England - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: England

31
May
2020

Individual Shepherd’s Pie

categories: Comfort Food, England, Lamb, Pie

Maybe it is the whole Covid thing or maybe it is just because it is getting colder here but I have been craving comfort food like nobody’s business. My particular drug of choice has been potatoes. I love them at the best of times but nowadays? I have eaten them pretty much every day since lockdown. And one of the best comfort foods around that has been feeding my potato addiction is Shepherd’s Pie!

Normally when we make Shepherd’s Pie, it is the job of the Fussiest Eater in the World. He can’t cook much all that well but he knows how to do good British stodge to perfection. And his Shepherd’s Pie is great.

But wait…I am probably making some assumptions here. So let’s start with…

WHAT ON EARTH IS SHEPHERD’S PIE?

Shepherd’s Pie is a dish made of cooked lamb topped with mashed potato. The same dish made with beef is called Cottage Pie or Hachis Parmentier if you want to be French and fancy. Which usually is my default mode (wound up to eleven) but today I am using lamb so common or garden Shepherd’s Pie it is!

Traditionally, this was made with the leftover lamb from a Sunday roast. We usually use bought minced lamb for our Shepherd’s Pie but this time round, I wanted to, what they would call on the cooking shows, ELEVATE the dish, so I used some diced lamb.

A DIGRESSION ON WORKING FROM HOME

I was very pleased to read Yinzerella’s post the other day on the pleasures of lockdown. I too am enjoying many of the aspects of being at home 24/7. For instance I have

More time to spend with Oscar and Holly.
More time to read, to craft, to study, to do yoga and to blog!
Started to declutter and organise my life
Massively reduced my carbon footprint The last time I filled my car with petrol was in March! We got solar earlier this year so even though I am using more electricity by being at home, it is being paid for by the power we are generating.
Invented a push-up challenge and am doing a Buzzfeed core challenge.
More time to cook. 4-hour slow-cooked lamb on a Tuesday night? Not a problem. Grapefruit brulee for breakfast? You betcha!
Totally embraced my basic B instincts! These faux fir booties? I know, so chav, but wearing them made my feet warn for the first time in DAYS!!!! I may never take them off!

Anyway, back to the Shepherd’s Pies. I slow-cooked that lamb for four hours with red wine and herbs and garlic and tomatoes until it was melt in your mouth tender.

Then I made mashed potato with heaps of butter and milk to top it, and then topped that with a heap of grated cheese!

This was so good. Tender lamb, cheesy mashed potato…what else can I say except if you are craving a cuddle in the form of food, make this straight away!!! Of course, you can use this mix to make one large pie but I love small food so individual serves it was – one for each of us and one for lunch the following day! This reheats beautifully so you can make a few extra to warm up for additional meals.

I cut the recipe in half for these pies because I only had 500g of lamb but the full recipe will make one large or 6 small pies (depending of course on the size of your small pie dishes).

The Recipe

Individual Shepherd’s Pie

Print Recipe

This hearty British dish combines slow-cooked lamb and cheesy mashed potatoes to make the most comforting of comfort foods

Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

60ml olive oil
1kg diced lamb
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
40g plain flour
250ml beef stock (more if cooking for a long period of time)
200 ml red wine (I used a cabernet merlot)
145g tomato paste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 sprig of rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 kg potatoes peeled and halved
50g butter
175ml milk
180g Cheddar cheese, grated

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

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Instructions

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add half the lamb and cook, turning as required until browned on all sides. Transfer to a plate and repeat with another tbsp of oil and the remaining lamb.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until the vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, stirring to ensure that the garlic does not burn.

Sprinkle the flour over the onions and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Gradually add the stock to the pan followed by the wine, stirring to remove any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the lamb, tomato paste, Worchestershire sauce, rosemary and bay leaves. Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for between one to four hours – you may need to add more stock or wine if you are cooking for longer than an hour.

While the lamb is cooking, boil the potatoes in salted water for 20 minutes or until tender. Then drain and return to the pan. Add the butter and milk and mash until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the office to 200C.

Once the lamb is cooked, measure it out into 6 small (1 cup capacity) ovenproof dishes. Top with the mashed potato and then with the grated cheese.

Cook in the pre-heated oven until the cheese is golden brown and melted – around 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

What is your go-to comfort food? I hope you get to have some this week! My next post will also be comfort food but of the cake variety,,,,

Have a good one and stay safe!

22
May
2020

Quince Salami

categories: Autumn, England, Quince

I bought a fresh quince to make the quince blancmange and then realised I did not need it. So, what on earth was I to do with a quince? I got out my recipe spreadsheet and searched for quince. In the end, I narrowed my search down to three things – Quince Salami, a Chocolate, Quince and Almond Tart, and a Chicken Liver Pate with Pickled Quince. Turns out I had everything I needed for the quince salami already in the house. Even with restrictions here easing a bit, we are still being told to stay at home as much as possible. So why go out to shop if you don’t have to?

