I like going to Farmer’s Markets but I don’t always have the get-up-and-go required to get there. Which is one reason why I like Marylebone Farmer’s Market. It is held on Sunday mornings, when I am much more likely to have the time to potter around, and only starts at 10am, meaning it doesn’t finish until 2pm and I have plenty of time to drag myself out of bed and get there.
This morning I went in search of nothing in particular but didn’t want to buy a ton of food as I had done a big shop on Friday.

I came away with two nice looking pheasants, a big bag of kale to eat with them, and a loaf of Pugliese bread from Exeter Street Bakery. Then I got some Kirkham’s Lancashire and some Tomme de Savoie from La Fromagerie, which has it’s Marylebone outpost opposite the car park where the market is held.

I had a vague idea that I might follow Matthew Fort’s excellent ideas from yesterday’s paper and braise the pheasant with chestnuts, but I got home and looked again at the recipe and realised that I was short many of the ingredients. So I turned to Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries, where he pot-roasts pheasant with vermouth and celery. In the end I compromised by pot-roasting using Nigel’s method, but with Matthew’s flavourings of a little Marsala, allspice, juniper berries and bay. I roasted some potatoes in the duck fat leftover from last week, and braised some kale. An excellent meal – all moistened with the unthickened marsala-ey juices from the pot-roast.
And to go from the sublime to the ridiculous, we finished it all off with Jamaica Ginger Cake (bought), Bird’s custard and bananas!