The London Foodie's Cooking Club

Luiz of the London Foodie has hit upon a brilliant idea - 1) invite a mix of Twitter friends, fellow foodies, and adoring followers of his excellent food blog to dinner (I think most guests fall into all 3 categories!), 2) decide upon a cuisine or cookbook to set the theme for the evening, 3) plan a beautiful menu of food, 4) ask each guest to cook one dish and bring a matching wine, 5) host a fabulous 12 course meal. Genius!

Previously Luiz and the charming Dr G have hosted an Ottolenghi supper, a night based on David Thompson's Thai book, Catalan cooking and many more cooking clubs. Most recently was May's Malaysian and Y and I were lucky enough to secure 2 spots. May (of blog Slow Food Kitchen) is Chinese-Malaysian and put together a delicious menu of dishes either traditionally cooked in Malaysian families or sold as street food in Malaysia.  

We had such an incredible evening - Luiz and Dr G made us feel so welcome and at ease in their beautiful home. May had put together a lovely selection of dishes and was on hand to assist with the final touches. All the guests got into the spirit of the evening, executed their dishes perfectly, and provided some lovely wines. For Y and I, our enjoyment was not confined to the actual dinner, but extended to the whole day, as we strolled through Broadway Market to buy some wines from Macblack & Vine and to select spotted ray from Fin & Flounder, and then over to Hoang Nam on Mare Street for specialty ingredients. We rarely cook together so preparing our dishes at home was a nice novelty.

I highly recommend you get along to Luiz' cooking club if you can. Or maybe set up something similar where-ever you live. It's a wonderful way to meet fellow foodies, to talk about food, and to cook some new dishes - oh and it's pretty damn fun too. Here's the menu:

Canapes
Ikan bilis and hacang (a truly divine fried mix of chilli powder, tiny whitebait, onions and peanuts)
Chicken and beef satay with peanut sauce
Cucur udang (prawn fritters)

Soup
Sup kambing (spicy lamb soup)

Main courses
Mum's turmeric prawn curry
Ikan bakar (spicy fish)
Beef rendang
Kapitan nyonya chicken curry

Accompaniments
Sambal terung (aubergine sambal)
Stir fried green beans in belacan
Malaysian vegetable curry
Coconut rice with pandan leaf

Dessert
Sago gula melaka (sago pudding with palm sugar syrup and coconut milk)

Most of May's recipes can be found here - check them out.