Another year has come and gone and we are near Halloween and Christmas once again. The Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival took place at the end of September and as per last year, the British Larder contributed in many ways to the fringe events. One of my possibly maddest ideas was the Foodie Booty that we hosted in our car park on the 1st of October.

It’s all innocent and a bit of fun. Simple concept: I invited locals to come and sell their wares from the back of their car, van, horse and cart, tractor… It’s an awareness campaign and reiterated our values of buying local, involving the locals and just being us… slightly different.

We achieved all of that and saw a good turn out comprisig an eclectic mix of produce for sale, from Lottie Lin’s marvellous kitchen paraphernalia, cook books, garden produce, chutneys and wonderful baked goods, Pump Street Bakery’s bread, and Rob Sledmere from Suffolk Providore with his sweetcorn, to Professor Baker with his “wombats” (aka pickled walnuts).

We get plenty of wonderful glut delivered to the pub from our regulars such as the fantastic squashes from Mr. Atkinson, also know as the “Funky Squash Man”, pumpkins from Lottie Lin, quinces and apples from Victoria Sangster’s marvellous garden, to Dianna’s walnuts. We are grateful for these contributions and even more grateful for the fantastic friends we made due to our bartering system. We all have something in common and that is a great feeling.

The foodie booty kicked off at 6am whenDingley Dell Farmer Mark Hayward brought the pig for the hogroast, fired it up and a lot of coffee drinking and nattering took place whilst the piggy was roasting.

The stall holders arrived from just after 9am. It turned out to be a hot sunny day; finally the summer we have been waiting for.

All in all it was a good day. We had a good turnout of people buying wonderful locally produced foods and we got the chance to test drive our new concept of a foodie booty.

This pumpkin chutney is our recipe in celebration  of Autumn, after all I have been inundated this season with the finest pumpkins in East Anglia.

A huge thank you to:

• Mark Hayward,  Dingley Dell
• Roger and Pat, Pump Street Bakery
• Rob Sledmere, Suffolk Providore
• Lin Carter, aka Lottie Lin
• Richard, Sutton Hoo Chickens
• Professor Baker, aka the Wombat man
• Davind and Francess, Village Veg
• Emma, Nut Tree Farm
• Emmerline, Smy Chutney
• Wendy, Melton Cakes
• Richard Isaac, The Old Sweet Shop, Woodbridge
• Graham Owston, The Saxmundham Honey Man

These events give us the opportunity to prepare and create mouth watering dishes. The recipe opportunities are endless. Now that the game season has begun with autumn in full swing it’s time to bring back our show stopping game dishes.

This venison carpaccio is a twist on a classic beef carpaccio with the addition of a crispy venison shoulder lollipop and a delicious shallot and hazelnut vinaigrette.

I like cooking with game, the meat is lean hence being healthier, and for me personally it’s all about the fact that it is very seasonal. Another great friend of ours, David Grimwood has been incredibly kind by bringing us various bits of game and educated us about the amazing world of the wild ducks. This pan-roasted teal and pearl barley salad with damson vinaigrette is just one of many fantastic recipes we created with David’s gifts of wild ducks.



Have a look at these mouthwatering game recipes for further inspiration on cooking with game:

• A Tasting of Game
• Partridge, Fig and Salted Caramel Walnuts
• Venison Haunch Steak with Spelt Grain and Red Wine Sauce
• Venison and Smoked Pnachetta Meatballs

These small individual lemon meringue pies not only look great but we have the advantage of being able to serve them in the restaurant. We prepare them to the pastry and lemon filling stage and then on the day, when needed we then top them up with the meringue topping and bake them before each service. It keeps them fresh and easy to manage, as well as reducing wastage.

They are also perfect for our bar counter; they look great on a glass stand with a big glass dome lid perfect for that Sunday afternoon cup of tea and the taste of something sweet.

We have a perfect location for walking, especially dog walking. There are several routes that can be followed from our pub front door, one route goes past the fishing lakes, the other over the bridleway passing the golf club and then another one goes through a mini nature reserve, Bromeswell green and can be followed all the way to the river. All these walks are safe, some of them are fairly taxing as the hills can be quite steep and some parts the soft sandy soil makes walking a bit harder. All this hard work requires a pleasant reward at the end and these lemon meringue pies are just the thing for a post-energetic walk.

The beauty about lemon meringue pies is that they do not really have a season; we get lemons all year round. These individual pies are perfect for any occasion from a picnic to a sophisticated tea party.

Mackerel is delicious and versatile and can be served hot or cold, smoked, raw or cooked. Due to the rich oily flesh mackerel works best with strong acid flavours such as saffron, lemons, limes, tomatoes, orange, fennel, chilli, ginger and wasabi. The skin of mackerel is thin and therefore crisps up easily and tastes equally delicious. My philosophy about mackerel is to keep it simple; it’s a humble fish, and over-complicating a recipe incorporating mackerel is doing no one any flavours! The combination of using fresh and smoked mackerel adds a different dimension to the dish.

