'Underground' Farming?

 Hello!  And, sorry for not posting for so long.  What with Christmas and New Year and everything, it's all been a bit hectic just recently and I'm afraid to say the blog has taken something of a back seat.  This hasn't been helped by the loss of my digital camera owing to an unfortunate incident involving a plastic carrier bag and a half-drunk cup of coffee.  Suffice to say, the digital camera is no long with us.  I'm working on buying a new one so I can get back to blogging properly, but in the mean time we'll just have to stick to words.

 I came across this article in The Guardian today:

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/23/diy-food-producers

 The idea of 'underground' food producers is really interesting and not something I've come across before, but I think this kind of cottage industry endeavour is exactly what the country and in particular the countryside, really needs right now.  Although, by the sound of it many of the people mentioned in the article are from an urban environment, but still, this has to be a move in the right direction.  I would love to try out some of these things myself, such as making cheese or curing my own ham, but I just don't have the space at the moment.  I am working to find a solution to this though and if successful, it should certainly give me a bit more to blog about.

 I feel I can't post to my blog at this time of the year without mentioning Burns Night, which is coming up on the 25th January.  Whilst this is a big thing in Scotland where people are keen to celebrate the work of one of their national heroes, Robert Burns, it's very rarely heard of down here in England.  So I was rather surprised to see one of my local butchers having a large banner advertising Burns Night and encouraging people to order a home-made haggis for the occasion.  I don't know how successful this will be, judging by people I've spoken to down here, many are reluctant to try haggis because they've heard that it's disgusting.  It doesn't even seem to matter that they have no idea what goes into it!  It's a shame, haggis is really very nice and I would encourage anyone who hasn't tried it before to give it a go.  And, what better occasion than Burns Night?

Roast topside of Water Buffalo

This was something of a surprise find in the freezer section at Sunnyfields - Water Buffalo meat!  The Water Buffalo are reared here in the UK, at Broughton Farm in Hampshire (more info here).  They had buffalo mince and topside joints available, so I though it would be good to do a version of the British classic, roast beef.  But with buffalo.

  To start with, defrost the meat.  It is best taken out of the freezer in the morning of the day you plan to cook it, assuming you'll be having it as an evening meal.  When it's defrosted completely, pre-heat the oven to 220C.  Liberally season the meat with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  The piece I bought had some string tied around it to keep it all together, I left this on until it was cooked.  Next, roughly chop four or five carrots and three small onions and place in the bottom of a roasting tray.  Drizzle the vegetables with a little oil (I used rape seed oil) and place the seasoned meat on top.

  Now, place this onto the middle shelf of the pre-heated oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 180C and leave for around 2 hours.  Baste the meat with the juices which will collect in the roasting tray about every half an hour or so.  After 2 hours (the exact cooking will depend on the size of the piece of meat, so you'll have to use your own judgement a bit here), turn the temperature down to 160C for a final half-an-hour.  Then, remove the meat from the oven.

  Take the meat out of the roasting tray and put to one side, strain the vegetables and juices into a suitable container (this makes very good gravy!).  Now, put the meat back into the roasting tray and cover with kitchen foil.  Now leave it for 10 - 15 minutes to rest before serving.

 

  To test if it's cooked properly, before removing from the oven completely, use a metal skewer to make a hole right through the thickest part of the meat, from the top.  Remove the skewer and watch the juices that come out, if they are clear and not cloudy, the meat should be cooked.  Repeat the test in several areas to make sure.  There are fancier ways of doing this, a meat thermometer is probably the best way, especially if you want you meat anything other than well done, but I don't have one of those.

 Anyway, that's it!  Serve with whatever vegetables you like.

  It has a really excellent flavour, kind of like beef, but also quite different.  The fat, in particular, tastes very different.  Buffalo meat apparently contains less than half the fat of beef, so it can't be bad!  I would recommend trying it.  I intend to have a go at making burgers from buffalo mince at some point, so I shall certainly blog about that when I do.

Sunnyfields chicken, ham and leak pie

 I was back at Sunnyfields farm a little while ago, actually my first visit this summer!  I have often wished that it was easier to get British made 'ready meal' things like pizza and pies, made with British (and preferably local) ingredients.  Much to my delight, I found that you can!  Although, if I hadn't been at Sunnyfields anyway, it would have been a bit out of my way just for a pie.  But still, I could hardly resist giving one of these a try!

