2010.10.02 My Day Part 1

Well today has been a good day. Its been a foody day and very pleasurable from my persepective.  We had run out of proper kippers and I am quite partial to these for a Saturday night tea or sometimes for breakfast. I mentioned it in passing to OH and he indicated that the last lot came from the fish shop in King's Lynn and that if the weather was okay he would take me on Saturday.  So today have been to Norfolk.  Its been a lovely day weather wise and I enjoyed the drive too.  Its nice to get out and about now and then.

When we got to King's Lynn we hit the fish shop and brought back 8 kippers (whole  natural ones not dyed), 1 pint of whelks, 1 pint brown shrimp, 1 pint of cockles, 2 fresh crab, (from Cromer for a crab salad) 2 pieces of soft goats cheese (for toasting under the grill on french bread, sprinkled with oil and served with mixed leaves), a hard goats cheese in a blue wax Ribble Valley Blue (very good) and 2 kgs of fresh Brancaster Mussels. Am going to do these in white wine garlic and herbs.  Very lovely.

Whilst out in Norfolk I asked the OH whether it was far to a farm shop we used to go regularly too and which does the most wonderful food and preserves.  We were about half an hour away so OH took me there. The shop is in Fransham on the main road. We were principally going to see what pate they have because we have had a pigeon pate and boar pate from there that was really scrummy.  Today they only had two varieties in the wild boar and garlic which is majorly scrummy (we were given tasters of each pate to try before buying) and a chicken and wine one which is also rather lovely.  It is about £2.80 100g but it is seriously moorish pate and well worth the price.  

The Farm shop also has a chiller cabinet with all sorts of fancy and I mean fancy puddings in - it was very lovely to look at all that was on offer but then the hardest part was picking one to try. I came a away with a passionfruit heart shaped cheesecake, which unusually was on a very slim sponge base and it was wonderful.  It was a visual delight to look at before tucking in, but by was it lovely.

They also make their own steak and kidney pies, chicken pies game pies etc. These are a little pricy but they look very good and are a decent size. It has a major selection of jams and pickles, as well as home made pasta, grissini, cheese biscuits, they have a deli, and freezers, and you can buy rapeseed oil by the bottle from a pour your own dispenser.  They also have a cabinet of fresh meats although did not have a lot when we went in, but there is another room that has freezers in which has local reared meat that they have frozen themselves. We have bought a small joint of pork back for dinner tomorrow and a couple of rib eye steaks to have for tea this evening with garlic field mushrooms  and h ome made chips. They also sell the frozen croissants, pain au chocolat, danish pastries, fruit salad, red fruit salad, garlic mushrooms etc etc.  If you are ever near this Farm shop it is one of the best I have been to.  They also have fresh fruit and vegetables as well.  A real gourmands paradise.  They also had gingerbread festive cookies in quite large sizes and lots of other goodies.  They had fruit coulis in bottles for pouring over ice creams etc.  I have some of these to do in any event and will post a recipe shortly.

I also found casserole sauces which I had not been to before - I was  tempted to bring one home to try but OH said to leave it until next time we go.  I  hope we can  go back just before Christmas as I have  some more holiday due to me then to take time to get some  of the Christmas  preparations  under  way.

On the way back in  Wisbech we saw signs  for a Farm  Shop called Smiths advertising Strawberries.  Most of our Strawberries on Peterborough market and sometimes from the veg shop come from Wisbech, so I asked if we could call in .  We duly stopped and there was quite a choice of produce available.  I came back with loads of cooking apples at £1 a 5lb bag, (10lb of apples in all as I got 2 bags) same for Conference Pears (only 5lb of these) , a large pumpkin, a Romanesco, Strawberries.

Filbert nuts (these will be nice with the cheese- I was first introduced to these by my father as a nipper and developed a taste for them then) 

carrots, and 10lb of plums at £1 for 5lb weight.  Not only did they have all the fresh produce but quite an extensive range of chutneys pickled onions sauces relished all marketed under their own name.  Worth a look.

Together with the fennel I got from the market yesterday, celeriac, mint, mushrooms and pomegranates (for pomegranate jelly) I think I have quite a lot to play with.  But then again I am a foodie.  I love trying new things and then thinking about what I have had and then trying to reproduce that meal myself; thats half the fun of cooking tasting, experimenting and playing.

We got back at 3.00 p.m. and I have had to re-arrange the fridge to get the items in, so I took the opportunity of stripping out the fridge and cleaning it before storing todays "foraged" goodies.  Well it is "foraging" but of a different kind.

Catch you all later

Pattypan


xx