A Very Local Market & Magical Fajitas

There is a new craft market that happens monthly at the church down the road from my house, and being such a short stumble away, this weekend my partner in crime and I decided to take a look. As soon as we walked in I was delighted to find a lovely little artisan food stall with an abundance of tasters on display. I wasn't expecting any food at all, as I thought it would be all handmade arts and crafts, which is nice, but obviously nowhere near as interesting to me as anything edible.

The proprietors are a lovely, friendly couple who have been making their own sauces and rubs for years, but only started bottling and selling them in the past couple of months. Based in Shirley, Bickertons offers a comprehensive range of yummies from flavoured salts, spice rubs, sauces, nuts and preserves to drinking chocolate. I was also pleased to be able to try the sauces as wheat free Lady Bickerton (I'm terribly sorry that I forgot to ask your names), was thoughtful enough to bring along some corn chips for us intolerant types. Saucy women against wheat, for the win!

After a lovely chat and a lot of tasters, we took advantage of their 2 for £5 special Mottingham Market deal and came away with their Smoked Paprika & Ancho Sea Salt (which is my new favourite thing ever), a bottle of Chipotle Chilli BBQ Sauce (sweet with a warm, fiery after kick), a bottle of their Triple Pepper Hot Sauce (cracking heat and juiciness), and some deliciously fruity Mango Chutney, all for the very reasonable sum of ten English pounds. Lovely.

So what's all this about magical fajitas then? I'm glad you asked! The reason these fajitas are magical, is because they were very convincing and supremely delicious, but contained no prior planning or fajita ingredients. In my book, that's pretty magical.

Partner in crime and I had been having a very exciting weekend of spring cleaning and clearouts, and so the house was in no real usable state to do anything, and we'd been so busy scrubbing and bagging, that it got to rather late in the day by the time dinner even crossed our minds. Thankfully, having previously been to see my meat dealer Dave, I had a few gluten free, perfectly spiced lamb merguez sausages in the fridge, and thanks to Gentleman & Lady Bickerton, I now had a conveniently spiced salt and some excellent sauces to expertly take the place of the traditional salsa, guacamole and sour cream. My favourite was the BBQ, and it's wet enough that you only need a little dribble to coat all of your ingredients, but it's robust enough, that you can feel the effects. So, do you want a scrumptious dinner that you can pull out of your backside in a flash? Here it is...

Magical Fajitas

Serves 4

1 red onion, halved & sliced

1 leek, halved & sliced

3 large mushrooms, sliced

4 merguez sausages, chopped into little pieces

6 cherry tomatoes

1 spring onion

1 egg

some Bickertons Smoked Paprika & Ancho Sea Salt

pepper

corn oil

to serve:

gluten free tortillas

Bickertons sauces

salad

homemade chilli oil

1. Heat some oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Throw in the sausage pieces and all of your veggies, except your mushrooms. Sprinkle over a generous pinch of that lovely sea salt and a little pepper and cook until veggies are soft and sausage is brown. Add in your mushrooms and stir until cooked.
2. Meanwhile, heat your tortillas one at a time in a hot, dry pan, for around 10 seconds on each side and keep in a low oven to stay warm.
3. Take your veggie/sausage mix off the heat and stir in your egg until mixed. The residual heat should cook your egg, if not, you may have to return to the heat.
4. Serve with salad, sauces, tortillas and enthusiasm. Ta da!

These are delicious, but incredibly filling and I only managed the one wrap of dreams, but Mr Munch got through three with gusto.

Basically, head over to Bickerton's Facebook page, give them a like, and if they're at a market near you, go and and try all of their stuff, there's bound to be something you like; if not, I make the serious suggestion that your tastebuds are out to get you.