Tuesday 5 February 2019

Glorious food

I still haven't sorted out my other blog.  I've probably lost half my lovely readers, who've stuck with me all these years and I'm sorry.  But it's rising to the top of the list, that job, as long as nothing more pressing happens tomorrow.

Tonight, we had kippers and roast potatoes for supper.  I remember my mother being a bit shocked, when she accidentally called on our neighbours, back in about 1964, at about 6 o'clock, and found them tucking into their evening kippers.  They were a breakfast dish, as far as she was concerned, possibly lunch at a pinch, but not appropriate for the evening meal.  I reckon that kippers are suitable at pretty well any time of day, though.  There's a saying somewhere that a British breakfast is just about right at any time of the day, and I'd certainly go along with that.

LT and I were talking about typically English - moving away from the whole UK as we're both English - dishes, the other day.  Roast beef, obviously, and actually roast any meat, including game.  Also fish - fried fish in batter and chips, grilled sole, kippers and bloaters, fried roes, they're all straightforward food for people who like to see what they're getting.  Whitebait.  Herring in all its forms - two of which, maybe three, I've mentioned already.  Cabbage.  Carrots.  Good honest bread and home made puddings, such as suet puddings, sponge puddings, rice puddings, syllabub and trifle.  Tim and I slightly disagreed about macaroni cheese - I said that macaroni has certainly been used in this country for over 500 years, so it counts, but he reckons it's very similar to meals in Italy and other countries; which I don't think matters - but there we go, let's compromise on cauliflower cheese.  Pan haggerty and lobscouse and bubble and squeak.  Liver and bacon - bacon, actually, the proper stuff.  Black pudding, tripe and onions, kidneys and other offal.  I've never eaten lights - lungs - though I cooked them for my dog, who adored them.  Shellfish - oysters, mussels, winkles and so on. Broad beans (fava beans, darlings) and fresh green peas.  Potted meat, sausages - how could I have taken so long to mention sausages?  Toad in the hole.  Steak and kidney pie.  Steak and kidney pudding.  Pork pie.  Stilton cheese, Wensleydale, Cheshire, Cheddar, all the delicious regional cheeses that guarantee I can't become vegan.  And eggs.  Fried, poached, scrambled, coddled (does anyone coddle an egg nowadays?  I don't), meringued - ooh, proper puddings can take another sentence.  Queen of puddings, Eve's pudding, burnt cream (yeah, there's crème brûlée but we share with our French cousins), apple pie, apple crumble, rhubarb fool, strawberries and cream, baked apple, gooseberry tart.....

Having said all that, our cookery is inspired from all over the world.  Why should it not be?  Sometimes I decide, or Tim decides, to be inspired by a single country, but mostly we're all over the place, in a good cause.  If it's good, we'll cook it and we'll eat it.  

4 comments:

LẌ said...

Scones, cream, and jam?

Personal favorite English dish is Roast Beef with Yorkshire pudding. I made made Toad-In-The-Hole once from a recipe I found online.

Z said...

Oh, LX, I didn't even touch on English cakes and other teatime foods. How could I have not mentioned scones? Thank you!

Vagabonde said...

I went to London the first time to visit my pen pal when I was 13 years old and then all the Christmases after that until I attended college there. I still eat, about 3 or 4 times a week, a soft boiled egg in an egg cup, or coddled egg, with HP Sauce, with crumpet on the side and orange marmalade. I really miss the UK breakfast sausages – I have hunted for them here but only found imported Irish sausages and they don’t taste as good. I know I know I am French, but I am also an anglophile. I also love blackcurrant. I make all my jams but there is no blackcurrant here, so I have to buy the imported jams, and how about Ribena blackcurrant syrup? I also like to drink a hot cup of Horlicks, but it’s hard to find here in the US. Then I also like British hard cider, but they are starting to make some here, not as “hard” though. Another of my real favorite sweets are Rowntrees’ fruit pastilles – I can eat a whole bag. Gosh that makes me homesick for good old England. I used to stop there on my way to see my mum in Paris about every 3 years or so. I think they started a direct flight between Nashville and London – need to check it…

Z said...

You're inspiring me!