Samphire Pie Heaven

To be obsessed with pie is to be quintessentially English. There's nothing more pleasurable than sinking your teeth into something moist and meaty encased in good pastry.

At the Letchworth Food Festival, I had the pleasure of meeting Karen Nethercott from Samphire who has two award winning food shops in Norfolk, one at Blickling Hall and the other at Wymondham.
I had read about her fantastic pork pies and was eager to try them for myself. They looked very appetising and homely all piled up on her stand and were proving to be very popular with visitors to the festival – I spotted a good few people eating them on the go. I'm glad I bought some when I did, as Karen later told me she had sold out by 11 O'clock!

The pies are terribly good, I particularly like the one with onion marmalade, but the plain is equally superb.
On the initial bite, the pastry is so crisp and crunchy and just melts away in the mouth leaving the rich pork meat to tantalise the taste buds. Gosh these pies are good – stuffed to the brim with moist, tender meat and just the right amount of jelly.

What makes the pies all the more outstanding is that you know where the meat has come from – Karen's smallholding to be exact. Her rare breed British Saddleback pigs are allowed a natural life as possible, roaming around outside, doing what pigs do. The combination of fresh air, sunlight and lots of hugs and cuddles makes the pigs very happy indeed. I wholeheartedly believe, if you're going to eat an animal then at least give it some love and respect.

Samphire also make a range of sausages using their own seasoning mix, theres no nasty stuff like flavour enhancers or colourings, just good honest pork, herbs and spices.
The whole approach to producing local and ethical food is very important to the people of Samphire and this has been recognised by the RSPCA who have given their badge of approval.

Well, Samphire get's my approval too, and when I'm back in Norfolk, I'll be making a special trip to stock up on more pies and sausages.

To find out more about Samphire and buy online visit the website:
samphireshop.co.uk

Featured on The Artisan Food Trail

Note: This article is now published on the Norfolk Holiday Guide website

Animal photos from Samphire website Photos: ©childsdesign 2010

High Chive

I would say that chives are one of the most versatile herbs - the leaves are perfect snipped into a potato salad, or an omelette, lending a subtle onion flavour to any dish that demands it. No need to bother with a chopping board and knife, just by grasping a bunch in your hand and cutting away at the ends with the kitchen scissors, it couldn't be simpler. They look pretty too, like little emerald flecks.

My garden seems to provide the ideal conditions for chives to thrive, as each year, the clumps get bigger and bigger, that I need not worry how much I pick.
They give me much amusement too, when next door's cat comes in for her 'medicine', she often mistakes chives for grass. The look on that poor feline's face as she gets that strong taste in her mouth.

I couldn't resist taking the photo as I think chives have the most attractive blooms and they're edible too. When the mood takes me I might take an artistic approach to the most basic salad, and chuck in a few flower heads. Unlike the leaves, the flowers are extremely pungent and quite hot, so go easy if you're not prepared for the shock!

Flax Farm Linseed Meal

You'd be forgiven for thinking I'm about to write about an equine food supplement from the title of this post, as linseed is indeed fed to horses to improve their health. Well, what's good for horses is good for us too. Aside from the health benefits, such as improved digestion, balanced hormones and better immunity, flax or linseed is bloomin' tasty too.

Flax Farm is situated in Sedgwick, West Sussex and produces a variety of products using their own British grown linseed. I've often been out and about in the countryside and seen fields of cool blue flowers swaying in the breeze, and that soft floral sea, is linseed – quite beautiful.


Flax Farm supports traditional farming methods using small fields, which means that there are more hedgerows and ditches that provide a rich habitat for wildlife.

When I stopped by Flax Farm's stand at the Real Food Festival I tried some of their flaxjacks and they're utterly delicious. Really moist and quite moreish. The linseed imparts quite a unique flavour, somewhere between a grassy green freshness and nuttiness that would work well in both sweet and savoury foods.
Rather than buy some ready baked items, I decided on a big bag of their golden linseed meal, which I could then experiment with. It didn't take long before a flurry of recipe ideas rushed into my head.

Later, I made some seedy crackers, replacing 50g of the flour with the linseed meal. It was easy to incorporate into the cracker mixture and didn't have any adverse effect on the final texture – I would say that it possibly improved it. I'm now looking forward to adding it to bread and cakes too.
There's lots of recipe ideas on Flax Farm's website, so I may give those a try as well.

For more information and to buy online:
www.flaxfarm.co.uk
Field and flower photos taken from Flax Farm website.

For my recipe for Seedy Crackers using Flax Farm linseed meal click HERE

Seedy Crackers

These crispy seedy crackers are so simple to make, it seems almost insane to go buying something similar from the shops. Plus you can flavour them with almost any seed you like. I put caraway seeds in mine, but you could use, sesame, poppy, fennel or even cumin seeds – it very much depends on what you prefer.
I also added some golden linseed meal too for extra flavour – it's good for you as well. I wonder if that cancels out the naughtiness of the lavish amounts of cheese I like to eat with these crackers?

Makes about 20-24 crackers

Ingredients
200g strong white flour
50g linseed meal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp salt
40ml rapeseed oil (the good stuff! – read)
100ml water

Method
Preheat the oven to 160C / 325F / Gas 3. Lightly oil 2 baking trays.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, linseed meal, baking powder, caraway seeds and salt.
Pour in the oil and rub in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Add the water a little at a time and using your hand mix in until you have a soft but not sticky dough.
Dust your work surface with flour and roll out the dough until it is about 5mm thick. Using a 5cm cutter, stamp out the dough into discs and set to one side.
Then take each individual disc and roll out very thinly to 1mm, into an oval shape. Place them on the baking trays and pop them into the oven and bake for for 5-6 minutes until dry and crisp, but hardly browned.
When baked remove them from the oven and carefully arrange on to a wire rack to cool.
Store in an airtight container.

To read my review of Flax Farm linseed meal click HERE