National Butchers’ Week starts today! Great British Chefs asked me to cover this for their blog pages so I went to one of my favourite shops in the East Midlands. The full article is here.

I had a great time at John F. Pitchford’s butcher’s shop as you can probably tell so for my favourite blog readers (you!) here are some extra photos from my visit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst in the shop I picked up 6 of their handmade sausages which I made into a big tray of Toad in the Hole for dinner. Why not grab some bangers from your local butcher this week and have a go!

Toad in the Hole

Serves 3 -4

Ingredients

300ml milk
3 eggs
60g self raising flour
60g granary bread flour or other wholemeal variety
6 sausages
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil

1) Preheat the oven to 200°c

2) Mix the eggs together with the milk in a jug

3) Put the flours in a bowl and the add the milk and egg mixture, whisking to make a smooth batter, place in the fridge to rest until required.

4) Bake the sausages in the sunflower oil for 20 minutes in the oven,

5) Pour in the rested batter and quickly put back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes or until well risen and golden brown

6) Serve with steamed veggies

I hope you have fun checking out your local butcher but if you fancy visiting the Pitchford brothers I can highly recommend it. Southwell is great for a lil’ day trip, have a look round the Minster, check out the WI vegetable market on a Saturday and go say hi to the guys in the butcher’s shop.

John F. Pitchford, 1 Market Place, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, NG25 0HE