New dates at Hush-Hush Garden!

At first we thought a dinner party a month would be enough. But as the warmness of the last nights conquered us, we decide to open Hush-Hush Garden at least twice a month!

So join us under the moonlight and the stars. Next dinner party: 4th June.

This time the menu was inspired on recent Easter and upcoming Spring. Fresh vegetables and flowers had to be present to recreate the season. So we came up with a fresh artichoke salad with Azores cheese thin slices and organic bacon from Freixo do Meio, sprinkled with fresh celery and mint from the garden and seasoned with olive oil, lemon (just picked from the tree), sea salt and some roasted almonds and pistachios on top.

The evening was inviting and drinks were served outside with a trio of dipping sauces.

The table reached its limit– 12 guests and 3 hosts as we deliberately choose to seat with our guests to enjoy and participate in these truly magic moments that happen when a group of people share good food, good wine and great conversation!

The artichoke salad was followed by a home-made duck liver pâté bonbon, covered with Green&Black's Trinitario chocolate, sea salt and Hush-hush garden’s tangerine marmalade which grabbed an echoing applause! Fantastic!

A frugal fresh coriander soup shot prepared the palate to the “Easter Rabbit” with herbs and Hush-hush garden’s lemon preserve sided by baked sweet potatoes from Algezur and sautés Swiss chards.

Casa da Carvalha 2008 was a perfect companion.

To reset the palate, rose petals jelly before a slice of moist carob cake sided by a dollop of Hush-hush garden’s lemon curd.

We drank Bacalhôa Moscatel de Setúbal 2004 with the desserts. Great combination!

Almond pie cubes (Rita’s grandmother’s recipe) disappeared in a blink, just before coffee and Hush-hush garden’s lemon verbena tea were served. Huge success!

 The guests, as always, were fantastic. Jane is British and decided to celebrate her birthday with us (Thank you Jane!) and she brought a Mexican friend, a Canadian friend and her boy-friend. Also her mom Jo and her husband John.

Renata , her husband Severino, Laura and Guido came from Italy for a vacation in Lisbon and included a visit to our supper club.

Iris and Vitor are starting their own supper club and came in a 007 mission! Once again, due to the generosity of our guests we experienced a wonderful evening!

HUSH-HUSH GARDEN MENU

7th May 2011

To Start

Porto Tonic

Tapenade, Beetroot hummus & Guacamole trio

Mafra bread

To Continue

Artichoke salad

Duck liver pâté bonbon with tangerine jam

Fresh coriander soup shot

 

Roasted rabbit with herbs and preserved lemon with roasted sweet potato from Aljezur & sauté chards

 

To Drink

Red wine: Casa da Carvalha, 2008, Dão

Dessert wine: Moscatel de Setúbal, Venâncio da Costa Lima

 

To Finish

Rose jelly

Carob cake with lemon curd

Coffee and Hush- Hush Garden’s tea and

Almond pie cubes

 Hush-Hush Garden - Officially open for the season! 

After publishing the menu for last Saturday, inspired by the warm spring days and the upcoming Easter, we went to the Herdade do Freixo do Meio shop to buy all the fresh products we needed to prep the dinner. We bought season vegies like turnip, leeks, beetroots, smoked bacon and oranges. The quails came from the local store as well as the eggs, the watercress, the almonds and the raspberries.  From the HH Garden we got lemons, all the aromatic herbs and LOTS of flowers!

Friday was an intensive working day in the kitchen and also in the back office with last minute cancelations from the guests or last minute reservations or even annulments of the last minute cancelations… totally crazy! But it turned up ok in the end when we gathered an amazing group of guests!





Bruno from We Hate Tourism Tours and his partner Damian, manager of an hostel in one of the most beautiful spots in Lisbon (Stª Catarina) were the first to arrive and were immediately greeted in the garden with a Porto tonic. They were followed by Chris, an American in Lisbon, and his friend Markus from Salzburg.

Ten minutes later was the time to Carly, an English yoga teacher and her good friend Bell, a Portuguese who lived in Germany, to arrive.

The group was completed with me, Rita, João and Ricardo, the hosts!



Tapenade, beet hummus and broa de milho (corn bread)





Turnip soup with home-made Azores cheese crackers



    The wine Casa da Carvalha, from Dão, was a perfect companion throughout the dinner and the dessert was sparked by a great Moscatel de Setúbal from Venâncio da Costa Lima followed by the exquisite Moscatel Roxo from Sivipa which pared with the almond pie made by Rita, a winning combination! 






Rose jelly



Wet orange sponge cake with HH Garden tangerine ice cream







Almond pie in cubes



    It was a great dinner, with perfect company and very interesting people. We loved it and hope our guests loved it to! 

The next adventure will be the 7th of May, hopefully with a warmer night so we can eat outside under the stars.

HUSH-HUSH GARDEN MENU

2nd April 2011

 

To Start

Porto Tonic

Tapenade

Home-made liver pâté with Adega Velha’s brandy from Vinhos Verdes

Beetroot hummus

Mafra bread

To Continue

Quail hot salad with its eggs

Turnip cream soup with Azores’s home-made cheese crackers

Chickpeas from Serpa with salt cod chunks and fresh coriander, roasted with olive oil from Serpa in traditional pottery

To Drink

Red wine: Casa da Carvalha, Dão

Dessert wine: Gold medal awarded Moscatel de Setúbal, Venâncio da Costa Lima

To Finish

Orange wet cake with hush-hush garden’s tangerine ice cream

Rose jelly

Coffee and Hush- Hush Garden’s tea and

Almond pie cubes

Flower Power

Hush-hush garden is blossoming inviting us to enjoy the sweet warm breeze of spring.

We are ready for the next dinner party, march the 12th. Join us!

 TANGERINE SEASON

This year the tangerine tree was generous rewarding us with wonderful, sweet, juicy fruits.

The harvest started in early November and we still have fruits hanging waiting to be picked.

So we have to be very creative to figure out how to preserve all the precious fruits!

They’ve been transformed into juice, ice cream, jam, curds and candied tangerine zest stripes coated with dark chocolate. Here’s the recipe:

Candied Tangerine Zest Stripes Coated with Dark Chocolate

Ingredients

Tangerines - 6

Sugar - 5 to 6 tablespoons

Unsalted butter – 50 g

Good quality organic dark chocolate – 100 g

Cut the tangerines in half, squeeze the juice and keep the skins.

With a sharp knife, remove the white from the skins to avoid bitter taste later.

Cut the tangerine skins into thin strips (linguini like).

Poach the stripes into the pan where you previously dissolved the sugar with the tangerine juice. Take it to a boil point until the syrup bubbles. Let the stripes soften, and after a few minutes, take the stripes from the pan, and spread them on a baking paper to cool and absorb the syrup.

When the stripes are dry, repeat the process once or twice, depending on the hardiness of the skins.

Let the stripes dry for at least 1 day before you coat them with chocolate.

Melt the chocolate with the butter and, with the help of a clamp, plunge the candied tangerine stripes into the chocolate. Spread on a baking paper to cool.