Stopped for a bite to eat at lunchtime on Friday, you have to duck your head to get in this quaint tea room on the edge of Suffolk at Oulton Broad. Home made cakes are their speciality and their ginger and carrot cakes were especially good, but we had ordered a cheese and tomato quiche before we saw the board with home-made sausage and onion pie or pea and ham soup on it . You will need to be friendly with your neighbours as these tables are close together but when your coke comes on a saucer with a doily you know you are in the right place and the whole meal with a pot of tea was only £10!
Our March Dish of the Day - Justin Sharp at Pea Porridge
Written by ClaireAnd here is Justin's recipe -
Saute of snails, bacon and bone marrow, flat parsley and capers.
4 pieces of short sawn bone marrow
12 ex large snails (tinned will do if you can't get fresh)
1/2 shallot chopped
2 slices of pancetta cut into lardons
100g fresh garlic butter
For the parsley salad:
small bunch of flat parsley, picked and washed
1/4 red onion thinly sliced and sprinkled with salt to withdraw moisture
20 baby capers
salt and pepper
drizzle of olive oil and squeeze of 1/4 lemon. Combine all ingredients together just before serving.
First roast your bone marrow in a medium oven, on a rack on a tray sprinkled with rock salt for 10 mins then turn the bones for another 5 minutes.
Gently colour the pancetta in a small frying pan, then add the chopped shallot, add the snails and gently fry without colouring the shallots.
Add the garlic butter and allow the butter to start to froth and gently colour.
Assemble by placing the parsley salad on a plate alongside the bone marrows and spoon the snails on top and around the marrows. Serve with a spoon to scoop out the marrow and good bread to soak the juices. Simple but delicious. And it has been on the menu since day one. Serves 2.
Ok, a blast from the past. A salmon mousse recipe, very 70's dinner party but also still good if you want to make an economical fish dish a day or two ahead for a party. I used to make these in a salmon shaped tin which is long gone; but I could buy back at great expense from a vintage cookware site.
Everyone around me is making marmalade but I have never liked it, so here are some pictures - you’ll have to find your own recipes.
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My friend Rebekah kept her
wedding cake top layer in her
loft for four years and went to
look at it the other day for the first time.
She says 'Oh well, it went the same way as the marriage'...
1. Tesco Groceries
2. Ocado
3. Waitrose
4. Jamies 20 Minute Meals
5. iBBQ
6. Nigella Quick Collection
7. Good Food Quick Recipes
8. Gordon Ramsey Cook With Me
9. Levi Roots - Sunshine Food
10. MasterChef Academy UK
Jamie's 20 Minute Meals offers a mix of video and recipes and has been described by the Observer as 'the Daddy of all food apps', but iBBQ by itself is worth getting an iphone for.
Don't risk the overcrowded surgery, try this secret remedy. A measure of green chartreuse well diluted with hot water and sipped over half an hour. Recommended to me by Ruth who was advised by the qualified practitioners at Peatlings in Bury. The French liquer has been made by Carthusian monks since the 1700's and contains 132 different herbs, but don't bother looking for it in a supermarket, go to the wine doctor.
Hooray! Another pop up restaurant to go to and just in time for my birthday. At the Queens Head in Brandeston with David Williams (Alimentum) cooking and only for two days. Book on their website www.thetrufflepig.co.uk and see you there.
We don't mind if the Cradle of Filth are the face of Suffolk instead of a beach hut or a racehorse, as long as he grows his own veg.
More...
Best newcomer in Hardens Guide and a Michelin Bib Gourmand - and it's Pea Porridge
Written by ClaireWell we knew this all along didn't we? Went for a lovely meal here before Christmas, when I still had an appetite. We had slow-braised ox tongue, the sauté of snails, bacon and bone marrow, partridge, our favourite cotes de boeuf with fat chips and béarnaise and then delicious desserts. Still faultless, and now a bit more relaxed. www.peaporridge.co.uk
Ricochet tv company are looking for young people to take part in a new BBC2 tv series and train in the food and wine industry. Unfortunately I'm too old for this but there are some vague details here, so if you have always wanted to be a celebrity waitress - now's your chance.