There was one left.... it became mine.....Jon had added a little black pudding to them to make them really moist.... it was a winning combination.....and the duck sausages were deemed a success.... all sold out at lunch time so Jon is going through the recipe with the chefs so they can make the next batch!
In the meantime, I've got a few more pictures to show you...
....
this tempting little batch of buns are just cooling their bums in preparation for the delicious roasted butternut squash and sage soup being made for this evening's service.
We make all of our own breads and biscuits here..... in fact the only thing we do buy in ready prepared is Ice Cream.... and that's simply because we sell so much of it it is impractical to make it ourselves!
But who can think of ice cream when it's really chilly outside and you want to be next to one of these......
That's the roaring fire in the snug.....
I'll be giving you a little tour around the Inn, so you can get your bearings whilst I'm wandering about it and you'll feel more at home then!
Feel free to stop me at any time!
See you in a bit....
M
It's early March and we 're still lighting fires.... not a bad thing but the novelty is wearing thin and we yearn for a little early spring sunshine but the "Dribble Valley" as we affectionately refer to our borough of Ribble Valley is living up to its name!
Today it's cold, wet and windy but the fire's roaring and I can hear people gathering in the snug for lunch....
Jon (the male Innkeeper.... husband of mine) was in the kitchen at 7am making wild duck sausages to put on the specials' board this lunchtime....
We will be pleased when the weather changes a little.... we've had a winter like this......
...... and now we reckon we are due a little early spring sunshine!
Let me make some further introductions.....
I'm Marti, husband is Jonathan (or Jon.... it depends whether he's in my good books or not), we have three full time chefs, one full time Front of House, 8 part time FOH, currently hunting for a new dog to replace our gorgeous 16 year old collie cross who died last year....
Our whole life is good food.....we are boringly obsessed with really tasty food... we talk about it all day everyday.... trying, experimenting, going back to basics then starting all over again.
We have a short menu (this means that it is most definitely easier to produce because we insist that everything is prepared from fresh raw ingredients every day)..... make that a big lesson to you..... big menu...probably not prepared from raw ingredients.... unless it is a massive operation with a dozen chefs working 17 hour shifts!
We don't do that; we are a small team, we work reasonably normal hours for a country inn and restaurant and make sure that nothing compromises the quality we serve.
We use only local suppliers; in fact 95% of our product comes from surrounding farms and local markets......"farm to fork" they like to call it..... we just call it common sense.
We love our exceptional beef, pork and lamb and especially look forward to the abundance of fantastic game in the area as we love having lots of game dishes on our menu.
Our whole ethic is about flavour..... flavour first is our whole meaning..... presentation is important but we are more concerned with flavours.... big gorgeous gutsy flavours!
Anyway.... back to the duck sausages....... I had a try for breakfast (it's impossible to abide by the rules of normal eating times and expected food items for the specific times of day.....so you'll just have to get used to the fact that it is normal and usual for us to have belly pork for breakfast, or venison, or curried parsnip soup with crispy onions.....it's all rather liberating actually to be that radical!)....... the duck sausages...... really "ducky"... wild mallard, pot-roasted and shredded, mixed with a little pork meat & fat, really well seasoned with a little chinese five spice, some redcurrant jelly, tiny pieces of orange peel and squished unceremoniously into sausage skins, tied and then oven roasted....... only that the battery on my camera decided to die, I could have shown you the wee beasties..... they were magnificent and I promise to make sure the battery is always charged from now on!
We're serving them with a little carrot mash and some warmed plum gravy made from our glut last autumn....
I am genuinely hoping there might be a little spare one or two for me after this lunchtime service....
... here's to hoping......
See you soon!
M
Hello there..... welcome to my blog.... a simple and honest insight into the life of a real life Innkeeper.....
You've probably seen the tv programmes about the disassociated, bored, disillusioned or down-right eccentric folk who opt out of the rat race to open a fish farm in rural France, or make a life changing decision to uproot their family ro renovate a derelict church in Cyprus and run it as a B&B..... you know the type of thing.... well in a nutshell, that's what we did... 6 years ago.
"We" being me & the other Innkeeper in my life..... my husband.
My aim for this blog is a peek inside life in a big old country inn and restaurant through the eyes of an "incomer", a "novice", a "woman!", a "townie", ..... I could go on but by now you probably get the drift.
I will share the good, the bad and the ugly.... after all, it is a time of belt-tightening and news of pubs and businesses failing at an alarming rate under restrictive economic times....
I will feature the real life people who come here, who work here, who stay here, who eat here, who deliver here, who pass by here.... albeit anonymously of course....
I will pass on tips about food, share our best recipes and hopefully entertain you along the way.
This is an old photo of our place.... tucked away in a sleepy little hamlet in the Ribble Valley, just on the edges of the beautiful Forest of Bowland.
We moved in August 2005 and opened the doors (albeit only to the bar and snug) in October 2005 after much cleaning and rebuilding of the commercial kitchen.
I would dearly love to be excrutiatingly honest about our first 18 months here, but I actually don't wish to remember the trauma in that much detail in order to reproduce it for your eyes to read...... we will leave that there shall we....I might might hints at the genuine awfulness of folk thoughout the ramblings.... depends how naughty I'm feeling!
Our website will give all the usual details
www.theredpumpinn.co.uk
but the real news about the real workings of an Inn, including the delicious food, mixed with the gossip, the hardships, the fun and frolics, the reality in all its bareness will be presented to you here.....
....I really hope you enjoy it!
