britishfood

One of my favorite memories as a child was walking along the seafront and seeing the stalls set up selling little cups of shellfish. At the time, the containers of whelks, cockles, muscles and other seafood looked horrible to me (I would only eat the prawns which were a special treat). My uncle would buy a cup of whelks and sit with a pin, pulling the meat out of the tiny shell. Now I wish I lived somewhere I could find such fresh seafood. (Kentucky is not a haven for fresh fish!)

Cockles are widely found throughout the shores of Britain and their empty shells litter the beaches, proving popular with little children. They are often eaten with just a little vinegar. They even feature in one of our most beloved folk songs which every child seems to learn: Molly Malone (with her cries of “Cockles and Muscles”).

Here’s another way of eating them:

40-50 cockles

1 oz butter

1 oz flour

1 pint whole milk

2 tbs chopped onion

2 tbs chopped celery

2 tbs chopped fresh parsley

black pepper

Scrub the cockles thoroughly under cold running water and discard any that are already open. Put them in a large saucepan and cover with cold salt water. Bring slowly to the boil. As soon as they shells open they are ready so be careful not to overcook. Allow to cool, then strain but keep the stock. Remove the cockles from their shells.

Strain the stock and bring up to 1 1/2 pints by adding water as needed. Melt the butter in a pan. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly add the cockle stock. Bring to a boil and add the milk, onion and celery. Cook for 5-10 minutes. Add the parsley and black pepper. Stir int he cockles. Heat and then serve with a nice crusty bread.

Great Britain has a coastline of some 7700 miles and nowhere in the entire nation is further than 73 miles from the sea, so it’s hardly surprising that fishing makes up a key part of the country’s history and food supply. In fact, I grew up on the coast, where fishing boats still bring their catch to shore every morning. Some of my ancestors were fishermen. So it should come as no surprise that this week I will be sharing some seafood recipes from around the British coast.

We’ll start with mackerel, pictured above.

Devon Soused Mackerel (from Salmon’s Favourite Seafood Recipes)

6 medium mackerel

1 onion, sliced

16 peppercorns

3 bay leaves

¼ pint cider vinegar

¼ pint water

Preheat oven to 350F or Gas 4. Gut and wash the fish (or you maybe able to buy them already gutted). Put them in a large baking dish and sprinkle the onion, peppercorns and bay leaves on top. Mix the vinegar and water and pour over the fish. Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Let the fish cool in the liquid then remove from pan and serve with crusty bread, lemon wedges and salad.

I know everyone always jokes about fruit cake: great to use as a doorstop; that there’s only one in the world that’s been regifted…. To be fair, there are some pretty awful examples of fruit cake. Often fruit cake is dry and hard, but good fruit cake lasts for years when stored properly. We saved one layer of our wedding cake and ate a piece each year on our anniversary until the icing was too hard to bear (the cake still tasted great though). It hadn’t been frozen, just wrapped tightly in foil and stored in an airtight container.

When I was young, my Mum would make a boiled fruit cake every week and I loved it. The recipe was boiled and resulted in a cake that was incredibly moist in the center. Here’s the recipe:

1 cup mixed dried fruit

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

4 oz butter

2 cups flour

1 egg

mixed spice

Preheat the oven to Gas 4 or 350 degrees.  On the stove top, boil the fruit, sugar, butter, and milk until the butter and sugar have melted. Leave to cool. Sieve the flour and spice into a bowl. Add the beaten egg and the milk mix. Stir well. Put into a lined, greased, cake tin.

Bake for 1 hour.

This week has just given the briefest of introductions to Irish food and although I will be revisiting the subject in the near future, I know some of you are already salivating for more recipes so here are some other sites to stop by:

Food Ireland - The pictures of the breakfast are enough to make me drool on my keyboard. Buy your Irish food supplies here and get some great recipes. There’s also a forum to discuss what else - food!

Fabulous Foods - info and recipes about St. Patrick’s Day: history, Irish coffee, how to find a leprechaun!

Fantasy Ireland  - a great food page that is part of a larger site with vacation and wedding info.

There are also some wonderful cookbooks out there. Some of my favorites include:

Joanne Asala’s “Celtic Folklore Cooking”

Darina Allen’s “Irish Traditional Cooking” and “Complete Book of Irish Country Cooking”

Margaret Johnson’s “Irish Pub Cookbook.”

Continuing our look at Irish potato recipes, I am including two today. Enjoy!

Irish Potato Cakes (Boxty)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 cup raw grated potatoes

1 cup mashed potatoes (a great way to use up leftovers from dinner)

Put the grated raw potatoes in a cheesecloth and squeeze to remove the moisture.  Mix the flour, salt and baking powde, then combine with the raw potato, mashed potato and eggs. Add enough milk to make a batter consistency.

Heat a heavy skillet and add some oil or butter. Drop spoonfuls of the potato batter into the hot oil and brown on both sides.

Some people like these served with butter, and some people like to sprinkle with sugar.

Colcannon

I first tried this when a friend arranged an Irish Day while I was living in Japan.  It’s another great variation on mashed potatoes and a way to sneak in some veggies for the kids!

3 lbs peeled potatoes

2 lbs cabbage

2 cups leeks

1/2 cup milk

salt and pepper

Cut the potatoes into chunks and boil until soft.

