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

They are on a special puppy diet and I made these fabulous dog biscuits especially for them. I know exactly what is inside, no additives or preservatives, and they contain ingredients that I would personally eat.

When we moved to Suffolk we wanted to get a dog – well now we have two. I also had great intentions to bake special doggy biscuits to sell from the bar… well those intentions took 9 months to materialise and finally here we are. Scrumptious Sutton Hoo Chicken Liver, Carrot and Oaty Biscuits; yes they are rather posh, but then only the best for these uber cute doggies!

This takes me back to our last visit to the States. We stayed near Time Warner Center, New York, home to the fantastic Bouchon Bakery. We were obsessed with Bouchon and every morning went there for a cup of coffee and a pastry. It’s also the perfect place to people watch, and one of the items they sell is dog biscuits laced with foie grass and chicken stock, very posh! We got chatting with the lady behind the counter who told us how some dog owners not only buy a biscuit for their dogs but that the owners are rather partial to a doggy biscuit too! Well it made me giggle and remained in my memory.

There is no foie grass for our pups but instead, the best chicken livers our money can buy! The chicken hearts could also be a great substitute or addition to use alongside the chicken livers. I have chosen carrots as these two boys love carrots and a carrot has entertained them for hours on end, so I thought it better make its way into their yummy treats. Remember not to add any salt or sugar! Even though these biscuits are technically good for them remember not to feed your dog too many, it’s only a treat.

These biscuits are perfectly good for human consumption too if you wish, however if you are baking them for your own enjoyment add a salt to the mixture otherwise it’s a bit bland. I thought they would be super delicious as a canape with a bit of chicken liver parfait on top…. more ideas.

It’s not as simple as counting in the in-laws and hey presto cooking for a family of six, no, it’s a bit more complicated than that. It’s true as the expression “finger in the wind” guess work. I had to guess how many turkeys we will need. I have now finally made all the Christmas puddings. After a panic I baked a few more…. I now have 102 individual Christmas puddings soaking and 24 large ones for Christmas day itself! As for the mince pie mixture I made 40kg and I hope it’s going to be enough. I have now documented all of this information and hopefully next year the calculations will be easier….I hope!

I did contemplate for a while weather or not I should put Christmas puddings and mince pies on the Christmas menus at all. I decided at first to try and be different and not to, but now the big doubt is setting in and I made it after all. Making these one bite mince pies is very time consuming but when people eat them and you can see them enjoying them, you realise that the hard work was all in the name of ‘being festive’.

Along with the Warm Ginger Spiced Cider, these little mince pies will be served slightly warm with a jar of brandy cream from the beginning of December.

I so desperately tried to be different last year and made this delicious mince pie mixture into various other mince pie delights such as Festive Power Bars and Luxury Mincemeat Biscuits. They are all good but you simply cannot beat the good old classic mince pie. Saying that, if I do have plenty of the mixture left these recipes might just come in handy after all….

My palate always used to be known as a good one, I had the privilege to taste the food in the restaurant as I was the only lady in the kitchen at that time. They said a woman’s palate is more refined and finely tuned. I loved every moment of the “glory” as I managed to taste nearly everything we served. It honed my palate and made me a very interesting chef. I was looking for perfection with the desire to taste every ingredient and it had to be  perfect otherwise it would have not passed my taste bud test. So I felt privileged that I was not only  learning the very best tricks of the trade but I had something that no one else had at that time in that Michelin kitchen, that’s pretty spectacular. It was so finely tuned that when I went on a wine tasting and palate identification course I guessed 50 out of 50 of the ingredients we had to taste, the gentleman was bemused and lost for words.

These sweeties are pretty special but at the same time I think they are an acquired taste. I planted the camomile bush in my garden two years ago but overtime I had forgotten what it was as the tag had disappeared. Only when Mum came to visit last year she pointed out that it was camomile.  It makes me laugh as I’m so forgetful and a real plonker at the best of times but what a lovely find. When we moved to Suffolk we brought most of our unusual herbs along and luckily this time we tagged them all, just to avoid the confusion.

The smoking process is a interesting but equally tricky one. Suffolk is known for it’s wonderful smoke houses and there are plenty of them around. All with their own style and their own interesting smoked items.

The smoking process for these pears must be controlled, if you smoke the pears too much it will overpower the rest of the flavours and consequently if you to serve it at the end of a meal it could be a bit too strong. Serve them as petit fours or bag them up in pretty see- through cellophane bags and give them as a gift, it makes a pretty decent treat.

We stayed in the glamorous Hudson Hotel with it’s beautiful minimalistic but striking interior and super tiny rooms. You need to be a size 6 to stay in the rooms because there is no room to turn around, Philip Stark did a good job and designed a beautiful hotel but boy oh boy did he not allow any space for ones suitcase. Anyhow we did not spend that much time in the room as we were busy testing out all the foodie establishments.

