Great British Chefs

One of the great things about the Great British Chefs website is the great recipes by the great British chefs that feature great eggs! I'm a regular follower and love the great information, recipes and competitions contained within, and there's even a great section for kids plus some great food related Apps!

OK that's probably way too many greats in one sentence, however it is a wonderful one-stop shop for foodies and chefs alike and includes a fantastic selection of product and restaurant recommends. Not only that there's a marvelous How To Cook section with insights into techniques for cooks of all levels - ideal for anyone thinking of entering a recipe for The Egg Award 2014!

With The Egg Award 2014 due to start on June 1st it's no surprise my attention was drawn to the recipe on the Great British Chefs website for Sauté of Jersey Royals with fried duck egg and griddled asparagus and Parmesan by Michelin starred chef Shaun Rankin.

This is a great potato recipe for spring, when both Jersey Royals and asparagus are in season. The fresh flavours and vibrant colours in this starter herald the warmer days and lighter meals to come. If you are preparing this salad for a vegetarian, replace the Parmesan with a different cheese that is free of animal rennet, just ask your cheesemonger for suggestions.

Chef

Shaun Rankin

Ingredients:

Salad

225g of Jersey Royal potatoes, cooked and halved
16 asparagus spears
4 duck eggs
1 knob of butter
olive oil
salt
black pepper
To serve
1 handful of rocket
1 handful of Parmesan shavings
1 dash of balsamic vinegar

1.

Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the potatoes until golden brown. Keep warm

2.

Snap off the woody bottoms of the asparagus. Heat a griddle pan with a little olive oil. Add the asparagus, season with salt and pepper and keep the asparagus moving until cooked

3.

Test with a small knife, they should still have a slight crunch

4.

To cook the duck eggs, heat up a frying pan add a little more olive oil. Crack the eggs into the pan being careful not to break the yolks - you want to savour all that egg yolk to dip your asparagus in

5.

Cook until the whites are opaque but the yolk is still runny. Add a knob of butter to the pan and season

6.

To serve, arrange the tips of asparagus on a plate and place the duck eggs on top. Scatter over the Jersey Royals, rocket and Parmesan shavings. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar

The Larder at Burwash Manor

This week The Egg Award 2014 Blog heads to The Larder at Burwash Manor near Cambridge.  It's a renowned foodie destination with over 1500 products on its shelves. They're passionate about food, so you'll only find food in their shop from suppliers that they believe in. They sell a lot of organic produce (some from their own farm) but their basic philosophy is to sell the very best - that way their customers will never be disappointed by anything they buy from them.

The Larder is situated on a working organic farm that holds the highest level of stewardship for conservation, so customers can expect them to maintain an interest in providing good quality food. 

Local produce is sourced wherever feasible and they've kept the look and feel of a true farm shop - still selling organic vegetables and meat from the farm - but an ever expanding range means that you can get everything you need including eggs, milk and flour to make your own cake, or even experiment  with one of their tasty cake mixes.

June 8th 2014

OPEN FARM SUNDAY

Head along to Burwash Manor for a fun day on the farm – and meet the farming family and their team of helpers!

What really goes on behind the farm gates? Open Farm Sunday gives visitors the chance to see for themselves the work that farmers do to produce the best quality food for our tables, and what measures they take to look after the countryside and manage wildlife habitats. More than 5 a day is the theme of our Open Farm Sunday this year. Children will see the wide variety of vegetables grown on the farm and can cook up some tasty vegetable dishes with Paola Davies, the Food Hall’s chef, in her field kitchen!

Watch demonstrations of sheep shearing, spinning of alpaca wool from their newly arrived flock, willow weaving, ferreting, blacksmithing, stick making, field sports, and their own asparagus preparation and packing before tucking into barbecued Burwash Sausages and a local beer from the beer tent.




There will also be guided tractor trailer trips, pond dipping, farm walks and talks from the RSPB – not forgetting a children’s activity tent with quizzes, games, art activities, play tables, worksheets, and a machinery display. And before you leave, don’t forget to say hello to the lambs, calves, piglets and farm dogs!

Open Farm Sunday is a free event with plenty of free parking - 10am til 4pm.

Macknade Fine Foods

Over the four months of The Egg Award 2014 we'll be looking at a number of businesses that mirror the ethos of the competition. The first being Macknade Fine Foods based in Faversham in the Swale District of Kent. 

Macknade Fine Foods farm shop & food hall is a genuine alternative to the superstore culture that has come to dominate food and drink retail.

Macknade Fine Foods are a generational, family business sourcing local & global, high quality products that they make sure is offered at their true value whilst striving to source hard to find items and they back their range with a real knowledge about their products, business and rich food and drink culture.

As a family business, crossing several generations, Macknade Fine Foods understand the impact they have on the environment and the effect that they will have on the future as well as the present. They work to do all they can to reduce any negative impact they may have and to manage their development hand in hand with their environmental goals. 




Macknade Fine Foods have two stores - a Flagship Foodhall at Faversham and a more intimate, traditional grocers in the heart of the town. The main store is conveniently situated less than two minutes from the M2 on Selling Road. It's on the outskirts of Faversham and is surrounded by beautiful countryside in the heart of the Garden of England. 

With a large car park immediately outside, shopping at Macknade Fine Foods couldn't be easier. On the site of the main store there is also a Fishmonger, a Coffee Shop, an adjacent garden centre and the Hercules Wine Warehouse. Coach parties are always welcome by prior arrangement.

