The time has passed and  the pub is finally open.  Mr.P and I agreed all along, the style of food that we will cook and serve in the pub would be that of the British Larder. Informal good food that we enjoy eating ourselves, cooked well and using the best that land and sea offers from our local county. We want it to be still lavish and special without the white starched table cloths and the stiff atmosphere, in all fairness we want the best of both worlds. Call us greedy but then I suppose there is nothing wrong with that either.

This lavish lobster macaroni is the exact dish that we have put on the menu for the opening and will enable me to produce proper costings  I thought it best if I cooked this dish to give all the British Larder readers a look test and once the

Wow! Well, after such a wealth of effort and a hectic few months, the doors are finally open to the British Larder, Suffolk! Reality has set in and impaled itself upon mine and Ross’s lives, and although it feels like it has already been a turbulent rollercoaster ride of a lifetime, the journey has only just begun.

The living embodiment of the British Larder materialised with a bang at the official VIP launch party on Tuesday 3^rd August, and to our delight, approximately 180 guests turned up to see what the brand new British Larder Suffolk is all about.

With the doors thrown open and all the little finishing touches in place – the freshly painted walls, stripped wooden floorboards, pots of herbs on each table, jars of goodies adorning the bar, crates of vegetables and jars of jam – the British Larder, Suffolk is finally real. I can still

All the credit for this recipe goes to Dan Lepard. I have to confess that I did make a few changes as we all know cooking and baking are subjective and I have changed the original recipe to accommodate my taste.

I found the original recipe very rich and the treacle was a bit too much for me, especially when the loaf matured after one day, it was very strong. Nevertheless it’s a superb recipe and I love Dans reference to  this recipe being the original British “energy bar”.

We particularly enjoyed it toasted for breakfast with a thin scraping of slightly salted butter and a cup of ‘builders’ tea. It’s the perfect loaf to start my busy and hectic day.

When I first read the recipe I was baffled about malt extract as I had neither heard of  nor used it, so I was slightly unnerved as I did

Orford is a fantastic place, getting to it is slightly tricky as it requires manoeuvring down a  narrow country lane but the “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” is fantastic. A true gem. The village has a lot of character with wonderful’ olde worlde’ seaside village charm. It’s home to some fantastic and well known businesses which makes the visit even more special.

One place I cannot resist visiting is Brinkley’s Shed on the quay and run by local fishermen. It’s here that I found this marvelous local caught seabass and when I faced  the sea, I discovered the wonderful sea purslane growing nearby. I like to visit Brinkley’s as each visit has it’s own mystery finds. They sell what’s in season and fish caught on that particular day. It’s wonderful that there are businesses that focus mainly on the seasons.

Other places I love visiting  in