Try Dining in the Dark this Valentine's Day!

We’re bringing new meaning to the term “Blind Date”. That’s right, Matango supper club is back and this month we are dining in the dark for an extra-special, totally quirky Valentine’s Day.

For a few hours on February 13^th we will be taking away your sight (and hopefully your inhibitions) and giving you a blindfold and six delicious courses in return. From starter to fish course to dessert, each dish will be one taste explosion after the next as your other nonvisual senses are heightened.

The concept of dining in the dark has been around since 1999, when blind clergyman Jorge Spielmann opened restaurant Blindekuh in Zurich. The idea came to Spielmann after he had friends over for dinner. To share the sensation of being blind with them he had suggested everyone wear blindfolds and, to everyone’s surprise, they had reported actually enjoying their food more when their sight was taken away.

One of the best things about dining blind – besides the enhanced deliciousness – is that no one can see you either. It is perfect for a date and fear not! The blindfolds will come off for dessert, so all that time spent on your hair won’t be for nothing! We’ll even be giving you different desserts so you can get a little close by trying each other’s.

But it’s also perfect if you’re not bringing a date – come with old friends or fly solo and meet some new ones, nothing is bound to take away shyness than a group of people, eating delicious food, and occasionally missing their mouths.

We will be filming the whole thing and taking pictures, so you can take some memories away at the end of it, and you don’t need to worry about missing out on fuel for your Instagram – you enjoy eating the food, and we’ll snap the photos.

The menu is a closely-guarded secret, but for those of you with dietary requirements – don’t worry! We want everyone to have a good time, so get in touch when you book to let us know, and we’ll make sure to sort something delectable out for you.

We open at 7pm and dinner will start at 7:30 – but please arrive before 7:20 to get your bearings and receive your blindfold. We would also love it if you came in all black to keep up the theme, so break out your best suit or LBD. Now get booking! (Tickets available HERE!) We look forward to seeing you there (even if you can’t see us…!)

Winter Warming Pot Au Feu

Well, we promised you a delicious, hearty winter-warmer, so that’s exactly what you’re getting this week – it’s Pot au Feu! This classic French dish is a staple during the winter months and it’s got everything you might want on a cold January night after work. Literally translated as "pot on the fire", (doesn’t get much cosier than that, eh?!) this dish uses mostly winter vegetables and the best cuts of beef for stewing. It is one of Carine’s favourite classic slow-cooked stews - earthy; meaty and full of vegetables, served in a clear broth which is – and here we quote – “scrumptiously delicious”.

Sounds pretty good, huh? Let’s get started! This recipe serves 6 people, and can be a real showstopper, or you can simply keep it all for yourself and have it several days in a row!

Ingredients

• 1.5kg Beef (choose the best cuts for stewing – we recommend oxtail, cheeks, brisket or additional lean beef)
• Beef bones for deeper flavour (optional)
• 3 large carrots
• 2 sticks of celery
• 2 potatoes
• 2 turnips
• 2 medium leeks
• 1 onion
• 5 cloves
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Bouquet Garni (2 bay leaves, 5 fresh sprigs of thyme, parsley – traditionally tied together with cooking string, but this isn’t strictly necessary!)
• 1 beef or vegetable stock cube (optional)
• 10 black peppercorns
• Coarse sea salt (to taste)

Method

1) Tie your meat with cooking string to help it keep its shape while it cooks. If you can’t find cooking string, cut the meat into big chunks instead.

2) Peel the carrots, wash your leeks and celery, then cut all into large chunks.

3) Peel your onion and stud it with the cloves.

4) Place your meat, stock, and bones if you have them in a large pot and add 5 litres of cold water.

5) Bring to the boil and skim the broth regularly, removing the foam.

6) Once the mixture no longer forms a foam on the top, turn down the heat and add the rest of the ingredients.

7) Bring the mix back to the boil, cover it then let it simmer over a very low heat for a minimum of 4 hours (if you have a slow-cooker, you can use this, turning the setting to “Low”).

