Cotswold Pudding and Pie at Kenilworth Market

I love to visit the weekly market in Kenilworth on Thursdays.  For a small town we are very fortunate to have some excellent stalls...

I first wrote about Cotswold Pudding and Pie on this blog back in 2008, and have had over 1300 hits since.  Miles turns up come rain and shine, except for the odd week when he is on holiday, or sadly when he injured himself on the cricket field, with loads of goodies: excellent pies, ham, bacon, sausages, and cheeses.  He carries a really excellent selection of cheeses...but now we stick mainly to goats' and sheeps' milk cheeses.  I just love the white and blue waxed paper he uses to wrap the cheeses in...and what inside is what it states on the packaging:  Scrumptious, delicious, delightful, divine etc.

This week he had quite a selection of cheeses for me to choose from.  I came home with a chunk of Smoked Goat's Cheers, and some Blue Riddlesdale Cheese...So it was lovely soup, made with watercress, pea, parsnip, with chicken stock etc, then Home Made Rye Bread and Cheeses, and grapes.

Cotswold Pudding and Pie Company at Kenilworth Market

Its over a year since I moved to this lovely small town. One of the regular things which adds to my contentment here is the weekly market. Contentment is an understatement, glee is more like it. Most weeks I manage to cycle up in rain or shine. One thing I must remember is to lock up my bike by the library thus avoiding having to hold my breath when I lock up my bike right by the temporary generator which emits fumes behind the fish stall.

This is part of my shopping today. Last week I had an egg weighing 103g, which turned out to be a double yoker. No joke for the hen I am sure.

One of the first stall holders to get my five star award at the Kenilworth weekly market was that of the Cotswold Pudding and Pie Co. It was my search for a good egg which led me to Mr Salmon. Well I had tried everywhere, and having had bantams in my garden in Swindon for several years, it had not been possible to match their eggs for taste and freshness - until I tried Mr Salmon's eggs. They come in all sizes and colours, and each week I seek a peep down all the trays to try and find a green one! I take them as they come, politeness demands this of course, but if there is a particularly beautiful one, then this is handed to me, with very good grace.

I have tasted most of Mr Salmon's produce: EXCELLENT Pork pies, meat pies, sausages, boiled ham, bacon and more. The pastry is perfection and all the pork is reared by a member of his family, with Mr Miles's brother curing the pork and making the produce. The Steak and Kidney Pie is a firm favourite and what with builders all around, makes an excellent easy evening meal with fresh veg from the market. Recently when I had missed the market and got a Pork Pie from Waitrose, it failed to please.

I was chatting to Miles today and was delighted to hear that he attends Cirencester Market. That is where my love of good local food markets developed. One thing I used to look forward to when working there was getting out to the market at lunch times. The hot news is that their pies are being hunted down and they are going to supply a deli in Malmesbury. That's another small town where I used to go to the market having left work in Cirencester.

Here is my market day lunch: lovely small slices of pork pie, well they are so tasty these are sufficient to tingle the taste buds, with my home made beetroot chutney and windowsill sprouted alfalfa.