Spicy chorizo....

It's one of the most exciting new arrivals at the Cornwall Food and Drink Festival, Deli Farm's new spicy chorizo. I had seen them mention it on twitter and had to go and buy some.

It's fiery and pepper but the heat doesn't hide the flavour of the pork. It doesn't disappoint.

Get left-over it...

There's two days a year when a fry up is essential. Boxing Day and New Years Day. What I love about Christmas fry ups is your have a whole fridge full of leftovers to be creative with making a standard fry up so much more fun. And when you're dressed is festive PJ's with a hot water bottle up your jumper it makes the cold weather a lot more bearable....

Leftover fry up cakes......(serves 1)

2 cold roast potatoes

4 cooked sprouts

3 cold roast parsnips

1oz/25g butter

Chop the cold vegetables into rough chunks.

Press together with your hands into a small cake shape.

Melt the butter in a pan and carefully place the cake in the pan. Let is cook for 2 or 3 minutes without moving otherwise it might fall apart. Carefully flip over and cook until brown and crispy.

Serve with a poached egg and Primrose Herd bacon. (Just a word on the bacon, I bought 4 packets from the Cornish Food Box and it is completely fantastic. Buy buy buy.)

Hamming it up....

My Christmas Cornish Food Box arrived today.....

I now have a fridge full of fresh smoked bacon, sausages, elderflower fizz, treacle pudding...the list goes on. In the box was a 225g pot of honey and I wondered if it was enough for my Christmas Eve ham....But it was so thick and treacle, it was just perfect. (Don't be put off by the amount of ingredients because you can wing most of them...read on).

Christmas Eve ham with honey, cloves and chestnuts........(serves 5)

1.5kg ham

fennel seeds

2 onions

4 bay leaves

2 leeks

allspice berries

peppercorns

a few cloves for the ham jacuzzi

3 satsumas

225g Cornish honey

4 tbsp demerara sugar

1 handful vacuum packed chestnuts

1 more handful of cloves

Place the ham in a large, heavy saucepan and cover with water. Add anything in the fridge you think might make a lovely stock. I used a couple of red onions with the skins still on, a sprinkling of fennel seeds, allspice berries, a couple of crispy old leeks, some satsumas chopped in half and some bay leaves.

Bring to the boil and boil for 1 hour. Carefully remove from the pan and pop on a draining board. After a couple of minutes get a sharp knife and run a criss cross pattern over the fat. Press the cloves into each diamond. Pour the honey and sprinkle the sugar over the top. Sprinkle the chestnuts into the honey that has run off the ham.

Put in a pre heated oven (180'c) for about 20-30 mins.

Slice and serve with salad and jacket potatoes. Spoon a little of the melted honey and chestnuts over the meat.

Apple and spice and all things nice....

There will be a time when autumn has gone. The allotment will be empty, the trees will be bare.....

The flowers will have wilted and it will be harder and harder to make spur of the moment dinners.

Our glut of rosy pink apples means we're having a lot of apple based dinners. But I want to make sure the apples last through January and February.

Today is Callington Honey Fair so I'll have to honey recipes this week in its honour.

Honey roasted pork loin chops with spicy apple sauce......(serves 4)

4 pork loin chops

2 tbsp honey

2 tsp allspice paste

3 llbs/ 1.3kg apples

1 star anise

half a cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

half a tsp fennel seeds

1 heaped tbsp honey

1 heaped tbsp demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 180'c. Put the pork in the oven for ten minutes. Mix the honey and star anise together and brush over the pork.

Peel and core the apples and chop into large chunks. Put all of the other ingredients in a pan with a little water. Bring to the boil. Try not to stir it too much as it's nice to keep the apple chunks whole.

Let the pork cook for another 10-15 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

Chard Day's Night.....

Melted cheese. Is there anything in the world more dreamy? Cheese on toast with a bit of ketchup, a parmesany carbonara or a winter's evening fondue. For me cheese is an any season, any day treat. But as I sit here typing with the sun streaming over the harbour it's not a fondue I want or a heavy lunch. This is perfect stirred through spaghetti, placed on toast or just in a steaming bowl on its own.

Chard with Cornish Brie and Coppa.....(serves 1)

1 large handful of chard
2 slices Cornish brie (about 3oz/85g)
3 slices Cornish Coppa (available here)
salt and pepper

Wash the chard. Then chop it roughly with a sharp knife. You don't want it shredded just sliced into chunks. Pop it in a pan to steam for 3 minutes of so, tossing it occasionally. (I usually add about 1 tbsp water just to help it along).

Take the chard off the heat briefly. See if it needs draining. If it doesn't pop back on the heat and add the coppa and brie. Toss with tongs until the brie starts to melt. Serve with salt and pepper.

Grill Thrill...

My hair still smells of smoke. I keep getting wafts of it as I sit typing at my desk. It's a constant reminder of last night. There's nothing better than sitting on the beach, digging your toes into the warm sand waiting for your barbecue to warm up. Of course I'm romanticising it. There was a lot of smoke in my face and I managed to drop my grilled halloumi in the sand right at the crucial tasting moment.

But that's the beauty of summer. You constantly are rewriting it. Despite the fact I know that the last two summers have been raining and cold I know I'll still remember it like yesterday. Hot and sunny with my toes buried in the sand eating pork chops with my fingers and not at all sandy halloumi...

Pork Chops with Oregano and Garlic.....(serves 2)

2 large pork chops

1 small garlic bulb

1 handful oregano

1 tbsp sea salt

olive oil

Place the pork chops in a ceramic tray. Slice down the side of the fat vertically so it makes little cubes of fat about 2cm across. Rub with the salt, pushing the salt down into the fat. Crush the garlic roughly with the back of a wooden spoon. Rub over the meat. Rip up the herbs and add them. Pour some olive oil over the top and add the pepper.

Leave to marinate for as long as you like. Head to the beach and light your barbecue. Once the flames have died right down place your chops on top with all the marinade.

Bake for 15 minutes on each side.

Leave to cool for a couple of minutes and eat with your fingers.

Honey Roast Pork Belly with Fennel....

There are good points and bad points about getting up at 5am. It physically hurts when my alarm goes off. I've tried several different alarms they all sound the same...like someone jumping up and down on my head. No one else works the same hours as you...so lying in the sun is fun but not as exciting as lying with someone else. Post 9pm television is also a rarity. But......when it rains all day I am left smug in the knowledge that when I left home I saw the best of the day.

And it means I can spend a bit more time making tea....

Honey Roast Pork Belly with Fennel..........(serves 3)

1 1/4 kg pork belly

1 tbsp Cornish sea salt

1 tbsp fennel seeds

2 tbsp runny honey

Preheat the oven to 250'c.

Dry the pork, wiping it down with a clean tea towel. Score the pork with the sharpest knife you had. (At this point I decided to check how sharp my knife was by running it down my palm. I can confirm it is sharp and I ha to stop the recipe at this point to administer first aid.) As well as not scoring your hand, make sure you don't cut into the pork flesh.

In a pestle and mortar crush the salt and seeds. Rub over the skin an push into the scored skin.

Put in the oven and cook for half an hour. Reduce the heat to 180'c. Cook for a further 2 and a quarter hours. 15 minutes before taking out of the oven brush the crackling with the honey. Pop it back in the oven. Leave it to rest for 20 minutes.

Slice and eat with potatoes and peas. Or just in a roll.