8) To serve, remove the meat and vegetables from the broth and place them on a plate, then ladle over a little broth. Carine serves her pot au feu with Dijon mustard or Dijon Mayonnaise, but we’ll leave your condiment choices up to you.

Bon appetite! We hope this warms your cockles. If you do have a go making this at home, get in touch on Twitter and let us know – we’d love to hear how you got on! 

Do Something Good in 2016

Welcome to 2016! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, full of food and family and friends. But, after all that decadence and all that receiving, we thought it was time to give a little back, so this month we’re focussing on eco-friendly food and eating sustainably. To kick us off, we chatted to Carine about what eco-friendly food meant to her, and why it is important.

What is “eco-friendly food” or sustainable food exactly?

For me, eco-friendly food, or sustainable food, means eating food that is grown locally, using a sustainable agriculture and also eating food seasonally. Eating seasonal vegetables which are locally produced and organic puts you right at the heart of the movement.

Is this something you’ve always been interested in? How did you get into it?

That is an interesting question. I come from a part of the world where organic and sustainable food is a way of living and this was something that I, somewhat wrongfully, took for granted for a number of years. But I have always been fascinated by the process of growing my own vegetables or having my own coops – eggs, fresh meat, etc…. You see, back when I was living in Cameroun, locally-produced food was easy and much cheaper than imported food. And, more importantly, it constituted the staple and cultural belief of locals like me. Market stalls, which might be called “farmer’s markets” in the UK, were open daily.

That said, at age 9-10, I wasn’t so thrilled to be asked to wake up early in the morning to stroll through the local market stalls or being asked to go and look for that special farmer located at that special corner because that farmer always had the freshest vegetables in the market (according to my relatives).

Even though I was a city girl from Yaoundé (the capital of Cameroun), I always preferred spending time in the countryside with my cousins. I felt joyful whenever we could cook our meal made from home-grown vegetables. I was always so jealous that, not only was there a family allotment, but each and every one of my cousins had their own small allotments and learnt to cultivate greens from as young as 5. I was always super excited when we visited, wanting to run in the fields, and get a bucket to scoop out my own prawns or fish from the river (Yes you heard me, this was how easy it was to get prawns - as long as you had the right technique…) and cook my own vegetables. In fairness, that excitement seemed pretty crazy to my relatives as this was their daily routine, so they didn’t see anything exciting about having to harvest yet another root vegetable.

Just speaking about this now has got me really excited all over again! Really, eating sustainably has always been a passion, even before I could say my first word.

What do you do currently to eat and cook sustainably?

There are two things that are truly dear to me - being able to grow my own vegetables, and trying as much as possible to limit my food waste. Again, this is largely due to my background. Although I lived most of my life in Europe, those early years spent in Africa have taught me to respect what you put on your plates, on so many levels.

My 2014 New Year’s Resolution was to get myself an allotment, after having done all sorts of growing experiments from my tiny back yard in Brixton. Now, most allotment-seekers knows that this is near impossible if you live in London. I, therefore, started to look for alternative options, so I was thrilled to find myself a back garden to grow my vegetables through landshare.net. 

My 2016 New Year’s Resolution is to create a network of local farmers with surplus crops – food which I would like to use for my “Ugly Veg”-themed supper clubs throughout next year. As I am also a keen forager, this surplus food, along with the fruits of my foraging, will help invent the most creative, healthy, yummy, and eco-friendly meals. And I am officially calling out to anyone who can help me achieve this.

How can we all be a little more eco-friendly with our food? Give us your top tips.

1) Grow your own. There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing a simple grain transform into something you can safely eat. The best is knowing that you made it happen. Eating locally can help you trace and trust what you eat but growing as much veg as you can, even from your kitchen window, is a great step forward.

2) Eat locally and in season. This is food at its best.

3) Forage, forage, forage. There is no shame in it! It is super-healthy, fun and eco-friendly - as long you bear in mind an element of sustainability when harvesting your findings!

4) Turn your back on mass-produced ready meals. Cook more yourself and share your food! Don’t leave it to other people. The sharing economy has made it fun, and so much easier, to share your experience and skills, and there are plenty of platforms out there which can help you achieve just that.

