Our favourite time of year

Today, at last, the air smells sweet with Spring and the sky is blue. It’s almost warm here in Edinburgh and we’re pretty excited about the next couple of weeks. The change in seasons brings a wonderful change in available local produce and there’s certainly something about the limited seasons that makes them all the more delightful. And then, there’s our soon to arrive Spring baby. No wonder this is our favourite time of year.

Of course, many chefs have been naturally driven by the seasons for years, but in fairly recent times the words seasonal, local and sustainable have all made fashionable appearances on menus throughout the UK and rightly so, cooking in season, when products are at their best, seems rather obvious.

We have some of the most fabulous producers and products imaginable right here for all levels of culinary skill and palate. We planned our early 2011 menus to make the most of venison, quince, celeriac, forced rhubarb, hare and beetroot, we adore Uncle Joe’s eggs, enjoy reading tips from Tom Kitchin with his from nature to plate philosophy as he champions all things Scottish, we love visiting Stockbridge to try old favourites and be converted to new ones especially in George Bower or Armstrong’s, we have been recently impressed by Guy Grieve and his inspirational ethical seafood story and we can often be found referring to seasonal cook books. The most used in our collection being Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook, Gordon Ramsay’s A chef for all seasons, and The Farmers' Market Round-the-seasons Cookbook. There’s also been a recent new addition to our collection: Mark Hix’s British Seasonal Food, published by Quadrille just a couple of weeks ago.

Each clearly defined month begins with a simple, one page glimpse of key ingredients and continues with a longer list of “other ingredients not to be missed.” With every month there are some classic favourites and some nice, more unusual surprises too. Who knew when pike or pennywort was at its best?

Next, Hix helpfully talks readers through making the most of each month encouraging us to get better at shopping and cooking off the hoof and not simply fall back on the most popular ingredients and prime cuts.

The uncomplicated style is continued with the design which combines comforting, homely photography with simple original drawings and the recipes which, as you might expect, allow the ingredients to speak for themselves, scallops with purple sprouting broccoli (March) being a great example. There’s no doubting Mark’s technical ability or prowess as a restaurateur but he has made his recipes here easy to follow for those who aren’t as blessed.

The layout is straightforward (though I personally would have preferred larger text and one recipe per column or page) and again there’s a careful mix between classics such as piccalilli and cauliflower cheese (both January) and the more unusual cod’s tongues (yikes) with smoked pork belly (January) and red gurnard with sea spinach, steamed cockles and brown shrimps (February).

We’ve tried hard not to gallop ahead into future months but are already anticipating fried duck’s egg with brown shrimps and Sprue asparagus (May) and the summery delights of gooseberry and elderflower meringue pie (June)… and we’ve made a resolution to get better at foraging too. As the month's pass, this is sure to be a book we revisit time and time again.

We do hen dos

Back when the skies were brighter and you could leave the house without a coat, (and scarf and hat), we took the Charlie and Evelyn's experience north for an atypical, August hen do.

The weekend began at a chalet which was transformed into "Lady Oxen of Ford's Northern Residence" for a murder mystery evening and a wonderful script, based loosely on the hen's life and written with amazing skill by one of the bridemaids, Jen. It was complete with unexpected telegrams, clues and fabulous costumes and characters (and even a couple of outfit changes for me as waitress)!

The tables, all set.


Hen do in progress

Working closely with Jen, and keeping our plans and even our involvement secret from the bride to be, we created a menu which incorporated the bride's favourite flavours including: Stornoway black pudding, lentils and white fish. Here at Charlie and Evelyn's Table, we like to make things easy for your events, so we were also able to take care of the food for the rest of the weekend.

We stocked the fridge for a continental breakfast and afternoon BBQ on Saturday and a full Scottish breakfast on Sunday, meaning all the hens had to worry about was contributing to the costs and enjoying themselves.

Our first hen do dined on:

Friday evening

To welcome
Crudités with butterbean and rosemary hummus (v)
Marrow and coconut soup shots (v)
Stornoway black pudding with baked apple

To start
Pea and leek soup, smoked salmon, cucumber

* Smoked salmon and cucumber, served with the soup (not pictured).

To follow
Pan fried haddock with mild lentil curry, citrus yoghurt and courgette fritters


To finish

Charlie and Evelyn’s house selection of cheeses including gorgonzola mousse served with homemade oakcakes, honey and walnut soda bread, grapes and “to die for chutney”.

Each hen also got to take home a mini jar of chutney as a momento.

Saturday

For breakfast
Mixed melon and strawberry salad
Vanilla yoghurt
Croissants and pan au chocolat
Orange juice and apple juice
Tea, coffee and milk

For the BBQ
Monkfish and pancetta skewers
Homemade beef and haggis burgers
Roasted vegetable skewers (v)
Field mushrooms with chilli oil (v)
Served with homemade ciabatta rolls
Tomato and red onion salad
Green salad Potato salad
Charlie and Evelyn’s house dressing

Sunday

For breakfast
Full Scottish: sausage, bacon, Stornoway black pudding, eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes, potato scones.
Juices, teas and coffees.

And, just to complete the story, here's what the bridesmaids had to say about the experience:

"This is a very belated thank you for creating such a wonderful weekend for us at Debbie's Hen 2010 in August.

You prepared the most wonderful menu, provided a truly outstanding service and took all the stress of catering for so many people away from us so that we could relax and enjoy the weekend.

Not only was the menu you prepared for the Friday evening absolutely delicious, the food for the whole weekend was amazing. I particularly loved the monkfish and pancetta skewers for the BBQ, oh and the home made bread - to die for, you could sell that in the local deli!

