Exploring local produce to bring out best flavours

The deep freeze may have thawed, but our winter continues, and I for one, am still jolly cold. Wrapped up in many layers with the fan heater on full, there is a glimmer of spring outside as the bulbs in my garden are visible now the snow has finally melted.

I’m sure, like myself, you have all experienced the arctic conditions since my last column.

As beautiful as the countryside looked with all the snow, it did become very trying after a while. My suggestions to my husband to count sheep on sleepless nights seemed to fall on stony ground. But life goes on.

The children are now well and truly in the throws of school and university and I was lucky to be whisked off to Marrakech with two of my friends. I was not disappointed.

Marrakech was, and is, an absolute delight in every sense. The diversity of the culture and the sheer buzz of the old Medina is a sight to behold.

I was amazed by the choice of fresh food available daily - we could learn a few lessons about local sourcing and seasonality,

including the rows of stalls just selling mint for mint tea. I counted at least 10 different varieties.

Olive sellers bunched together round a little square alongside the steaming tagines and various coloured cooking pots was a sight to be savoured.

I have been educated in the amount of different dates available from the dried fruit stalls, which stand next to the fresh orange juice sellers.

There were at least 30 stalls selling freshly squeezed orange juice in glasses for just 30 pence, and fresh vegetables were heaped on the streets and bakeries at every corner.

I was lucky to be able to help bake the daily bread in one of the communal bakehouses. Women make bread twice daily and take it to the bakehouse to be cooked. I returned full of enthusiasm and ideas for this page, and to fulfil these I am going to need your help.

Every month I intend to publish a list of food events for you to visit and I would really appreciate you letting me know when something is happening in your area. Hopefully, it will alert others to events that perhaps have become the norm in your area.

Daily cooks

I was inspired to start an events diary when I read about the Original Marmalade Festival, to be held in at Dalemain Mansion, Cumbria, which has 10 great categories.

With this in mind, I have included this month a recipe for my mum’s favourite tea loaf, marmalade cake, which is ideal for using up any of last year’s left-over older marmalade.

When I had the pudding company (see FG, November 27), we were fortunate to win ‘A Brammy’ three years in succession, an award for innovation using Bramley apples.

With the recent celebration of Apple Week just passed, my favourite recipe for this month is for red cabbage with apple. The recipe I always use does not add much else. I don’t think you need to with such fabulous flavours.

Happy Valentine’s

How can I mention February without including cupid’s favourite day. To mark Valentine’s Day, why not try making my molten hot chocolate sauce? I put this in a dish surrounded by fresh fruit and marshmallows - it’s so indulgent, but delicious. Naughty but nice, as they say - and the creation of this dish is about as romantic as it gets at our house.

Shortly following this is Shrove Tuesday (February 16), otherwise known as Pancake Day. This is the last day before Lent and people used to make pancakes to use up the ingredients they were previously banned from eating during Lent, such as chocolate and lots of sugar.

To mark the day, I have included a recipe for blueberry pancakes. Don’t worry if you haven’t time to make pancakes, I admit to cheating now and then, buying ready-made and tossing them in my own frying pan. No one knows - just be sure to get rid of the wrapping.

If you are going to cheat, the hot chocolate sauce you have hopefully indulged in on Valentine’s pours over them beautifully.

Have your say

Please do not complete the following form field for security reasons.

Name

E-mail

Comment

Post as

Anonymously

Display name