St Mungo's and the Table

It’s not often that you get to combine helping out a charity and a getting a barbecue cooked for you.  Luckily at the weekend we’d been invited down to St Mungo’s allotment in Clapham to do a bit of planting and try some food cooked by one of the chefs from the Table in Southwark.

To cut a long story short the Table has been buying produce grown at St Mungo’s allotment and using it to put together a local and seasonal menu just a few miles down the road.  The Table gets fresh produce and St Mungo’s gets to help people who need it; along the way those in hardship staying with the charity can learn some new skills as well.

We spent the morning planting seeds in some glorious sunshine and 28 degree heat.  Luckily it was too hot to do any real hard work; I was quite happy not to be shifting barrows of dirt but once our work was out of the way the serious business of barbecuing started.

Our chef for the day was Cinzia who prepared rustic but delicious food using a few key ingredients and fresh stuff direct from the garden.  Delicious ox tongue with fresh green sauce, chicken livers skewered with rosemary, sardines, and Italian sausage with bitter leaves amongst other things.

What had everyone going back for more though was some sexy grilled spring onions.  They were simply charred on the outside by the grill but revealed a sweet soft interior with the gentlest of squeezes.

You can find out how you can help out St Mungo’s here.  If you want to find out what the food is like at the Table you can check out a review here as well.