Fancy French Feast - Duck a l'Orange Recipe

In Carine’s house, Christmas is – at the very least – a two-day affair. Her Swedish husband and mother-in-law rule the roost on the 24th, with their Swedish Christmas, complete with meatballs and mustard and pickled herring. Then, on the 25th, it’s Carine’s time to shine with a “posh” French feast. And the star of the show? Canard à l’Orange.

This dish may seem to many of you far too fiddly and complicated to try to recreate on Christmas Day, but we assure you it’s actually fairly simple. And we’re going to show you just how simple right now!

Ingredients

• 1 whole duck (ideally, plus giblets), about 2 kilos for 6-8 people (but for 10 people, Carine normally goes for 2 ducks)
• ½ cup vinegar
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 6 Oranges – 3 for the sauce, 3 for decoration
• 1 small cup Gran Marnier
• 100g butter or – even better! – duck fat from your roasting duck
• 2 Carrots
• 2 Onions
• 1 clove Garlic
• 1 bunch Thyme
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 500ml White wine
• 1 tbsp tomato puree 
• Salt 
• Pepper

Method

Roasting your Duck

• If you bought a duck with giblets - well done! – remove these and place your duck on a wire cooling rack in your roasting tray. You want the duck slightly elevated so the fat can run off and your duck can get nice and crispy.
• Rub your duck all over with salt and pepper – on both sides!
• Pop it in the oven at 190◦ for about 90 minutes.
• Baste it with its own juices every 15-20 minutes.
• After the first 20 minutes, you can cover it with some foil to make sure it doesn’t dry out.
• After 45 minutes or so, pour off some of the fat and juices and set it aside – you’re going to be using it later.
• That’s it for the duck!

Making your Sauce

• Take one large, oven-proof pan. 
• If your duck came with giblets, add these now and brown them on a high heat. If your duck did not come with giblets, don’t worry! It’s not the end of the world.
• Pop in the butter or 3tsp of the duck fat you set aside.
• Add the onions and garlic – finely chopped – along with the thyme and the bay leaves.
• Cover the pan and leave to simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• While that’s happening, chop your carrots into discs and add those to the pan.
• If you want an extra duck-y flavour, you can also add in a few tablespoons of the duck juices.
• Cover the pan and simmer for a further 5 minutes on a medium heat.
• Add the wine.
• Pop the pan in the oven for about 45 minutes.

• Now you are going to make what is called a gastrique, which is a basic sweet-n-sour sauce made from sugar and vinegar.
• Put your sugar in a pan and caramelise – adding a tablespoon of water to help it along. Don’t stir it lots, just let it sit until it starts to go brown
• Add the vinegar.
• Warning – this is NOT a nice smell, so be prepared for something pretty pungent
• Also, when the cold vinegar is added to the hot sugar, it can spit a bit, be careful not to burn yourself!

• Peel the zest of 3 oranges and cut into small pieces – like you might find in marmalade
• Blanch the pieces of zest in boiling water – just boil the kettle, pour the water over the zest and leave it to sit for a bit.
• Juice the 3 oranges. 
• Add your chopped orange peel to your gastrique

• Remove your onion-carrot mixture from the oven.
• Add the tomato puree, the Gran Marnier, and the orange juice.
• Pop it back on the stove and leave it to simmer on a low heat.

• Pass the carrot mixture through a chinois or fine sieve, making sure that no bits get through
• Add the sieved carrot mixture to the gastrique
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• And your sauce à l’orange is done!

Serve your duck whole and carve at the table, before adding sauce and fresh orange slices to the plate. Have it alongside green beans and crispy roast potatoes (cooked in duck fat) and voila! A very French – and very tasty – Christmas dinner. Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas Markets!

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a tasty foodie gift. Thankfully, Carine will be selling a multitude of delicious stocking fillers at a number of Christmas Markets across London this month.

This Friday she will be heading to Wimbledon High School from 3-5:30pm and these are some of the delicious things you can hope to find… if you get there quick enough!

