Remember the brilliant Twitter community I run for Bath’s
amazing independent businesses? It’s called #bathindiechat and it’s all about
supporting and promoting what makes Bath special. Last week, we got together at
Barton St Wine Bar for our latest social, a supper club celebrating loads of
brilliant local food producers.
The fabulous Beth (aka The Free Range Chef), one of my
#bathindiechat regulars, was in the kitchen, and created a delicious three
course menu with a staggering 80% of all ingredients used being sourced locally
– how awesome is that? Brilliant local suppliers involved included Mayfield
Organic, New MacDonalds Farm, Bath Farm Girls, Bath Harvest, The Oven, Pistachio
Provenance and more.
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| The best houmous ever |
We started out with herby millet falafel, cauliflower
chermoula, fattoush salad, and 3 bean houmous with beetroot crisps and homemade
pittas. Just writing about it now is making my mouth water because it was so
delicious – it’s tough to pick a favourite, but the 3 bean houmous was
incredible and I loved the chermoula too, which was full of flavour.
For our second course, the inspiration was a little more
Italian – parmigiana, loaded with cheese and sprinkled with fresh watercress,
crispy polenta, Jerusalem artichoke puree with watercress pesto, purple
sprouting cooked with garlic and lemon, and rosemary sourdough focaccia. The
parmigiana was an absolute stand-out for me, but the watercress pesto was also
fab (especially with the focaccia dunked into it).
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| Our main course feasting boards in all their glory |
With our belts creaking, we moved on to the dessert course.
Our dessert feasting boards were piled high with rhubarb, hazelnut and blood
orange cannoli, spiced chocolate torta caprese, pistachio and rosewater
baklava, and the most incredible tiramisu, all sprinkled with edible spring
flowers. It was almost too pretty to eat… but we managed somehow. Anyone who
knows me knows I’m a bit of a chocolate fiend, so the torta caprese (that’s a
flourless chocolate cake made with ground almonds, FYI) got my attention
straightaway, but the tiramisu was my favourite – the texture was perfect,
properly melt-in-the-mouth, and the flavours were beautifully balanced between
boozy and chocolatey. I was absolutely stuffed but somehow still managed to
polish it all off.
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| Dessert: almost too pretty to eat |
Throughout, we were plied with excellent wines by Geoff, the
brains behind Barton St Wine Bar, and we had a brilliant time, with lots of
excellent conversation, good food and good wine – to my mind, there’s nothing
else you need for a really cracking night.
Are you feeling like you missed out? That’s because you did.
But fear not, I’ve got plenty more socials planned and we will definitely be
holding another of Beth’s brilliant supper clubs. To make sure you’re first in
line next time, just follow @bathindiechat on Twitter and keep an eye out…
