Category Archives: Food
Guacamole? No, roquamole!
Yesterday, we had friends over for a lazy afternoon and an early dinner. The emphasis was on simple, and so I rolled out Nigella Lawson’s roquamole.
Roquamole is her luscious blend of roquefort and avocado – certainly not traditional by a long shot, but a delicious variation on the usual. What I like about this recipe is the customization factor – in this case, I went with a gorgonzola, instead of a sharper roquefort and then subbed out the jalapeños for Ortega green chilies (since we had kids to feed and wanted to keep things on the mild side). I served this with thick tortilla chips (Casa Sanchez gruesos), along with sliced radishes and carrot sticks for dipping. Delish!
Here’s the original recipe – again, feel free to change it up a bit to make it your own. It’s very forgiving!
Roquamole
1 cup crumbled Roquefort or Saint Agur blue cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
2 ripe avocados
1/4 cup sliced pickled green jalapeños from a jar
2 tablespoons finely sliced scallions
1/4 teaspoon paprika
large bag of blue corn tortilla chips
1. Crumble or mash the blue cheese with the sour cream in a bowl.
2. Mash in the avocados. If they are ripe, a fork should be all you need.
3. Roughly chop the sliced jalapeños and stir them into the mixtrue along with the finely sliced scallions.
4. Arrange in the center of a plate or dish, dust with paprika, and surround with tortilla chips. Dive in.
Serves 4-6.
Brits’ favorite brands
I’ve known Brits to be pretty obsessed with Kellogg’s Cornflakes, Cadbury chocolate and Coca-Cola.
Now a marketing research agency has confirmed it.
Read the full story and see the top 20 brands that Brits can’t live without.
The hunt for granary loaf
Finding granary bread is a Holy Grail kind of search in the U.S.
As I understand it, the flour can’t be sourced in the U.S. and the secret is deeply guarded in the U.K. There are plenty of imposters, but nothing like a hearty granary loaf with a crisp crust and a complex, malty, nutty and duvet-soft interior. It will literally revolutionize your idea of wheat bread, if you’re a white-bread-is-always-better believer.
I’m definitely going to buy some granary flour the next time we’re in the U.K.!
Dippy egg and soldiers
The Perfect Soldiers Toast Cutter makes the ideal soldier.
Last weekend — with our bountiful supply of Easter eggs — we had a simple Saturday supper of dippy eggs and soldiers.
Huh?
Well, dippy eggs is British shorthand for soft-boiled eggs, still in the shell, with the top lopped off to make for easy dipping. The soldiers are simple buttered toast strips to dip into said egg. It is easy, simple comfort food. The kind of food you dig into after a warm bath, pajamas and maybe some retro episodes of “Wonder Woman” or “The A-Team” on TV.
And for those who are insecure about their toast cutting ability, there is a Perfect Soldiers Toast Cutter, which cuts eight perfect soldiers.
PS. I should add that steamed asparagus also make perfect soldiers. More refined, but still every bit as delish.
Fish pie
Sunday night, we had fish pie. Think firm white fish (we went with cod and tilapia this time), cooked in a creamy roux, added some peas, topped with a layer of sliced boiled eggs, and then topped again with mashed potatoes and grated cheddar cheese. Bake it in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until the top is crispy and browned (we used the broiler to give it an extra oomph of crispiness) and voila! Dinner was done.
It is a supremely delicious and comforting British dish. Here’s the recipe, courtesy of Nigella Lawson.
Nursery Fish Pie
Serves 8
3lbs all-purpose potatoes
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 lbs haddock
2lbs 4oz smoked haddock
2 cups whole milk
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon white peppercorns
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups Cheddar cheese, grated
3 hard-boiled eggs
Peel the potatoes and cut them in half or quarters, depending on size, and put them in a pan of salted water to cook from cold. When they’re tender, drain and then mash them with 3/4 stick of the butter, seasoning to taste.
Put the fish into a large skillet with the milk, bay leaves and peppercorns. Bring the milk in the pan to a boil, then immediately turn down and simmer the fish until it is just cooked through. Remove the fish to a plate and pour the cooking liquid into a glass measuring cup, straining out the bay leaves and peppercorns.
Meanwhile, put the frozen peas in a bowl, pour over some boiling water and preheat the oven to 375°F, slipping in a baking sheet as you do so.
Melt the remaining 3/4 stick butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour to make a roux. Take this off the heat briefly, just while you gradually whisk in the fishy milk, then put back over a medium heat and keep stirring until the sauce comes to a boil and thickens. Let it bubble away for a couple of minutes and then take off the heat and stir in most of the cheese (leaving some to sprinkle over the top of the pie later) and the drained peas.
