britishfood

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.”

One of my favorite treats when I was a child was a Scotch Egg. A hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat and breaded is the perfect snack and great to take on picnics, plus they just taste great! I haven’t had one in years since I would have to make them myself here in the US and my husband can’t eat eggs, but here’s the recipe so I can feel nostalgic….

To make 6 Scotch Eggs, you will need:

6 hard boiled eggs, chilled

1 lb sausage meat / breakfast sausage

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup breadcrumbs

oil for frying (yes, these are fattening!)

Divide the sausage into 6 portions. Shell the eggs, roll in flour, and then use your hands to press the sausage around the egg.  Dip in the beaten egg and roll in breadcrumbs.

Fry in hot oil for 4-5 minutes. Drain.

They can be eaten hot or cold. Personally, I like cold but to each his own.

Today’s ingredient is oats and although I know everyone is familiar with them, they form such a staple in Scottish cookery that it is important to know the different types.

Most of us think of oats and we think of porridge. I have particularly nasty memories of trying to scrub porridge pots in a Scottish hotel. The most common oats used in porridge are rolled oats. The finer the oat, the quicker the cooking time so instant oatmeal uses crushed oats which are almost powdery in their form. Then you have Scotch oats, also known as pinhead or steel cut oats. They are the least processed but also need the longest cooking time to create your morning porridge. They all have the same nutritional value but the resulting porridge will have a different consistency, depending on what type of oats you have used.

So what else can you use them in? I am a big fan of oatcakes, a dry oat-based cracker. They’re hard to find in the US but have a low-GI value, are low in fat, and are great with cheese and pickle.

Oats are also a key ingredient in haggis and some sausages, acting as a filler. Then of course you have desserts - oat cookies, flapjacks,  crumble, and so on. There’s a lot more to the humble oat than porridge. How about this scrummy sounding recipe for Cranachan, courtesy of the BBC :

250 ml fresh double cream

1 tbs thick heather honey

1 tbs Scottish whisky

1 tbs toasted oatmeal

2 punnets of fresh raspberries

Whisk the cream with the honey and whisky. Fold in the oatmeal and serve on top of fresh raspberries. Serves 4, no cooking required, but some good Scottish ingredients.