The hotel is situated near the foot of Central Park near the Time Warner Building and home to Bouchon Bakery. Thomas Keller is a very creative and clever business man. We visited the bakery every morning for a coffee and a different treat every time. We loved sitting at the high tables, close to the counter to watch the chefs at work through the hatch. We found the perfect spot and sometimes found ourselves there for too long observing them. They were superb craftspersons and produced the most stunning and beautiful goods.

Mr.P became partial to a biscuit fairly similar to this salted peanut brittle biscuit. He had the ideas in his head for quite some time to recreate that indulgent buttery salty taste of those Bouchon Peanut Butter Biscuits. The recipe is entirely a development of our own and after a few attempts we finally recreated a recipe that we feel represents the taste sensation of the biscuits of New York.

Watching the world go by in New York City is wonderful and sometimes very amusing too. At Bouchon they baked Foie Grass Dog Biscuits as the early joggers with their posh pooches stopped off for a skinny de-caf, a slice of watermelon and a delectable treat for the dog. We struck up a conversation with the ladies behind the counter as they eagerly told us a tale about a chap that came in regularly to buy himself one of these doggy treats. He was constantly told that the biscuits were for his dog and not for  him but he insisted that  it was delicious and continued nibbling away. Well that story left us giggling all day, typically a tale of New York.

As a matter of fact these have been  on my mind and have featured on my “to do list” ever since and that is to recreate Simon’s Orange and Polenta Biscuits.

I remember the orange fragrance and grittiness of the polenta very clearly,so it was a challenge  but I finally  made the time to create and perfect my own version of my distant memory of last summer.

I made and tweaked the recipe a few times  before I decided that I have done Simon justice and I’m happy with the result. I wanted to capture the flavours and textures. These biscuits are very short and crumble easily but the radical contrast in the texture of the polenta grains and the shortness that the cornflour brings to this recipe makes it even more exciting. In order to enhance and compliment the sharpness and acidic level of the orange flavour  I garnished each biscuits with wild sumac.The sumac has a sharp sour twang and compliments and  magnifies the orange fragrance and the best of all is it’s all natural.

What is sumac? Sumac is a deep red purple berry that grows on a small tree like shrub and is one of 250 species of flowering trees from the genus Rhus and is in the family anacardiaceae. Edible wild sumac is not to be confused with poisonious sumac which also has red berries. The two varieties are related and are also distantly related to the mango and cashew trees. The purple red berry is dried, ground and often used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a lemony tang to salads and meats. In Arabic cuisines sumac is used to sprinkle over mezze such as hummus. In Iranian, Kurdish and Persian cuisines sumac is added to rice and kebabs. Sumac is also best known for its use in the composition of Za’atar spice mix as its the main ingredient.

The culinary world has gone into a macaron frenzy. It’s macarons wherever you turn your head. So it’s time that I jumped on the macaron band wagon and give it a whirl.

My recent visit to Pierre Hermé’s exclusive macaron boutique at Selfridges confirmed what a true master he is with funky flavour combination’s. My favourite must be the wasabi and strawberry.

I am also addicted to all pretty things in life, so my aim is not only to make my macarons as pretty as possible but also give it the professional look.

I achieved this with my macarons by using a garnish of  freeze dried raspberries, black sesame seeds and chopped pistachio nuts. I made one batch of macaron mixture, coloured it with one colour, used different garnishes and flavoured fillings. I made my own version of wasabi and white chocolate butter cream as well as a toasted black sesame seed butter cream and for the third flavour combination I used a strawberry and rose jam as a filling.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You might think that the wasabi flavouring is a weird combination, honestly I though the same but all I can say is WOW! The wasabi has acidic and citrus undertones and combined with a really good quality white chocolate, I chose one with floral notes,to provide an  absolute dream flavour explosion. It surpassed all my expectations. I even think it tasted more fragrant than the wasabi and strawberry one I bought at Selfridges. (Hope no one takes any offence to me saying that.)  You have to add the wasabi to suit your taste, I suggest you start with a little  and mix it very well. I used a butter cream made from unsalted butter as my carrier for the wasabi. I also used wasabi paste and not powder, it’s entirely your choice. If you only have powder then I suggest that you should first make it into a paste and then add, to taste, to the butter cream.

To add a bit of glamour and sparkle to your baked macarons dust with edible glitter. You can get all sorts of funky shades and colours.

What I love  most about macarons is that you can make as many interesting colour and flavour combination’s as you wish. I have listed only a very few in the recipe below. I hope this short video will also give every macaron lover the confidence to give it a go and crack the art of making macarons.

It’s mid season for blood oranges and even though they are imported I still think they are pretty special and are one of my personal seasonal favourties. I love the deep red colour and they have a stronger orange taste and more vitamin C than the normal type but have a pleasant hint of redcurrant.

This cake is not for the fainthearted and you must be seriously committed to complete the baking.For me it’s worth every ounce of effort as it’s superbly delicious. Start by soaking the poppy seeds in warm milk, then mix the cake batter by beating the butter, sugar and zest until light, airy and fluffy. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients and finally fold the soaked swollen poppy seeds into the batter.As it takes 1 hour to bake the cake, prepare the blood orange marmalade sauce that is to be spooned over the cake.

