Can you tell us a bit about The Seasonal Supper Club and how it came to be?

Myself, Lucy (a chef and food stylist) and Emma (food stylist and illustrator) have a huge shared love of seasonal produce and a want to feed those around us - we were introduced by a mutual friend a couple of years back as she felt we would have a lot in common and we’ve had a glorious food filled friendship ever since! After initially collaborating on a Picnic themed photoshoot & print series together we met to discuss, what next? and The Seasonal Supper Club was born. We decided we would host four supper clubs, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring and just see where it led. We just wanted to create a space where we could experiment, cook delicious seasonally led food and create a memorable experience. It’s crazy as always how time flies and we can’t believe we are now onto Spring, completing our first year. We have some exciting plans for the next stage of TSSC which we will be revealing soon!

What was on the menu at your most recent Winter edition of the supper club?

E: Keeping with seasonality can be a little more challenging in some months - the first couple of months of the year really show this! Our winter menu was full of good hearty vegetables. We started the meal off with sharing plates of pickled forced yorkshire rhubarb, a lovely Lincolnshire poacher cheese, beer onions and potato croquettes. Our main was a winter vegetable pie; think swede, celeriac, parsnip in a rich cheddar bechamel, served with crispy savoy cabbage & a beetroot horseradish chutney. Followed by a blood orange polenta cake with creme fraiche and a pistachio praline - and a glass of sherry for pudding!

You use a lot of Falcon enamelware in and around your kitchens. What’s your favourite product and what do you use it for?

E: I religiously use my rectangular baking pan - the 31cm one to be exact. I use it for literally everything at home in the kitchen. From roasting chicken, to one tin dishes for dinner, it’s also perfect for making granita too!
L: I am forever roasting multiple things at once, and find the pie set is so handy and versatile. I will use a few at once, and then often even to serve elements of a dish in. I couldn’t live without them.
Where do you usually source your ingredients?
E: We try to work with small and independent suppliers who are fairly local to us. It’s so important to us to work with producers that believe so strongly in what they’re doing - we feel that it really makes all the difference in the final product. We source all our fruit and vegetables from Shrub, who are based just outside of London - in Kent. Our dairy is always sourced from Neal’s Yard and if we need to source bread, we like to use e5 Bakehouse, in London Fields. It’s also such a joy that we are able to work with some of our friends when sourcing ingredients! Like Will, from Two Fields Zakros (who supplies our Olive Oil) as well as our friends at The Modest Merchant when it comes to creating a selection of wines to serve at the events.

What will you enjoy cooking in the coming weeks?

L: Wild garlic is coming into season at the moment and will be abundant in shady woodlands, quite literally filling the air with its scent! Although it’s quite hard to forage within London, a short trip out of the city for a walk and you'll find it. Its vibrant green leaves make for the best pestos and infused butter. Last year I made a big batch of garlic butter and froze it in portions, so I could prolong the abundance for a little longer.
You can find lots of great resources online & guided walks if it’s your first time foraging, it is a great way to start connecting to seasonal eating. I’ve found that it really opened up my eyes to what’s around us and noticed the subtle changes in nature that signal what’s ready to eat!

Can you tell us a bit about the Spring edition of the supper club and how people can book?

E: The Spring edition of the supper club will be happening in April expect lots of fresh greens for spring. We’re most excited for our dessert though, but that’s top secret! Tickets will be released very soon! We’ll be announcing it over on our instagram (@theseasonalsupperclub) and then they’ll be available to book over on our website! You can sign up to our mailing list to be the first to hear.

Prep - 45 minutes / Bake - 35 to 50 minutes at 180 fan/ Gas Mark 4, dependant on pie size

Enamel Ware -

Feeds 8-10 / Fills one square baking tray OR one 30cm pie dish & a 24cm pie dish

½ recipe Feeds 4-6 / Fills one 30cm pie dish OR two smaller pie dishes

INGREDIENTS

Bechamel Sauce

• 50g Butter
• 50g Plain flour
• 550ml Full fat milk
• 2 Tspn Dijon Mustard
• 125g Mature Cheddar grated (25g reserved for sprinkling)
• 125g Red Leicester grated (25g reserved for sprinkling)

Veg

• 800g Waxy potatoes (La Ratte, Jersey Royals, Baby Potatoes, Charlotte)  
• 300g Swede
• 300g Celeriac
• 200g Parsnip
• 2 Large leeks
• 4 Cloves of garlic
• 5 Stalks of fresh thyme
• 25g butter for sauteeing leeks

Pastry Top

• 1 packet of ready rolled puff pastry
• 1 egg (beaten)

Start by prepping all the vegetables, wash and cut potatoes into roughly 1inch pieces (do not peel). Peel and cut celeriac, swede & parsnip into 1inch pieces. Place all the prepped root veg together in a bowl and cover with water to stop them browning.

Slice the leeks into 1 cm rounds, de-skin the garlic cloves and crush gently with the back of your knife. Place in a frying pan on a medium heat with 25g butter, a generous pinch of sea salt, freshly ground black pepper & thyme stalks. Allow the leeks to golden then turn down the heat until they have softened, about 10mins. Once softened, remove from the heat, discard the thyme stalks and put to one side for later.

Now to part-boil the root veg, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, place all your prepped roots in the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Then drain and leave to cool in a colander.

Whilst the veg is cooling, you can make the bechamel. Melt the 50g butter in a medium saucepan, add 50g plain flour and stir with a wooden spoon. You want to cook the flour, so continue stirring for 2 minutes on a low heat. Then add roughly 100ml of the milk to the pan, and whisk, keep adding the milk in 100ml pours until it’s all gone, whisking vigorously in-between. Don’t panic if initially it seems to clump, once you’ve added more milk it will start to turn into a smooth sauce. Bring the bechamel up to a simmer whilst continually whisking for 1-2minutes, once thickened remove from the heat.

Add 100g grated Cheddar, 100g grated Red Leicester, 2 tspn dijon mustard, freshly ground black pepper to the bechamel and combine whilst still hot. The cheese will melt in the residual heat from cooking. Taste to check seasoning, add more mustard or black pepper to suit your palate.

Now it’s time to fill the pie dish! If you are baking the pie straight away then it’s ok if the elements are still a little warm, if you’re prepping the day ahead or making them to freeze, wait until everything is room temp before assembly. Like you would a lasagna, you want to layer the fillings, start with a couple of generous spoonfuls of bechamel, then the leeks, then the root veg, finishing with a layer of sauce and then the 50g reserved grated cheese.

Remove your puff pastry from the fridge and cut a pie lid to match the size of your dish, push down the edges of the pastry at the rim to seal the filling inside. Then brush with beaten egg and decorate with any excess pastry. We chose the word PIE but you can creative! Also a fun task for any children to get involved.

Bake at 180 Fan / Gas mark 4 for 35-50 minutes depending on the pie size or until the pastry is deep golden brown and the filling is starting to bubble out of the edges. Serve with lots of green veg & a dollop of mustard.