Category Archives: Food
Top 10 highlights from Paris, part une
So many things we loved in Paris. Here’s the proverbial greatest hits over the four days we spent!
1. Love padlocks on all of the Paris bridges. They really are a stunning sight. Couples buy padlocks as a symbol of their love, add their initials and lock it to the bridge! And they say romance is dead?!
Cheese shouldn’t be plastic
Cheese aisle in New Zealand
This is a guest post by Liz Marsom, who was born and raised in Great Britain and now lives and works in New Zealand. She is a cheese lover.
I’m sure there are many great varieties of cheese available in the U.S. Though, I found much of the readily available cheese in the regular supermarket to be over processed and tasteless plastic. A massive generalisation I know! But, who else has liquid cheese at room temperature … in a spray can? You’re not the only ones that I think have lost the true meaning of cheese. The kiwis have cheeses called Tasty and Mild. I’m still unsure of what Colby is … I’m guessing somewhere in-between.
British cheese itself is a bit of an underdog and isn’t famed like the French cheeses. Running from camembert and, my father’s favourite, the exceptionally smelly Chaumes to more delicate brie French cheese is pretty special. Even their processed soft cheese Le Vache Qui Ri or The Laughing Cow has a flavour that no one else seems to have managed.
But what a variety of classic great British cheeses there are!
The classic Cheddar hails from the South West. A solid lump of cheese that’s perfect in a sandwich with lashings of Branston Pickle or melted on toast with a splash of Worcestershire sauce. Available in different strengths of flavour that all depend on its maturity, the only one to really choose is vintage cheddar to get the magnificent classic tang.
Stilton hails from Leicestershire. A rich crumbly cheese full of the blue veins giving its strength of flavour it’s not the prettiest cheese but boy it’s one of my favourites. Served on a cheeseboard, grilled on a portobello mushroom or in Beef and Stilton Pie, it gets my vote!
Wallace and Gromit made Stinking Bishop cheese famous and stink it does. Although it turns out to have a more delicate flavour than the odour would suggest, I have to say I think it smells a little bit too much for me. Cornish Yarg from the deepest southwest is a beautiful cheese wrapped in nettle leaves as it cures.
Red Leicester, Wensleydale, Double Gloucester or a bath blue…. I could go on forever as cheese is my favourite food. But for now I’ll just plan my lunch. After all this talk of cheese I’ll have a Ploughmans. A classic British country pub menu choice based upon what you’d have for lunch as you worked the horses ploughing ready for the crops. The Ploughmans consists of a lump of cheddar and a wedge of stilton with pickled onions, chutney and some crusty bread. This is best served with a pint of real ale at room temperature, of course.
18 weird and wonderful British foods you need to try
Cranachan: Whiskey, cream, raspberries and toasted oatmeal are layered in a tall glass.
Thanks, Buzzfeed, for this entertaining list! I’ve only had #13 before, and will never ever ever eat #7!
Banana bread and the Brits
Last week, I blogged about a new banana bread recipe I tried, which got me thinking … do Brits eat banana bread? Did it originate in America? And is this one our American culinary contributions that Brits have embraced like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?
After doing a little research, I found a Guardian article that answered all of my questions and more. It did, in fact, originate stateside.
“Banana bread as we know it doesn’t appear in cookbooks until the 1930s. Food history website foodtimeline.org suggests that although it’s sometimes attributed to thrifty housewives looking to use up overripe fruit, all evidence points to the fact it was developed by banana companies to promote their wares – indeed ‘in the 1950s banana bread was actively promoted in nationally syndicated television cooking shows.’ Jane Grigson writes in her Fruit Book that it appeared in [the U.K.] after the war, when West Indian bananas returned to the shops – presumably once everyone had gorged themselves on the fruit in its natural state, they began to seek other ways to make the most of it.
Also it’s interesting to note that British recipes for banana bread usually includes baking powder, instead of baking soda (the recipe I tried last week was very American and included baking soda), which usually lends to a lighter, fluffier cake.
Banana bread serendipity
This week, I had an excess of slightly over ripe bananas and the desire to do some baking. What to do?
That same day, Ally from A Girl and Her Fork blogged about a recipe for banana bread that she had tried and loved. Simple ingredients, straightforward instructions. Bingo! I was sold. I made it the very next day.
The banana bread was legendary. Super moist, lots of depth of flavor, crispy on the edges, just delicious! If you’re in search for a go-to easy banana bread recipe, here’s the one!
Julia’s Best Banana Bread (Bon Appetit, March 2013)
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Coat a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, bananas, and oil in a large bowl until smooth. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture and stir just until combined. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top.
