If you are not salting, curing, preserving and pickling you are just not cool. Here's how to cure your egg yolks to grate on pasta.
Who would have thought that in the middle of the peaceful Suffolk countryside that one of the best ever punk bands, The Mekons would re-unite and party like they haven't partied for years. We popped up with our Little House of Cooking cafe and every little crumb was eaten. Thank you for a brilliant weekend!
We love the Rural Coffee Caravan. For the past 14 years it has been touring villages across Suffolk offering tea, coffee and company to people living in rural isolation. The charity visits more than 70 villages, some where there is no where to meet anymore and where the more elderly villagers just find it hard to get out and about. As well as refreshments it offers an information service, a bit like a CAB on wheels. You can imagine how sad we all were to hear that the caravan has been stolen. Fundraising is well on the way to help with a replacement caravan. Here is the link if you are able to donate.
If you go to your local park and pick elderflowers it isn't foraging. If you go to your back garden and pick up some windfall apples, it isn't foraging. If you have a basil plant on your balcony, that isn't foraging either. Foraging for edible wild plants and all the new names for what we used to call weeds is OVER - time to stop.
My notes!
Brisket 5 x briskets – slow cooked Thurs and sliced (Ruth) with horseradish and chutney on side. I’ve got tons of chutney.
Coronation Chicken 30lb whole chickens. Roasted Thurs (Ruth) and cut up and made into Coronation Chicken on Friday. (mayo, curry, grapes, celery)
Fresh Salmon 30lb fresh salmon filleted into sides, served on shredded lettuce with lime and coriander mayo and prawns to garnish. To be assembled on Saturday.
Samosas Ruth will get from Leicester (serve with raita)
Spanakopita -the Guardian/Hugh Fearnley Whittingstalls recipe online is very good. His recipe will make enough for 12 people so suggest recipe x 8.
Hummus and breads and butter (garnished with whole chickpeas and drizzled with olive oil and pickled lemons)
Cheese, (Baron Bigod, Dorset Blue Vinny, Mrs Kirkhams) crackers and grapes a wonderful display!
Chinese noodle salad – noodles, water chestnuts, bean shoots, red peppers, spring onions, carrot ribbons, tom juice, soy sauce, honey and ginger dressing.
Coleslaw – carrots, cabbage, mayo (Sat morning Ruth)
Tomato and mozzarella salad – garnished with basil and salt and pepper, balsamic and oil (Sat morning Ruth)
Green salad – lettuce, rocket, cucumber, green stuff
Potato salad – potatoes, mayo, chives
Roasted vegetable and cous cous - med veg, olives, herbs etc
Welcome drink - Prosecco or Elderflower Fizz
48 bottles Prosecco
EldeflowerFizz (Cordial/Sparkling Water/Lemons/Mint)
On the tables – Wine – Two whites, Rose and Red (45 bottles for the tables the rest to sell behind the bar
48 Sauvignon Blanc (white)
48 Esmerelda (white)
48 de Bortoli (red)
24 Rose
Bar –
Beer and cider
2 x 36 pints polypin Old Cannon best bitter
40 litres/70 pints canned lager
40/50 bottles Aspalls cyder
Mojitos & Elderflower Collins Cocktails and Spirits (Gin, Rum and Vodka)
6 litres rum
6 litres gin
6 litres vodka
6 x Gomme syrup
6 x Elderflower cordial
6 x Jiffy lemon juice
24 lemons
48 limes
5/6 bunches mint
Light brown sugar for mojitos
36litres each of soda, sparkling water, tonic, lemonade, diet coke, coke and orange juice
8kg ice cubes
6kg crushed ice
I'm loving the green chilli sauce that Buckshot sauces sent me. It's slightly astringent with lots of ginger and cumin and I am pouring it over everything! I can't eat a samosa without it. Maybe I am addicted. (We really liked the brown sauce too).
The place for a fresh local farmhouse breakfast on Saturday September 2nd will be the Heath Farm farm pop-up at Hesset village hall. We went to one last Saturday and had a tasty sausage bap (£3) and home-made sausage rolls (£2.50) cooked on the spot. You can have a full English breakfast with eggs laid that day, and a lamb and tzatziki-slaw bap for brunch too - from a small but tasty menu of locally produced meat which is also for sale on the day.
We are loving the look of the new café at Framlingham Castle which has opened following a major revamp by English Heritage. The menu includes Suffolk Grumbly, a regional dish made with sausage meat and a mustard and cheese sauce, and a Tudor Tarte Owte of Lent, made with ingredients you’re not allowed to eat during Lent – cheese, cream and eggs; cooked in a light pastry case. Lots of other local produce too, including Maynards juices, milk and cream from the Marybelle Dairy in Halesworth and beer from St Peter’s Brewery.
Discover the Suffolk coast with the East Suffolk Food and Drink Trails interactive platform. Lots of places to stay and things to do, as well as eat. Take a look.
Actually it doesn't need to be ice cream weather to enjoy a visit to Hadley's Parlour in Lavenham. We went on rather a chilly day but enjoyed tasting a selection of the handmade icecreams that really do offer satisfying, smooth and creamy flavours using locally sourced Fen Farm milk and cream, Elmsett Game Farm eggs, Maldon sea salt and Pump Street chocolate, to name a few. You can get very good coffee and mini cakes as well, if you are greedy like me.
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Is this the best pub in Ipswich? An astonishing range of craft beers from around the world, a beer sommelier, gorgeous gins, street food on a Friday and the friendliest staff.
There's been a huge increase recently in the number of people who claim to be coeliac or have a dietary intolerance. One of my best friends is a diagnosed coeliac and she has my full understanding and empathy for the difficulties she often has to face when eating out. I'm always more than happy to cook something for her using potato, buckwheat, maize flour or other gluten free ingredient, and she never moans, complains, or gives restaurants a hard time when she goes out, despite being very ill if she does consume gluten in any recognisable amount. So when I recently heard at a local cafe, a customer asking if the soup, which was gluten free and had run out, had only been served to gluten free customers and another who was happy to eat bread pudding for dessert after asking for gluten free options throughout the starter and main courses I was very annoyed.
May 13th. Today's the day, my dear old Dad would say to make a rook pie. How I miss him.