Saturday @ Dinner at the Manor

On Saturday night had the pleasure of attending Dinner at the Manor at a secret location in Leeds, a fabulous supper club hosted by Dan and Susie.  The food was all Yotam Ottolenghi, the drinks were Innis & Gunn, and we had a fantastic time.

So this was a bit of an experiment for us - an evening of vegetarian food and no wine!  I'll be honest, I would definitely make a better vegetarian than Joe.  He's much better now than he used to be, but still every time I cook vegetarian food, I get the comment "no meat?!" You'd think I had suggested road kill. 

The food was lovely: canapes of socca, aubergine croquettes and lentil galetts were all very tasty, and served with Innis & Gunn original.  I was a particular fan of the aubergine croquettes which were perfectly balanced with a crispy coating and went very well with the beer!

Dinner commenced with a garlic soup amuse bouche (very good thing Joe also ate it - I don't think he would have come anywhere near me after 50 cloves of garlic otherwise!), followed by mezze including butternut squash in lime dressing, leek fritters and a burnt aubergine dip.  Each was a little delight and went down very well, accompanied by Innis & Gunn Highland cask.  The main was always going to be my biggest challenge.  My only real food challenge is a texture thing - I cannot bear sloppy, odd textured food (scrambled eggs are my nemesis) - and the main was tofu in black pepper with broccoli and herb rice. I've had tofu twice in my life - loved it once and hated it once, but third time lucky - the phobia may be cured!  The peppery, spicy sauce was beautiful and balanced out with the broccoli and rice, served with the blonde beer from the range.

Desserts were Millies cheeses and chocolate cake, both of which were fantastic.  I have never been so full, to the extent that we actually brought home one of the I & G rum cask beers we had (it was also about 8%!).

Oh - the Innis & Gunn was also a great revelation of the evening.  Being an Edinburgh girl its probably sacrilege to say that I'm not a huge fan - but it went so well with the food.  Different to Yorkshire ales, there's no bitter aftertaste and each one we tried was really tasty.

It was a fabulous evening, and hopefully we'll be able to go to another one - although they are very popular!! Thanks Dan and Susie for great food and a great time.

Lentil galette

Aubergine croquettes

The garlic soup

Innis & Gunn Highland Cask 18 years - limited edition and very tasty

The mezze

That tricky tofu - won me round!

Sorbet

My favourite find of the evening - a picture of Dan with Kirsty and Phil - awesome!

Oh and the petit fours - just had to stuff one of these down