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

What is an Underground Restaurant I hear you ask?

Ok so loads of people have asked me what an Underground Restaurant is. So I thought I would give you lovely people a breakdown of what specifically Nottingham Underground Restaurant is. An Underground restaurant is a restaurant that is usually run from somebody’s home. However because my house is too small to fit all Simons bikes and 30 odd diners, I have opted to run them from community centres and other community based venues like disused shops. 

Underground restaurants are also referred to as supper clubs (for about six months my dyslexic brain could not understand why they were called super clubs!), pop up restaurants or guestaurants. Apparently the Underground restaurant phenomena really took off in Latin America and infiltrated in to the US. However I would suspect that this sort of dining has been going for years. Only the other day I was chatting to the butcher about the concept and he explained that he had been to one in the 80’s out in Clifton village. However since the recession the underground restaurant scene has really taken off in London, and like every thing it takes a while for towns north of Luton to get with the programme!

Underground restaurants defiantly offer good value for money, for a recession busting donation of £15 pounds Nottingham Underground Restaurant can offer you 3 scrumptious courses and entertainment. However the dining experience is different to what you would get in a regular recession busting high street restaurant. At Nottingham Underground I aim to offer the diner a different and intimate dinner party experience. At the first pop up event I notice initially people found it perhaps a little odd sitting with people they did not know. However after the first complimentary glass of bubbly people started to chat, by the end of the night one lady was getting plumbing advice, another group of people were discussing palates moves and others were finding out where all the cool kids go to watch new music. So you never know who you will be sitting with!

Another thing that will make your experience very different to your high street restaurants; is I try to involve as many local producers, artists and performers as possible. At the last event Daisy Cope fashion designer made some funky napkins, Tracey Mcmaster did a sterling performance art piece , Penny Spreadbury provide jewellery for the staff and Ed Bannard performed. So it gives the diner opportunities to experience local talent that may not have been unearthed on the high street.

When developing the menus I really try to offer the diner and experience that they would not find on the high street of Nottingham. As the menus are set I offer a meat option and a vegan option; I often can when informed beforehand adapt the menu to accompany wheat free and other dietary requirements. I enjoy the challenge! I made lush wheat free dairy free syrup cake last time! Also when developing menus I try to think of experiences we may not get on the provincial streets of Nottingham. I like to offer world food cuisine: the last pop up was Middle Eastern the next on the 29^th of April will have a Mexican theme arriba arriba! 

                                                        Wheat free Dairy free cake looking 

                                                                       scrumptious!

The whole concept of underground restaurants is really to provide interesting good quality “home style” cooking to encourage interaction between the tables. So there will be loads of “pass the sauce” moments. Surely the Underground Restaurant phenomena is the speed dating of the twenty tens!  

Nottingham Underground is eventually set to run once a week in different venues around Nottinghamshire. Some weeks we will be reaching out to the small villages, who perhaps miss out on the bright light of the city centre! Other weeks we will be sticking a little closer to home. My events will be advertised on my blog www.nottsunderground.co.uk , face book, twitter and word of mouth so to see this text you have to be in the know! I hope to see you at the next underground event on the 29^th of  April, where we will be having a Mexican themed alt royal wedding event! 

 

You got to love Fennel

I love fennel it is one of my fave veggies, it adds so much scrumptiousness to such basic recipes. So when I found out that Fennel seed, Onion seed and Black sesame seeds are considered to be basic bread spices in the Middle East I could not wait to have a crack at baking bread with them. Check out my attached recipe, this is the rustic olive and fennel bread I made at the 2nd Nottingham Underground Restaurant event,. I hope you like it.

1st of March

Thought you might like this calendar for March, designed by me, I ment to do it for January and February but forgot! I will remember to do it next month!