Tara Tuesdays - Part 49 - The Courtyard Supper Club
Posted on 28 April 2015
The Courtyard Supper Club Friday 24th April 2015
Celebrating "Everything English" in honour of Saint George
At very short notice I was lucky enough to secure a table for supper at our local Cafe that twice a month host a supper club. Since opening back in December, The Courtyard have held some wonderful events which have created a real energetic buzz in our village. Every time I am in, be it attending a workshop (who me?!), enjoying breakfast or a hot chocolate mountain, it is pretty much jam packed full of people!
This month's Supper Club was to celebrate "Everything English" in honour of Saint George. When I made our reservation I couldn't resist the opportunity to volunteer my beloved to be Saint George for the evening. Although we are in semi-retirement from our medieval re-enactment hobby, he jumped at the chance to tart in his full armour, well who wouldn't!?
We arrived early just to make sure hubbins was actually able to sit down comfortably for his supper and were greeted by our lovely hostess Anne. Simon helped Anne to welcome her guests for the evening before we had our meal, and asked everyone to toast Simon for agreeing to wear his full harness for this special occasion.
Hubby sampling a glass of our local vintage from Davenport Vineyards that WE actually contributed towards making when we picked the 37 tonnes of grapes last year!
I was chief squire for the evening and decided NOT to wear my medieval gear as I wanted to don my frock instead! I also didn't want to outdo Saint G! Anne and her team went to huge efforts to source local ingredients for our menu for the evening and we were not disappointed.
Our first course was tea smoked trout with rocket and potato salad. This was made with trout from Yew Tree Fisheries in Rotherfield. The picture doesn't do this dish justice, as it was absolutely delicious!
Next up was steak, ale and mushroom pie with a stilton puff pastry crust with beef from Louise and her daughter Harriet from Horsegrove Farm. We buy our meat from these lovely ladies every month (the burgers, chops and braising steak are to die for!). All I can say about this dish is "OH MY GOODNESS, HEAVEN ON A PLATE" bold, underlined, font 72! It was served with Sussex churdles, new potatoes, spring greens and honeyed carrots made using honey from our local sign writer David Peacock.
Our penultimate course was 'Sparkling Rhubarb Syllabub' made with rhubarb from David Harman (my good friend Kerrie's gorgeous Daddy) and sparkling wine from our local vineyard - Davenport Vineyards. I LOVE rhubarb and am rather partial to sparkling wine too (ahem) and can safely say I devoured this course! I was hoping that hubbins wouldn't be able to manage his, but of course he didn't save me any!
Last up was our cheese course where we sampled "a taste" of Sussex cheeses provided by Alsop and Walker our local cheesemakers in Five Ashes, near Rotherfield. We like to think of ourselves as Turophiles (connoisseurs of cheese for those not in the know! I did have to google this by the way!) and were very excited when we saw what we were about to sample:
- Sussex Farmhouse - semi hard traditional cheese
- Sussex Blue - mild blue cheese with edible rind (resultage!)
- Mayfield - Creamy-sweet, nutty tasting cheese
- Lord London - semi soft cheese also with edible skin (double resultage!)
We are very familiar with three of these cheeses as they regularly feature on our cheese boards. To finish we enjoyed coffee and hubby then dragged himself away from our table to have some photos taken with some of the guests as well as Anne and her family who also wouldn't let us leave without first trying on Simon's sallet!
We had a splendid evening at this Supper Club and were made to feel VERY welcome and special by Anne and her lovely family and team, so much so we have booked again for July (May and June are already fully booked!) for a Tapas Supper which no doubt will be just as delicious!
After walking the few yards home, our evening didn't end there as we decided to have one for the road at our local where we met our new landlady and landlord that have recently taken over.
We finally got home much later than we had planned and it was pure joy for hubbins to be released from his metal corset knowing that his work for the evening was indeed finally done!
I felt ever so proud of my knight in shining armour, he was brilliant! Not bad for a shy chap that didn't ever really like much attention, too late for all that now!
