We sell jars of homemade jams, pickles and chutneys from the bar counter, along with a biscuit to nibble with a cup of tea or an indulging chocolate brownie.

These jam drops remind me of when I was a child during our summer school holidays, when Gran used to make jars of biscuits for us to nibble on and enjoy. They are good memories and when I make biscuits I always remember those joyful summer holidays.

Use any jam of your choice, and remember to make the hole large enough in the centre of each biscuit so that the jam does not run out of the hole – be generous with the jam and don’t be scared to add a bit extra, because as the biscuits bake, the jam reduces.

I sprinkle the biscuits with caster sugar as soon as they come out of the oven, as it gives a bit of extra texture and looks pretty too.

I oven-bake the plaice in a paper parcel (en papillote) with a splash of Pernod and some vegetables. The paper parcel keeps the fish moist and captures all the goodness and taste from all the ingredients.

I prefer to cook fish, such as plaice, on the bone, but ask your fishmonger to remove the skin on both sides and remove the heads if you cannot face the eyes looking at you. The reason I like this fish cooked on the bone is it’s such a small fish, if it is removed from the bone before cooking, there is not much fish left and it dries out too quickly. When cooked on the bone, there is plenty of succulent flesh to enjoy.

For the vegetable mixture it’s entirely up to you which vegetables you choose. Currently I’m inundated with lots of tomatoes coming our way, so for me it’s got to be tomatoes, courgettes and a few slices of new potatoes. Cook all the vegetables first before you add them to the parcel as the fish does not require much cooking.

Ginger is such a wonderful ingredient and is available in a lot of different ways. Ground, fresh root, pickled and preserved stem ginger. I like the fact that ginger helps with the digestion when used with ingredients such as a oily fish salmon; the ginger cleanses the pallet as it’s combined in the dish. I used ginger in this recipe to have a undertone and subtle taste rather than a taste that is obvious and ‘blow your head off”, the intentions are that all the flavours together make a delicious and tasty dish.

The salmon is also marinated/cured in a solution of salt, sugar and freshly grated ginger before it’s confit (slow cooked/poached in oil at 45 °C). Even though the salmon is cooked the colour does not change as it would when you poach it in water at a high temperature. The fish remains moist, succulent and packed with flavour.

I have combined haricot beans with this dish, half of which are turned into the most delicious puree including fresh ginger which gives it a delicate and wonderful taste. The other half are combined with celeriac and served as a little salad for the fish to sit on. If you do not make anything else from this recipe I highly recommended the haricot bean puree, it can be served with crudities as a pre-dinner snack with drinks.

This is a rich dish and I recommend it to be served as a starter or light lunch, serve all the components at room temperature for the best taste experience.

They are ideal for lunch boxes, picnics or served as a snack at a drinks parties. Steve makes these every day so his hand is very well trained by now shaping and making them. Shaping the pasties takes a bit of practice, it’s good fun and you can encourage the whole family to get involved. If you like the look of them make a large enough batch, freeze the raw pasties in layers divided with parchment paper and defrost the amount you need as and when required. I recommend that you defrost them completely before cooling in the fridge over night.

To create the pasty shape you need to cut a large enough circular piece of pastry, we use a good quality puff pastry, then spoon a generous amount of mix in the centre of the pastry, brush the edges with egg yolk and then fold the pastry in half to create a half moon shape. Crimp the rounded edge by pinching the pastry to create a scalloped edge. Once shaped let them rest in the fridge for about an hour before baking. This will ensure the pastry rests and prevents it from losing its shape when baking.

You can create your own flavour combination for the filling. If you are using meat and making the pasties this small I recommend you cook the meat first, and ensure the mix is as dry as possible to prevent it from leaking. If using cheese choose a strong tasting cheese, the cheddar we used is mighty strong, it’s too strong to eat neat however once cooked and mixed into something it’s perfect and very tasty indeed.

