Suffolk seaside treats

Up on the Suffolk coast for brisk walks and tasty food this weekend. Love it up here and there is plenty to keep a food addict happy - from great farm shops to favourite restaurants, good beer and excellent fish and chips. Too much to fit into one weekend so we are pretty regular visitors.

This weekend we have picked up a lot of goodies at the Friday Street Farm Shop - some to eat now, some to take back home.

We always get something by Purely Pesto (who don't just make pesto) - this time it was some soups for lunches - beetroot and also curried parsnip. They taste great  - freshly made, no additives, smooth and creamy but not overbearingly so - plus the beetroot is just a beautiful colour! The portions are a little small for 2 for lunch, more a starter size portion  - but still recommended.

We also picked up organic eggs from Maple Farm which are currently priced at £1.50 per half dozen - great value and makes you wince at supermarket prices....as well as some shin of beef from Cratfield. We have had various of their cuts before and its always very tender and well flavoured, really demonstrates the difference you get from well reared and properly hung meat. That's just a few of the highlights from this weekends haul.

After a bracing walk along the seafront to Thorpeness and back to the Martello Tower we decided to brave the cold again and have a couple of Adnams beers (and a quick blast of 12 bar blues from the Smokin' Hogs) at The White Hart before going to eat at Regatta - one our 'regular' choices when we visit Aldeburgh. They seem to have the ability to fit you in for dinner no matter how busy they are - you might have to be prepared to eat quite late (9pm) but they will almost certainly find you a slot. The place is always lively, the service very friendly and the food consistently good. There is always a strong specials board which, as you might expect on the coast, has a particular focus on local fish and seafood.

I went for the French style country pate with prune and onion chutney followed by the quartet of smoked and cured seafood - both from the regular menu. Both portions were generous and with bread, salad and new potatoes alongside I failed at the final hurdle on the fishy platter and had to leave a few smoked prawns  - perhaps next time I'll opt for the smaller portion size. The pate had just the right coarse chunky texture you want from a country type pate with the prune and onion chutney complementing it well, rich yet tangy and good enough to make we want to look out a recipe for something similar.

I should confess here that oniony chutneys and marmalades are a particular weakness of mine and I regularly spend days bubbling up batches of onion delights with which to win friends and influence people :) so it was pretty inevitable that I was going to like this dish.

The smokey and cured platter consisted of gravadlax, smoked salmon, brandon rost (hot smoked salmon) and smoked prawns - each with their own appropriate garnish/sauce. All were of a very high standard and all are cured or smoked at the restaurant - you will also find you can source similar local delights at various farm shops and delis in this part of Suffolk (the village of Orford being particularly well known for smoked products). Last night the gravadlax was on especially top form, nice thick slices, lightly cured but with a refreshing amount of dill and a spot on mustard sauce to accompany it (sharp but not overpowering). I was rather sad not to be able to finish the prawns as their rich smokiness was going very well with the Californian red wine we were trying for the first time (J Lohr Wildflower Valdiguie 2007) - a pairing to remember for another visit.

My other half had the gravadlax to start (and was similarly impressed) with braised lamb shank on a bed of swede puree to follow (from the specials board). Again portions were generous and although a man of few words when eating he was suitably impressed leaving not a scrap on his plate. Overall another very enjoyable meal at Regatta.

Right time to go and search for onion and prune chutney recipes.