The Menu for the 29th of April

A trip to London!

Last weekend I whizzed off to London to catch up with friends and sample some different food experiences/inspiration. First stop Bronte Heights for a few pints of exquisite gin and tonic and I hit the sack! Only to wake up the next day with a horrendous hangover! The cure: Brixton indoor market. A wondrous mix of exciting dining experiences and normal market fare. We sat down at gingham clad tables at Brixton Cornercopia which had a stunning menu and really cool dining experience. I love the menus really simply done (knife and fork on a photocopier) but so fit for purpose. A beautiful bunch of anemones in a milk bottle as a simple table decoration . The menu offers local produce lovingly transformed into classics with inspiring twists like:Poached duck egg, toasted muffin & chili bearnaise sauce, and more off the wall brunch ideas like Salmon, saffron and mussel herb gratin, potato and watercress salad. Anyway as beautiful as the place looked and the menu sounded it was booked out for a party of 25 so we had to move on(next time!). We ended up in Hive sitting on the pavement eating poached eggs and burgers soaking up the city sun. All very inspiring!

Next stop Volupte a burlesque supper club, for a friends’ 30^th. A great show a truly amazing belly dancer however the food was in true London style on the expensive side. I would like to share some photos but I got so drunk they are all a bit shaky (a sure sign of a good night)! I have one vivid memory of an opera singing bar man (sounds like a scene from fear and loathing in Las Vegas!).

Final stop Hackney! To the home of The Political Pop Up Restaurant. There idea is to create a “1970s-style consciousness raising exercise *cum* trendy east-end pop-up restaurant’

20 people come to a pop-up restaurant in the Old St area for an evening of a great, affordable dinner and an engaging, manageable (yet authoritative) presentation on how to make sense of everything that’s going on with the recent financial crisis and government spending cuts to public services; arts, higher education, disability allowances, etc.”

 scrumptious bean and feta salad with beautiful roast veg and carrot salad (just what you need when you have drunk too much!)

 home made garden table(flower pot!)

 Susanna bringing on the Patatas bravas!

No pop up unfortunately but we had our own political debate and wonderful veggie food created by Susanna (chef) in her lovely garden by candle light. We constructed garden furniture with a making do and getting by ethic! I’m hoping that John and Susanna will come and do a political pop up in Nottingham some time soon (fingers crossed). But if you can’t wait for that email him on politicalpopup@gmail.com and attend his next event.

A truly inspirational but tiring weekend!

Artisan Bread Making

Those of you who know me, know that I am addicted to radio 4 (no need to snigger), and on one hung over Sunday I was listening to the food programme (one of my favourites along with Open Book and The Archers!) and heard about The School of Artisan Food. I was instantly excited by the idea that there was a centre of excellence for learning about specialist food production. However what really made me excited was when I realised it was just up the A60 on Welbeck estate. As quickly as I could I booked my self on the next course: an intro to European baking. Last Sunday I attended the course lead by world-class baker Emmanuel Hadjiandreou and set about recreating sunflower rye bread, sourdough grissini and olive fougasse (Yep I had to Wikipedia them to know what they were before I went!).

Quite frankly it was wonderful! Check out my photos to see what I made; and sample them at the next Nottingham Underground Bakery at Deux on Easter Sunday.

 Rye bread looks like stuffing, don't you think?

 Finished rye bread propper yummy

 Fougasse

 Fougasse means ladder in french (well thats what they told me ) hence the shape.

 Finished fougasse

 Grissini made with sourdough ( basically posh italian bread sticks).

  Grissini are great for desk top munchies, I talk from experiance!

To the right my tidy work space (a sight to behold!) in the old converted fire station bakery on the Welbeck estate, a beautiful setting to bake.

The Wedding!

So it’s the Royal wedding! Your probably not to bothered about the wedding but you have got a day off! So come and celebrate at the Alternative Royal Wedding Party on the evening of the 29^th of April, its Mexican themed with amazing live music and local artisans scattered all over! However as the pop up restaurant is not like a regular walk-in restaurant you need to book. I will send directions(a bit like an illegal rave!),menu and details of which artists and performers will be attending this month. During the weeks running up to the big event I will be posting about each musician, artist, designer and crafts person who will be contributing, to give you a better idea of what the night will be like.

To book email:
info@nottsunderground.co.uk
or ring on:
07514625697

Molly’s Marvellous Market

 The stand :

   The stand again!!!

 Not so cross hot cross buns!

  Lauren (miss Molly Queen herself!) and Pete

  Debs and the hard core underground supporter Lou!

April the end of the tax year …. The end of my “real” job, redundancy and the dole queue beckons! However all is not lost! At a time when I should be depressed I am inspired and excited; largely because this weekend I launched the Nottingham Underground Bakery at Molly’s Marvellous Market. The response was fab! It was so great to be chatting to people and to be doing some thing practical and creative again. I hope to start baking a small batch every Wednesday and Saturday to begin with so keep your eyes on face book and twitter to see what I’m baking. Order by phone, email or face book/twitter, orders will initially be on a first come first serve basis but when I find a bigger oven the they will be more regular.

Phone: 07514625697

Email:info@nottsunderground.co.uk

Facebook: Beth Notts-Underground

Twitter: Bethmarriott@puttheovenon