Other flavour combinations that will be just as tasty:

• Broccoli, Walnut and Stilton (use raw broccoli, finely chopped, mix in a generous amount of crumbed stilton and toasted crumbed walnuts)
• Curried Lamb and Swede (use lamb mince that is cooked with curry spices and plenty of grated swede, once the cooked mix is cooled stir in a few spoons of thick mango chutney)
• Fennel, Apple Chutney and Rocket (finely shaved fennel; mix with apple chutney and mix in chopped rocket leaves)
• Ras-al-hanout, Spiced Butternut Squash and Chickpea (grated butternut squash, add soaked sultanas, ras-al-hanout and roughly crushed chickpeas, stir in some tahini paste a spoon of honey add a dash of lemon juice)
• Chicken, Sage and Celeriac (roast chicken finely flaked - brown and white meat mixed - grated celeriac, chopped fresh sage and plenty of grain mustard)

I can hear the question already - what is a koeksister? When I started making these the team were enthusiastic and everyone asked what they are, I think they all just wanted a taster. To define something in a different language and also to describe it in comparison to what they would recognise challenged me slightly. The explanation is as follow. It’s a soft dough (including butter, flour, milk and raising agents) almost like a doughnut dough without yeast that is shaped in long spiral fingers, deep-fried till golden brown and crisp and immediately dunked in super ice cold acidulated spice infused sugar syrup. It’s best eaten after a few days and is traditionally served with tea in the afternoon. If you could make them small enough they could effectively make great petit-fours, but mine ended up a tad on the larger side.

I must say following mum’s advice and a recipe from my grandmother’s book with a few additions of my own, I was impressed with my efforts. Mum and I had a giggle whilst translating the recipe. We always get stuck on two ingredients and that is cream of tartar and citric acid, the translation causes us confusion. When she reads the recipes she always mixes the two up and after a panic and a hissyfit we always realise that she has given me the incorrect information. They are two completely different things, and in baking deliver different results. Well after a few disasters we have wised up to the errors we previously made, hence having a laugh this time round.

For this recipe you need both cream of tartar and citric acid. Cream of tartar is acidic however it also provides a creamy texture to the syrup, when the hot crispy fried koeksister is dunked into the cold syrup the cream of tartar will provide the creamy luxurious velvety texture to the syrup. The citric acid on the other hand prevents crystallization of the sugar syrup and provides the required acidity. Citric acid is also used for making elderflower cordial (acting as a preservative and preventing crystallization). If you do not have citric acid to hand use extra lemon juice instead.

Cook’s Notes:

1. Always make the syrup first, even a day in advance, and ensure it’s very cold, refrigerated and keep it over ice while frying the koeksisters.
2. Divide the syrup in two and alternate keeping it as cold as possible for the entire cooking and dunking time of the koeksisters.
3. Even though you might feel that the quantity of raising agent is a bit too much for your liking please do not alter the recipe, it is correct and will result into a light koeksister – the dough can easily become tough and heavy.
4. Leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes before starting to shape them.
5. Once cooked and dunked let them rest for one day – if you can resist temptation!
6. The cooked and dunked koeksisters will keep for up to 7 days in the fridge and even freeze well.

This recipe is a delicious and innovative twist on the classic sticky toffee pudding. These puddings are light and surprisingly not as sweet as what you would expect. Using rapeseed oil and honey make a huge difference keeping the puddings soft, crumbly and moist. I bought these savarin moulds (savarin refers to the name of the mould, characteristically a savarin mould is shallow and has a hole in  the center) from Lakelands online shop and they are the perfect size. I shall definitely be using them in the summer for fabulous homemade jellies.

The savarin itself is a light soft crumbly textured cake and the yoghurt sorbet has a sharp lemony twist the combination of adding honeycomb as a garnish adds texture and the added balanced bit of bitter sweetness to the dessert.

It’s definitely a recipe we will be using for making our Mothers day at the British Larder Suffolk extra special.

Cooks Note: Instead of making your own sorbet use a good quality shop bought vanilla ice cream instead. The pecan nuts can be substituted for walnuts or hazelnuts.

Another year has come and gone and we are near Halloween and Christmas once again. The Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival took place at the end of September and as per last year, the British Larder contributed in many ways to the fringe events. One of my possibly maddest ideas was the Foodie Booty that we hosted in our car park on the 1st of October.

It’s all innocent and a bit of fun. Simple concept: I invited locals to come and sell their wares from the back of their car, van, horse and cart, tractor… It’s an awareness campaign and reiterated our values of buying local, involving the locals and just being us… slightly different.

We achieved all of that and saw a good turn out comprisig an eclectic mix of produce for sale, from Lottie Lin’s marvellous kitchen paraphernalia, cook books, garden produce, chutneys and wonderful baked goods, Pump Street Bakery’s bread, and Rob Sledmere from Suffolk Providore with his sweetcorn, to Professor Baker with his “wombats” (aka pickled walnuts).

We get plenty of wonderful glut delivered to the pub from our regulars such as the fantastic squashes from Mr. Atkinson, also know as the “Funky Squash Man”, pumpkins from Lottie Lin, quinces and apples from Victoria Sangster’s marvellous garden, to Dianna’s walnuts. We are grateful for these contributions and even more grateful for the fantastic friends we made due to our bartering system. We all have something in common and that is a great feeling.