 It was an excellent pie!  It had nice, big pieces of chicken and good sized cubes of ham.  The pastry was good too.  All in all, a thoroughly good pie.  More info on Sunnyfields Organic farm here.

 While I was there, I also picked up some locally grown corn-on-the-cob, which was very nice.  I had some of it done on the barbecue and it was really sweet and delicious.

Waitrose Regional Foods

I've just got back from doing my shopping at Waitrose, which happens to be my closest supermarket, although I do occasionally go to others.  Waitrose have quite a strong focus on local produce and actually have a whole section, albeit a small one, devoted to regional, local produce.  In my case, the region in question is 'South of England'.  As I say, it's only a small section so there isn't all that much there, but they usually have locally produced potatoes and mushrooms here.  Today, I also got organic spinach, plum tomatoes and asparagus.  I feel that although the selection is small, I have to do my bit by supporting this initiative.  If more consumers buy these products, the supermarkets will release that this really is something that we want to be able to buy and hopefully that will lead to an increase in the range of local produce available.  I occasionally go to farm shops and I would like to start using some smaller, local suppliers for things such as meat.  The trouble is, it is very hard to beat the convenience of a supermarket.  To get to a farm shop, I have to use my car, whereas I can walk to Waitrose.  There are one or two smaller, local shops I can drop into on my way home from work, so I shall have to explore that possibility.  The point I am trying to make I guess is that it isn't always possible to do your shopping at farm shops and small local suppliers, but at least if you're going to use a supermarket, try to support any local food initiatives they may have.  I am sure all the main supermarkets have similar local producer schemes to Waitrose.

Roast Venison from the New Forest

On my last trip to Sunnyfields Farm Shop and Market, I picked up a pack of Venison rump steak.  I have to say that I am something of a fan of Venison, it's got a great flavour and it naturally very lean.  So, this is what I bought:

And out of the wrapper:

I'm not a butcher, but to me that looks like a good bit of bit of meat!  To make a nice roast from this, I lightly seasoned the meat with salt and pepper and then sealed it in a very hot frying pan.  This simply involves putting a little oil in the pan and getting it nice and hot, but not smoking.  Then, simply place the meat in the pan and leave it alone for a minute or so.  Then, turn onto the other side and leave for about a minute or so.  Keep turning until all the sides have been browned:

Here, I have placed some carrots, a chopped onion and 4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped.  I added some cold pressed rape seed oil over the vegetables and then placed the sealed meat on top.  Put this in an oven at 180C, for about 45 to 50 minutes.  The exact cooking time will vary depending on the size of the joint of meat of course.  The best way to tell if it is cooked is to push a metal skewer into it, at the thickest point and check that the juices coming out are clear.  If not, then it needs another 10 minutes or so.  Once it's cooked, remove it from the over, cover it with more kitchen foil and leave it to rest for about 5 to 10 minutes.  This helps to ensure that the meat will be nice and tender.

When rested, slice thinly and serve!

Richard Woodall Cumberland Sausage, Hams and Bacon

 On my return journey from Edinburgh, I took the opportunity to visit a place that I have seen on TV before - Richard Woodall's shop in Waberthwaite in the Lake District.  I think the Lake District has to be one of the most beutiful parts of England and at this time of year it has a certain bleakness to it that is hard to describe.  Anyway, Richard Woodall's shop is famous as being the first place to make prosciutto style ham in Britain.  He is also famous for being a supplier of pork products to the Queen, including bacon, sausages and the air-dried ham.  So, I could hardly pass up the chance to visit!

 Driving into the Lake District, I was almost immediately greated by some amazing views:

 But, that wasn't why I was here!  The village of Waberthwaite itself is really tiny, little more then a scattering of houses, a school and the famous post office / Richard Woodall's shop.  I grew up in a rural area in England so I am quite aware that many of these communities are struggling to survive these days and very often the closure of the local post office can prove to be the final straw.  It was really good to see an example of a business model that can clearly work, by combining the post office with something else, in this case the butchers shop, it becomes much more viable.  Of course, I'm sure it helps to have a famous product to draw people in.

