Mushrooms and much more…
from From Wild Foods

On this occasion, our featured product review is about a supplier rather than a single product. Wild Foods is a newly established business based in Scotland. It’s committed to providing the best wild food and an astonishing variety of sauces, dressings and other ingredients from around the world. What does that mean in practice? Well first of all it means they’ll deliver beautiful wild mushrooms to your door at a reasonable price. If you want morels, porcini, Chanterelle or any number of other varieties, this is the place to come. But we guarantee you won’t leave the website without sampling something else. How often have you been served pasta in Italy with no visible sauce but a great flavour? And when you get home you can never quite replicate it! Well now you’ll be able to. We tried La Truffata Cep/White Truffle Paste, a beautifully intense base for sauces, risottos or soups. But we did exactly what it recommended on the jar, mixing it with melted butter and a little cream before stirring into pasta, and the result was a dish packed with subtle mushroom flavours. Next, you’ll know we like people who produce interesting fruit sauces, so we could hardly resist the Blackcurrant with Rosemary Dressing. At a push, you could use this in puddings and it would make a great accompaniment to game of all descriptions. But given that the flavour and texture is reminiscent of the best balsamic vinegars, it’s equally beautiful if used sparingly as a salad dressing – we used just a few drops with some mixed rocket and watercress leaves and the result was amazing. But this is only scratching the surface of what Wild Foods has to offer. Visit their website and, as well as tips from a resident chef, you’ll find caviar and cowberries and just about everything between.

www.wildfoods.com

Sunshine Olives
from Olives et Al

This is part of a fantastic range made with a passion by Giles Henschel and his team at Olives Et Al in Dorset. They’re marinated in extra virgin olive oil to bring out the best of the complex flavour, and the end result is like a burst of Mediterranean sunshine on a plate. Use them to add a little extra to a salad or simply eat them on their own with a glass of wine – these are particularly well suited to a crisp chilled white, but there are plenty more that will complement a full-bodied red. And the range is by no means limited to olives. There are snacks, dressings, Sicilian cherry tomatoes, and a wide variety of sauces – open a jar of their superb Romesco sauce and you’ll be desperate to cook with it there and then. As you might have gathered, we’re completely won over, and we think you will be too, so visit their website and see what they have to offer.

www.olivesetal.co.uk

Red Onion Marmalade
from The Hawkshead Relish Company

You might think life is too short to buy mail order relish, but the secret of good food, as with so much else, is all in the detail. Step forward Mark Whitehead and his small team at The Hawkshead Relish Company in the heart of the Lake District. Their award-winning range now extends to nearly a hundred items, each of which involves an attention to detail that’s earning them a growing legion of fans. We tried their Red Onion Marmalade with Pine Nuts and Balsamic Vinegar – it’s a beautifully rounded relish, not too tangy, giving all the flavours room to come through, and with a little bite in the texture provided by the pine nuts. It’s great with cheese or cold meats, or served on the side of warm quiche or flan, and unlike so many supermarket relishes, you’ll find it complements the other flavours on the plate rather than overpowering them. This is equally true of the whole range, all handmade, and extending from the traditional taste of Mulled Apple Chutney to the pepper-packed spiciness of Indian Capsicum Pickle. As ever though, produce this good comes with a warning – once you’ve tried the Hawkshead range, your fridge will look bare without it!

www.hawksheadrelish.com

The New Discovery Fruit Cake
from The Simply Delicious Fruit Cake Company

There’s no shortage of places from which you can buy fruit cakes, but they rarely measure up to the home-baked variety. So it was a pleasant surprise to discover this small company whose cakes are hand made in small batches at their base in Shropshire. Wanting to try something a little different after all the heavy richness of Christmas, we decided to try the New Discovery Fruit Cake which is targeted at people who don’t usually like fruit cakes – rightly so, but everyone should enjoy this. The emphasis is on citrus and ginger, giving it a lighter feel, even though it’s beautifully moist and packed with fruit. It really does live up to what it says on the label – simply delicious. But don’t stop there. As well as the more traditional variety, the company also offers a small but diverse selection of other fruit cakes, one with honey and damson gin, another with chocolate and orange liqueur, another with almonds and cherries soaked in local gin. Many are available in presentation tins and would make great gifts, but spoil yourself before you treat anyone else.

www.simplydeliciouscakes.co.uk

Smoked Duck Breast
from The Weald Smokery

A lot of people express a dislike for smoked goods, but the sad fact is that many have been put off by the artificial and sickly taste of supermarket-bought smoked salmon. If you’re buying from a traditional smokehouse, you can forget those supermarket versions – this is the real deal. You may find there’s a smokehouse locally and, if so, we’d advise you to give it a go. Many also offer mail order, including the fabulous Weald Smokery in East Sussex. From an astonishing range of produce, we ordered a pack of ready sliced, smoked duck breast. It arrived in a cool pack the next morning and had the depth of natural flavour that can only come from the traditional smoking process, where no short cuts are taken, and no artificial additives play a part. And the real beauty of products this good is that they elevate even the simplest meals into something special – all you need is some mixed salad, a light dressing, good black olives, home-made croutons, and you have a smoked duck breast salad that will serve equally well as a light lunch or as the perfect start to a dinner party.

www.wealdsmokery.co.uk