The Quince Salami is a version of the membrillo or quince paste that you would serve on a cheeseboard. What makes it a little more interesting is that you can add the same fruit and nuts that you would serve on your cheeseboard into the “salami”. The idea of it is that when you cut through your quince roll, the chunks of fruit and nuts resemble the flecks of fat and flavourings that you see in a regular salami. The resemblance would be even closer had my quince turned the dark red that some quinces do when they are cooked.

The reason quince turn red when they cook is due to tannins in their flesh. Mine did not have enough tannin so only turned an apricotty colour which was quite beautiful but not that red I was looking for. It tasted so good though! And is a really cute and different addition to a cheeseboard.

I LOVED this with some blue cheese. The sweet fruitiness of the salami with a hint of crunch coming from the almonds was perfect against the salty blueness of the gorgonzola. I cannot wait to try this with some brie or Camembert when I venture out to the shops again! The fruit I used were dried sour cherries and some dried apricots.

However, if you are not a cheese lover and / or have a sweet tooth, another way you can serve a quince salami is to roll it in some sugar, then slice finely and serve as a petit-four with coffee. This is the serving suggestion in the recipe I used. I thought it was already sweet enough so took it in a more savoury direction.

The Recipe

The recipe for Quince Salami comes from the book Classic British Cooking by Sarah Edington. She traces the history of quince marmalade, upon which this is based to way back to Tudor times! Here it is:

Would you prefer this as a sweet dish or as a cheeseboard accompaniment?

Have a great weekend everyone. Stay safe!

14
Jan
2020

Pasties (inspired by Cornwall)

categories: Cornwall, England, Pastry, Travel, United Kingdon, World Cooking

We have had a few wet days this week (not complaining if it will put out some of the fires that are burning out of control). But the rather damp summer weather reminded of being in England last year and most particularly our trip to Cornwall where it rained buckets for the first two days. Which in turn reminded me of that great staple of Cornish food, the pasty! These are everywhere in Cornwall, well all through England actually, but eating proper Cornish Pasties was the very first thing we did when we got to St Ives. BTW, the people of Cornwall are tremendously possessive of their pasties. It is for this reason that I am not calling my version Cornish Pasties. Mine are more Cornish-ish Pasties.

We had an odd discussion after I ordered our pasties at the bakery.

“What did you call them?” asked the fussiest eater in the world.

“Pasties” In Australia, we pronounce these with a long A. Pah-sties.

Apparently, the correct pronunciation is with a short” A” like in “pastel”.

I can’t get on board with this, even if it is technically correct. They will always, and only ever be, pah-sties to me. If you’re British or a pedant, knock yourself out with that short A. For those of you not familiar with pasties or pah-sties, just remember that it is never pronounced “Paste-ies”. They are what strippers put on their nips and not delicious beef and veg cooked to perfection in a pastry case!

The pasties in Cornwall are crimped to perfection, each one the exact replica of its neighbour. Mine were a little bit more….hmmmm…let’s call them individualistic.

The perfectly shaped pasty:

Mine:

Pasties came about as food for Cornish tin miners. Originally, the pastry was just to protect the meat and veg from the dirt inside the mines so I guess that a few misshapen pastry shells would not have mattered back in the day!

There is a great article from The Guardian about the history (and contents) of the pasty which you can read here. My favourite bit of that article is the legend that the Devil was scared to cross the River Tamar from Devon because the women of Cornwall were renown for putting anything and everything into their pasties. Imagine popping down to your local bakery for a Satan Pastie! Although actually not quite everything – the carrot – which you will see in many recipes for pasties is a big no-no in the traditional recipes. Potatoes, swedes and onions are the only veg your pasty needs! It also needs LOTS of pepper.

Swedes are such funny things! I only recently found out that the colour difference in the swede is due to the white part growing underground and the purple part growing above ground!

I pretty much followed the recipe given by the Cornish Pasty Association except that I used bought shortcrust pastry! Another legend says that the pastry needs to be solid enough to be dropped down a mineshaft (and land) without falling apart. Mine were going from the oven to my lunchbox so I didn’t have to worry about their structural integrity so much!

Let’s wrap this baby up and pop it in the oven. While it’s baking away, let’s have a look at some of pics of St Ives and Mont St Michel.

This would be a great hill to have a picnic on. Get some pasties to go and enjoy the view!

Here is another article from the Guardian about where and how to eat your pasties. I actually think they are great for picnics as the pastry holds in the heat of the filling for a while. As for condiments – ketchup and the more of it the better for me. Maybe a teeny splash of tabasco with it!