Hot Chocolate Sticks

Choose from triple chocolate or chocolate with marshmallows – these cocoa treats are perfect for winter. Simply swirl them into a cup of warm milk for the best hot chocolate yet.

And, even better, tune into the blog or our YouTube channel next week, and we’ll show you how to make a version of these yourself!

The Green Sauce

Curious about this “green sauce” we keep talking about? The top-seller in Carine’s Marie’s Little Jar line will be available to sample at each of her Christmas markets!

Also available will be her hot-hot-hot chilli sauce, The Red Sauce. With a delicious, aromatic flavour like nothing you’ve come across before, this one is not for the fainthearted!

Peanut Candy

A childhood favourite from her home in Cameroon, if you’ve never had peanut candy before you are in for a treat! These Peanuts roasted with sugar are the ultimate moreish nibble. You may want to get more than one packet…

Carine will also be selling lovingly-packaged Christmas hampers so, if you can’t pick just one thing…you don’t have to! The ideal Christmas gift for a food-loving someone who wants to try something a little different. 

Come say hello in Wimbledon on Friday or keep your eye on our Twitter account for other upcoming markets!

Urban Foraging - Chestnuts

Chestnuts are a fabulous, wintry ingredient which can be used in all sorts of Christmassy recipes – whizz them into your stuffing for a little earthiness, add them to a nut-roast for your vegetarian friends, or simply roast them and eat them with a little salt. You can buy chestnuts in your local supermarket for around £1 for 100g, perhaps a little more or less if you go for a trendy farmers’ market, but we’re going to give you a few tips on how to find them for free, right on your doorstep!

Carine loves to forage, be it for windfall plums spotted by someone’s garden, or mushrooms in the woods of Sweden, there is nothing she likes better than to be out of doors, looking for food. And chestnuts are some of her favourites which can be found in the heart of London, so she took us urban foraging to demonstrate.

The two locations she chose this week were Clapham Common and Putney Heath – both medium-sized green havens most commonly used by dog-walkers and families with small children. I’d love to tell you exact locations, but Carine has sworn me to secrecy – partly because part of the fun is stumbling across these treasure troves yourself and partly because...Carine doesn’t want you stealing all her chestnuts! She spotted the trees on Clapham Common one day when she was taking her daughter to playgroup and it goes to show how little these natural foodbanks are signposted.

Here are a few tips to follow to ensure you find a bumper crop:

1) When it comes to nuts, there is a high possibility that a squirrel or two will beat you to it. Since they need the food too, we don’t suggest you fight them off, just try to go early on in the season and there will be enough for you both.

2) Make sure you know the difference between the chestnuts you can roast and eat (“sweet chestnuts” - larger) and the chestnuts you make conkers with (smaller). Take a look at our pictures to be sure.

3) You’re going to need gloves because chestnuts can be very spiky – if you don’t have suitable hand-wear, place your chestnut on the ground and gently prise them open with your feet, rolling them around a bit first with your foot to loosen them up.

4) Try to go for ones which are already starting to open – this shows they are ripe.

5) Chestnuts often come with three or so inside – two little ones and one big one, go for the biggest.

And there you have it! The perfect winter day out – pick your area, bring the family (and plenty of gloves) and go exploring! You don’t need to look just for chestnuts either, while we were out, we also found some apples and Carine plans to whip something up using them both. So keep an eye out for that and, until next time, happy foraging!

And, to see a bit more, check out Carine's YouTube channel HERE.

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Liebster Award

This week, I was lucky enough to be nominated for the Liebster Award by the lovely Naomi of Make-Bake-Travel!

The Liebster Award is a chain award, passed on by bloggers to other bloggers in recognition of great blogging work. 

The Rules

1) Thank and link back to the blogger who so kindly nominated you

2) Answer the 11 questions they have asked you

3) Nominate bloggers who have a following of  less than 200 on Bloglovin’

4) Ask them 11 questions

5) Notify the nominees

So first, here are my answers to Naomi’s questions

1) What's made you really laugh recently?

Seeing someone acting macho and underestimating my hot chilli sauce before he tried it. The look on his face afterwards was priceless!

2) If you had to choose one food to live on what would it be? 

