The recently formed Slow Food group promotes good, clean and fair food. Lots of interesting events on their calendar which are worth a look.

I took Johny Cakes out for a cup of tea today to one of my favourite, unconventional tea rooms in Norfolk. Caroline Dwen runs the quirky and tiny Rosy Lee's Tea Room in Loddon. Expect the warmest of welcomes, an enormous snack menu, local crab sandwiches and homemade cakes freshly baked by the W.I. Caroline suggested tea in the secret garden, across the road. Jack delivered the tea in a hamper basket. The pot of tea for two with two big slices of cake was £5.60.

• Vintage decoration
• Jack
• Head Gardener
• Bambi
• Caroline
• Enjoying the tea
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Food journal written by a Belfast born brother and sister with Mr North based in the Pennines and Miss South based in London. Worth a look purely for the blog on Slow Cooked Giant African Land Snails.

Look at some of these grate spellings, collected from a variety of establishments over a surprisingly short period of time. Do people not proof read anymore?

 A good Suffolk smokehouse run by husband and wife team, Tim and Gill.  The online shop has some real treats.

At suffolkfoodie hq we have decided to have our AGM on Monday. A full day - packed with policy, planning, procedure, blue sky thinking and getting our ducks in a row. Our shareholders and directors will be anxious that we get it right. Good thing there are only the two of us.

We have just come back from lunch at The Dark Horse in Stowlangtoft, after hearing it had re-opened for business earlier this year. We went for the Dark Horse Breakfast at £6.95 and the Homemade Beef Burger topped with bacon and cheese at £9.95. Our verdict...  the burger was better than the breakfast, because the burger was homemade. We finished with a Chocolate Brownie which was good - but shame about the discoloured mint garnish.

• burger, chips and coleslaw
• Dark Horse breakfast
• warm brownies with icecream
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We really enjoyed having Amy, our work experience student from Thurston Community College, this week. She showed us her favourite recipe: Birdy's Brownies! 

Birdy’s Brownies!

Ingredients:

• 185g unsalted butter
• 185g cooking chocolate
• 85g plain flour
• 40g cocoa powder
• 100g best dark chocolate
• 3 large eggs
• 275g golden caster sugar

Method:

1. Cut 185g unsalted butter into smallish cubes and tip into a medium bowl. Break 185g cooking chocolate into small pieces and drop into the bowl.
   Melt over a pan of boiling water.
2. Turn the oven on to 160C/conventional or 180C/gas, so it has time to warm up. Using a shallow 20cm square tin, cut out a square of non-stick baking parchment to line the base.
3. Now tip 85g plain flour and 40g cocoa powder into a sieve held over a medium bowl until all lumps have gone.
4. With a sharp knife, chop 100g of dark chocolate into chunks (rough squares) on a chopping board.
5. Break 3 large eggs into a large bowl and tip in 275g golden caster sugar. With an electric mixer on maximum speed, whisk the eggs and sugar until they look thick and creamy, like a milk shake
6. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse and gently fold together with a rubber spatula. Plunge the spatula in at one side, take it underneath and bring it up the opposite side and in again at the middle. The idea is to marry them without knocking out the air, so be as gentle and slow as you like – you don’t want to undo all the work you did in step 4.
7. Hold the sieve over the bowl of eggy chocolate mixture and resift the cocoa and flour mixture into it. Gently fold in the powder, in the same figure of eight action as before. Finally, stir in the chocolate chunks until they’re dotted all of the way through.
8. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping every bit out of the bowl with the spatula. Gently ease the mixture into the corners of the tin and paddle the spatula from side to side across the top to level it. Put in the oven and set your timer for 25 minutes.
9. Leave in the tin until cool. Once cool, cut into small squares or triangles.
   • melt choc and butter
   • stir until glossy
   • sieve flour and cocoa
   • place eggs and sugar into bowl
   • whisk until fluffy
   • chop the chocolate
   • mix melted choc and eggy mixture
   • add flour, cocoa and chopped choc
   • pour into tin
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   View the embedded image gallery online at:
   http://smtp2.suffolkfoodie.co.uk/itemlist/user/66-ruth.html?start=290#sigProId75544945cc

Check out Gringo's Campfire Cafe menu at Petta Fiesta. Tickets still for sale!

You can't beat a plate of Norfolk asparagus and our favourite place to buy is direct from Tim Jolly at Roudham Farm. During the months of April, May and June the farm shop is open and you can see the freshly daily picked asparagus being sorted and bundled, ready to go off to Covent Garden and Spitalfields markets. The crooked spears are always a bargain if you want to make some soup or a risotto. Follow the signs between the whisky distillery and the railway station in East Harling.

• graded asparaus
• kitchen quality
• the shop
• bundling asparagus
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