We're celebrating the divine diversity of Middle Eastern food this week. We'll be having seven courses including beef meatballs with broad beans & lemon, poached pears in white wine & cardamon.

We've been drawing influences from the foreign students who have been staying with us, who have come form Bahrain and Georgia. We've been reading 'Jerusalem' by Yotam Ottolenghi, amd watched his recent TV series. We're liking the big salads, the grilled meats, the aubergines,…

YO31 secret diners club, Bon Vivants, and The Tin Duck are having a collective 'Supper club' this weekend. It'll be fab to get together with everyone and share ideas and tips. I'm doing the starter, with pan fried pheasant breast served with my take on blue cheese and walnut salad, with chopped dates (from our Bahrainian student lodger), and a honey and lime dressing.

I'll get some pics and post them next week.

The next YO31 secret diners club meal will be on Saturday 3rd November. So far I'm making mini Yorkshire puddings with Thorganby roast beef, gravy and horseradish. Hoping to find some wild horseradish locally. I'm also doing brushetta (Italian, I know) made with flour from 'Yorkshire Organic Millers', Spaunton, which is north west of Pickering. They do a great range of Soil Association Organic flours. On that will be black pudding, probably from Murton farmers market, some local soft blue…

I'm writing down the recipes for tomorrow, so that they're all in one book - my classic eastern european car book! There's Trabants, Ladas, Moscovitchs, and Fiat 126's on the cover (yes I know Fiat are Italian, but you get the idea). I watched a you tube clip about making carrot flowers, because I wanted to put some in the salad. Basic ones are quite easy. Then I watched one about making proper roses. It took an expert 10 mintues to carve, and required a very high level of skill. Think I'll…

Our Thai banquet is coming up pretty soon, and a few people have shown an interest. I need to convert this to bookings, though. In my quest to raise the profile, I have been approached by someone wanting me to write an article for a York out and about website. This is quite exciting for me, being a wannabe hack/scribe. Also, if anyone else who reads this has any bright ideas about reaching out to a wider audience, please give me some tips. Although the concept of the supper club is that it…

Our Tapas night went down a storm with the guests, and we have learnt a lot more this time, such as limiting the number of courses (ten is probably a little too much and stressful), and to make sure everything is tried and tested, and will work on the night. I had to substitute one course because I didn't have the required chemicals for the 'spherification' process, as pioneered by Ferran Adria of El Bulli.

I'll have it sorted for next time though. I have got the calcium chloride,…

Just a few days left until the sumptuous Spanish Tapas this Saturday at the YO31 Secret Diners Club.

Nine courses of culinary heaven and my take on classic Spanish cuisine.

Making copius lists now: Menu, shopping list, order of prep... I need to get some sodium citrate, sodium alginate and calcium chloride for the 'spherication' of the melon balls. They're going to be suspended in a jambon consumme.

I've had a go at the beetroot jelly and it worked a treat! Tasted great…

It's about this time I reveal a teaser of what you'll be having (or missing out on) at the YO31 Secret Diners club Spanish Tapas on Saturday 1st September.
Amongst the courses served will be:
Crisp deep fried squid with aioli
Braised chorizo with sweet sherry dressing and beetroot jelly.
Melon con jamon (an El Bulli recipe!)
More to follow later in the week.
Message me to book!

The next Secret Diners Club is on Saturday September 1st. The ideas for the Tapas are coming thick and fast. Just need a few more guests to sign up. I've been reading a lot from my (Liz's Xmas present) 'A day at El Bulli'. It's about the once greatest restaurant in the world and it's genius head chef - Ferran Adria. I have never been there, but was shocked to discover that I must have been in the area at some point in the past during a holiday to Costa Brava. El Bulli is situated at Roses,…

Can't wait to start on our latest supper club - Spanish Tapas. It rates up there in my top 3 favourite cuisines of all time. I'll never forget the time Liz and I were holidaying in Malaga, about 19 years ago, when we ended up drinking with an old Malagan couple, and they invited us back to their apartment for food. I still don't know exactly what it was, but it was mostly garlic, and delicious!

It's just over 4 days till our second supper club - our first was an Italian feast in May and was a great success (we believe - the 3 guests certainly seemed to enjoy it: they're coming back).

We have 6 bookings this time, including 2 ladies who we don't know, which is really exciting, as they must have tracked us down on the website - thanks Ms Marmite - and found us on facebook, where we advertise. We also have two old friends who are new to the experience, and two from our previous…