 Inside, the shop was just amazing.  It's not very big, so the first thing that I noticed was the smell which comes from the hams hanging up from the ceiling:

 They sell these hams whole and assured me that one would last for a long time if I were to buy one.  However, I felt that that was probably a little bit too much ham to buy in one go, even for me!  So, I settled for a 250g pack of the air-dried ham.  They also sell sausages, which I already knew to be very good because I had some for my dinner the evening before at the Brown Cow Inn, also in Waberthwaite.

 Now that's a big plate of food!  There were two sausgaes, the mashed potato and swede, peas, chips and under the fried egg, a large piece of black pudding.  I have to admit that I wasn't really able to do it justice, but I did my best!  Really, without having spent the day out walking in the fells, I can't imagine that many people would be able to do better.

 Anyway, I was intrigued that Richard Woodall's sell their sausages by the yard, rather then in the short sausages that I usually buy from the supermarket.  I also picked up some smoked bacon and some unsmoked bacon, both of the short back variety.  I shall blog more about these things soon!  It almost goes without saying, but all of these fine products are made from locally reared pigs.

Pickled beetroot & Chilli Jam

I had another trip to the Sunnyfields farm shop and market yesterday and couldn't resist picking up a couple of local items that I haven't tried before! These were Sunnyfield's own pickled beetroot and a jar of chili jam. I also picked up a bottle of English extra virgin, cold pressed rape seed oil, which I have blogged about before (see here) and makes a truly viable alternative to olive oil.

I'm quite a fan of pickled beetroot, since my parents used to make their own when I was young. Funnily enough, I don't think I liked it very much then! But, my tastes have changed a bit since then. Anyway, I had a simple salad for my lunch today, making use of chili jam and the beetroot. I also used some local eggs and some bread which I also got at Sunnyfields.

There are two cheeses here - a basic cheddar from the supermarket and some Lyburn Winchester Mature, which is very good.

The symbol to the left of the label on this cheese is the 'New Forest Marque', for which more information is available here. This seems like quite a good idea and apparently ensures that 'high standards of welfare and husbandry' have been applied (in the case of meat products, of course!). I have to say that whilst browsing around the market stalls at the Sunnyfields market, I noticed at least one alternative symbol apparently designating an origin within the New Forest area. I presume that this would be an unofficial symbol, so wouldn't indicate any kind of official endorsement. I shall blog on this subject again when I find out more.

Venison Meat Balls

One of the other products I picked up while I was last at Sunnyfields Farm Shop & Market was a pack of venison meat balls. I opted to cook these in the simplest way I could (my regular readers might spot a trend here!), which was to pan fry them and serve them with a rich tomato and herb sauce. Pan fry on a medium heat, turning occasionally until cooked through (the juices should run clear when they are cooked, but I prefer to cut one in half just to check - you can always cover this one with plenty of sauce so that no one can see!).

To make the sauce, heat some oil in a heavy-base sauce pan, then add a finely chopped onion and fry until soft. Add three cloves of garlic, finely sliced and a generous measure of finely chopped basil and parsely. I tend to use dried herbs, but I am hoping to start growning my own once the weather starts to get a bit warmer. Season with freshly ground black pepper and continue to fry, stiring often, for another minute or so. Add a tin of chopped tomatos. At this time of the year, there are no British tomatos available and the tinned variety offer an excellent way of getting a good, solid tomato flavour into food. Go for the highest quality ones you can, the own-brand ones can be OK, but they tend to be more acidic than the slightly more expensive varieties. Add a generous measure of soy sauce, cover and simmer gently. Leave to simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes. The soy sauce should add enough salt, but taste the sauce as it's cooking and add more if you feel it needs it.

I served my venison meat balls with the tomato sauce and peas on a bed of pasta.

Sunnyfields Farm Shop and Market

It's been a while since I last shopped at a farmers market, so I was keen to see what Sunnyfields (http://www.sunnyfields.co.uk/) market and farm shop would have to offer. I was not disappointed! For one thing, they have a fairly nice cafe which serves good, wholesome food cooked on site. I had my lunch there when I went, which was apparently their 'sustainable dish of the day'. It was sausages and mash and it was really rather good.

