After 5 days of living off potatoes, today I finally cracked!
Delicious as the potatoes were, I needed pasta, especially as I was planning a variation on Spaghetti Bolognese. So out came the pasta roller, along with 120g of the Maple Farm Kelsale flour and a couple of fresh eggs from our hens.
Making pasta is pretty straightforward as far as ingredients are concerned. It's just a case of gradually blending the eggs into the flour to create a dough, stretching and kneading it well and then leaving the dough to rest in the fridge for about 15 minutes. It's the rolling and cutting process afterwards that's the fiddly bit, requiring some extra time and patience. But it was worth it and if you are interested in giving it a ago, there are some hints and tips about making pasta in Chapter 14 of my online guide to reducing waste, which you can find at The Rubbish Diet Challenge.
When I've previously made pasta, I've always used Italian grade 00 flour as recommended by the various recipes, so I was interested to see whether I could get away with using Suffolk flour instead. And I was chuffed to bits that it worked. It didn't look as pretty as shop-bought pasta, but it tasted good and was very cheap to make.
I made the "Bolognese" sauce using minced beef, red onions and chopped carrots, gently fried in the rapeseed oil from Hillfarm and stirred in some ready-made tomato and basil soup, which had been supplied by Purely Pesto. So topped off with some local salad leaves, it was a complete meal totally sourced from Suffolk producers.
That's another Suffolk Diet success I reckon!
It's also been a successful day elsewhere too, kicking off the morning with a freshly-pressed juice made from Suffolk's apples and beetroot.
It's just a shame that I don't get there that often on account of it being a significant drive out of town. Hopping on the bus to the Bury St Edmunds market always seems easier.
But it was great to see some of my usual favourite stalls, as well as a few new faces, and no farmers' market worth its salt would be without fresh apple juice. The apple juice shown in the photo below is from Suffolk Heritage Orchards. This particular variety is the Sturmer Pippin, a traditional Suffolk late season apple, which has a sharper taste that I like. So as well as the juice, I picked up some apples too.
Next up was the preserves stall, where I discovered a range of products from Bury St Edmunds based Well Preserved that were not only made in Suffolk, but used locally grown and foraged produce. Having never tried Quince Jelly or Crab Apple Jelly before, I couldn't resist bringing a couple of jars home.
It was great to see that the fruit and veg stall, which hails from Norfolk, also had Suffolk grown carrots, sprouting broccoli and old potatoes, which I need for tomorrow as I've already made good use of the vegetables that I'd received last week from www.welovelocalfood.com, which have now run out.
However, the find of the day just had to be the dairy products stall, which as well as milk, cream and yoghurt, also produces a rare find in Suffolk.
If you look carefully on the top shelf of the photo below, you'll see it in its full glory. Would you believe, it's actually Suffolk butter. Yes, Suffolk butter, the one thing I've been struggling to find!
The dairy products are made by Domini Dairy, which is based in Market Weston, near Diss. Despite the Norfolk link, their address is actually Suffolk, adding the icing on the cake for this particular challenge.
So what a great day as far as Suffolk produce is concerned. But it's not over quite yet. As it's Saturday and we've got a few things to celebrate, including attending the Greenest County awards last week AND the birth of a new nephew, it's time to crack open the Ickworth Bubbly!
So "Bottoms Up".
Here's to Day 6 and if you've also been enjoying some Suffolk produce today I would love to know.
See you tomorrow for the final day of the Suffolk Diet Challenge.
0 comments:
Post a Comment