something also.

The next supper club is on Saturday 10th April so do check out the menu.

I was in  two minds about shopping this afternoon or tomorrow morning. I am lucky enough to teach in a school where we finish at lunchtime so I decided to go for it even though  I was exhausted after a week of teaching so didn’t really fancy it. However, I did check with Saira ( also exhausted after a week at the South Bank )  for cancellations before I went shopping and luckily there were none. So I went and bought all the food.

I cannot tell you the pleasure in buying fresh ingredients to cook a meal. I hope our guests will enjoy the food tomorrow evening. I have been prepping and cooking most of the evening with a short break with my husband and son to have a lovely meal at our local gastro pub called ‘The Junction ‘.

Looking forward to tomorrow night!

Salt is a very important flavouring in every cuisine in the world. However, it is only a very small part of the flavour of the dish. Most cuisines around the world realize that a small amount of salt ‘alerts’ our flavour taste buds which then alert the ‘sour, sweet and bitter’ buds.

However, the wide variety of international taste sensations which we experience when we eat and drink can only be explained by the fact that our sense of smell also plays an important part – when you are tasting something you are also smelling  it. Have you noticed that if you eat something when you have a cold you actually ‘taste’ nothing – both senses are impaired!.

If people have had  a high salt diet it is going to be hard to get used to a low salt diet and appreciate the ‘FLAVOURS’ of the food.  But I promise you that you will not miss the levels of salt used but will enjoy the different flavors of the curries’ and their allocated level of salt .

I will continue to use my level of salt in my dishes and  my diners can, if they so wish, add a little more because you can’t take it away

Thank you Chris!!  Looking forward to seeing you and Dave  on the 27th.

Due to unforeseeable circumstances our road trip to North Wales and the supperclub has been cancelled for this weekend, but we are rescheduling for a later date. Maybe when this weather turns a little friendlier! We are doing a big family dinner instead and trying out lots of new dishes on our unsuspecting siblings and otherhalves so watch this space for photos! See you on the 27th if you have booked for our charity night

Saira & Rani x

Thank you to Ms Marmitelover and owner of ‘The Underground Restaurant’  for her appreciative  review. We are glad that you had a good evening! Click on the link on the blogroll to read the review (The Underground Restaurant)

Saira  x

I wish I had the time to write as prolifically as  some other supper club ‘owners ‘ do. I didn’t think it was important to put up lots of photos etc. etc. prior to a supper evening but I think I will have to try harder to  to give our diners an idea of what we will serve them.  It does not make the food any better because the dishes are not invented but are cooked as I learnt from Beje and I have cooked them for the last 35 years.

When I got married in 1974 the highlight of a  ‘new wife’ was to have a dinner party ( ‘ Abigail’s Party’  – a little later but the concept is the same!)  My favourite was French food and I still think that I can cook a respectable ‘Boeuf Bourguignon’ and ‘Coq au Vin’. Very many holidays in France and many friends from France coming to visit us were probably the reason for this!. However, now and then I thought I would surprise  them and cook my Punjabi food and wait for the reaction! !

30 years later all my friends expect to eat my home cooked Punjabi food and 99% of the time they seem to be disappointed if I want to serve anything else. I only do it if I want to try something different because I love cooking and am always trying something new.

My helpers in this task, I hope will be ‘ Chris and Dave’ – our guests who have been to all our supper clubs . They love Indian food and are so knowledgable about it and are happy to tell me what they enjoy. We look forward to seeing them and all our other guests for our Charity event on the 27th Feb.

Have a look at our menu, if it is something you like the sound off then please do book a space. All of the donations will be going to Cancer Research, who have kindly provided donation boxes for us to use on the night. It is something close to our hearts and this seems a perfect way of raising money for a very worthy cause! (You don’t have to wear pink but the more the merrier!)

Saira x

The eyes are my Bejee (grandmother) which has created our website header. Her portrait hangs, pride of place in the dining room. My uncle (Ma Rani’s older brother)commissioned the pencil portrait many years ago in Nairobi, East Africa. I got quite sentimental about her today, she taught me my first words in Punjabi and the strongest memory I have of her is cooking daal and rice for me when I was three and helping me to finish the snow white jigsaw she had bought as a present. My mum was just starting out as a teacher when I was born and because of the long hours, didn’t want to leave me with a child minder. So I would go to my grandparents four days a week. I don’t speak Punjabi very well now but I do understand it. So by writing this I have just realised where my love for ‘the best dish in the world ever’ comes from.  Daal and rice the way I like  it was made Bejee style and thank goodness mum makes it just as good!

Saira x