Seafood.

3) What did you want to be when you were little? 

Originally I wanted to be a doctor, but I soon changed my mind... Food was way more fun!

4) If you could have one superpower what would it be?  

The ability to make people happy and peaceful.

5) What is the best thing you've ever done? 

My Daughter.

6) Three things you can't live without? 

My family, My Kitchen and My creativity.

7) Name a destination that's on your list to visit and why? 

I fancy travelling through South Asia to learn more about the culture and the cooking habits.

8) Who or what inspires you the most? 

Occasionally my surroundings, but mostly people. Listening, watching, and interacting with people is my best source of inspiration.

9) What is your favourite recipe? 

Succulent slow-cooked Beef Ribs served with Bulgur Salad and Roasted Pumpkin. Mmmm.

10) What keeps you blogging? 

The urge to share my passion with others.

11) If you could choose anywhere to live, where would it be?

I would split my time between London and the South-West Countryside in France.

And now for my questions!

1) If you could only eat one cuisine for the rest of your life, what would it be?

2) Why did you start writing a blog?

3) Tell us about a memory that’s tied to food for you.

4) What are your top 3 things to do in your spare time?

5) What would your last meal on Earth be?

6) What’s the hardest thing about blogging for you?

7) Name your top 3 dinner party guests, dead or living, real or fictional.

8) Cooking – love it or hate it, and why?

9) The UK or abroad and why?

10) What is your favourite thing about your blog?

11) Top tips you would give someone who wants to start blogging?

And, finally, my nominees!

Yellow Green Watering – (@yellowgreenwate)

Hedge Fund Girl – (@HedgeFund_Girl)

Survival Survival Blog –  (@SweetSurvival)

Eat Wear Wander – (@EatWearWander)

Joy Travel Food - [Formerly London Tastin] (@Londontastin) 

Edible Christmas Gifts - Vanilla Essence

I don’t want to alarm anyone but… there is exactly one month to go until Christmas. 4 short weeks which may not leave you enough time to get the perfect Christmas gifts for the special people in your life. So Carine is here to help! Instead of frantically hitting the shops last minute, plan ahead and make some of your presents this year. And what could be better than a home-made gift? 

A home-made gift you can eat!

This week we are going to show you how to make Vanilla Extract. It is incredibly simple, looks lovely, and will end up being a genuinely useful thing for all your family and friends who like to bake or cook.

Below are some examples of the vanilla extract you can get in the supermarket. Even the cheapest is over a pound and you only get a measly 35ml – we are going to show you how you can make more than 5 times that for a fraction of the price. We suggest you make this for multiple friends and family members to keep the cost down even more.

What you need

1) Glass bottle – You can go for any size. We have chosen to go for 200ml, as it looks a little more expensive and generous- but you can always make multiple little bottles or whatever you feel like. A 200ml bottle can cost you as little as 73p, like the one we found here, or as much as £2.90 and higher, if you go for a decorative or novelty bottle like this adorable Christmas tree one. 

2) Cheap vodka – And we do mean cheap, the cheapest you can find – we’re going for alcohol here rather than flavour, the flavour will all be from the vanilla.

3) Vanilla Beans – These don’t have to be expensive, but they can be when you buy them in the supermarket. Instead, buy them online where you can find deals like this – 20 beans for less than a tenner (that’s around 50p per bean!) And with these you can make 10-20 bottles.

Method

1. Pour your cheap vodka into your bottle until it is three-quarters full.
2. Slice your pod in half and scrape out the seeds.
3. Add the seeds to the bottle.
4. Add the pod itself.
5. Do this with 2 pods, if you’re feeling super-generous.
6. Fill up to the top with the rest of the vodka.
7. Close the bottle and leave for 4-6 weeks – the longer the better really – shaking the bottle gently every day.

Carine's Vanilla Essence after 2 weeks.

And that’s it really! Add a bow and pop it in a cellophane bag or nice box and there you go – a quirky, thoughtful, useful Christmas gift. So put down the cheap perfume/cufflinks and get on with it!

And to watch Carine do it herself, head to our YouTube channel!