I usually associate tomatoes with mackerel, it might be from the days when my dad used to eat tinned sardines and tomato salad as a snack. Towards the end of Summer when tomatoes are ripening and plentiful, one might wonder what to do with a glut of tomatoes? Well I have the answer to this dilemma; last year I wrote this lovely post on how to preserve them if you have too many. One of the three recipes on there I use the most is the semi-dried tomato recipe. We use lots and lots of them in the restaurant and semi-dry all shapes and sizes from cherry tomatoes to large ripe plum tomatoes, it works all the same and they are truly delicious – with the intense flavour they work beautifully with the oily mackerel.

We hand on heart support the Farm Animal Welfare Week. It’s important that we offer high welfare food items on our menus and tell everyone that we genuinely do what we say we do, and to highlight this, we have joined the Simply Ask Campaign.

The Freedom Food Food Simply Ask campaign is a unique UK assurance scheme run by the RSPCA; not only are all standards mandatory, the standards also cover every stage of the animal’s life from birth until slaughter in a dedication to improving animal welfare. Meat products, dairy and eggs are sourced ethically and locally at the British Larder Suffolk, reinforcing its commitment to animal welfare.

Once we started asking our suppliers about their credentials and “digging” a bit deeper into the rearing and welfare standards they follow we discovered that nearly all of them were either organic or freedom foods approved. I’m not entirely sure why I was a bit surprised, it was a good surprise after all. We realised we are “shopping” at the right places and buy from the right people. We urge chefs and restauranteurs to join the scheme. It’s good for business and if you already fit the criteria why not join the scheme, sign up and get the seal of approval.

Staff food at the British Larder does not consist of dishes from the menu but it’s cooked fresh every day using trimmings and leftovers. It’s also a great opportunity for the all the chefs to experiment, think outside the proverbial box and be creative. Most day’s it’s a bit of a “ready-steady-cook” affair as we might end up with a bit of pig trim, a couple of potatoes and a few hen’s eggs. This Pig Hash is one of Steve’s creations which started off as a staff meal recipe and turned into a “real”dish that we cooked as a lunch special on the menu. It’s a great brunch/ breakfast dish.

Pork is one of the best sellers on our menus. As we are approaching the one year anniversary mark we were talking last week about the amount of pig we have used so far here at the British Larder. Well we are none the wiser as we have no idea…unless I do some serious research…nevertheless we guess that each staff member must have eaten the value of a whole Dingley Dell pig by now! No… that can’t be right, surely…. now that is a scary thought!

There is a very true saying that all good things take time to create and nurture. Well these two recipes will certainly test your patience - and they did test mine! I’m a bit impatient and want everything to have happened yesterday. Well I had to wait two weeks for these pickled eggs to be pickled and the pork scratchings also need 5 days salting before anything else can be done with them.

To create and complete these two recipes required a lot of reading, testing and eating. The fact of the matter is that there’s not much written word about pickled eggs; hence us making up our own, whereas on the other hand pork scratchings had a lot of references. The panel of tasters, developers and testers consist of James who lead the project and did the most of the doing, Tall Dan (he boiled the eggs), Skinny Dan (mainly eating the pickled eggs), Steve, Ross and myself (the three wise ones). Actually I just do the delegating, talking and eating and the rest are doing the deed! Well I’m a girl who knows what I like so they had to do it until we liked it! Simples!

We tried and tested several versions of the scratchings - 8 month’s worth to be honest. However, finally the literary word that won the taste test was the incredibly well-written Pork Scratchings, A Version Of by Fergus Henderson & Justin Piers Gellatly from ‘Beyond Nose To Tail’. We did however put our own twist on this well created recipe as one does, but the principle of the recipe remains the same.

The pickled eggs are kept in a pickle laden with spice so the pork scratchings had to follow suit.

We highly recommend both these recipes and sell the dishes with pride at the British Larder, however it must come with a health warning. “Consume responsibly in small quantities as sensitive teeth might suffer and a slightly tired heart and well-lived body might feel the strain if consumed in large, lavish quantities.” Or if you have a life motto like mine, “eat and enjoy, you only live once!”

In light of this, however, I think we managed perfectly well. From quince chutney and purees to crumbles, curds and jellies, quinces featured on everything and anything from breakfast items, soups, starters, mains, desserts and also on the cheese boards. We even managed a seasonal cocktail we called a Quince Collins, using a quince vanilla puree mixed with gin and topped with soda water and plenty of ice.

We are now to the bare bones and the last tray of stored quinces. It’s almost sad and I’m slightly panicking as I’m not sure what the next glut is going to be!

Steve and I are flipping coins as to who is getting the final few. Well, as two grown ups we decided that we should share it equally, how civilised!?

I made the final batch of medlar and quince jelly with quince curd for desserts and Steve is serving his quinces up in this delicious and dare I say very festive starter.

