Ben, bangers and a new restaurant in Bury St Edmunds.
Written by Ruth
His name is Ben Hutton. His restaurant is called Ben's. He has just opened in Bury St Edmunds and here is the link to his story. The food is all locally sourced, with pork reared by Ben himself to create his own recipe Ben's Bangers. The bangers come served on pancetta mash with shredded cabbage, buttered carrots and onion gravy. They were very good indeed. You can't beat bangers and mash on a cold winters night. We also tried the Trio of Jacob lamb prime cuts, which were shoulder, a lamb cutlet and liver. I would argue that liver is not a prime cut and is in fact offal, but I like offal and was happy to order it. It was served with boulangere potatoes, rosemary jus, root veg and savoy cabbage. The lamb was sourced from the local Culford flock and was tender, with plenty of it. I would have liked more gravy. Yes, I call it gravy. Puddings we tried included a selection of the local Alder Carr ice creams ...heaven.. and a cheesecake of the day which was stem ginger and honey. Light, not cloying and very well flavoured. A homemade tuile biscuit perched on the top, some lovely citrussy honey sauce drizzled over and unnecessary squeezy chocolate sauce garnish on the plate. It is good to see a new independent restaurant open in a town which is over run with chains.
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Pork pies are much easier to make than you might imagine. Just a little time needed to prepare the filling and the pastry and some patience required with the crimping and sealing of the pies.Jelly or not? It does keep the meat moist and soaks in so you won't get a huge amount of jelly unless you keep adding more stock which is time consuming. I used 1 pint of pork stock with the equivalent amount of gelatine to set and poured it into the warm pies, no jelly layer but succulent meat.
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Look at this excellent selection of ready made deli-products! I don't usually buy ready made salads and sandwich fillings but was sent these to review by Wolff-Evans and Sons after doing a little feature on them for our Dish of the Day.Their original Homeslaw made with savoy,red and white cabbage was dressed with a creamy mayonnaise and some onion adding a bit of punch. Looks just like homemade coleslaw and tasted as good as the one I make myself. Egg mayonnaise, well I am always dubious about pre-prepared sandwich fillings and expected at least a whiff of eggy sulphur to put me off when I opened the lid. Tah Dah! Nothing but fresh,simple and tasty free range eggs with mayonnaise and also very well seasoned; although I did add even more cracked black pepper to mine. The Tuna fraiche was the highlight for me. A set, light spread which was creamy and delicately flavoured with capers and onion and some texture of free range egg. It could pass off as a dinner party starter, reminding me in style of a salmon mousse. Far superior than I imagined and wolfed down by my family in minutes. Available at your local East of England Co-Op.
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We nipped into Bury St Edmunds last weekend to the Christmas Fair which was running throughout the town. Fancying a little street food, it turned out that we were too late at 7.30pm, with many outlets sold out. So the second plan was to nip to Bury's latest fine dining opening on Angel Hill called 1921(the one that used to be Graze)to try their bar canapes. Chef Patron is Zack Deakins, formerly from The Bildeston Crown and now heading up his own business.Canapes are £1 each but we went for the offer of all eight for £6.What a bargain!All were delicious and we played Canape Roulette. Spin the pen to see which canape to eat next. That kept us amused as did coming up with a cocktail. We tried for an Aperol Spritz, sorry no can't do that, Margarita? No, don't have the ingredients. So,we bought a bottle of Prosecco, a shot of Cognac and asked for a bowl of sugar lumps, all happily provided and made our own Prosecco Cocktails. A fun night out.
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Meet Bill Wolff-Evans (far left) son Harry (far right) Harry's cousin Ella (next to Harry) and team member Hannah from Rendlesham based deli-company Wolff-Evans and Sons.They have created a proper hand made scotch egg and sell them to Fortnum and Mason, the original creators of the portable snack in the 1730's. Bill told us his secret to the perfect scotch egg. A free range egg from Havensfield Eggs of Hoxne, with a soft set yolk and no "rattle" of the egg within the Dingley Dell pork sausage meat. Only lean pork shoulder and belly meat is used in the pork casing. Lucky for us "locals" they are also available in 40 East of Englnd Co-op stores in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. Look out for the Christmas special Cranberry and Turkey Scotch Egg.
This is the most fun I have had buying produce from a farm shop in ages. Driving past the Flixton Aviation Museum into Bungay, I came across the Milk Shed at Fen Farm Dairy. Being a sucker for raw milk(you can't beat that creamy layer that appears on the top after a few hours in the fridge) I stopped and was amazed to find inside, the milk dispensing machine and the self serve fridge packed with eggs and the delicious farm made, Brie style Baron Bigod cheese. Put a pound coin in the machine (there is a change machine if you don't have the coins) place the container under the spout and out comes a litre of milk. Better than playing a fruit machine any day, you win everytime.
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Delicious Brie style Baron Bigod. Better than the French make!