As well as serving really rather good food, they have a small but well stocked farm shop and an open-air market. The shop has a good selection of organic vegetables, meat and dairy products. The market appears to be attended by a number of local producers, offering a good selection of produce! It's well worth checking out I would say!

Whilst I was there, I picked up some excellent bacon and some 'traditional' Venison sausages, both of which were excellent.

Both of these were good, but the venison sausages were fantastic. I cooked them in the oven, at 180C for about 40 minutes. I served them with boiled potatos, peas and the chutney I made from the tomatos I grew back last summer.

Happy New Year!

Firstly, I would like to wish all my readers a really great New Year for 2010! May your year be full of wonderful culinary treats.

Many people may well be thinking more about dieting and cutting back on the food at this time of the year, after the over indulgences of the Christmas season. Personally, I think there is always room for good food, but if you are dieting at the moment then I really do wish you the very best of luck!

I don't really go in for new year's resolutions much myself, but if I did one I would make would be to try even harder through 2010 to explore local and British produce. I'd like to think that some of my readers may have been inspired to do something similar. Ingredients, in particular vegetables, always taste better the fresher they are. This is one of the reasons why vegetables you've grown yourself always taste better – you can't get much fresher then something pulled or picked and used within minutes. It stands to reason that the further vegetables have to be transported, the less fresh they will be and the less fresh they are, the less tasty they will be. Put simply, locally produced food such as vegetables, will be tastier than those grown hundreds of miles away.Of course, the availability of local vegetables is subject to the seasons, so it might be hard for someone who is used to cooking the same recipes over and over throughout the year. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with this and it should be possible to use local ingredients for at least part of the year. But personally, through doing the EatingBritish thing a while back and by continuing with this blog now, I find that my shopping habits have changed significantly. I still do most of my shopping at the supermarket, simply for the convenience really. However, instead of going along with a fixed menu for the week ahead, I go with an open mind and choose the ingredients that are the most local and the most fresh. In this way, the diversity of my cooking has increased enormously! And, it really adds some excitement to a shopping trip because it becomes something of an adventure. The adventure doesn't stop in the supermarket though, it continues in the kitchen when you get back home as you explore a new ingredient. If you've never tried shopping this way before, perhaps I could suggest that you make a, slightly late I admit, new year's resolution to try at least once in a while!

Fresh Basil Cafe, Belper

Gosh, it's been a while since I've posted anything! Sorry! Things have been a bit hectic just recently with two weddings and much to do at work. Anyway, I thought it was time for another post.

One of the weddings I was at was in the small town of Belper, in Derbyshire. A quick search of the Internet before I went revealed that a cafe called 'Fresh Basil' was a good place to eat, so I thought I had to check it out:

Inside was a wonderful Deli, with all kinds of meat and cheese for sale. There were also a number of tables set out, in what was obviously the cafe part of the establishment. I was very keen to have some kind of local, Derbyshire speciality if possible, so I was delighted when looking over the menu I spotted "Hot Derbyshire Salad". I was, in fact, about 10 minutes too late for ordering food, but to their great credit, they made it for me anyway, which I think says a lot. It's a shame that this level of customer service isn't more prevalent. Anyway, the dish that arrived was truly something to behold:

It's a mix of hot black pudding and bacon, with sliced apple, served on a bed of leaves with a balsamic vinegar dressing. It was really good! I have to say, I'm not always the biggest fan of black pudding, but here it worked really well. The sharpness of the fresh apple perfectly balanced the heaviness of the black pudding.