We have already discussed that once the quinces run out we shall change over to pears.

If like us you have a glut of quinces, try these recipes:

• Medlar and Quince Jelly, Quince Curd and Garibaldi Biscuits
• Twice Baked Quince and Hazelnut Crumble with Quince Custard
• Quince Brule Tarts
• Quince Curd

This dish is one of those faithful beauties that has graced the menus of the British Larder Suffolk for a few weeks and our customers love it! I should also take the opportunity to thank Maria Elia for inspiring us to put this dish on our menu, Maria is a very good friend of ours, spending many days working with us. Her presence here meant that we actually managed to get a day off and we are both very graceful for Maria’s kind input.

The parsnip is one of those amazing vegetables packed with natural sweetness and is the perfect vegetable to grow in colder countries. They rely on the frost to develop their sweetness and flavour. It’s said that parsnips were eaten long before the discovery of potatoes, and in ancient Roman times they used to be much smaller, more the size of a baby carrot when fully grown. As the Romans traveled further north they found that the parsnips grew bigger, more in line with the size of those we see today. They are a quick grower and easy to maintain, hence the popularity of growing them amongst gardeners. I have not given it a go – perhaps I should try growing them myself next year!

Parsnips have a distinctive earthy flavour, and hence work well with wild mushrooms and woodland flavours such as truffle. Girolles are a bit expensive and could easily been substituted for chestnut mushrooms which will give a similar effect.

I added the flavour of the Shipcord cheese which has a full, long lasting taste not dissimilar from Alpine cheeses, and toasted hazelnuts compliment the richness of the cheese. This Shipcord cheese is made here in Suffolk, the parsnips grow in a field 5 miles from our restaurant and the girolles only a tad further, from Norfolk. For us it’s perfect, local, and definitely seasonal.

This dish has a lot of complex layers of taste and flavour but then that is perfect for the colder days. Who said a salad should be boring?!

Pomegranates are coming into season and butternut squashes are perfect for harvesting and cooking. This dish is perfect at this time of year and can be tossed together simply and quickly. It’s a delicious recipe to pull out of the drawer on a miserable day, and brings a real splash of colour to dull wintry weather.

Autumn and Winter is not only about hearty stews and boiling hot soups but the occasional salad served either warm or cold is a refreshing break. We regularly enjoy meals without meat or fish and this dish is that all in one nutritious meal without the meat. Saying that it’s also perfect to be served as a side dish with whole baked wild sea bass or a joint of roasted shoulder of pork.

This really is an ideal one tray wonder recipe. If you like the “family style” presentation of food then it’s one of those pretty numbers to serve up in the same roasting tray that you used to roast the squash in. It’s a great idea, looks rustic and seriously home-made, and best of all is it saves time. Less washing up is always a preferred option!

I drizzled a wonderful and tasty yoghurt dressing over this salad. I used an interesting ingredient called tahini that is mixed in with the Greek yoghurt and the zest and juice of one lemon. Tahini is sesame paste and one of the main ingredients for making hummus. You can purchase tahini from most high street or middle eastern supermarkets.

All the seasons are important for us here at the British Larder Suffolk, this is our first Autumn and it will be our first winter. The game has not been in short supply and we are ever so pleased to see that the diners appreciate the game as much as we do. This partridge, fig and salt caramel walnut dish featured several times on our menu, and will do until the figs come to an end. The whole dish is a triumph as the different textures and taste compliment each other, it’s one of those dishes you wish it would never end as it’s interesting and every mouth full has a different story to tell.

The walnuts where brought in by Diana, a regular who could not bare watching the squirrels hiding the walnuts in her garden any longer. Well we are very pleased that she did as the wet walnuts are delicious and hopefully next year we will manage to get some green ones to pickle. For these salt caramel walnuts I used the fresh wet walnuts however you could use dried walnuts which works and tastes just the same.

Wild mushrooms is also plentiful and we are lucky enough to get a  good supply of trompette de la mort also known as horn of plenty or black trumpet mushrooms. I buy them from a reputable supplier, we like looking at the wonderful fungus in the woods but will never be tempted to pick them as we simply do not have enough knowledge to know what is good and what is bad. These trompette de la mort do not only look fantastic and have a great visual impact on any dish but they also taste wonderful. I like to cook them until dry and caramelised in a small amount of butter seasoned well, you can certainly taste the woodlands in every mouth full.

About Partridges

Partridge are non-migrational birds for the pheasant family, Phasianidae. In the United Kingdom there are two types of partridge available grey partridge and the red-legged partridge.
Grey partridge is a smaller bird than the red-legged partridges and it has tender and delicate meat early on in the season but as the season progresses the meat become richer and stronger.
Red-legged partridges are larger birds with a delicate flavour. As they are small birds they are perfect for a starter size serving. The partridge sausage rolls in the recipe below is another fun recipe to cook with partridges.

• Creamy Parsnip Soup with Red Leg Partridge Sausage Roll