On Saturday 4th May 2011, we are having a visit from a group of folks from the Midlands Food Bloggers for lunch. Given that we have chatted with a few of them on Twitter, we are quite looking forward to putting faces to names. After lunch they will be coming up to our home to learn and experience some techniques we use at Staffordshire Fine Foods such as; curing, brining and smoking. Weather permitting, it’s a trip into some of the village woods to do a bit of foraging and back to the house for some impromptu hedgerow cooking.

There are generally three types of food bloggers; food geeks, food lovers and the other type which we never talk about. The one thing we all share are a unique passion about food, whether it is cooking, producing, recipes, details of food shows or the occasional book review.

It’s official, we are going to make it. The current record for the World’s most expensive sausage stands at 20 pound sterling. It’s quite a difficult task to put luxury ingredients into a sausage without overpowering the flavours or losing textures. We have found three ingredients we can use and a method for getting the best out of all of them, but that’s going to be our secret until launch day. The first batch of sausages will be produced by the third week of June 2011.

The real challenge is whether we keep the ingredients to all British or use the finest foods the world has to offer. We want to go for the all British option, but may have a couple of sourcing issues with just one of the ingredients, we shall have to wait and see.

A final challenge is to come up with a good name for the World’s most expensive sausage. Any ideas?

Officially this was an ordinary hot sausage sold by the United Nations Development Office in Sweden. The asking price? $130. The most expensive luxury sausage was £20, more of a fair game we we think. This was made in the UK and contained champagne and truffle amongst the ingredients. If you get the regular six sausages to a pound, that’s £120 per pack.

The key would be to make a sausage from luxury ingredients and to make them all sing together as a creation of worth. Expensive sandwiches have been made using sour dough bread, truffles, foie gras and kobe beef. Would flavours get lost or overwhelm even?

Another challenge is to get this done with local ingredients or even from what we would have commonly had to hand in times gone by. Imagine the Victorian Era, before two World Wars ravaged British food. At that time we had a great period of decadence and some very fine ingredients. With modern access to such fantastic ingredients, the options are fairly unlimited.

The Worlds most luxurious sausage or sausage range … watch this space

Some of the best regional foods come from traditional workplaces. In Cumberland, homesick German miners were treated to a local remake of something they were familiar with from back home. This coiled sausage is instantly recognized as what it is but it’s not a Cumberwors, it’s our own interpretation and by all accounts, the Germans were very pleased with what we came up with.

The Cornish pasty was designed for the miners too, this time those from Cornwall. A pasty is a complete meal along with a carrying handle. This was eaten holding the pastry ridge which was thrown away to prevent poisoning from the miners own fingers. Norwegian sailors brought lapskaus into the UK. In Liverpool it got the name Scouse, in North Wales it is called Lobscouse and in Stoke on Trent, Lobby. Basically this stew is made with whatever spare ingredients were available but traditionally lamb or mutton was used. If meat couldn’t be found in Liverpool, then it was Blind Scouse.

Our very own homegrown delicacy has to be the North Staffordshire Oatcake. Also known as the Tunstall Tortilla or the Potteries Poppadom, the oatcake has been a firm favourite in Stoke on Trent since the late 18th century. Given that they are made using yeast and sturdier flours they are ideal for wrapping. This is the traditional way of serving them, as a case for breakfasts and for potters and miners to take to work. Expatriate Stokies can get them delivered by mail order, but they are still little known outside of the Potteries let alone anywhere but Staffordshire. These are a unique foodstuff and are very versatile for grilling, layering, baking and even microwaving. For the original consumer, this was an easy lunch to unpack at break and eat with just your hands.

If we go back to the Cumberland sausage and the Cornish pasty, what do they have in common, but not with the North Staffordshire oatcake? For the first two, their names and method of manufacture are protected by European law. The oatcake does not have this protection and is such a local delicacy. “The Staffordshire” cheese has protected designation of origin and it goes remarkably well with oatcakes. Given the history and the unique local-ness, when does the campaign begin to protect the oatcake?

After a process that has taken close to two and a half years, the Cumberland sausage has finally been granted Protected Geographical Indication by the EU on the 22nd March 2011. This means that the term “Traditional Cumberland sausage” can only be use by producers in the area set out in the application. This looks like it stretches from the tradtional northern country of Cumberland to the whole of the newer merged county of Cumbria which also includes the old county of Westmorland and some bits of Lancashire which got stranded on the opposite shore of Morecambe bay.

In the same month, an application was put forward to gain the same status for Scottish Wild Salmon. We wish them good luck. This shows a real re-emergence of pride over the great local food that Britain produces.

In 2010 we were asked if we could put on a demonstration at the county showground in Stafford. For his live performance Chef Daniel did a main course and a dessert. Today, we would like to bring you the video of the dessert:

Chocolate Truffle with fresh Raspberries & vanilla flecked cream

If you want a copy of the recipe then right click here to dowload the PDF copy of the show handout

In 2010 we were asked if we could put on a demonstration at the county showground in Stafford. For his live performance Chef Daniel did a main course and a dessert. Today, we would like to bring you the video of the main course dish:

Rack of New Season Lamb, with a warm salad of new potato’s &
asparagus with a mint & red wine dressing

If you want a copy of the recipe then right click here to dowload the PDF copy of the show handout

Quoted from Amazon.co.uk  – “In A Taste of the Unexpected, River Cottage head gardener Mark Diacono reveals that it is no harder to grow the unusual and utterly delicious than it is the entirely ordinary. Instead of potatoes and carrots you’ll find gourmet delights such as kai lan, Chilean guava and Szechuan pepper, along with practical growing advice and mouthwatering recipes”

A Taste of the unexpected by Mark Diacono | Available at Amazon

This book had appeal for me straight away, I like to cook and want to learn to garden. This books works on teaching you about each item by group (fruit, herb, root etc) and walking through sowing, growing, care and harvesting. Then there are some tips on cooking along with recipes. One nice touch is to grade a few of the projects as easy or close to impossible, which leaves out any uncertainty for my level of gardening. It covers the seasons well and helps you plan your gardening activities accordingly. There are a number of traditional and heritage varieties discussed as well as some newer species. Overall a great read if you wanted to keep it on the coffee table, but I would hope it would inspire you to grow and cook your own produce. However, his historical reference to the medlar as a “dog’s arse” may be a little off putting, it is accurate and quite typical of the easy to understand style of writing.

A Taste of the unexpected by Mark Diacono | Available at Amazon

Tonight is Burn’s Night, a celebration of the colourful Scots Poet, Robbie Burns. One is his most famous poems was Address to a Haggis:

” Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin’-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm. “

I am not going to give you the other 6 verses, but it does go on to describe the haggis’ buttocks and all manner of other things. The haggis has been a thing of folklore for centuries, even with tales of which leg was longer than the other.

However, there is strong evidence that the dish was not originally from Scotland. According to the BBC, “Historian Catherine Brown said she found references to the dish inside a 1615 book called The English Hus-Wife. The title would pre-date Robert Burns’ poem To A Haggis, which brought fame to the delicacy, by at least 171 years.”

I know of a great English Haggis, made by our butchers, Ian Barkers, in Rolleston on Dove. In all fairness to junior, he did learn his craft after spending many years in Scotland and made haggis while he was there.

Haggis is one of those dishes that really does use up what was left over, should be cooked simply and tastes delicious. Even for one night a year, this British dish earns it’s rightful place at the table.