The foodie booty kicked off at 6am whenDingley Dell Farmer Mark Hayward brought the pig for the hogroast, fired it up and a lot of coffee drinking and nattering took place whilst the piggy was roasting.

The stall holders arrived from just after 9am. It turned out to be a hot sunny day; finally the summer we have been waiting for.

All in all it was a good day. We had a good turnout of people buying wonderful locally produced foods and we got the chance to test drive our new concept of a foodie booty.

This pumpkin chutney is our recipe in celebration  of Autumn, after all I have been inundated this season with the finest pumpkins in East Anglia.

A huge thank you to:

• Mark Hayward,  Dingley Dell
• Roger and Pat, Pump Street Bakery
• Rob Sledmere, Suffolk Providore
• Lin Carter, aka Lottie Lin
• Richard, Sutton Hoo Chickens
• Professor Baker, aka the Wombat man
• Davind and Francess, Village Veg
• Emma, Nut Tree Farm
• Emmerline, Smy Chutney
• Wendy, Melton Cakes
• Richard Isaac, The Old Sweet Shop, Woodbridge
• Graham Owston, The Saxmundham Honey Man

These events give us the opportunity to prepare and create mouth watering dishes. The recipe opportunities are endless. Now that the game season has begun with autumn in full swing it’s time to bring back our show stopping game dishes.

This venison carpaccio is a twist on a classic beef carpaccio with the addition of a crispy venison shoulder lollipop and a delicious shallot and hazelnut vinaigrette.

I like cooking with game, the meat is lean hence being healthier, and for me personally it’s all about the fact that it is very seasonal. Another great friend of ours, David Grimwood has been incredibly kind by bringing us various bits of game and educated us about the amazing world of the wild ducks. This pan-roasted teal and pearl barley salad with damson vinaigrette is just one of many fantastic recipes we created with David’s gifts of wild ducks.



Have a look at these mouthwatering game recipes for further inspiration on cooking with game:

• A Tasting of Game
• Partridge, Fig and Salted Caramel Walnuts
• Venison Haunch Steak with Spelt Grain and Red Wine Sauce
• Venison and Smoked Pnachetta Meatballs

These small individual lemon meringue pies not only look great but we have the advantage of being able to serve them in the restaurant. We prepare them to the pastry and lemon filling stage and then on the day, when needed we then top them up with the meringue topping and bake them before each service. It keeps them fresh and easy to manage, as well as reducing wastage.

They are also perfect for our bar counter; they look great on a glass stand with a big glass dome lid perfect for that Sunday afternoon cup of tea and the taste of something sweet.

We have a perfect location for walking, especially dog walking. There are several routes that can be followed from our pub front door, one route goes past the fishing lakes, the other over the bridleway passing the golf club and then another one goes through a mini nature reserve, Bromeswell green and can be followed all the way to the river. All these walks are safe, some of them are fairly taxing as the hills can be quite steep and some parts the soft sandy soil makes walking a bit harder. All this hard work requires a pleasant reward at the end and these lemon meringue pies are just the thing for a post-energetic walk.

The beauty about lemon meringue pies is that they do not really have a season; we get lemons all year round. These individual pies are perfect for any occasion from a picnic to a sophisticated tea party.

Mackerel is delicious and versatile and can be served hot or cold, smoked, raw or cooked. Due to the rich oily flesh mackerel works best with strong acid flavours such as saffron, lemons, limes, tomatoes, orange, fennel, chilli, ginger and wasabi. The skin of mackerel is thin and therefore crisps up easily and tastes equally delicious. My philosophy about mackerel is to keep it simple; it’s a humble fish, and over-complicating a recipe incorporating mackerel is doing no one any flavours! The combination of using fresh and smoked mackerel adds a different dimension to the dish.

I usually associate tomatoes with mackerel, it might be from the days when my dad used to eat tinned sardines and tomato salad as a snack. Towards the end of Summer when tomatoes are ripening and plentiful, one might wonder what to do with a glut of tomatoes? Well I have the answer to this dilemma; last year I wrote this lovely post on how to preserve them if you have too many. One of the three recipes on there I use the most is the semi-dried tomato recipe. We use lots and lots of them in the restaurant and semi-dry all shapes and sizes from cherry tomatoes to large ripe plum tomatoes, it works all the same and they are truly delicious – with the intense flavour they work beautifully with the oily mackerel.