The British Larder Inspirational recipe diary

Mr P and I both enjoy a good bit of bread. When Pump Street Bakery in Orford opened we thought that all our Christmases had come at once and we would never need to attempt to bake bread again. I enjoy baking bread, do not misunderstand me, but the enjoyment wears off quickly for me with something as technical as baking bread when it’s done on a daily basis, especially when menus change regularly.

The British Larder Suffolk team visited the Hand and Flowers in Marlow a couple of months ago. It was a very special and memorable visit and Tom and his team looked after us very well. Amongst all the special and delicious plates of food, the memory of the delicious and very tasty soda bread has stayed with me.

I was inspired to bake my own version of soda bread. It took a few attempts to get

This recipe is one of those quick and easy recipes that came about by accident. Well, the discovery is a good one and once we started making it we realised the various eating occasions it can cover. Definitely a good discovery.

All credit for this recipe goes to Ross. We change our set lunch menu each week, and a few weeks ago Ross had left planning a vegetarian starter until the morning (he is quite good at leaving things to the last minute, much to my despair!). After discovering he had not ordered special ingredients for his ‘special’, he had to go and ‘forage’ in the fridge for something to use for his dish. He found puff pastry trimmings, a few pears and some boulangère potato leftovers from the main course section, plus some goat’s cheese. He came into the kitchen as smug as a cat that had found the

It’s that time of the year again when I just cannot get enough of rhubarb! This year I have made plenty of rhubarb puddings, including baked white chocolate and rhubarb cheesecake and this one – a rhubarb and brown sugar meringue mess, which is a favourite and one that is cherished by all our regulars.

I feel like a bit of a fraud making a meringue mess, as I feel it’s easy to make and I am concerned that our customers think I am cheating by making something that is so simple, hence, I am adding a few layers of complication to the recipe to ensure that I earn my keep and reputation of being a hard-working chef!

Our famous brown sugar meringue messes take on various different flavours and guises as the seasons evolve. We start the year off with poached rhubarb, then move onto strawberry, followed by gooseberry,

Who would have thought that we would still be enduring snow in March? With this cold and very confusing weather my thoughts turn to hearty dishes with bags of flavour. My head tells me we should start to cook lighter dishes with a feeling of spring, but my heart and stomach are asking for hearty soul food. This recipe has bags of flavour and soul and is definitely satisfying. We shall leave the lighter spring-like dishes for another week or two.

We are lucky enough to have plenty of good butchers to choose from in our area, we buy our sausages from Five Winds Farm, and I believe their spicy British-made chorizo-style sausages are delicious and the best we can buy in the local area. They are packed full of flavour with an ever so slightly mild spiciness which makes them the perfect ingredient to use in recipes such as