pumpkinstrokemarrow

Various culinary matters to report from Norfolk.

I start with the bad news, a kipper smoked in Cley and sold in Wells, having been assured by the fishmonger that this very item was sold by Harrods of London. Lightly smoked, light in colour and rather damp looking, which last meant that I opted for slow grill rather than the slow simmer we give kippers from Craster. I think it arrived on the plate as was intended, with white flesh rather like smoked mackerel in texture but which hung onto the bones and skin rather harder than I found desirable. An interesting flavour, not particularly unpleasant, but nothing like as pleasant as that of a kipper from Craster; maybe too much of the bloater about it. Made up yesterday with a visit to Waitrose of Epsom to buy some proper kippers. Entirely satisfactory.

We visited both cafés at Holkham Hall and we pleased to find that one could buy both bacon sandwiches and meat pies, perhaps reflecting a fairly high density of visitors from up north. Meat pie quite satisfactory but I was reminded that I prefer its meat and potato cousin. All meat is a bit strong and one can get more of the meat and potato down. We also tried the cake, also quite satisfactory.

There was another pie opportunity when we visited Walsingham Farms Shop (see http://www.walsinghamfarmsshop.co.uk/) in the margins of our visits to Our Lady. On the first occasion we bought a tenderloin, a tenderloin which to judge from its colour had come from a pig which had been slaughtered more or less that day, more or less on the spot. First half went to make a meat, onion, potato and cabbage soup while the second half went to make a meat, onion and tomato sauce to go with some rather fancy macaroni, bought from a rather fancy grocer in Blakeney. Tortiglioni medi 24 from Castiglioni, a little larger than regular macaroni and with fluted outer surface, fluting which made an important difference to the way the stuff cooked, in so far as I could judge from the blurb (in Italian) on the box. In any event, sauce and macaroni went down OK, washed down with some rather nice white wine from the same establishment, but not having spent anything like the £40 a bottle quite a lot of his stuff went for. Must be a fancy class of holiday maker at Blakeney, maybe not from up north.

On the second occasion we bought a pork pie, a pie which had been pressed out of a machine which was standing behind the counter. Not bad at all. Maybe we shall try something else from his considerable range of pies when we next visit. We also bought rather a good cheese, quite wrongly described as cheddar: it might have looked like cheddar but it had a much more interesting flavour than is normal with cheddar, something a touch more sophisticated than damp and sour. Went under the name of 'Green's Mature' (and I now find from google that it probably was cheddar after all and can probably be bought from http://www.farmhousecheesemakers.com/. Maybe I will give it a go).

For a posh meal out we went to the Crown at Wells Next the Sea (http://www.crownhotelnorfolk.co.uk/). Main course was very good, being a low tech. version of the cow chop they sell in Florence, quite possibly made with beef from the herd of light brown cows we passed the following day out on Holkham marshes. Possibly South Devons (there was talk of same somewhere along the line) but certainly serviced by a dark brown bull (illustrated). Preceded by charcuterie, bread and olives served on a couple of slates, one at least of which looked as if it had done time on a roof. Followed by a cheesecake, described as cooked despite having a biscuit base. But it was very good too. All washed down with a jolly little Sancerre and wrapped up with some Armagnac. I would only fault the feeble horseradish sauce, which appeared to consist of cream with just a hint of horseradish.

For a not so posh meal out we went to the Swallows at Little Walsingham, the sort of old style café which thinks it proper to serve its meat pie with dabs of no less than seven vegetables, all of which had been cooked quite some time before I got around to eating them. Quite eatable and they also did rather good cakes. Walls adorned with signed pictures from various stars of the small screen, such as Inspector Morse and a very young looking Inspector Lewis. Maybe they follow the Roman path.

Somewhere along the way we had stewed gooseberries, like broad beans very easy to grow but very dear in the shops. So long since I have cooked them that it took two goes to get it right. I might also plead having to use pale brown sugar cubes in mitigation. But once they were right they were good: no need to dress them up in tart, cream or custard at all.