Flake the fish, making sure not to let it disintegrate too much, and use it to line a 12-cup ovenproof dish and pour the sauce over, using a rubber spatula to help you distribute it equally and meld it with the fish. Cut the hard-boiled eggs into slices and arrange the golden-centered discs over the top of the fish in sauce. Top with the mashed potato, using a spatula, again, to help you coax it right over the sides. With a fork, scrape lines up and down the length of the dish and then sprinkle with a little grated Cheddar cheese before putting it on the sheet in the oven for 20–40 minutes, depending on whether you’re putting the pie in hot or cold.
Marmite mania
Have you heard about the shortage of Marmite in New Zealand?
ITN is reporting that a jar of the black stuff is going for 2,000 New Zealand dollars ($1,600 American dollars) on the er, black market.
All of this mania is making me desperately curious to try the yeast extract again. Last time I had it, I found it too tangy and salty and strange. But maybe spread with some butter on toast? I’m willing to give it another try. For New Zealand’s sake.
P.S. Liz, I’ll send you a jar of it shortly. I just hope the posties don’t snag it before it reaches you!
Hot cross buns
When I was about five and first learning how to play the piano, one of my first songs was “Hot Cross Buns.” What were these things, I wondered. Cinnamon buns with an icing cross on top? The visuals in the songbook looked good enough to eat.
But it wasn’t until about fifteen years later that I actually had my first real hot cross bun in the U.K. What a revelation! A soft roll, studded with dried fruit and topped with a dough cross. My roommates toasted them and slathered them in butter and served them with tea. Other days, we’d toast them and top them with marmalade and cheddar cheese. Yes, cheese! It was a magical time.
Self bagging
Tesco’s Fresh & Easy Market is making its way across our great land. Two just opened in our fair city this past week and I have yet to check them out. I am curious but early reports have not been the ringing endorsement that I would have hoped for.
What’s putting me off the most is not the vegetables and fruit pre-wrapped in plastic (not what I call “fresh”), but the British cost-saving measure of asking patrons to bag their own groceries (certainly not what I call “easy”). I hated bagging groceries when we lived in the UK – I don’t need the stress of having to quickly bag a week’s worth of items while the guy behind you tuts and waits so the cashier can ring him up (and then having to strongarm all five bags out of the shop, past the parking lot, over to the nearest bus stop, where there was inevitably a crazy person awaiting all too eager for a chat).
Banging on about bacon
I rarely beat my chest and shout, “We’re number 1! We’re number 1!” when speaking of America.
But in matters of bacon? Well, that’s when I will get all patriotic and bang the drum. American bacon is simply magnificent. Crispety, crunchety, peanut buttery Butterfinger … wait, where was I? Oh yeah, bacon! Crispety, crunchety, sublime, salty, smoky bacon is pure bliss.
If you’ve ever had Irish bacon (blah!!) or British bacon (double blah!!), you know what it’s like to taste rubbery, salty, greasy, limp fat. It’s ridiculous that it can even be called “bacon.” It should be called “snake-in” instead of bacon because it’s like a deceitful snake in bacon’s clothing.
The closest you’re going to get to American bacon is streaky bacon (aka rashers), which is the nearest cousin to our native bacon. Never be mistakin’ back bacon for bacon. It has far too much meat on it – not enough crispy fat – and is probably why people like to drown their bacon butties (bacon sandwiches, made from back bacon) in brown sauce, and why we, in contrast, celebrate our bacon sandwiches by topping them with lettuce and tomato and a thin spread of mayonnaise, so the baconyness really shines through.
What I really haven’t been able to figure out is why more countries don’t hop on the American bandwagon and make their bacon like we do. After all, a pig is a pig is a pig, no matter where you live. Answers on a postcard, please.
Tea first?
When I wake up in the morning, my first requirement is a hot cup of coffee. I can’t think of anything prior to this cup. It takes everything in me to walk to the kitchen to get that cup of coffee (already brewed, thank you programmable timer!) and then the rest of the day is a breeze by comparison.
It’s been my experience that most Brits begin their day with a cup of tea. Even if they are coffee lovers, tea welcomes the day. And that first cuppa is often accompanied by a little biscuit. Nothing excessive. Maybe a rich tea biscuit or a digestive. It’s a match made in heaven.
Then often they’ll go with a coffee mid-morning for a little boost.
I like this kind of routine when we are in Britain. There is something altogether comforting about the tea + biscuit first thing in the morning. Even more so when the tea is brewed in Britain. I’m not sure if it’s the water or the milk or the tea itself (we always use tea bags brought over from Britain so that can’t be it…) but it’s magic in a cup. Add a crunchy biscuit to the picture and you’ve got one of my favorite morning routines.
What do you think? Tea or coffee first?
BRITRISH.COM 