British Food

[Bohne]

Every time I mention British food, everybody here goes 'Yukk', or 'Eeek', apart from the people that I already convinced otherwise with some great dishes. But what is YOUR favourite English dish? What do you think I should cook for my friends to make them believe there's more to British cooking than greasy fish and chips wrapped in old newspapers?

[natalie_1982]

Roast beef, yorkshire pudding, homemade gravy, carrots, peas, broccilly (Sp?), cabbage, roasties, boiled potatoes, mash, sweed, sweetcorn, sprouts, runner beans.......mmmmm....and mustard :D

[georgit79]

Roast pork with all the trimmings. I do agree that lots of 'English' dishes are rank: for example, whoever thought submerging a perfectly good piece of fish in a load of smelly, greasy batter would be a good idea? (even though it evidently was) meat pies- rank jellied eels- rank battered sausages- rank, for the reason listed above What can we boast that's actually good?! I'd like to know too.

[natalie_1982]

I'm sorry but fish and chips are great, and so are pies, and battered sausages, and fish cakes and chip butties and everything else that you get from a chippy! Jellied eels are just wrong tho.

[natalie_1982]

What about rhuarb crumble? Apple pie an custard? Hot pot? Shepherds pie?

[TariqE]

My opinion is that the reason many people say 'yuk' to British food is because it tends to be (like a lot of northern and central european food) very meat and potato based, high in fat/carb meals.....rather than the more fashionable (and healthy) mediterranean dishes. But there are great british meals out there- try looking on the menus of some top restaurants or even cookbooks from Delia, Jamie Oliver, Nigel Slater etc. We also have some great produce in this country- try an Aberdeen Angus Steak, some pot roasted venison with juniper berries and port, or some seafood from Cornwall or the West Coast of Scotland, Gressingham duck from Norfolk/Suffolk welsh lamb is second to none........ It's not all just fish and chips and roast beef (although when these 2 dishes are done well, they are both very very good dishes)

[Gibbo]

Steak and chips or any kind of potatoes, full english breakfast, roast beef and yorkshire pudding, roast chicken dinner, rack of lamb, I could go on forever! I LOVE good old English food!! Not overly keen on the chippy but English food does not consist of greasy fish and chips you know!!

[Alej]

lasagne has been supposidly discovered to have british origens. Otherwise a good chicken and mushroom pie goes down well with me!

[natalie_1982]

By the way Bohne, where are you?

[FTVS]

Steak with Stilton sauce YUM!

[Bohne]

OK, just to clarify: I am NOT one of those ignorant people who think fish and chips is the only British dish. I have been living in England long enough to have tried quite a few wonderful things. I just wanted your personal opinion and maybe recipies. I invited some friends before to cook some British stuff and everybody loved it. We had a Welsh Salted Duck, a kidney dish I got from a cook book, scones, pan haggerty, and my favourite desert: trifle (not in that order, but that's the way it just came to me...) Last week we had Sheperd's Pie, I had not cooked that for years, but my husband kept on asking for it. And I am actually in Germany.

[Donkey]

pie mash and liquor

[Snappy]

Sausage and mash with onion gravy! You can get this in quite a few good restaurants now+when its done right its the best!

[georgit79]

Ok Nathalie_1982, I agree with some of your suggestions, rhubarb crumble and apple pie, but I refuse to believe that meat pies and battered anything tastes like food! Roast parsnips rock though. And cottage pie (although what actually is the difference between that and shepherds pie? My office is having a bit of an argument, because I'm saying shepherd's pie is lamb mince and cottage pie is beef. Am I right?)

[natalie_1982]

georgit79 you are right, Shepherd's pie is lamb and cottage pie is beef, but I think beef is used in both nowadays as noone's really that worried.

[TariqE]

I'm with you Georgit79 Shepherds pie=minced lamb Cottage pie=minced beef What's the counter argument to that?

[New Forester]

I think the reputation of British food is mainly because as a nation we have got in the habit of going for price well before quality. With good fresh ingredients, I think most if not all traditional British dishes are excellent -- but so much cooking is done with ingredients which were naff to start with and are worse when elderly and cooked to death. We expect to pay half the price it costs to produce good food -- no wonder we get rubbish. We pay catering staff next to nothing, too -- "school cook" ought to be a highly paid and highly respected job, but sadly it isn't. Look at the apples in your supermarket -- how many of the two or three thousand British varieties do you see? How many are picked green and imported, right in the middle of the UK apple season? And don't get me started on beef....

[Hgrove]

I suggest Shepherd's pie.

[Ray the DJ]

Eggs & chips with tomato ketchup and two slices of bread & butter.

[bowiefan]

bread and butter pudding

[Dark Angel]

I liked Toad in the Hole - I can't remember what my host served it with but you could try mashed potatoes and peas. For dessert, I tried Apple and Potato cake I lost the recipe but check this link. www.recipe-ideas.co.uk/recipes