Category Archives: foody sisters

another great Wilmslow artisan market

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Last month it was blowing a gail, and this morning it was raining cats and dogs. But that didn’t stop the fantastic Wilmslow artisan market taking place. I blogged about the last one as a bit of a trial. Jus, Tom and I are big believers in keeping it local, and after we got such a good response following the last post, I thought I’d make writing posts about local events  a regular thing. Where better to start then another post on the latest Wilmslow artisan market. Here’s what we came home with this month.

Fortunately the rain soon cleared and the sun even came out briefly. Tom and I set a budget but did go over this time, thank goodness there is a cash point at both ends of the hight street, as there was so much lovely stuff on offer. Here are some pictures, iPhone pics only so sorry about the quality, it was raining too much when we left to risk taking the proper camera.

The Cheshire Cheese Company Stall – the first stall we visited and after tasting most of the samples on offer we couldn’t leave without buying 3 blocks of their lovely cheese. One of them is curry flavoured and it is to die for, the moment the lovely bloke on the stall said it was good on cheese on toast he had me sold. I love cheese on toast! We also bought the sweet caramelised onion and rioja flavour (so yummy) and their best selling Black Bob extra mature. 

The Lonely Scone stall – I treated myself to an earl grey scone that I enjoyed as soon as I got home with a nice cup of tea. It was so tasty and only 70p. I hope they are there next time as I will be stocking up, they had so many interesting varieties of scone, even ones for doggies called sconios!

Tom and I racking our brains to remember the name of this bakers stall, we need to start taking notes! We bought a loaf of their 12 cereal bread and it’s lovely, I’m munching some now as I type one handed!! If you know who they are please let us know in the comments. 

One of the wonderful organisers of the artisan market Denise has since let me know that the bakers is called French Corner. As always click on the pink link to go to their Facebook page. Thanks Denise.

It took every last bit of willpower I had to resist buying one of these tarts from Cheshire Tarts. I could so easily have finished off an entire egg custard. Tom and I are trying to have a healthy month and we were already feeling guilty about our cheese purchase and the sticky toffee pudding (our joint favourite) we had fallen prey to from ‘Jo’s Cheshire kitchen’ (sorry I couldn’t find a website for them). We can’t resists samples and her sticky toffee pudding tasted divine, that’s the diet blown then! I have twice resisted the temptation of the Cheshire Tarts so I’m going to have to give them a go next time, in the name of research of course!

After the success of the chorizo we bought last time from Levanter fine foods, we had to go back and stock up. This time we tried their spicy fire chorizo. The sample we tried had a great kick to it. I’m looking forward to cooking with it. 

Jus and I shared a tasty cracked black pepper savoury egg this evening from the Staffordshire Savoury Eggs Stall (sorry I couldn’t find a specific website for them). They had loads of different flavours, and it was worlds apart from the sad little scotch eggs you get in the supermarket. Next time I’m going to try the duck egg one!

How amazing do these cupcakes look? I didn’t note the name of the seller as I couldn’t stay near them too long, the diet had already taken a few setbacks today, so I took this photo quickly and then ran away before I bought that malteser one!

I ran past this tempting stall too! I can’t resist sweets. 

I did stop to buy two of the ‘big breakfast’ mushrooms from the Derbyshire Mushroom Company though. They’re huge! I’m looking forward to having them grilled and topped with creamy cheesy spinach. Yum! We also bought some tasty cauliflower, potato and lancashire cheese soup and some cucumber and dill sauce for salmon from Scallion Soup and Sauce. I love cauliflower cheese so after trying a sample of the cauliflower soup I had to have some, so good! That’ll be nice after a long cold dog walk.

A visit to the Wilmslow Artisan Market wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to Lorraine at the Georges Biscuits stall. Bramble and Holly would have been very disappointed if we had returned empty handed. Especially as Aunty Jus had just taken them on a long walk round Tatton Park. This time we got them turkey dinner, chicken crunchies and beef bone biscuits to try. We were also given a peanut butter dodger to sample too. As expected they went down a treat, especially the peanut butter dodger!

 

My favourite purchase of the day though, and the one that definitely won’t sabotage my diet plans, is these beautiful earrings from the lovely Victoria Wild‘s stall. She makes the most beautiful jewellery out of glass venetian beads. I fell in love with them at the last market. They are so beautiful and unique. So I treated myself to these earrings, they even come with a little stand so you don’t have to hide them away in a drawer when you’re not wearing them. I’m just hoping the matching necklace is still there next time! 

If you live nearby and you haven’t yet been the Wilmslow Artisan Market is well worth a visit. If you have been then please have a read of this article and fill in the short survey from the organisers to let them know what you think. A couple of local businesses have had a moan that it’s not good for business. Well here’s my message to those businesses – before I went to the Wilmslow artisan market I had forgotten about Wilmslow as a potential shopping destination. This great market has given me a reason to go there again, and reminded me of some of the great high street shops on offer there. Surely it can only be good for business!! Please complete the survey if you have been and lets help this great market continue. 

random risotto recipe post

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I didn’t ever plan on blogging about recipes, although I do love cooking. However I had a good response to the off-topic post I did on the Wilmsow artisan market, where I bought some lovely chorizo from Levanter Fine Foods. Last night I made one of my favourite meals, Chorizo Risotto with the Levanter chorizo and it tasted so good I had to tell you about it. When the weather is like this I need proper comfort food and this is perfect!

This is one of my favourite things to make because 

1. most of the ingredients are things I often have in the cupboards and fridge

2. when you have a kitchen the size of a postage stamp with no dishwasher you need to cook one pot meals whenever possible to remain sane

and

3. I find the repetitive stirring of risotto and sipping of wine therapeutic!

One of my closest friends and university house-mate Sonia used to make this, she is an amazing cook, I miss living with her!! Here is a brief description for you. I won’t list amounts or times or anything like that as you can make as much as you want and put whatever you want into it. I make it differently every time! However the key is good quality chorizo!

I used the chorizo cut into chunks, chopped onion, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, frozen sliced peppers (handy for cooking and having a mixture of green, yellow and red pepper without cutting up 3 whole peppers, which would be a bit much for just 2 of us), white wine, bouillon vegetable stock, olive oil, grated parmesan, and these gorgeous spanish couchillo olives I found in Waitrose (they are to die for, and also nice to pick at whilst stirring the risotto and finishing off the rest of the wine). 

First boil some water in the kettle and fry the chorizo, onion and garlic in a little olive oil, then add the arborio rice and stir to coat it in the orange juices. Add the wine and let it bubble away until it is all syrupy then I just add about a teaspoon of stock (you don’t need much as there is a lot of flavour from the chorizo) and start adding the boiling water from the kettle a little at at time whilst stirring now and then. I know you are supposed to make the stock up first and then add it but this means there is one more thing to wash up! About halfway through I add the peppers. Once the rice is tender, and the texture like that of canned rice pudding, I stir through the parmesan and the olives. If you use good chorizo the smoked paprika seeps out and makes this a lovely orange colour. You also don’t need much parmesan or stock either as the chorizo gives it loads of flavour. The Levanter chorizo has the most amazing spicy kick to it and it made this risotto so yummy! We will definitely be getting it again, and more next time too!