3. Bake until a knife inserted into the center of bread comes out clean, 60-70 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let bread cool in pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around inside of pan to release the bread. Turn out onto rack and let cool completely.
Celebrate Pi Day with chicken pie
In honor of Pi Day, I wanted to share with you my favorite fast pie recipe, courtesy of Jamie Oliver’s “Meals in Minutes: A Revolutionary Approach to Cooking Good Food Fast.”
Ingredients
For chicken pie:
4 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts
A pat of butter
A bunch of scallions
6 ounces button mushrooms
1 heaping tablespoon all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
2 teaspoons English mustard
1 generous tablespoon heavy cream
1-1/4 cups organic chicken broth
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1/3 of a nutmeg for grating
1 large sheet of all-butter puff pastry
1 egg
Directions
Turn the oven on to 400ºF. Put the chicken breasts on a plastic board and slice into 1/2 inch strips. Put a lug of olive and a pat of butter into the hot large, wide pan. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes or so. Meanwhile, quickly trim the scallions and wash the mushrooms then slice together in a food processor. Add to the pan with 1 heaping tablespoon of flour and stir. Add 2 tablespoons of mustard, a generous tablespoon of heavy cream and 1-1/4 cups chicken broth. Stir well. Pick the thyme leaves and stir into the pan with a few fine gratings of nutmeg and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Leave to simmer.
Lightly dust a clean surface with flour and unroll the sheet of puff pastry. Use a small kitchen knife to lightly crisscross and score it. Take the pan of chicken off the heat. Tip the filling into an ovenproof baking dish slightly smaller than the sheet of pastry (approximately 9×13 inches). Cover the filing with pastry sheet, tucking in at the edges. Quickly beat the egg then brush it over the top of the pie. Put into the oven and cook on the top shelf for around 15 minutes or until golden and gorgeous.
Serves 4.
BTW, this cookbook has a lot of great shortcuts for preparing a full meal (starter, main course and dessert) in under 30 minutes. I’ve timed a few of these meals and it always takes me a while longer than that (I’m a slow chopper!) but turns out beautifully!
Hot cross bun season
Spring is on its way! My favorite harbinger of the season? Hot cross buns!
We bought a dozen of them from Panera, toasted them under the broiler, slathered them in butter and topped with sharp cheddar cheese (it’s a Yorkshire tradition). It brought back memories of my first Easter back in the U.K. 20 years ago (introduced to me by my former Yorkshire flatmate). Good times …
Sunday lunch + creche
I’ve been trying to track down some good family-friendly eats in London (and when I say family-friendly, I’m not talking about the British alternative to Applebee’s, Chili’s or TGIF’s, thank you very much).
I want to simply go to an independently owned place with good food, little fussiness, no surly looks from fellow customers or waitstaff when my kids drop a fork or eschew the fork altogether in favor of taking fistfuls of pasta into their mouths. Is that too much to ask? This is what I’m investigating.
What I’ve found so far is Julie’s Restaurant, a Holland Park institution (darling) that provides a Sunday lunch as well as a creche for kids ages 2-12 run by fully qualified and vetted creche staff. Genius! I want to go to there.
Flavored crisps in the U.S.A.
There’s no doubt that Brits take their crisps (translation: potato chips) seriously.
Check out some of their flavors: roasted chicken, prawn cocktail, tomato ketchup, smokey bacon, and worcester sauce to name a few.
Then check out some of our flavors: salted, barbecue, sour cream and onion, vinegar. Bo-ring.
But Lay’s is shaking things up with three new Brit-like flavors: Cheesy garlic bread, Chicken and waffles, and Sriracha. These flavors are only available during this limited time. The flavor that gets the most votes on the Lay’s Facebook page will become a permanent selection.
I haven’t tried any of the flavors yet, but I’ve heard good things so far about the Cheesy garlic bread flavor. Have you tried any of these? What did you think?
DIY Lemon cheesecake delight
If you’ve never had lemon curd before, you’ve got to hop on the lemon curd train because man, it is delish! We bought this jar of Sticky Fingers Bakery Lemon Curd. It’s this tart, creamy, sweet concoction that is simply heavenly.
Typically lemon curd is reserved for scone territory, but I went on a limb and tried something with it a couple of weeks ago, which has become a steady favorite with the kids.
Call it DIY Lemon Cheesecake Delight without the water bath. You take a graham cracker (I use the Trader Joe’s honey graham crackers, which are just scrummy), top it with cream cheese and add a dollop of lemon curd. Voila! Instant amazing!
It doesn’t look like much but I dare you to eat just one.
BRITRISH.COM 