Suffolk Tourist Guide - Articles

NEW! Seasonal Suffolk Food is a guide to local food and what's in season this month. You'll be able to find these foods in all good Farm Shops and Farmers Markets

Seasonal Suffolk Food March 2008 Sponsored by the Suffolk Food Hall

New in Store
The first of our new season lamb should be coming into the butchery in early March. Born in November, these Dorset lambs have been feasting on conservation meadows at Springhill Farm, Capel St. Mary, and make a very tender and deliciously delicate flavoured meat. Perfect for a special Easter Sunday roast.

Focus on… Rhubarb
As spring creeps up on us, early rhubarb, with its long, pale pink stems and dainty leaves, is a delicacy to look out for. Not only is it scrumptious topped with sugar and roasted in foil, it’s now officially classed as a superfood, thanks to the high levels of calcium and low number of calories – only 7 per 100grams. It’s even said to speed up the metabolic rate; just right after all that Easter chocolate!

Suffolk Food Seasonal Recipe
This month - Lamb Navarin
This stew is delicious with new season lamb chump or neck.
Ingredients
1 bay leaf
900 ml chicken
or lamb stock
100 ml red wine
Vegetable oil
Butter Serves: 4 to 6
Method
Seal lamb in a hot pan with oil until browned and remove onto a plate to drain. Use wine to deglaze meat pan and reserve. Then sweat off the chopped veg in the butter until soft. Add meat pan juices and reduce. Add stock, lamb and bay leaf. Then place into 180ºC oven & cook until tender (c. 1 ½ to 2 hrs)
To garnish, boil some waxy new potatoes, baby carrots and chopped spring cabbage. Saute together in a little butter, season, and serve with the lamb. Yum!

Suffolk Food For the Kids
Connect with Easter past and re-kindle the tradition of dipping eggs in food dye. In the past, the bright colours of decorated eggs represented the new sunlight of spring, so take the season as your inspiration and see how your kids interpret it (think fresh yellows, brilliant greens and sky blues). Top tips to remember: use eggs at room temperature – they’re easier to blow than cold ones; break up the yolk with a pin before blowing; and add vinegar to your food dye to help it take.

Have a Suffolk breakfast!
We’re pleased to see that our emphasis on local produce in the Samford Restaurant is catching on: the recently launched region-wide Suffolk Breakfast Initiative is encouraging restaurateurs and hoteliers to source local produce for breakfast. Come in and try our ‘Suffolk Sizzler’ or ‘Farmers Breakfast’ and enjoy free-range eggs from Gate Farm in Flowton, organic mushrooms from Capel St. Mary, Suffolk Food Hall Bangers, made in the butchery from our own pigs, and bread baked by Helena, our resident artisan baker. Breakfast is served between 9 and 11.30am daily.


Suffolk Food is sponsored by the Suffolk Food Hall, Suffolk's leading showcase for quality local food.
Since opening in May 2007, the Suffolk Food Hall has quickly established itself as a centre of excellence for local food. We’ve brought the best possible food
specialists we could find under one roof: our own in-house and fully-stocked free-range butchery; Crystal Waters fishmongers from Lowestoft; Hamish Johnson cheeses from Framlingham; and Bread from local baker Helena Doy.

As well as this, we’ve got an impressive deli section, an extensive variety of local and British-grown vegetables (both fresh and frozen), fine wines from Promotion Wines in Stoke by Nayland, freshly baked cakes and biscuits, marinades, specialist oils and other gourmet goodies, plus a large selection of larder must-haves
See their display for full details Suffolk Food Hall