Proms in the Park

I recently remembered that this blog is called Norfolk Kitchen. So far I've not written anything about the activity which takes place in my kitchen but I'm about to put that right.

On Saturday we went to Proms in the Park in Diss. It's one of those slightly bonkers yet quintessentially English events which involves waiting for the rain to start then sitting out in it for a few hours while eating a damp picnic, sipping warm white wine in plastic cups and shouting "BANG!" at the appropriate place in the 1812 overture. This year we rang the changes by sneakily trying out the groovy new play equipment on the park whilst somewhat (cough) inebriated.

We started the picnic with a selection of rare breed pork pies from Fredrick's Fine Foods accompanied by my plum chutney (plums foraged nearby), rhubarb chutney (rhubarb from my Father in Law's garden) and banana chutney (bananas foraged from Morrisons 'reduced but still fresh!' section). The plum has matured nicely since last Autumn and the flavour has improved considerably, rhubarb is as nice as when it was made, I was somewhat disappointed with the banana though, it was delicious when I made it but the banana chunks have gone sort of hard and strange over time. Might have to ditch my store of banana chutney I think.

Next were home made scones (pictured) with last year's Bramble jelly, Quince jelly and clotted cream. Bramble is my favourite, it always astonishes me that such a humble little hedgerow fruit can transform into into such a sophisticated preserve. We're also lucky enough to have a Quince tree growing wild nearby which supplies us with Quince jelly and Membrillo.

Finally, we managed to cram in a slice or two of Delia's ultimate carrot cake (pictured), ably made by Adam and decorated with the remains of last year's foraged walnuts.

I'm now carefully avoiding the scales, I dread to think how much weight I've put on over the weekend, must dig out my running shoes tomorrow.