Bounty of the Burnhams, a Food Art History collaboration

Victoria, Kirks Blue, Greengage and Glass plum

We are excited to be collaborating with Salt Glass Studio's on November 30th for a Food Art History event celebrating the rich and historic produce in the North Norfolk area known as The Burnhams. 
Salt Glass Studio have created a vastly beautiful collection of glass inspired by both female farmers Nina Plumbe the fruit farmer of Burnham Overy Town and Dr Sally Francis of Norfolk Saffron of Burnham Norton. 
Nina is the second generation farmer after inheriting her Fathers farm who began farming in Norfolk after the war. The vast collection of rare and wonderful plums, pears and apples on Nina's farm are astounding with a few varieties only Nina has in existence in this country. Nina likes to ride motorbikes around Africa for fun, she is an incredible woman. 

Dr Sally Francis is an Oxford educated botanist who has brought Saffron production back not only to the UK, but to Norfolk where is was centuries ago produced. Her saffron is of very high quality and from it she also produces a much sought after liqueur. 

Salt Glass have also been inspired by mussels harvested from Burnham Deepdale and Norton Creek and have been working with John Brown Mussels exploring form and history. 

The rather wonderful The Gin Garden will be joining forces with us to create a heady blend of cocktails using the abundant ingredients we have here in this immediate area. Plums and apples of many varieties, quince, blackberries, rose hips and of course saffron. Plums have been steeping in alcohol and syrups have been made since August for this very special event. 

There will be a feast of art, glass demonstrations, food and cocktails. Tickets are £35 to buy click HERE

Menu 

Game on a stick 

Mussels with saffron aioli and sourdough

Saffron barley risotto

Hot deep fried apples with spiced saffron batter, plum ice cream and blackberry syrup

Quince marshmallow 

Norfolk Bounty

Pop Up Dining at The Brecks

Ben & Sarah 

Since we moved to the North Norfolk coast so many wonderful doors have opened to us. Yusuf is sous chef at the new and lovely Duck Inn at Stanhoe. The Duck has been open for 6 months now and has already forged an enormous following of locals and tourists alike. In this brief time husband and wife team Ben and Sarah Handley were also nominated and became finalists for the EDP Food & Drink awards 2013, an impressive accolade within five months of opening.

Two good men, Ben & Yusuf

It is no wonder though. Ben Handley has a wealth of experience, not just on the North Norfolk coast, from time spent working in Australia too. Ben uses a global approach to flavours, utilising the very best of Norfolk produce. Ben has cooked at some of North Norfolk's best restaurants and has spent time as a consultant chef to the lovely Dot Lloyd's business Briarfield's Hotel, raising it's profile and introducing modern cooking techniques which are still in place today, something Ben is very proud of.

Hand dived scallops, daikon & oyster leaf at The Duck

While Yusuf is cooking up some of Norfolk's finest food with Ben and the team, I have been doing a little digital marketing for The Duck, including one of my favourite pastimes food photography. You can take a look at my Instagram page here and the Ducks Instagram here.

Pop Up Dining

Liz Truss MP & John Vincent

We were invited by the very lovely Vanessa Scott from Strattons boutique hotel in Swaffam to run a pop up restaurant in her beautiful home as part of the Brecks food festival. We were joined by honoured guests John Vincent from LEON restaurants, who came to chat a bit about school dinners and the school dinner project with  Liz Truss MP for South West Norfolk. Our guests were a wonderfully diverse bunch of nuns, foodies and yoga teachers it was a fantastic night topped off by having much needed help from Maggie & Cat from CoCoes Cafe and the lovely owners of Ladywood Lodge who were amazing at washing up, even though their day jobs were SO much more impressive than that. Hugely grateful for everyones participation in what was a wonderful event.

As Norfolk has such amazing local artisan produce it is not difficult to find such wonders as the lovely Scotts Field Pork, wonderful free range pork from a small local producer who really cares about his large black pigs.  It was a joy to pick pears from Vanessa's trees for our tart tatin and use her hens eggs. Local in every sense of the word, in an industry where there are  unnecessary food miles and waste it was wonderful to use what is closest to us, and waste very little indeed. Something which is very close to my heart.

