A slice of chorizo

I had some time to kill in Brighton’s North Laine a few weeks ago. I found myself in the Brighton Sausage Company’s shop, and after browsing for a few minutes, I came away with some merguez sausages.

They proved to be very tasty, and since then I’ve been back several times to try more of the Sausage Company’s wares. I particularly like the semi-cured chorizo.

Semi-cured chorizo

This is cooking chorizo. It is delicious fried and served between soft billowing bread; it goes very nicely with an egg; plus it is a reliable shortcut to an excellent dinner. We use it to make paellas, stews, and improvised cook-ups. Pig fat, we salute you.

Sussex credentials: Very good. Their pork comes from free-range Sussex pigs.

Price: I paid £2.50 for four semi-cured chorizo sausages. 

Chorizo sausages - lined up and ready for sizzling

A recipe for bacon, tomato and onion tart

Have you ever eaten a pissaladiere? It’s a Provencal take on a pizza, with softened onions spread on the base instead of tomato sauce. It’s usually topped with olives and anchovies and is absolutely delicious. Today, I had a yearning to make one so I thought I’d try making a Sussex version using the leftovers from my trip to the Sussex Produce Company (one rasher of bacon and a few cherry tomatoes).

I used supermarket puff pastry rather than bread dough for the base as it’s quicker, however clearly dough is healthier and more authentic.

Bacon, tomato and onion tart, half eaten. Yum.



Bacon, tomato and onion tart (serves 2)

1 packet of ready-rolled puff pastry

2 large onions (about 300g)
2 sprigs of thyme
1 or 2 rashers of bacon
6 cherry tomatoes

An hour before you want to eat, start cooking the onions. Chop them up and cook them over a low heat for about 30 minutes until they have softened and are translucent. Take them off the heat when they’re done.  

30 minutes before you want to eat, set the oven to 200 C/gas mark 6. While it’s warming up, cook the bacon. Cut it into small pieces and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes until it is just starting to brown. Take it off the heat when it’s done. 

Now unroll the puff pastry and cut off a rectangle that sits nicely on a baking tray (mine was 30cm by 20cm). Score a border about 3 cm inside the edge of the pastry and then prick the area inside this border with a fork several times.

Scatter the thyme leaves over the pastry, then spread on the onions making sure they are inside the border, scatter the bacon bits and tomatoes on top, and cook for about 20 minutes. 

An aerial view of my bacon, tomato and onion tart.

A lovely lunch from the Sussex Produce Company

On Sunday we had vine tomatoes, olive ciabatta and slivers of preserved pork for lunch. The sun was shining through the windows and it could almost have been Tuscany, except that all the food was from Sussex, the preserved pork was bacon, and it was actually pretty chilly outside.

We bought the food from the Sussex Produce Company’s shop in Steyning.It's the first time I've been there and I was impressed. It's a feast for the eyes and (eventually) the stomach, yet not a great strain on the wallet. Ideal.

Vine tomatoes from the Sussex Produce Company

Vine tomatoes from the Sussex Produce Company

These tomatoes looked glorious and tasted pretty good too. They were tangy and juicy, if a little woolly around the edges. If I had been in Italy in the summertime, I’d have been disappointed. However, as I was in Sussex after a horribly long winter, I thought they were remarkably tasty.

Olive ciabatta from the Farretti Bakery

I’ve chewed my way through lots of sturdy artisan loaves recently and, as a result, I was a little disorientated by this bread at first. It was so light and springy, like a delicious cloud. The crust wasn’t hard, the flavour wasn’t sour, and the olives clearly weren’t grown in a local orchard. I loved it.

Rare-breed bacon from Garlic Wood Farm

Unsmoked back bacon from Garlic Wood Farm

Garlic Wood Farm has Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spot pigs which rootle in woods and meadows, feeding on acorns, wild garlic and other natural delights. As a result, this bacon was really meaty and flavoursome – proudly porky in fact.

Sussex credentials: The vine tomatoes and the back bacon are Sussex born and bred. The ciabatta is hand-made in Sussex.

Availability: From the Sussex Produce Company on Steyning High Street.

A steak of Sussex beef

In India, cows are sacred. In parts of Kenya, they are a status symbol. In the UK, they are the subject of our most grisly food scandals: BSE, foot and mouth, and the current mystery mince fiasco. I’m not exactly sure what this says about us, but it’s bad. We have taken too little care of our cows.

Here in Sussex we have a cattle breed to be proud of – the Sussex – and this week I thought I’d try some of its meat. It is a beef breed, adapted to the demands of grazing the Weald. This means it does particularly well on poor pasture, staying in good condition even when it’s cold and muddy underfoot. It’s a very British sort of cow.

Sussex beef rump steak

I bought this steak from the Offham Farm Shop. It came from an animal reared on the farm, grazing on Hamsey and Offham brooks just outside Lewes. I also bought a similarly-priced supermarket steak for the purposes of comparison. I cooked both steaks in the same way (fried with oil). The supermarket one was more tender, however the Offham Farm Shop one was juicier and tastier especially next to the fat.

How Sussex cattle can turn grimy grass into sublime steaks is beyond me. It’s a natural miracle. They certainly deserve our respect, if not our veneration.   

Sussex credentials: The best. A Sussex breed, born and raised in Sussex.

Price: I paid £19 per kilo.