GOURMET LOVERS SUPPER CLUB: 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS SUPPER CLUB 2011

As is becoming tradition December now includes our Christmas supper club.  Supper isn't something we generally put on, we love our brunch club of course, it is in our opinion some of the best brunch around. For supper however its a chance to get friends and family together and have a celebration and spread a bit of Christmas cheer, plus try and push the boat out a little with some new ideas for our Gourmet Lovers menu. This year we wanted to pull out all the stops and create an epic feast where you would want for nothing. Last years 7 courses was a lot so we wanted to make it easier on ourselves plus we had just the two of us in the kitchen and running the floor so we designed a menu with 12 courses!

Funnily enough we did make it easier through careful planning and designing of food that was either prepped in advance or easily plated up (apart from course 7 which involved the most work with quite a few elements) but without compromising on flavour and excitement. We were super lucky to have two of our great gourmet loving friends help us with a dish each which were both wonderful and helped immensely to alleviate some of the pressure in our kitchen. Thank you J&M you're superstars!

In our research we didn't come across many others that had tried the full 12 courses. There were 12 cocktails and 12 cakes and a scattering of ideas for but nothing where a full 12 courses based on the Christmas song were tackled. So we came up with the following and served 21 people a 12 course meal in around 4 hours.  It took a lot of research and time to come up with the courses and we decided early on they should consist of both food and beverage courses.

Gourmet Lovers 12 days of Christmas Feast

Menu

Partridge in a Pear Tree 

A cocktail of Pear brandy, Grand Marnier, pear nectar, lime juice and tonic.

Two Turtle Doves

Mock turtle soup w slow braised ox tail, baby carrot, turnip and turtle shaped beef consume jelly w gold and silver leaf

Three French hens

Poisson roasted with smoked paprika & thyme served with a winter salad of lettuce, pine nuts, sultanas and mustard dressing

Four Colly Birds

Four game pie of grouse, quail, duck and pheasant

(made by M thanks!)

Five Gold Rings

Marshmallow with pine nut dust, inspired by the Day at elBulli cook book we made our own sweet marshmallow and rolled in salty roasted pine nut dust.

Six Geese a Laying

Bechamel, cranberry and ham hock croquetas

Seven Swans a Swimming

Choux pastry swans with potato salardase, confit of duck, duck breast and brussel sprouts in a mustard crème fraîche sauce

(inspired in part by Duck Confit recipe by Thomas Keller)

Eight Maids a Milking

Savoury custard with vegetable velouté and a cheesy shortbread

(Thanks to J for this dish x )

Nine Ladies Dancing

Mojito sorbet w chocolate dipped frozen mint for the ladies

(Made by J)

Ten Lords a Leaping

Whiskey Sour Sorbet for the gents

Eleven Pipers piping

Home made brandy snaps with Lapsang tea infused cream

(as you can see by this stage of the meal and night taking photos has become difficult, we're nearly done!)

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Creme brulee spiced with cardamon, star anise, cinnamon and citrus

(I was meant to dress these with spices and shaving of citrus but it was nearly 1am and I'd had a few wines and we were nearly done, rest assured these are delicious. Infused the cream with the spiced and citrus before straining them and baking the brulee, beautiful!)

We were lucky to once again have our amazing friend Jonna Björnstjerna create a piece of live art on the night based on the theme, check out the amazing process through out the night which culminated in people being invited to contribute and colour in. We're really grateful for Jonna bringing this extra something special to the evening so we'll always remember it.

Thanks to everything for coming and we hoped you all loved the evening, its as much about getting together and catching up with friends as it is about food. Such a great tradition, one we hope we can bring you every year.

Merry Christmas and we'll see you in the New Year. Brunch club commences Sunday 22nd January followed with another February 5th. Email bex@gourmetlovers.co.uk to book your spot.

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