The Menu

Cheese & Tomato

Cheese & Tomato

Mackerel, roasted and ceviche with horseradish creme fraiche and lemon sorrel

Adobo chop & hock hash with fennel and basil aiolli

Pear tart tatin with cinnamon marscapone and fennel seeds

Fresh mint tea

The film crew from Leon TV filming pork chops..

Samphire & potato

It's quite a leap from asparagus to samphire in the scheme of things but we have been very busy moving up to the North Norfolk coast. The deep joy of picking ones own samphire is audible. I love eating it for breakfast with poached eggs, just missing out the salt and using unsalted butter to enjoy the simple sea saltiness of the samphire. I don't steam or fry it but just add it at the end to the hot potatoes to warm through, I like the crunch and rawness of it along with the soft garlicky buttery potatoes.

Serves 2 as a simple supper

500g new potatoes halved lengthways
150g unsalted butter (or salty if you like)
big handful flat parsley loosely chopped
3 big handfuls of samphire, washed thoroughly and woody stems removed
4 cloves of garlic
Freshly ground black pepper

Boil your potatoes until just done. In another pan melt your butter and add garlic until it begins to soften and release it's aromas. Then add your drained and hot potatoes into the butter with the flat parsley and samphire with a lid on the pan give it a firm shake. I like to add a few flakes of chipotle chili to mine, a nice pan fried piece of hake would also be a fine idea. 

I bought the new potatoes from the road side for 50p and the samphire was hand picked by me, the parsley from my garden so all I bought was the garlic and butter, I am guessing this simple and delicious supper must have cost about 70 pence. 

Spring is in the air..

Finally Spring is upon us. The violets in my garden are a sure sign that it is happening, as are the ducklings swimming upstream with the Mama duck. 
Menu planning and ingredients begin to take on a very exciting turn at this time of year, so many exciting things to play with and the planting of my edible flower garden begins. 
I am lucky enough to live near four asparagus farms...I have a choice in all four directions. Bring it on! 
We are serving asparagus at our next supper club April 26th.
Bookings by email to unthanksupperclub@gmail.com 
The Menu is HERE

Pop Up at The Sir Garnet

We are excited to announce that for two weeks in February we will be keeping the very talented 'The Baron of Beef's' kitchen warm at The Sir Garnet of Norwich while he is taking a much needed holiday. 
Nick, AKA The Baron of Beef cooks what Yusuf and I consider to be the best gourmet burgers in Norwich. Every single element to them is perfect. The perfect brioche style bun, soft and light. The perfect hand minced and made burger, and delicious home made kimchi. We always choose the 'Umami Burger' it's a heap of meaty, umami lusciousness, it dribbles down your wrist and makes you feel happily a bit on the dirty side. 

The Unthank Pop UP! Pops UP! From 12th - 26th February 
Lunch & Dinner & Bar snacks
Private dining room for 12 guests available
Valentines menu over the Valentines weekend 14th,15th,16th 4 courses £35pp 
For bookings email unthanksupperclub@gmail.com with your contact number or call Clarissa on 01603 615892 or 07748 987 147 .
The Valentines menu is Here.

Have you got beef ?

DJ's Beef 2 ways, feather blade and soy/miso short rib with shallot puree and potato terrine

Yusuf and I have some exciting plans this year, which means we are recipe testing a lot at the moment. As we become submerged in snow the wintery slow roasts are very much in the forefront of our minds.

Our butcher (and meat based hero) is John at DJ Barnard. They are a family run business and graze their own animals. John is highly experienced and has great culinary knowledge. And he cuts my Osso Bucco (beef shin) by hand, which is not easy.

 DJ's shop is in the middle of nowhere, down a miniscule lane. If I ever dream of moving away, this shop is the first thing I know I will miss. 

Before the big changes to slaughter, they would raise, slaughter and butcher their animals all in one place. No lorries taking them away. It must have been very hard after all of those years raising animals properly, being every part of the process, to see them driven away to slaughter.

Being so close to the reality of farming, seeing Johns cows grazing, buying the meat he has hung and butchered himself keeps us very focussed on not just the quality, but the choices one makes as a consumer. I can't buy meat anywhere else now. If I go to a supermarket I walk past the meat aisle completely...it is not 'real' in my mind. For us, DJ's is the best in Norfolk.

          Ham from DJ's, a family recipe. Mulled baked ham glazed with honey and mustard

We will be serving beef 2 ways on January 25th at our Norwich supper club. Email to book.