Sabrina Ghayour’s delicious Middle Eastern food is definitely of a type made for sharing. Devotees of her best-selling cookbooks from Persiana to the most recent, Flavours, know to expect dishes bursting with flavour, fragrance and come-again temptation.
Readers of Yorkshire Life who have followed Sabrina’s monthly recipe column since she relocated to Yorkshire to live near Easingwold, have also delved into her recipes and been enthralled by passion for the suppliers on her doorstep.
She is a true champion of Yorkshire’s chefs, producers and restaurants with a busy life takes her from book signings, to product-testing and to our televisions as a regular on the popular Saturday Kitchen show.
But more than anything she loves hosting a Supperclub on her doorstep. Castle Howard near Malton hosts a limited number of Sabrina’s Supperclubs during the year – and they generally sell out within minutes – maybe because this is the nearest things to a Ghayour restaurant that we’re likely to get. The next one is March 14, but sold out already.
We joined Sabrina earlier this year for a taste of her signature dishes in Castle Howard’s Grecian Hall.
It’s a beautiful venue – though one which isn’t so familiar with this style of food – thoroughly English afternoon teas the usual order of the day.
A packed room was eager to dive into a night of Persian food pleasure. An arrival cocktail was provided by distillers Sloemotion who are based close to Castle Howard and use the fruits of the hedgerows to inspire their range of botanic gins, vodka and liqueurs.
Welcoming guests, Sabrina said, ‘What I love is that we can cook with beautiful meat from the Castle Howard estate – when we can get meat locally we will always try to.
She went on, ‘I would also advise that you take it slowly and pace yourself!’
Wise words given that ten dishes were about to make their way to the tables. Sharing starters included spice roasted butternut squash with black rice salad, beetroot and pomegranate salad, Herb Fed Poultry (another local company) tamarind chicken wings, herbed Castle Howard lamb meatballs and burnt courgettes with lemon and feta yoghurt. Each small plate was packed with vibrant colour and such a pleasure on the eye – but also teasing with flavours typical of Middle Eastern food – sometimes firey, sometimes sweet, sometime punchy and sometimes creamy. Zesty lemon and garlic an undertone and lovely textures – such as the creamy, silky courgettes, an excellent alternative to baba ganoush, rich and moreish with flatbreads.
Banquet service is always a challenge but kudos to the team here who were bringing out dozens of small plates for the tables, all of which looked bright, fresh and appetising.
The main dishes were Middle eastern spice blend Ras el Hanout poussins with a sticky quince glaze – they demanded you used your hands and got messy!
Spice roasted potatoes came with a gutsy tomato, pepper and harissa sauce while steamed Persian basmati rice was jewelled with barberries and saffron, gently sweetened and made luxurious with butter.
As a fan of Sabrina’s cookbook, I was very keen to taste the lamb tagine offering – one of those showcase Middle Eastern dishes. Would it taste like my version of her recipe? Pleasingly, thereabouts! Which is a credit to Sabrina’s foolproof recipe. I can’t have been the only one in the room enjoying the dish prepared exactly as it should be.
The feast was rounded off by a magnificent sticky coffee and spice cake with pistachios and cinnamon cream. I confess to having not yet attempted any of Sabrina’s desserts – time to change that.
Lookout for future Supperclub dates this year (£105pp) at castlehoward.co.uk, sabrinaghayour.com or Sabrina’s Instagram: sabrinaghayour
