britishfood

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.

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.

If I were to mention eating seaweed, most of us would instantly think of the Japanese, but the Welsh eat a variety of seaweed known as laver. Like other edible seaweeds it is incredibly nutritious, high in protein, iron, iodine and some vitamins.

Traditionally the laver was gathered from the Gower Peninsula along the south coast of Wales, and although some still comes from there, some is harvested along the Scottish coast.

So how do you eat it?

IN Wales, you can buy it already prepared and tinned, but if you buy it fresh, you must first wash is thoroughly to remove any sand. You then boil it for 30-40 minutes until it looks like cooked spinach. Drain it and chop it finely and you have laverbread (not a bread at all). You’re now ready to use it in recipes. You might want to try the traditional Welsh breakfast of Laverbread Cakes:

1 lb laverbread

4 oz oatmeal

Mix the laverbread and oatmeal together and form round flat patties. Fry them in hot fat on both sides and serve with bacon.

More information about laver, including its history, recipes and where to buy it can be found at The Laverbread Page.

Recently chatting to an American friend, I remarked how my mother, on a recent visit, had brought me three boxes of suet and how happy I was that my pantry was fully stocked once more. Giving me an odd glance, she pointed to the suet cakes she hangs in her garden for the birds and asked what was so different about English suet? She was not expecting my reply: that it wasn’t for the birds, it was for me! That’s right, what is relegated to being wild bird food here in Kentucky is actually a wonderfully useful ingredient that I miss being able to buy.

Let’s start with the basics. Suet is congealed animal fat, more specifically beef or mutton fat and yes, that does mean that it is a saturated fat. (For vegetarians, there is now a non-animal suet available, made with palm oil and rice flour). Yet even given my health-conscious, fat-eschewing ways, I love suet because it is so useful and truly makes a difference in recipes. What would steak and kidney pudding be without a suet-pastry crust?

The first mention of suet was in a cookbook dating from 1617. It was the key ingredient in a dish known as “Cambridge Pudding” which also contained dates, currants, sugar, and eggs. Through most of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, a boiled pudding consisting of suet mixed with spices and spinach juice was a popular dish. Although I shudder at the thought of such a “Green Pudding”, I remain forever thankful that cooks soon began to make a suet crust as an outer shell, to be stuffed with fruits or meats. Thus was born the steak and kidney pudding which is so dear to my own heart and stomach.

Today, more than 2,300 tons of suet are sold in Great Britain everyday! That’s over one million dumplings. Yet suet can be used for much more than dumplings or my beloved steak and kidney pudding. Use it in steamed jam roly poly, Eccles cakes, or Spotted Dick, or perhaps in something less traditional, such as caramel squares, goat cheese cobbler, or chili tostadas. Some excellent recipe ideas can be found at www.atora.co.uk, Atora being Britain’s best known suet manufacturer.

Come back tomorrow for a recipe using suet.