Anyway, I can most heartily recommend this place, if you should find yourself in Derbyshire, near to Belper. It was definitely worth the visit for me. The wedding was good to, of course! :-)

Cornwall

Well, I'm on holiday in Cornwall! I am staying in the village of Mousehole, which is a lovely place on the coast. I haven't had too many opportunities yet for sampling local produce, but no trip to Cornwall would be complete without at least one Cornish pasty:

I really like Cornish pasties - there is something so earthy, if that's the right word, about the design. It's so obviously designed as a means of holding the steak and potatoes and other bits and bobs together in a package that can be easily held in the hand. Of course, this really is the whole purpose of sandwiches and things like that - food in an edible package. This particular example was enjoyed during a visit to Healey's Cornish Cyder Farm (see here) and a fine Cornish pasty it was to! The cider farm was a really interesting visit as well (cyder, with a 'y' is a Cornish variant of the spelling of cider, apparently). The guided tour was worth the money I felt and we were taken round the farm and shown how the cider is produced. We also got a ride in a trailer pulled by an ancient tractor, which took us around the orchard where the apples are grown. One interesting part of the tour was a small 'museum' where they have a collection of old machinery used for cider making in the past. According to our tour guide, a Cooper (someone who makes barrels) would undergo a 7 year apprenticeship before being able to qualify as a professional. At the end of their course, they would have to produce an inverted barrel which should look something like this:

Now, I profess to know absolutely nothing about wood work, but this looks a hard task to me! Not only did they have to get the shape right, but it also had to be completely air tight and this would be tested by immersing it in water and watching for any bubbles coming out. If they failed this task, they would have to do another 2 years apprenticeship before having another go! Unsurprisingly, many dropped out along the way. Our tour guide knew of only one place in the UK now where barrels are still made in the traditional way, by one man, up in Scotland. I think it's kind of sad that these traditional industries have died out so extensively and how we generally have so little respect for manual trades such as this compared to past times.

Cornwall is also famous for clotted cream, although there is some competition between Cornwall and Devon for which is the best! I couldn't possibly go without a traditional cream tea of scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream:

Very nice. The clotted cream came with a particularly thick crust, which is of course how it should be:

Lovely.

Tebay Service Station

I recently had cause to visit the Tebay service station on the M6, whilst driving down from Edinburgh. You might well ask why this is so interesting, given that there are plenty of service stations along the M6, why should this one be so unique? Good question, but as far as I am aware, Tebay is relatively famous in the world of motorway service stations. At least part of the reason for this is that it has a fabulous shop that sells all kinds of local produce range from food such as sausages and vegetables, to various craft items. In short, given my interest in British produced food, I could hardly drive by without popping in! Actually, I had hoped to visit during my original EatingBritish year, but somehow never quite had the time (I was also without a car for much of it, so that didn't help either).





I didn't stop for as long as I would have liked really, since I still had about 300 miles to go and was keen to keep moving. However, I wondered around the shop and they do indeed sell an amazing array of local produce. In the end, I bought some lamb, cranberry and orange sausages and, in keeping with my efforts to work my way through all the different cheeses produced in Britain, some Blue Wensleydale cheese.


Both turned out to be really good! The cheese is wonderfully creamy, fairly similar to Stilton in flavour, but perhaps a bit rounder. The sausages, which I cooked in the oven (30 minutes, at 190C) and served with potatoes and peas (the way I nearly always do sausages), where absolutely delicious.

If it wasn't so far away, I would definitely go back! However, I will have to resolve to pop in if I am ever passing that way on the M6 again and I would recommend it as a good stopping point should you every find yourself over that way.

More information is available from their website:

http://www.westmorland.com/tebay

Royal highland show

Last week saw the 168th Royal Highland Show, which ran from Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd of June. With it's promise of a wealth of local produce and producers, I could hardly turn down the opportunity, so I went along on the Thursday.

This was my first visit to the Highland show, though I have been to other agricultural shows before, most notably the Lincolnshire show which was the destination of a few school trips when I was growing up.

My first destination on arrival was, of course, the food and local produce area. This was crammed full of stalls, some from familiar names and many that were unfamiliar. But, the best bit was that nearly all of these stalls were giving away free samples, which given the number of them, meant that it was almost (but not quite) unnecessary to buy lunch.

The first stall we came to was an Orkney Cheese stall. Here, I learned that there are no less then 2600 diary cows in Orkney. Not bad for a population of just under 20,000. I am told that there are many more sheep, but I don't know how many. Of course, I had to sample some of the cheese, which was actually one of the brands that featured in my cheese tasting back in February. I sampled both the mild and the mature versions and both were very good.

