Bubble and squeak is simply leftover mashed potatoes and chopped up cabbage, mixed together and fried (in butter tastes best). Basically, it's hash browns with chopped up cabbage in it. You can use pretty much any leftover vegetable in it though. A lot of "traditional" English dishes use leftovers--I guess because there were a lot of poor working class people here for a long time! Anyway, it's delicious with toast and a fried egg.
Toad in the hole is sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter. You serve it with a little RBG (that's rich brown gravy to all the uninitiated), mashed potatoes and green veggies--usually cabbage. We eat a lot of cabbage at my house.
I of course don't cook English food all the time. But any time I have Martin's grandparents over for dinner I do something very traditional. Cottage pie goes over really well. So does fish pie, and I did a really DELICIOUS one last week, if I do say so myself. The key there is to use smoked fish along with a nice white fish. It sounds nasty, but it's fish and veg in a parsley sauce, baked in the oven with mashed potatoes on top. It's actually really nice. I also make meat pies fairly regularly, though more in the winter than in the summer. Steak and ale or chicken and vegetable. Yummy--I think I'll have to put pie on the menu next week, even though it is a big pain in the bum!
Desserts are where we really go all out. I will be making my Christmas pudding at the end of this month, which is always nice. Prunes and raisins and egg and orange zest, with lots of nuts and brandy. The longer it sits before you eat it, the better. I have last year's pudding on the shelf, but I'm making a new one this year just in case last year's has gone bad. It's served with a brandy and cream sauce, and you pour brandy on top of it and set it on fire before serving.
Martin has made a few summer fruit puddings this year, as well. It's the easiest dessert in the world! Stew a bunch of soft summer fruits with sugar for a few minutes. Drain most of the juice and save it. Line a bowl with stale white bread, crusts cut off. Dump the fruit into the bowl, put something on top to weigh it down, and stick it in the fridge overnight. The juices soak in to the bread, and it it so yummy. Serve it with the fruit juices you saved and loads of fresh cream.
Lots of cream involved in my cooking. I even use it instead of milk to mash my potatoes, when I can afford it. I always have cream in the house!
I like cooking English food when we have Martin's family over. For some reason, it seems to impress them that I can cook "their" food. I guess it is kind of nice that I've learned to make Martin's favorite foods, but that's what I do. I'm a full time housewife, so my job is to cook and clean and take care of kids. I decided that when I started staying at home, I would try to be the best homemaker I could be. You always want to be good at your job, right?
1 comment:
Thanks for filling me in. I think some of the things you eat over there are interesting--especially the names :)
My dad just gave us a cabbage that he grew in his garden and I didn't know what to do with it. The only thing I could think of would be cole slaw. I'll have to try one of your recipes.
I'll have to start doing a weekly menu. I swear, the hardest thing for me is to think of what to make for dinner. And I agree, it's always nice to have something you can eat for lunch the next day. Even when I sit down to make a menu, I can't think of anything that sounds good. OR, I make the same things over and over, ugh.
Anyway, thanks for sharing!
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