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Cheese and eggs to self serve.
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The milk dispenser fridge. Pop in a pound, out comes the milk.
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At Suffolk Foodie we like a party and we recommend starting your festive season in the most delightful way with All Manor of Events in Henley, Suffolk. Manor Barn are hosting a number of Mary Poppins inspired Christmas Parties.The supercalifragilisticexpialidocious themed nights will include arrival drinks, a mouth-watering three course meal, a disco and .... "drum roll" .... they have a choreographer from Strictly Come Dancing working with them to create some fabulous entertainment for you. Prices vary from £40.00 to £45.00. The dates still available are Saturday 29th November, Friday 5th December, Thursday 11th December, Saturday 13th December, Thursday 18th December and Friday 19th December.
For those of you that think that I have the dream job. Here are the figures. Last month I dined out 60 times, averaging 15 meals a week in either cafes, pubs, hotels or other dining establishments. I ate belly of pork 6 times, 8 curries, 8 fish pies, a handmade burger on 9 occasions, 4 sausage rolls, 5 slices of cheesecake(assorted) 4 lemon possets and a selection of confit meats, fish and vegetables. I drove 1600 miles and consumed an average of 1,128 calories a meal, making that a total of 67,680 calories for the month. No wonder my trousers are tight!
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fish goujons and chips
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lime cheesecake
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haddock rarebit
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slow roast pork belly
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lemon posset
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roast beef
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Meet David Upson - our freshly pressed Dish of the Day.
Written by Ruth
David Upson, together with his wife Rebecca run Stoke Farm Orchards in Battisford, Suffolk. The small Suffolk orchard has become internationally renowned for its award-winning Appletree Hill brand of freshly-pressed apple, pear and quince juices. David and Rebecca, originally started out as pig farmers in 1984. And even when they started to grow fruit, the idea to turn it into juice wasn’t sparked until 1993 as part of a BBC Radio Suffolk visit to the Battisford orchard.Today Stoke Farm is famed for using the quintessentially English, and notoriously juicy, Discovery and Cox apples. And the business still keeps the Upsons’ busy every day with the couple taking control of every stage of production - from blossom to bottle.Stoke Farm Orchards has been pressingly busy in the run up to Christmas 2014 creating a limited edition Spiced Apple Juice.Available in selected East of England Co-op stores in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk at £2.49 for a 750ml bottle. It is delicious served warmed.
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Shortlisted in the Farming Partnership of the Year category at the British Farming Awards is the East of England Co-operative Society "Sourced Locally" initiative. Since launching in 2007 Sourced Locally has been helping local farmers and rural businesses build a more sustainable future. Check out our Dish of the Day to meet the producers. Check out one of the 250 Co-op stores in the regional centres of Norwich, Ipswich and Colchester to buy the goods.
Haven't been to Alder Carr Farm for months and so set off for a sunny Saturday lunch with Mum. It was very busy - because it clearly has some of the best produce in the area and an interesting lunch menu that goes on until 3pm. We shared a paté dotted with pistachios, venison pie (with chips - sometimes I just have to have the gravy with chips...) and then a dessert pear, served with their own first rate coffee ice cream. It was all tasty and great value. The seasonal and locally sourced evidence is right there in the huge display of bright orange pumpkins and squash - to remind us that autumn is here.
Well we think it has got a bit tired really - the magazine is thin, the 'street food corner' announcing the commercialisation of street food - uninspiring, sold out of brand new H vans by bored staff, pricey, using weird ingredients (when was Sangria ever made with sherry and sugar-free lemonade?) The sales pitches out of touch (with the exception of the coffee machine suppliers who gave us a great coffee and the best, most relevant and interesting information) and the stands with just a jar of sweets...well...is your budget REALLY that bad? And what happened to wine tasting?!
But I did get a years supply of quite nice pens, spoke to a few genuinely well informed and passionate foodie suppliers (mostly the ones who we already know who actually make what they sell like the cheeses, the bread, the juices and the ice cream) and we found just one brilliant and inspiring brand new idea - from Croatia - that we really want to keep to ourselves but will feature as Dish of the Day when we get back in touch with them.
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New cheeses from Butlers
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Breckland Orchards award winning juices
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a great summer equals lots of great ice cream makers
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our lunch starter
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our lunch main course
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One of the better Street Food menus
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There is floor to ceiling tea here at T2; different varieties and combinations including White, Black, Oolong, Tissanes, Floral and more. Tea paraphernalia like those specialist tea strainers and infusers that you can't find anywhere else that are essential for herb leaf tea, and lots of tea making for tasting - which when I got there was the perfect late morning pick-me-up (I tried French Earl Grey and Irish Breakfast). There is a Tea Society, a High Tea Society and a Secret Tea Society and a weird teapot that pours it out of the bottom...and they're from Australia, and have just arrived in the UK.