Next, we came across Fletcher's of Auchtermuchty, who were there promoting their Fletcher's Game and in particular their venison. Now, as I've mentioned once or twice before, I'm quite a fan of venison. I got chatting to the guy on the stall and he told me that deer have never been domesticated, which is something I'd never thought of before. Unfortunately, there were no free samples here! :-(

Actually there seemed to be a lot of cheese stalls. We visited the stall from the Snowdonia Cheese Company next. They had a number of what I would call 'special' cheeses, which were a basic cheese mixed with herbs or fruit. Two in particular stood out in my opinion, which were the Green Thunder, made with a mix of garlic and herbs and the Red Devil. The later, as the name might suggest, was made with chili pepper combined with Red Leicester cheese. Both were delicious, but I think my favourite was the Green Thunder.

Also present were Rowan Glen, which also featured in my last cheese tasting and one I hadn't heard of before; McLelland, who had some strange names for their cheese, such as "Seriously farmy Cheddar". Now, it was very good, but what on earth does 'seriously farmy' mean? How can a cheese be 'farmy'? Even after several free samples, I still didn't get it.

It wasn't all cheese however. I also spoke to people from Scarlett's (Scotland) Honey, who currently have around 1000 hives. I thought that sounded quite a lot, but when the lady explained to me that they also have to move the hives around during the season so that the bees get more variety, it occur ed to me that this must be seriously hard work! By moving the hives, the bees are exposed to a greater variety of flowers, which makes for a different flavour to the honey then if they were simply left in the one place.

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises was a company called Mash Direct, who are making and selling ready mashed vegetables. Now, normally I am deeply sceptical of such things and always tend to give the pre-chopped salad, pre-grated cheese and pre-mashed vegetables a wide berth at the supermarket. However, whilst working my way through my free sample of mashed potato and turnip (which was very nice, I have to say), I got talking to the guy running the stall. He explained that their thinking was that by pre-mashing the vegetables, the appearance was no longer so important. We've all heard about supermarkets being so fussy about what vegetables have to look like before they can be placed on the shelves. Apparently, by cunningly avoiding this problem, Mash Direct are able to use older and more flavoursome varieties of vegetable. To be honest, I didn't buy it, I think the real issue is that we need to move away from this idea that every vegetable has to look a certain way, rather then resorting to pre-mashing our vegetables so that no one has to see how ugly they are.

Pork pies

I heard on Saturday Kitchen this morning that Melton Mowbray pork pies have recently been awarded 'Protected Geographical Indication'. This means that they have legal protection against imitation products across the EU! Champagne has famously enjoyed similar status for many years now.

Check out the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association website for more details:

http://www.mmppa.co.uk/index.html

I think this is exactly what British food needs because it will hopefully lead to increased recognition of quality, regional produce. All to often, when people think of British food, or try to name some classic British dishes, they can only think of the bog standard 'fish and chips'. Fish and chips can be great, but British food has so much more to offer then that! Think of Stilton cheese, Lincolnshire sausages, Yorkshire pudding, Cornish pastie, I could go on and on. I think it is a real shame that we seem to have almost completely forgotten that we have so much regional variation and that 'British food' isn't a single genre.

In season...

Many interesting things are coming back into season now! I noticed last week that British tomatoes are back on the shelves in Sainsburys. Although, I got a punnet or British grown, yellow tomatoes from the farmers market a few weeks before that. My tomato chutney turned out to be a bit of a disaster, but I'll say more of the that once I'm able to put the photos online... So, this gives me the chance to try making some more.

Asparagus is back in season, so I expect to be cooking one of my many classic dishes - grilled salmon fillet on a bed of lightly steamed asparagus. Super.

Local strawberries and raspberries seem to be big at the moment. I don't actually eat all that much fruit, but if I'm going to have either strawberries or raspberries, I only ever get British ones in season, simply because they taste so much better then the imported ones you can get at any time of the year.

Edinburgh taste festival

Well, it has been a long time since my last post again! I must say, however, that the eating British thing is still going on, I've just been far too busy with work and stuff to be able to update the blog for a while.

Anyway, this weekend saw the Channel 4 Taste Festival come to Edinburgh again. Since I missed it last year, I figured that I really should make the effort to go this year. I only went to the evening session, on Saturday, but I think that was enough.

