A special Suffolk delivery

It's official!

The preparations for my Suffolk Diet are now officially under way, thanks to a special delivery from Paul Campbell today. 

Paul is a director of social enterprise Local Food Direct, which distributes food sourced from growers and producers in Norfolk and Suffolk.  It was Paul who set me the challenge in the first place, tempting me with a trolley load of produce, to test how easy it was for someone to eat nothing but Suffolk products for one whole week.

I had worried that I'd be restricted to a diet of pork and onions with a few fish thrown in, so before I totally committed I thought it best to have a peek at what was available on their website at www.welovelocalfood.co.uk. Call me a wus, but with a fussy family in tow I had to be sure.

So with a hint of intrepidation and excitement, I said yes and placed my order.  And here it all is, a table-full of food that has either been grown,  reared or processed in Suffolk and is awaiting our delectation over the next week or so.

I'm fairly confident that I've got the week sussed, easing in gently with chicken burgers on Monday and ending the week with a delicious pot roast on Sunday. However, I want to spice up the rest of the week with some novel dishes and I've made sure I've got a wonderful basket of ingredients to play with, including onions, carrots, mushrooms, blue cheese, greek yoghurt, cream, mayonnaise, chutney, pesto, guacamole, minced beef, chicken breasts, bacon and sausages.  I've even got smoked kippers and kale.

In fact, I've got lots of kale.  And when I say lots, I mean LOTS. More than you can see in this photo.  So "foodies", please look away now because no doubt you will be shocked that I have never ever ever ever ever eaten kale, let alone cooked it.

Now I could take my usual approach in the style of Ready Steady Cook but I'd like to try something different.  I know this week is about Suffolk food, but I also want to add an extra bit of adventure, trying new techniques and experimenting with new recipes.


In fact I'd like it to be as interactive as possible, so if you fancy joining in and mixing things up this week, that would be the icing on the proverbial cake, so to speak. It would be great fun if you could challenge me to a recipe based on the ingredients above.  In return, I'll do my best to cook it and blog the results.  I might even include some videos too.

And if you have any recommendations for oysters - yes oysters - I've got a whole dozen in need of your advice.

Oysters from Suffolk eh.

That's most definitely a new one on me.

With all this now tucked away in the fridge and the freezer, I've got a funny feeling it's going to be an adventurous old week.  I really have no idea what's going to happen, so do check in for a daily update and if any friends of mine fancy popping around for a cooking session, you know where I live.  Just name the day and there'll be a place setting with your name on it!