I cannot recommend you guys highly enough and tell everyone about how special you made the weekend for us and at an unbelievably reasonable price.

Rachel, thank you so much for getting invlolved in all of the activites and Chris, how you managed to cook such and exquisite meal for so many in a kitchen with no oven and only two electric rings I honestly don't know but it was some of the best food we have ever tasted - very talented.

Thanks again and hope to see you guys soon.

Take care
Jen, Sharon and Laura (Debbie's bridesmaids)."

*As you might imagine, we were a tad busy to take our usual photos, so thanks to one of the "hens" Graeme for these shots!

Review of Supper Three

Furnished with an eclectic mix of old and new, boasting walls adorned by the chef's own art collection, Charlie and Evelyn’s old table has found its perfect home.

Come here for a perfectly measured haute-cuisine experience.

My wife, Jennifer, and I were fortunate to receive a second invitation to this well received new home restaurant, and our only regret is having had to pass on last month’s sitting due to our extensive international travel commitments.

We arrived fashionably late, Jennifer looking gorgeous as usual and me even more so.

Bumping into two other guests, we all made our way up the stairs exchanging nervous chatter about what lay before us. Will our hosts sit with us, do we pour our own drinks, what if the food is poor and how do we bridge the awkwardness of paying friends for dinner?

We were all warmly greeted by our hostess for the night, Rachel, who radiated with a post holiday spender. Coats were checked, kisses swapped and ice broken as we made our way to the living room for a welcome drink on the house.

The gents opted for beers, which were served in continental style glasses adding a degree of sophistication to an otherwise middle of the road drink. Jen W opted for water whilst Jennifer was served a delicious looking, and tasting, gin and tonic.

Rachel explained how things would work, and then excused herself returning a few minutes later with the canapés, consisting of haggis bons bons followed by scallops served with a cauliflower puree.

The haggis bons bons were good, but by their very nature will never win any awards, whereas the scallops were exceptional. Delicate and tasty they were perfectly accompanied by the cauliflower. The serving, I feel, could only be bettered by the removal of the ‘extra’ bit of red coloured flesh from the scallop.

Our hosts, blessed with a magical ability for timing, allowed us a few moments to continue chatting and mingling before inviting us through to the table.

Casual sophistication, is the only way to describe the old table and its dressings for the night. Perfect.

But, where was Chef?
Was he alone or did he have a team of helpers?
Why won’t he great us?
Does he not like us anymore?

‘I just saw his hand’, shouted Olly from the head of the table.

False alarm.

Olly was getting ahead of himself...

A few minutes of chit chat was pleasantly interrupted by the arrival of the amuse bouche, which consisted of crumbed muscles. Exquisite, flavoursome, perfectly prepared and presented. I could have eaten ten of them.

Rachel left us to it.

The wine was flowing and the chat had now moved on to gossip of the highest order. Much laughter and hilarity continued, until Rachel danced in with the most perfectly prepared homemade bread starters.

Each plate had three generous portions with a variety of toppings. The crab meat based topping was a treat, as was the cherry tomato styled offering but for me the best was the purred pee and mascarpone.

There was much debate about which of the three was best, with almost everyone having a different opinion. James said he fancied the tomato offering, but I feel that’s because his favourite colour is bright red, as demonstrated by his awful jumper and tie.

Did Chef prepare this varied starter to please all pallets or, as I am starting to suspect, to create an educated foodie debate. We will never know.

‘Rachel! More wine please’, was Alistair’s most useful contribution to conversation all night.

Our unflappable host willingly obliged, whilst Olly somehow transformed himself into the well known and loved DJ Suntan, working the high spec 3 CD interchangeable with aplomb.

This, well nourished, party train was moving full steam ahead!

Rachel popped in to announce that the main course would consist of rib eye cooked medium rare, unless there were any objections?

Jennifer politely objected, and asked for hers to be cooked a touch longer.

Our hostess gracefully accepted this objection and retreated to the kitchen where I am almost certain I heard a muffled expletive, and a faint thumping of a fist.

Chef?

Who cares - for us it was back to the wine!

After a few sing-alongs, the much anticipated main course was now being brought out, and it could‘t have been more worth the wait.

The tenderest piece of rib eye I have EVER eaten, served with homemade ravioli, a red wine jus and just a dollop of horse radish sauce that for some reason tasted of asparagus. Delicious.

When something is so good you can’t get enough of it, and my only criticism was that the steak offering could have been a wee bit bigger to appease this man mountain South African.

By this stage we were bypassing the wine decanter and usual airing of the wine, and were pouring freely from newly opened bottles.

DJ Suntan was politely admonished for turning the restaurant into ‘Subway Comely Bank’ and the music was turned down to concert level volume.

It takes a lot of guts to serve a plain and simple dessert at the end of such wonderful meal, but once again Chef got the balance just right with his homemade ice cream and espresso mix.

‘Hey, why don’t we pour the espresso over the ice cream’, suggested Jen W.

A knowing smile on the face of Chef, as he walks through to rapturous applause.

What a simple yet delightful finish and I mustn’t forget to mention the choice of either a shot of Speyside whisky, or Amarula which was daintily stuck onto the dessert serving plate with a drop of organic honey.

On Sunday morning, I was asked by a friend how the night went.

Perfect I replied, because at Charlie and Evelyn’s they know that having fun is just as important as eating well.

Review by Matt Hansen, SAIL. Thanks Matt. And, if you fancy visiting Edinburgh and our supper club, be sure to enquire here for accomodation.