Wash and trim the cabbage and steam for about 10 minutes, until tender. Cool and squeeze the moisture out. Steam the leeks until softened.

Drain the potatoes and mash.  Mix in the milk, then the cabbage and leeks. Season with salt and pepper.

I know in many ways it’s a cliche, but the fact of the matter is that most people in the U.S. instantly think of potatoes when you mention Irish food, and with good reason. One of America’s largest periods of immigration saw Irish arriving in their thousands, fleeing the potato famine back home.

Originally introduced to Ireland in the 16th century, the potato soon became the staple food of the poor. Rich in nutrients, potatoes were easy to grow, easy to cook, and could be used to feed the members of the household and their animals. Unfortunately the growing reliance on potatoes meant that when the harvest was poor, everyone suffered. Potato blight caused the great famine of 1846-1849, which killed approximately 1,000,000 and saw another 2,000,000 leave for the New World.

It is not surprising then that the potato still forms a staple of many Irish dishes. Tomorrow, I’ll give you the recipes for Colcannon and Irish Potato Cakes. Meanwhile, here is a recipe for the Irish dish, Champ:

8 potatoes

small bunch spring onions (scallions)

125 ml milk

salt, pepper and a knob of butter

Peel the potatoes and boil until soft.  Drain, then put the pan back on the heat for a few minutes to help dry the potatoes out. Mash the potatoes. Chop the onions and cook them in the milk. Beat the onion and milk mix into the potatoes until you have a fluffy mash. Season with salt and pepper and serve, topped with a generous dollop of butter.

Soda Bread, popular in Ireland, is a form of quick bread which uses baking soda instead of yeast.  The basic recipe uses only four ingredients: flour, baking soda, milk and salt, although as you will see in the recipe below, other ingredients may be added. Once you have made it, be sure to eat it within a couple of days as it can dry out quickly.

The recipe I am sharing is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Joanne Asala’s Celtic Folklore Cooking, and is called Evaline Carney Shea’s Soda Bread:

6 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 cups raisins

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly stir in half the buttermilk. Add the raisins and then stir in the remainder of the buttermilk. Gather the dough in a ball and turn onto a floured surface. Knead for 2 minutes. Divide the dough into 2 loaves and shape each into a round. Put on a greased baking sheet and cut a cross in the top of each loaf.  Bake for 45-50 minutes. Wrap each loaf in a damp cloth and cool on a rack for at least 6 hours before eating.

This week we’re going to look at some of the culinary delights from Ireland.

By now you will have noticed a theme with British food: a use of local ingredients to create hearty, economical dishes. Irish cuisine is no different. Potatoes and cabbage are the heart of many an Irish dish. Incidentally, the popular American St. Patrick’s Day meal of corned beef is much more a product of Irish-American families. Beef was not readily available to most families in Ireland and so bacon was far more common. When families migrated to America, they were often unable to find bacon or pork and so corned beef was eaten instead.

So what’s on the agenda for this week? Tomorrow, I’ll share a delicious recipe for Traditional Irish Soda Bread.

We really couldn’t talk about Ireland’s food without discussing the humble potato and so on Wednesday we’ll look at potatoes and their place in Irish history, followed by some great potato recipes on Thursday. Potato cakes. Colcannon. So come back tomorrow and we’ll start cooking!

Now I admit that I have only tried haggis once, and I remain unconvinced that any true Scot would recognize what was served to me as haggis. It was at a British Isles Festival here in the US several years ago and was a sausage concoction, so dry and flavorless that I choked it down simply because I’d bought it so I’d eat it. What I learned was that a Renaissance Faire is not the nest place to try anything new as far as food goes.

Haggis, the national dish of Scotland, is incredibly difficult to find in the US. I have even heard that it is impossible to find in its proper form because sheep lungs are not passed for human consumption. To be sure it has its place on the list of British foods which make non-natives groan in horror when mentioned.

Whether haggis originated in Scotland is hotly debated and many believe it was eaten in various forms by the Romans and the Vikings. Today though, it is most definitely associated with north of the border.

So what is it?

Haggis is a mixture of sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, oatmeal, suet, onion and spices that is boiled in a sheep’s stomach for several hours. Modern haggis is often housed in a commercial casing as opposed to a stomach. It is traditionally eaten with neeps and tatties (swede, turnips and potatoes) and a dram of whisky.

I reserve judgment on haggis until I have tasted the real McCoy in Scotland. No bland meat goo at a Renaissance Faire will substitute.

It’s hard to believe that Friday is here already. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed Clootie Dumplings and Scotch Eggs. I’ll definitely be posting more Scottish recipes in the weeks ahead but some of you may be wondering where you can find more information now.

There are some excellent resources on the web. I particularly like:

Scotland for Visitors

Scotland’s Enchanting Kingdom

Scottish Food and Drink provides a wonderful list of definitions, perfect for those days when you find yourself wondering, just what is an Arbroath Toastie or a Tattie.

For those living in the US and unable to find Scottish foods at their local stores, you can shop online at The Scottish Grocer , an excellent source for everything from oatcakes to salmon and whisky, plus some nice scenic wallpapers.

As far as books go, here are a few to get you started:

Sheila Macrae’s “Traditional Scottish Cookery;”

Kay Shaw Nelson’s “The Scottish-Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook;”

and Sue Lawrence’s “Scots Cooking: The Best of Traditional and Contemporary Scottish Recipes.”