It was quite expensive, I paid £25.00 for a premium ticket, which included £15 worth of 'crowns'. For some reason, none of the stall inside accept (real) money or plastic, so they use their own, internal 'currency'. Strange, but fair enough. I was a bit annoyed that from the outside, there was no way of knowing how much things were going to cost once you got in, so it was quite difficult to work out whether it was worth buying the premium ticket for £25.00, or simple getting a regular ticket for £12.50. Still, that's only a small complain really.

Once inside, the event had a really nice, festival type of atmosphere. There were stands there representing many of the more exclusive restaurants in Edinburgh, such as David Bann, Fourth Floor at Harvey Nichols and Tigerlily, to give just three examples. I suppose the great thing about this festival is that you get the chance to sample the food from such restaurants, for somewhat less then it would cost to actually go there (I assume, I don't think I've been to any of the restaurants that were there). This isn't for free however, the cost of the 'meals' varies from 6 crowns, up to 10 crowns. Many of the main courses cost 10 crowns. I have to say that the portion sizes were extremely disappointing and I heard many people around the festival complaining about that. I guess that it's only supposed to be a taste, but when you've forked out 10 crowns (equivalent to £5) for a dish and you get only two or three spoonfuls, it does rather feel like your being ripped off a bit.

After inspecting all of the restaurant stands, I was quite hungry. I went for three main course options; the braised shin of Ross-shire beef, pearl barley and root vegetables from Martin Wishart. I also had the confit breast of Borders lamb with Ayrshire potatoes and nicoise garnish from Number One at The Balmoral and, for something a bit different, I went for the spicy Thai smoked tofu fritters, with homemade mango chutney, plum sauce and mustard leaf from David Bann. I have to say that they were all very good, although the shin of beef wasn't really anything special. I tried to have a burger from Malmaison, but the queue for these was huge. They were clearly very popular, but I suspect that this was more because people had figured out that they represented the nearest thing to a proper meal at the whole festival, rather then there being something amazing about the burgers themselves.

As well as the restaurant stands, there were also three or four live theatres, where they were holding regular shows on various food topics. I went along to a talk titled "Discover the secrets of Scotland's natural larder" which was given by Sue Lawrence. From the title, I was expecting to learn about great local food, particularly local delicacies that grow here in Scotland. Sadly, the talk itself fell rather short on this front. She cooked (live) a creamy chicken risotto (not exactly a traditional Scottish dish), smocked haddock and black pudding done in the over (I'm not sure what she called this now) and an Orkney fudge cheese cake. They all looked amazing, but guess what? No one got to try them out! This really surprised me, she had easily made enough of each one that everyone who was watching could have had a taste, so I really don't understand why they didn't do that. In terms of the risotto, she added chopped up Ayrshire bacon. Interestingly, she explain that Scotland has only one local cure of bacon, which is the Ayrshire bacon. England, in contrast has many different ones. She finally served the risotto with Parmesan cheese, again, hardly from Scotland's natural larder... But, she did point out that it worked very well with Isle of Mull Cheddar.

The smoked haddock and black pudding was rather more interesting. She was using uncoloured smoked haddock, so not the bright yellow, high visibility variety. She placed these on a baking tray, rolled up slightly and stacked a slice of Stornoway black pudding on top of each one, so at least this was local. She then wrapped each of these in a rasher of Ayrshire bacon. This then went into a hot over, along with some cherry tomatoes, at 230C for around 10 minutes.

The cheese cake was simply made from grated Orkney fudge, mixed with cream cheese and lightly whipped double cream. When left over night, the fudge apparently melts into the other ingredients, making it all smooth and creamy. For the base, she recommended either an oaty biscuit, or a shortbread biscuit. I will have to try this one out next time it's my turn to make cake at work! In conclusion, it was all very interesting, but I felt slightly cheated by the title of the talk!