This is The Sloop Inn where we stayed in St Ives.

And here is St Michael’s Mount. You can only reach this at low tide otherwise the causeway is underwater!

Let’s take a peek at our pasties…ah perfectly done!!!

What always astonishes me with pasties is how the meat and veg cooks exactly at the same time as the pastry. You never get any hard lumps of raw potato. It truly is like magic!!!! Now, where’s that ketchup?

Cornwall is so beautiful. I was really happy to be reminded of the trip and all the delicious food we ate there!. I made these pasties way back in October and just writing about them has made me want to make them again. Let’s hope the weather stays bad so I can get baking!

And finally, if you can’t get enough of pasties, here are some more facts….oops! I just realised I crimped my pasties in the Devonshire way! Good thing I said right from the get-go that these were only Cornish-ish (Cornish adjacent?) pasties!!!!

Have a great week everyone!!!!

13
Oct
2019

Use By: Roast Vegetable Bubble and Squeak

categories: England, Great Name, Leftovers, Roast Vegetables, Use By

What can you do with a load of leftover roast veggies? Make one of the best-named dishes ever – Bubble and Squeak! Bubble and Squeak is a British recipe which is traditionally made from the leftovers from the traditional Sunday roast. It is supposedly called Bubble and Squeak due to the noises made during the cooking process. I think this last bit may be apocryphal. My Bubble and Squeak neither bubbled or squeaked. It was totally delicious though!

So what’s it all about Alfie? Given the Britishness of this dish, feel free to use your best Michael Caine cockney voice as you read that too!

Well, get your leftovers – I had some Ottlolenghi Harissa Potatoes and some Brussels Sprouts. You can use pretty much whatever veg you have as long as you have one that can be mashed up. Mashed potato will also work a treat in this.

Mash up your veggies and add a beaten egg. The rest is up to you. Add some of your chopped up leftover roast if you like, throw in some herbs or some cheese. Add some chill or a dollop of mustard. Be as fancy or as simple as you like. I kept these pretty simple, just the veggies and egg because the potatoes already had some harissa and spice seasoning.

When you are ready, pan fry your Bubble and Squeaks to make delicious patties. These are delicious as a side dish, make a great vegetarian burger patty or are good just by themselves.

Topped Bubble and Squeak

My favourite way to eat Bubble and Squeak is to pan-fry the little cakes until they are all crispy and brown on the outside and then top them with all sorts of delish things. These are one of my go-to’s for lunch (or breakfast) when I am working from home.

Breakfast Bubbles

No, I’m not talking about champagne although, having just come back from Europe where a glass of sparkling is de rigueur with your brekkie I’m totally on board with bubbles in the AM. Hmm…if you had some sparkling wine with your breakfast Bubble and Sqeak I guess that’s double bubble!

Bubble and Squeak with an egg makes a for a super breakfast. You could pan fry some bacon as you heat the bubble and squeak if you wanted to have some meat but I like to have mine just with egg. Grilled cheese on top of your B&S is another delicious breakfast option.

Lunchtime Squeaks

Come lunchtime, I like to top my Bubble and Squeak with some chilli labneh and pickled red cabbage or hummus and tomato salsa as per the top picture.

I love the combination of the crispy roast veggies, the creaminess of the yoghurt and the bite of pickle!

Bubble and Squeak can become quite addictive and now I routinely cook extra veg just so I can have them over the next few days!

Here’s a recipe but feel free to experiment as you wish with herbs, condiments etc. My version does not include cheese in the mix but, if you were going to add it, you could play around with different types. Having said that, now I desperately want to have Bubble and Squeak with some blue cheese crumbled through it!!!

Tell me, what is your favourite way of using up roasted veg?

Have a great week!

26
Dec
2016

Consider The Mutton Curry

categories: Curry, England, Lamb

Today we are taking a huge step back in time and heading back to the time of gas lamps, hansom cabs and thick London fogs. How nice then in this cold inhospitable atmosphere to pop into the Oriental Club for a spicy mutton curry to warm your cockles on a cold winter’s night! Just think, Arthur Conan Doyle could have tucked into this curry as he pondered the intricacies of the first Sherlock Holmes story.

And now you can too!

Our mutton curry comes from 1861 from The Oriental Club’s chef, Richard Terry who made use of the ingredients from the first Asian grocery warehouse in London to recreate a curry recipe he had learned from Indian cooks. It is also indicative of Britain’s and Briton’s long-lasting love of curry!

This is certainly not a curry in a hurry! There are several parts to making this, which is time-consuming but if you have the patience, it is well worth the effort. Also, whilst the original recipe called for mutton, I used lamb. I could not find mutton anywhere – not even dressed as lamb. Funnily enough though, my mum says that in Sri Lanka when any recipe called for lamb or mutton, what they actually used was goat so use what you can get.

