Seasonal food focus: Summer suppers
Produce harvested in season is fresher and more nutritious and due to its increase in availability, should also lower costs for the pub.
Prime Meats, Brakes' specialist butcher, provides fresh meat with accreditations including Red Tractor, which independently ensures that meat is produced and handled to the highest standards.
Lamb legs, shoulders and racks are all available, sourced from the Welsh valleys and accredited with the Welsh Lamb logo.
Try lamb shoulder, cooked in the oven before finishing on the barbecue, and serve sliced in warm rolls straight from the grill for a fantastic alternative to a hog roast.
Pauleys, the fresh fruit and vegetable expert, rotates the speciality potatoes it supplies every three months. This policy means that the produce delivered is of the highest quality.
Harvested from a 20-acre plot at Tiptoe farm in Northumberland, Anthony and Lucy Carroll grow varieties of potatoes with interesting provenance. Each potato has a number after its name, referring to the year when it was first grown - Sharpe's Express (1900), for example was first grown by Charles Sharpe of Lincolnshire.
Carroll's Heritage Epicure Potato (1897) is perfect for boiling and steaming and Carroll's Heritage Red Duke of York Potato (1942) is excellent roasted, mashed or baked. Its attractive red skin gives extra plate appeal, and both are at their prime between June and August.
Carroll's Heritage Sharpe's Express Potato (1900) has a 'new potato' flavour and is best cooked (boiled or steamed) whole in its skin and served either hot with butter or cold with salads.
Potatoes are ideal in salads, bulking them up to give a more cost-effective dish. A simple green bean, potato and feta salad offers a fantastic point of difference, while also being easy to prepare. Boil the beans and potatoes before adding to the feta and combine with a garlic, mustard, vinegar and olive oil dressing.
M&J Seafood is committed to responsible sourcing and supply of the best of the world's catch from well-managed and sustainable fisheries.
Cornish albacore tuna, which is coming into season in July, is more like pork tenderloin, with a lighter-coloured meat and a rich taste and texture. Not as large as the better-known yellowfin species, Cornish albacore yields smaller loins which can be seared and sliced. Also referred to as white tuna, Cornish albacore is offered fresh and frozen.
For a barbecue option, mix together a little olive oil, crushed garlic and parsley, brush on and marinade the tuna steaks for one hour. Cook for six minutes each side for perfectly barbecued and delicious tuna steaks.
- Prime Meats: 0845 6069090
- Pauleys: 0870 6002005
- M&J: 01296 333800