Previously I was not fussed in using poppy seeds in cakes as I found them to be too crunchy and it seemed to have a rather bizarre texture. However by soaking the poppy seeds in milk they swell up, become softer and you get a cake with superb layers of flavour, truly memorable.

Whilst baking this cake it took me back to when I was a child, mum used to bake a lemon poppy seed cake and we used to refer to it as the ‘ant cake’, well I suppose the poppy seeds looks like ants!?

This cake  not only makes the perfect slice with a cup of tea but also a pretty special pudding served slightly warm with blood orange sorbet and a dollop of crème fraîche.

We love a good pancake, there are so many different shapes and techniques but everyone has their own special recipe to enjoy this indulgent and delicious snack.

Today I made fluffy, spongy, sweet and superbly yummy pancakes. I have chosen to make mine fairly small, 6cm in diameter to be precise, well it allows me to be indulgent and they do look rather pretty on a plate. I have served these for breakfast with a large dollop of crème fraîche, a swizzle of local honey and a big squeeze of lime juice.

Actually to be completely honest I did not buy any of the ingredients to make this delicious breakfast, it was more a make it up as you go along idea. In my terms whatever I have in the larder.

I found one lime, plenty of fresh free range eggs, dessicated coconut that I bought a while ago to make lamingtons, which  never got made and then the berries from the freezer. I love my freezer, or shall I say freezers. We have nothing of great value stored in them. Mainly frozen seasonal berries and fruits, ginger, lemongrass, chillies, home made curry pastes, chicken stock and even more berries!

Mr.P’s dad Roy has the most fantastic redcurrant bush that produces more berries than the three households in the family could possibly eat in one season; hence I store them so that we can enjoy them the year round. The same goes for the raspberries, we had a fantastic harvest last summer and finally the last few went into this recipe. The combination of raspberries and redcurrants is one of my favourites, bizarrely they work incredibly well together. I suppose the raspberries counteract the sharpness of the redcurrants and visa versa, I make a stonklingly good Raspberry and Redcurrant Jam that I class as my signature jam.

I hope this recipe will encourage and inspire you to make up your own Shrove Tuesday delight, go on rummage through your larder it’s amazing what one can find. You could make savoury or sweet pancakes or why not go the whole hog and make both!

Happy flipping,but make sure they do not stick to the ceiling!

Celebrating Valentines day has become a bit of a cliche over the years, especially with the retailers who completely miss the point and try to milk as much cash as they can from February  14th. I’m actually very pleased that Mr.P does not jump on the band wagon and pay extortionate prices for flowers, he does show his appreciation in his own little ways and I love him for that.

Last week Mr.P brought me a lovely gift of some new season forced rhubarb wrapped in pretty pink tissue paper.

I was overwhelmed with this lovely gift so I felt the need to cook something that we both would enjoy. This heavenly scented rhubarb and vanilla jam made its appearance. I did not like rhubarb as I used to associate it with a browny colour and an  earthy taste but this was the outdoor rhubarb. However over the past 5 or 6 years  I have started to like forced rhubarb. I must say I like it a lot now, perhaps this means that I have finally settled and became accustomed to the British traditions.

Rhubarb does not contain natural pectin so I had to use pectin rich jam sugar. I’m not generally very keen on using jam sugar but this recipe really needs it if you are expecting your jam to set. Quantity wise, I have used half jam sugar and half caster sugar. I find jam sugar set’s too rubbery for my liking. Another secret to the success of this bright pink jam is the speed that it must be cooked. The longer the jam stews and boils the earthier the taste and browner the colour, cook it quick, be prepared and have all your tools and equipment ready before you start. I cooked a second batch today and it took me 30 minutes from the moment I took the rhubarb out of the fridge until I turned the kitchen light off.This means my jam was cooked, bottled, sealed and the jam pan washed and back in the cupboard. I call that super duper fast jam making, o.k I only made 600g of jam, two small jars but it’s still quick!

I would not recommend to cook this jam in large batches, it will destroy the colour and the lovely fresh fragrance that I get from a small batch. I finished the jam with the juice of half a lemon to refresh the taste and bring out the sharpness of the rhubarb.

I have added vanilla again, I know I did it with my Seville orange marmalade as well, I cannot help it….. I do like vanilla and thought it would set these super decadent biscuits off nicely. I promise next time to try something else, I  think that perhaps cardamom will be just as delicious. I know that the pods are very expensive so making the most of the them is a must. Never throw the pods away, there is too much flavour left in them. You can wash the pods after the jam is finished, dry them thoroughly and then pop the pod into caster sugar, you will be amazed on how much  flavour they will produce. I recycle my pods several times.

These rhubarb melting moment biscuits are delicious, rich and short. The sharpness of the rhubarb and the zesty lemon butter cream compliments the biscuits richness.

Pack a couple of these rhubarb melting moments into your loved ones packed lunch, it’s guaranteed to put a big smile on their face.