I also went to a talk by Clare MacDonald, who replaced Antony Worral Thompson. Apparently, he couldn't be there because it was his wife's birthday. Honestly, I'm sure I would have been able to come up with a better excuse then that! :-) Clare talked and talked and talked. Eventually it became clear that she wasn't going to be doing any cooking at all, so people started to drift away. Before I succumbed to the temptation to find something more interesting, she talked about how she considered food to be the central core of family life - a point of communication, and how important it was for everyone to sit down and eat together. She also argued that there are so much 'myth and misery' about food at the moment. We're constantly being told that we mustn't eat this and we mustn't eat that. She pointed out that moderation is the key and that it's much better to enjoy the food you like, but not to eat too much of it, then to eat it and feel guilty. The phrase 'no s**t, Sherlock' sprang to mind. She did, however, also stick up for local food. Interestingly, it was at this point that a noticeable number of people got up and left. She argued that it is vital to support the local economy, something I completely agree with. She particularly mentioned British pork, something that I have written about here already. Now, of course, the people who left at this point may well have simply hit their boredom threshold, but there do seem to be quite a number of people who find this idea of supporting local farmers to be something quite offensive. It's almost as if they consider farming to be something dirty and unclean, which should be done far away in other counties where we can't see it. Strange.

Overall, it was an enjoyable way to spend the evening, especially since the weather was amazing! Typically, there were plenty of lobster pink people by the time I left.

New local food outlet in Edinburgh

I've started trying to do my weekly shopping in different places, to try to get an idea of which might be the best. Up until now, I've done nearly all my shopping in Sainsbury's and it's been fairly easy going. They are quite good at labelling their produce with country of origin information, so finding the British items hasn't been difficult.

I thought I'd give Tesco a try for a change, so I headed over to the Tesco's in Causewayside. However, on the way, I noticed a new food outlet called Earthy Foods & Goods (33-41 Ratcliffe Terrace).

I popped in to see what they were about. It turns out that they are a shop specifically aimed at selling organic, local produce. I've never really focused on the organic side of things, I must admit, but I was intrigued to see how much local food I'd be able to pick up there. I chatted with one of the guys working in the shop and he told me that it's a low point in the season for British food at the moment, since we're coming to the end of the root vegetable season and the other stuff hasn't started coming in yet. So, there wasn't too much to choose from which was British. There was plenty of food in the shop though and if I hadn't been sticking to the Eating British project, I'd have had an easy time picking up my weekly shop.

As it was, I think I've managed to get a weeks supply of food. I purchased two pork chops, 500g of minced beef, 4 leeks, some potatoes, a box of 6 eggs and some Serano ham (made in Britain, from Tamworth pigs, apparently!). I already had some bits and bobs left over from last week, but the total came to just over £20, which isn't too bad.

I had one of the pork chops for my dinner last night and it was really good. I'm usually fairly sceptical about organic food tasting better, but for some reason this really did - it was one of the tastiest pork chops I've had for some time!

More information on Earth Foods can be found here: http://www.earthy.co.uk/

Royal botanic gardens

I had my lunch at the Botanic Gardens today. There is a nice cafe there, where I have had tea and cake on many an occasion. I was pleased to notice today though, that there was sign advertising that they do their best to local, seasonal produce in their cooking, which is great! I had braised beef, which came with dumplings, potatoes, carrots and green beans and it was really tasty. I do wonder how much of it was locally produced, it was very busy so I decided not to ask them. But, it's good to see that they are at least supporting local producers on paper.

Local food at the Flotterstone

I went walking in the Pentland hills yesterday, while the weather was good. It was good to get out and get some fresh air! Anyway, after the walk, we stopped by the Flotterstone Inn for some dinner. A quick glance over the menu revealed that they serve lamb from Kirkton Farm, which is literally just down the road from the pub (we passed it on our walk). I think it's great to find a place that serves not only British food, but British food from just down the road! This really is what 'eating local' should mean.

The Flotterstone appear to do two dishes with Kirtkton lamb - a rack of lamb, or the Kirkton Navarin of lamb, which is basically a stew of marinated lamb. I went for the Navarin of lamb and I have to say that it was excellent! I have eaten at the Flottersone a few times and have always enjoyed it, but the fact that they serve such local produce is really excellent. If you want more information on the Flotterstone Inn, their website may be found here: http://www.flotterstoneinn.com/

If time allows, it is my intention to review some more of the restaurants of Edinburgh in terms of how much local produce they use, so watch this space!