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Northfield Farm, Rutland - Featured Producers - Food with Passion | Regional Food and Drink | Slow Food | Quality Food

Abel and Cole   

Northfield Farm, Rutland

Well, my family has been dining like Kings & Queens over the past couple of weeks.

Having seen great reports on the eating qualities of the Dexter beef, I was very keen to sample it. Therefore the internet became my friend to help me find a retailer within striking distance.

A few minutes led me to Northfield Farm's web site and I found out that they were only 35 miles away from me. With celebrity endorsements from the likes of Tom Parker-Bowles, Rick Stein and Jean Christophe Novelli, who am I to argue? And with Clarissa Dickson-Wright saying that it is the only place that she travels 400 miles for meat, then I fuigured that 35 miles was worth a trip.

Within the courtyard lies a small but impeccably presented butchers shop with the preparation area in full view to the left. A wide selection of pickles and chutneys etc are also available for sale with a small selection of lesser known cheeses.

Well ..... it all looked SO good, we went wild and spent a couple of hundred pounds on various joints, chops & steaks - lamb, pork as well as our elusive Dexter beef.

But looks count for nothing and the important part is in the eating, so what have we tried so far and what was the verdict?

So far we have tried out:

Thick cut Barnsley Lamb Chops: I believe that these were actually Orkney lamb, for Northfield doesn't just sell its own meats. Stefan (the butcher) brings in top quality meats and ages them appropriately. The lamb was sweet and succulent and I heartily devoured the crisp outer fat layer which was a rare, but indulgent treat in these times of promoting healthy eating.

Next up was our piece of Dexter Beef - we managed to get the last piece of topside aged and ready for sale following maturation. We cut that in two pieces and reserved one for a Sunday Roast Dinner and cooked per our own instructions for a medium-rare joint. The smell of the beef roast was appetising before we even got near sampling it. The joint carved beautifully and the knife slipped through the joint as a hot knife through butter, with rosy red ribbons of succulent beef draping the carving board. A quick jus created rom the meat juices and scraps was a perfect light gravy to complement the beef and to allow it to shine... and shine it did. Two fussy children demolished their plates and a fussy wife who hates cold meat sandwiches normally, helped herself to a couple of generous lunchtime sandwiches on subsequent days.

The last piece in this review relates to an often unsung hero of british comfort food - the humble steak and kidney. Offal isn't everyone's cup of tea, but Food with Passion adores it. Northfield Farm stewing beef (best braising steak) is cut into a generous sized dice which is quite unlike supermarket offcuts and necessary for the stew to retain some body and succulence as well as developing good caramelisation and flavour. A slow oven casseroling followed by a day or two in the fridge to allow the flavours to develop is a must for an exceptional stew. Two days and a gentle reheating later and we enjoyed the tastiest, most succulent and tender Steak & Kidney that it has ever been our privilege to enjoy.

So were we pleased with our find....? You BET!! So much so that we made the trip the following weekend again to buy in a few more things (some Berkshire Pork Loin to start making our own home produced bacon ... but maybe that's another article).

The freezer is now full to bursting with Northfield Farm products and I don't expect that we will be back for a while, but we most certainly will be back now that we have discovered this litle jewel on the Rutland border.

If you want to try them out, they also provide a mail order service.

Their contact details can be found here:

Northfield Farm
Whissendine Lane
Cold Overton
Oakham
Rutland
LE15 7QF

As well as running their own shop on the farm, Northfield farm run a regular pitch at London's Borough & Broadway Markets.

David Cameron 22 Sep 2008.

As ever, this review is the reviewers honest appraisal of the products featured. There was no consideration, remuneration or any other inducement to write this article.

 

 

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