Once again we had a great supperclub with a lively and interesting mix of guests. The table was full, the wine was flowing and the food kept on coming! I didn’t get a chance to take any photos which is rubbish but I am going to do a write up anyway. Our next supperclub will be next month so watch this space….

Saira

It’s hard work, all this chopping and marinading but lots of fun with a few glasses of bubbly to accompany it! Looking forward to tomorrow night and serving our guests fantastic Punjabi food.

Joginder’s Supperclub will be lending a culinary hand to Moel Faban’s Secret Supperclub in North Wales on Saturday 20th February. My cousin Denise is creating an Indian Banquet for the evening, so we will be serving up some of our dishes as well. Please click on the link to view her website!

Saira

We are cooking a buffet for friends and family today. Whilst this is not in theory a supperclub I’m going to do a write up anyway as we are trying out some new dishes. We hope everyone is having a jolly christmas and eating far too much!

Saira x

All I can say is that we had an amazing ‘small’ selection of guests. I understand the frustration of other fellow supperclubbers when people cancel with only hours before the dinner. Thankfully we have many friends and family who came and joined us on the sunday and we had an impromptu sunday lunch! We are looking forward to our first supper club in 2010 on Jan.16th but in the meantime are having a break for Christmas. So we thank all our guests this year for supporting us and we look forward to welcoming many more of you  in 2010. We wish you all a Very Merry Xmas and a Happy New 2010 .

We had  another great evening with our guests! The conversation flowed and the food kept on coming. Politics is always a subject to side step when sitting around the table but last night the debate was friendly. I learnt more about Eastern Europe, Cuba, Margaret Thatcher, Opera and the list goes on. Detailed write up to follow shortly and we are already looking forward to the next one as we clear up from last night !

Saira

p.s The fish curry was a huge hit again ! Thank you Chris for your fantastic encouragement for our cooking.

Melissa Holston, artistic director of Comyns Carr and owner and producer of Tygers-Heart records will be on hand to offer advice to new writers around the table during supper.

Saira

I am going to get my thinking cap on to serve food that will do justice to creative talent. It will be North Indian Punjabi food but maybe along the lines of celebration and festive food – now let me think? mmmmmmmmmmm…………………….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ma Rani

Had friends over from France staying with us this weekend so decided to try out the menu with them. I particularly wanted to see their response to the festive parsnip curry. My older son was also over and his tast buds are very ‘alert’. By the time the sabji was tasted a few (!!) times a little was left but the addition of the little bit of extra chillie and lemon juice was just perfect and I have the exact taste I need – just the way my mother made it!! In fact Carolyn insisted that the ‘first’ jogindersupperclub was at her house in France last summer when I cooked for 10 of her friends. So I reminded myself of that faboulous weekend in Central France in the beautifull sunshine by looking at all the photos.

Well what can I say? We had a terrific first supper club on Saturday. We had such a mix of guests ranging from teachers to a theatre director to a food blogger! Here is a little account of the evening; I didn’t take as many pictures as I should have done, particularly of the food or our infamous masala chicken. I will be more camera happy next time!

Friday had been our prep day and we had also paid a visit to Kingsbury to pick up the fresh meat and the Indian sweets from our friends at ‘Sweet & Spice’ on Kingsbury High road. We also managed to stuff ourselves on Parathas and Daal at the Rose, a fantastic vegetarian Indian restaurant also on the High road. I digress….back to the day in question.

Unfortunately we had a cancellation at 3pm on Saturday afternoon. I couldn’t fill the places and I felt really frustrated that people would cancel so late without giving any sort of reason.  The library room  table was reset for seven people instead of ten. This meant that later on in the evening there was room for me, Mum and even  Dad to pull up a chair to chat and have a drink with our guests! Pulling myself back from disappointment I set to work on the first room that people would enjoy a glass or two of cava and the Pakoras in. My Dad ended up co-hosting the first part of the evening with me and he was fab to the point that it is now three of us running Joginder’s supper club not two! My dear friend Melissa came along for moral support as did Mum’s friend Sonya. The door bell went at 7.15pm on the dot and by 7.30pm  all our supper club guests were seated in the drawing room enjoying the roaring fire and getting to know each other. I hadn’t anticipated that people would be so prompt (don’t get me wrong though, I like promptness!). I was now thinking that 8pm was too late to serve the starters. The conversation was flowing and I needn’t have worried as two bottles of cava were consumed in half an hour.

We had two vegetarians so we added to the menu especially for the evening. The spicy haddock curry and cornish sardines in a masala sauce went down well. I am told that even the meat eaters helped themselves to a taste of the haddock. The kitchen was calm; Dad had retired to watch the football with a plate of pakoras. One by one the main dishes came out. Lamb followed by chicken masala, basmati rice, tarka daal, channa…the list goes on and fortunately so did everyone’s stomachs! Mum set to work making the roti (which is a light Indian bread). The best thing about the way we serve our food is that our guests help themselves to how much they want and when the bowl is empty it is more often than not refilled. We believe in seconds! I just want to add at this point that I found out from Mum later that two out four of her hobs packed up and she was cooking with only two for the whole evening. I’m going to find a suitable medal for her to wear.

I also encouraged people to venture into the kitchen to say hello and Mum ended up giving an impromptu lesson in cooking with spices! You can see the kitchen from the table so we can be seen preparing each course. This is something that people liked about the evening.

By 9.30pm we had poured ourselves a glass of Pinot Grigio and were chatting to our guests who were keen to ask Mum lots of questions about her Indian heritage. A pencil drawing of my grandmother, Joginder, hangs in the dining room and she too became a talking point for my Mum who recounted stories of cooking in East Africa.

For dessert we served a spicy fruit salad in a homemade masala sauce with vanilla ice cream. For me, this sort of dessert if perfect after an array of curries as your palate is refreshed ready for the next course. Coffee, homemade masala tea and Indian sweets were next on the menu. I had turned away for second  and when I turned back some sort of contest was being set up. Helen, one of our guests had asked if we were serving shop bought masala ‘chai’. It is in Mum’s cupboard and mine. However, no, we weren’t going to be serving shop bought tea….unless people would prefer it. Helen then suggested that we all do a taste test. The ‘Masala Chai Challenge’ at Joginder’s supper club was born! Mum prepared the tea we were serving anyway and I made the shop bought chai. Well I say made, I put two tea bags in a pot and poured in the hot water. Our homemade tea doesn’t require you to add milk as it is made with milk in the pan. If you need sugar you should only add a small teaspoon so the slight spicy taste doesn’t get lost. Everyone now had a cup of each tea and there was a brief silence as we sipped our teas. I can tell you now that our homemade tea won but it was an interesting comparison as Kathleen and Din (two of our guests) said that they would have been happy with either as Indian tea in general has a nice taste. The Indian sweets went down very well. We ended up using the whole box.

Things wound down by 11.30pm and our guests left feeling full but happy, we were told. They liked the small number of people as it created a cosy intimate feel around the table. We all agreed that it felt like we had known each other longer than one evening.

We are looking forward to our next supper club on 12^th December which promises to be as lively and fun as this one! Thanks again to all our guests who made the evening really enjoyable for us.

Saira

Prepping the veg and there was alot of it!

Mum's new copper pan bought from France

Mum let me loose on some of the sauces!

The menu for the evening.

The table set for seven. We can seat up to twelve for supper.

A moment of calm....

Roti, a light indian bread to accompany the main meal.

Spicy fruit salad in a masala sauce served with vanilla ice cream.

The end. Tired but very happy.