To celebrate National Curry Week a couple of weeks ago, Tilda Rice threw an intimate Tilda Curry Supper Club at The Little Yellow Door, a quirky, fictional flatshare pop-up in in Notting Hill with a ‘little yellow front door’. Hosting and cooking at the event was Indian food writer, columnist for the Evening Standard and Indian cookbook author Mallika Basu. Mallika cooked for us some beautiful curry dishes, with the inspiration being how leftovers can be given a twist and transformed into a delicious dinner.

My favourite dish of the evening was the Bengali chingri malaikari – tiger Prawns steeped in a spicy sweet coconut and caramelised onion curry. This was really special. The prawns were firm and tasty, and the sauce had a wonderful, sweet intense flavour.

Tilda Curry Supper Club – Tiger prawns

Also glorious was the Hyderabadi khatta meetha baingan, a spicy sweet and sour dish of roasted baby aubergines in a crunchy peanut butter sauce with fennel, nigella and cumin. Mallika made this using crunchy peanut butter from Wholefoods, and I loved the rich, nutty and creamy flavour of this dish, not to mention the glorious combination of spices.

Tilda Curry Supper Club – Baby aubergine

There was also shoreshey maach – a dish of swordfish steaks in a creamy wholegrain mustard, nigella seed and yoghurt sauce, and Kashmiri malai paneer – silken tomato paneer in tangy ginger and fennel from the state of Kashmir. Both were really satisfying. The swordfish was nicely cooked matched by the punchiness from the mustard. And the paneer – the saue in this dish was gorgeous and fragrant.

Tilda Curry Supper Club – Paneer

Tilda Curry Supper Club – Swordfish

To accompany these dishes were some key Indian staples. First up was a brown basmati and chana dal khichri, a nutty sweet version of this evergreen comfort food cooked with the wholesome goodness of brown basmati and Bengal gam lentils. Second was a chicken and vegetable basmati and wild rice pulao – a one pot wonder full of chopped vegetables, aromatic whole spices and shredded leftover roast chicken. Both of these were delicious and robust with flavour.

Tilda Curry Supper Club – Khichri & pulao

We rounded off the evening with desserts of a vanilla and rose firni and a saffron and cardamom kheer. The vanilla and rose firni, made from organic whole milk custard cooked with vanilla pods and finished with rose essence and crushed pistachios, was delicious. The kheer, made from stewed basmati rice in organic whole milk finished with Persian saffron, freshly ground cardamom and ghee sizzled cashews was pleasant, but I would have enjoyed this dessert more if it was a little sweeter.

Tilda Curry Supper Club – Desserts

Tilda’s Curry Supper Club proved to be a truly resplendent evening. The food by Mallika was outstanding and full of flavour, and a great showcase in wholesome and homely comfort food. Furthermore it showed the diversity of cooking with Tilda rice and what one can do with leftovers. Delicious.

Website: http://www.tilda.com/