First up, you need to roast up some spices to make a curry powder. This will make more than you need for one curry so you will have supplies if you want to make this again or you can use it in other curries.

One thing that is strange about this curry is that you not only need a curry powder but also a curry paste.

Whilst we’re roasting and grinding those spices, let’s talk Sherlock! I am a HUGE fan of the BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Andrew Scott because who doesn’t love a bad boy right? And I am over the moon excited to see Series 4. Tom Hiddleston! Colin Farrell! This series is going to be AWESOME!

Now, a very weird thing about this curry paste is that it contains lentils which you grind up. I have never heard of this technique before but…hey, if it’s good enough for the The Duke of Wellington, who was the President of the Oriental Club back in the day, it’s good enough for me! The genius stroke is that they help to make the gravy lovely and thick.

Mutton curry (maybe even one based on this recipe!) features as a clue in a Sherlock Holmes story. In The Adventure of Silver Blaze, which not only contains the phrase”Consider the mutton curry,” the title of this post but also “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time”, a mutton curry is doused with powdered opium, putting the stable boy meant to be guarding the race horse Silver Blaze into a stupor and hence rendering him unable to do his job.

The paste mix will also make more than you need for one curry but will keep in the fridge for months.

Sadly, Sherlock Holmes may not have been a fan of curry. At least not according to the 1946 film, Terror by Night. This however is not based on a Conan Doyle story so this is open for debate. Terror By Night is also available for free download here. Personally, I think Sherlock would have been a fan of this mutton curry…with or without a garnish of powdered opium.

The 19th Century Mutton Curry was delicious, dark and spicy, thanks to those lentils, the gravy was lovely and thick and the meat was tender. This was a winner! And hey, I’ve got paste and powder left so I’ll definitely be making it again!

Best served with an ice-cold beer! Whilst watching Series 4 of Sherlock!

Any leftovers? A curry jaffle is THE best hangover food known to man. Just sayin’. Tis the season after all!

Oh and by the way, the Oriental Club still exists and curries still feature on the menu. I am adding to the list for a trip to London next year!

19th Century British Mutton Curry

Print Recipe

A delicious mutton curry from the days of The Raj, Queen Victoria and Sherlock Holmes!

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

19th Century British Curry Powder

2 tbsp ground turmeric
5 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cardamom seeds
1/2 tsp ground cloves

19th Century British Curry Paste

4 tbsp whole coriander seeds
2 tbsp yellow split peas
1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
1 1/2 whole cumin seeds
1 tbsp whole brown mustard seeds
1 tbsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
120ml cider vinegar
6 tbsp corn, peanut or olive oil

Curry

675g bones lamb, cut into 2.5cm cubes
2 tbsp 19th Century British Curry Powder
1 tbsp 19th Century British Curry Paste
200g onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 tbsp corn, peanut oil or ghee
3/4 – 1tsp salt

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Instructions

For The 19th Century British Curry Powder

Combine all the ingredients in a jar. Mix. Cover with a tight lid.
Store away from heat and sunlight.
Makes 7 tablespoons.

For The 19th Century British Curry Powder

Put the coriander seeds, split peas, peppercorns and cumin into a medium cast iron frypan and set on medium heat. Stir and roast until the split peas are reddish, the coriander has turned a shade darker and all the spices begin to give off a roasted aroma.
Empty them into a bowl and allow to cool.
Put the roasted spices and the mustard seeds into a spice grinder or food processor and grind as finely as possible. Place in a bowl.
Add thee turmeric, cayenne pepper, ginger, salt, sugar, garlic and vinegar.
Stir to mix.
Pour the oil into a small non-stick frying pan and set over a medium heat.
Add the spice paste.
Stir and fry for around 5 minutes or until it browns slightly.
Cool, then empty into a jar.
Cover tightly and refrigerate until needed.

For The Curry

Put the oil or ghee in a heavy, wide, lidded pan. Set it over a medium high heat.
When the oil is hot, stir in the onions and fry them until they are lightly browned.
Add the curry powder and curry paste.
Stir a few times then add the meat and half the salt.
Stir and fry for a few minutes until the meat is coated in the spice mix.
Cover and reduce the heat to low.
Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add 600ml water and increase the heat/ Bring to the boil.
Cover, reduce the heat to low and cook for an hour until the meat is tender and the sauce is thick.
Season to taste and serve.

Notes

If the sauce is not thick enough, remove the lid and let it boil down.

Have a great week! Enjoy your holidays if you are on them, enjoy Sherlock S4 if you are watching. Let me know if you are, we can compare notes after!

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