Macknade Fine Foods source with individual customers in mind, as they build an understanding of their expectations and needs, and with hundreds of suppliers they are able to offer their trade customers a genuine, bespoke service. They offer a full range for wholesale so customers can visit them to view stock on show plus taste and discuss ideas.








Faversham Flagship Foodhall



Selling Road, Faversham, ME13 8XF
Telephone 01795 534497

Normal opening Hours :
Monday to Saturday - 9.00am to 6.00pm (deli closes at 5.30pm)
Sunday - 10.00am to 4.00pm

Café opening hours :
Monday to Saturday - 9.30am to 5.00pm
Sunday - 10.00am to 4.00pm

Please note that the delicatessen closes 30 minutes 

before the main store and the café closes 

60 minutes before the main store

For printable directions please click here Google Maps Location

Foodlink Northwest

Welcome to the first of our weekly bulletins on businesses and organisations that mirror the ethos of The Egg Award 2014.  Due to interaction on Twitter with Foodlink Cheshire and more we take a look at the Foodlink Northwest Project

Foodlink Northwest encompasses the whole of the field to fork activities of the local food chain in the Northwest and represents a partnership of interests with a passion for the region’s locally produced foods.



At the outset they obtained support for the project from a diverse group of individuals, charities, businesses and not for profit organisations that recognise the connection local foods have on the environment, communities, sustainability, tourism, and lifestyle choices.  In understanding the driving philosophy behind the Foodlink Northwest project it is easiest to consider it as a compendium of common cause which will be brought together in a flexible approach where converging aims and objectives define a need for co-operative effort.





In that sense the Foodlink Northwest project isn’t about them, but more about the connections they make during the project with others who share common views.  This was one of the features that attracted The Egg Award 2013 to take a look at what they do.

As the project develops they hope to enlarge this initial co-operative arrangement as others see the benefits of working to the common cause and the flexibility the project has to enable differing interests to be drawn together and contribute in the local foods common bond whilst maintaining their own individual characteristics.

The Foodlink project encompasses the whole of the region including the three predominately rural counties of Cheshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, and the two metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester & Merseyside.

Within this region is arguably one of the most diverse food-producing areas in the country. Rural Cumbria is noted for its sheep & beef production together with a well established artisan micro producer base. Cheshire is the county of orchards, cereal, dairy and vegetable farming.




Lancashire bridges the two with sheep and beef from its Bowland & Pennine regions; cheese and other dairy products from the green pastures between Chorley and Lancaster; and vegetables from the lowlands on both north and south sides of the Ribble estuary.

Tourism features strongly with the counties of Cumbria and Lancashire boasting designated areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) whilst Manchester, Merseyside, Chester and Blackpool are increasingly seen as tourist hubs to commence the journey to explore the rural northern heartlands.




Cumbria is world renown for the Lake District and all five counties have significant river and waterway leisure systems whilst all except Manchester are bounded by the Irish Sea.

The Northwest is certainly blessed with geographic diversity which is then reflected in its local foods.

Support for the Foodlink Northwest application came from a number of sources across the region all of which we would like to thank here, and as the project rolls out we will take the opportunity to thank in person.  Support has been received in a variety of forms including encouragement, pledges to the project, and letters of support which they were able to include in their successful application.




Without the wide support received they would not have been successful and it is testimony to the fact that engagement can and does make a difference.

Here's a list of those who provided letters of support included in their submission for funding and these include:

Cumbrian Delight/ Friendly Food & Drink	www.cumbriandelights.co.uk
Appleby Creamery Ltd	www.applebycreamery.com/
Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution	www.rabi.org.uk
Country Harvest	www.country-harvest.co.uk
Enterprise4all	www.enterprise4all.co.uk
Ladies in Beef	www.ladiesinbeef.org.uk/
The Watermill	www.organicmill.co.uk
Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses	www.butlerscheeses.co.uk
Cumbria Farmers Network	www.thefarmernetwork.co.uk/cumbria
Food4Macc	www.maccinfo.com/Food4Macc/
Farming & Countryside Education	www.face-online.org.uk
The Lake District Hotels	www.lakedistricthotels.net
Friends of the Lake District	www.fld.org.uk
The Lowry Hotel	www.thelowryhotel.com/
Mawsons of Bailey Ground	www.mawsonsofbaileyground.co.uk
Bailey Ground Hotel	www.baileygroundhotel.co.uk
Low Sizergh Barn	www.lowsizerghbarn.co.uk
Blakemere	www.visitblakemere.co.uk
CPRE (Northern)	N/applicable
Nurture Lakeland	www.nurturelakeland.org
Councillor Lynn Wilson (Hyndburn BC)	http://bit.ly/lur6KE
Northcote (Nigel Haworth)	www.northcote.com
Alderley Edge Hotel	www.alderleyedgehotel.com
The Sun Inn – Kirkby Lonsdale	www.sun-inn.info
Macdonald Manchester Hotel	www.Macdonaldhotels.co.uk/Manchester
Freemasons at Wiswell	www.freemasonswiswell.co.uk
Radisson Edwardian Manchester	www.radissonedwardian.com/

In compiling the application they had more detailed and substantive discussions with The Kindling Trust, The Cumbria Fells and Dales Action Group, and The Solway, Border and Eden Action Group.

These groups gave help and encouragement in working up the bid and helping to formulate elements of the project’s direction. 

The Kindling Trust      http://kindling.org.uk/

The Cumbria Fells and Dales Action Group    http://www.fellsanddales.org.uk/

The Solway, Border and Eden Action Group    (http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/business/rdpe/sbe/rdpesolwayborderandeden.asp)