Shop Local #6

Shop Local is a food blogging challenge designed to encourage foodies to seek out, explore, eat and share produce local to them, where ever they are in the world. This is the 6th instalment of the challenge and I love how it is successfully sharing the creativity and talent of foodies, both writers and producers, around the world.

This month we have ten fantastic recipes to share with you (and one extra photo). If you fancy linking up for this month’s challenge see how at the bottom of this post.

First up this month is Choclette over at Chocolate Log Blog with her beautiful stollen cakes, portable so they could be transported to her mother’s birthday celebrations. Choclette used local to her free range eggs in the making of these spiced stollen cakes, and I simply love the paper decorations adorning the top of each one! Each bite of the cakes contained either rum soaked sultanas, marzipan and chocolate chips or occasionally all three! Sounds like the perfect birthday cake!

Louisa over at Eat Your Veg tempts us with a child-friendly Simple Chicken, Pearl Barley & Veggie Stew made using organic chicken from a local-to-her poultry farm in Herefordshire, England. Flavoured with garlic, onion, bay leaf and thyme and packed full of veggies and barley, this stew looks like the perfect comfort food for these cold winter evenings!

Galina at Chez Maximka whips up a hearty game casserole with porcini and chestnuts with some venison and pheasant from nearby estates to her in England. The dish is flavoured with sage, rosemary and thyme with the addition of some citrus for a little zing. Doesn’t it look tempting! A gorgeous seasonal winter dish packed full of flavour.

Choclette shares another recipe with us this month showcasing the wonderful Cornish cauliflower. She roasted it with paprika and cocoa, an unusual combination to say the least! She says, “the cauliflower was pleasingly nutty. It was just the soft side of crisp with a warming quality from the paprika and the cocoa acting as a flavour enhancer.” Intriguing!

Sustainable Mum gets an organic vegetable box delivered each week from about five miles down the road, and this month she shares her recipe for colcannon, a potato and cabbage (or Brussels sprout!) dish flavoured with onions, garlic and cream. I think veg boxes are superb – they support local growers and keep the food miles to a minimum. Plus, you get wonderful fresh seasonal veg – what more could you ask for?

Finally, to finish things off I thought I’d share the lovely new local cheese I had the opportunity to try the other day. Regular readers will be aware that last month I did not blog a single food recipe. This is because I was very busy preparing to and getting married (and subsequently entertaining visiting family and friends) so there was very little spare time for blogging. However, I did get to try this fantastic limited edition Shetland Cheese inspired by the Shetland Up Helly Aa fire festival. I crumbled some over a simple baby leaf salad drizzled with olive oil and served it with pizza and Italian cold meats as an easy dinner and it was gorgeous. It’s a dry, crumbly cheese with a hint of chilli, garlic and cayenne, smoked with wood and Shetland peat to give it a fire festival flavour.