UNITED KINGDOM: THE FOOD

Fall is upon us. We’ve had some cool days and I am finally able to pull out my hoodies without sweating to death. But now we’re back to Second Summer, which is nice. The kids are finishing up their first quarter of school, but we don’t get Fall Break this year, which kind of sucks. But now it’s time to cook food from the United Kingdom. I tried to cook one dish from each country, but some of the recipes I chose might not be solely authentic. [EDIT: As I was getting ready to cook the food for this, a transformer blew in our neighborhood, and we didn’t have electricity the entire afternoon, so I ended up having to spread this out over a couple of days after work, which I hate doing.]

This was the real MVP. I love this so much, it's practically perfect. I may try it with frozen cherries next.

Clearly the best part was when I represented Scotland with a variation of traditional scones: Glazed Cranberry Orange Scones. First of all, I’d like to air my grievances at this pandemic because I went to four grocery stores, and no one had frozen cranberries. I mean, Thanksgiving is next month. Get it together. And I wasn’t sure how “Scottish” this version was, but cranberries are grown in northern climates, and they sounded good. Anyway, I mixed together 2 c of all-purpose flour together, ½ c of granulated sugar, 2 ½ tsp of baking powder, ½ tsp of salt, and about 2 tsp of orange zest. Then I grated ½ c (one stick) of frozen butter into the bowl and combined it all until it was pea-sized crumbs. I put this in the fridge while I made the wet ingredient mix. In a separate bowl, I whisked together ½ c of heavy cream, an egg, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract and drizzled that over the flour mixture. Then I added a heaping cup of frozen cranberries (I ended up buying a couple cans of whole cranberries in jelly and painstakingly separated the two.) Then I stirred everything until it was mixed together well. I poured this onto a floured pastry mat and worked the dough into a ball before pressing it into an 8” disk and cutting it into eight wedges. I brushed the scones with a bit of heavy cream and sprinkled a little bit of sugar on top. Then I arranged them on a plate and put them in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to cool again. The real key in making scones is to keep the dough cold throughout the entire process, I think. At this point, I preheated my oven to 400ºF and lined a baking sheet with parchment paper. I took the scones out of the fridge and placed them a couple inches apart on the lined baking sheet. I allowed them to bake for about 25 minutes until they were golden brown on top. While they were baking, I made a simple glaze: in a small bowl, I mixed together 1 c of confectioner’s sugar with 4 Tbsp of fresh orange juice (I just juiced the entire orange that I zested earlier). When I took the scones out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes, I drizzled the glaze over the scones. This was amazing. Like, the best thing on earth kind of amazing. One kid rated it a 12/10 and the other a 14/10. 

Interesting. I'd like to try it made by someone who knows what they're doing.

However, the first thing I made as an appetizer was Welsh Rarebit. I thought this represented Wales, but after researching a bit, there’s not any hard evidence that this dish originated in Wales. It’s a dish I’ve heard of and thought it said “Welsh Rabbit” for years, haha. In a medium saucepan, I melted a little butter with some flour in it and kept whisking it a few minutes until it turned brown but not burnt. Then I added in a bit of Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper and whisked until it was smooth. Now for the liquids: I poured in a bit of porter beer, whisked until it was smooth, followed by some heavy cream, and whisked again. Then I slowly added in a cup and a half of shredded cheddar cheese until it was smooth. Finally I added in a few drops of hot sauce to the mix and stirred, and then I set it off the heat. To serve this, I toasted some rye bread and drizzled the cheese sauce on top of the toast. I thought this was alright, the kids were sort of meh about it. I think it would be good with a big soft pretzel, though. 

The parsnips kept making me think they were potatoes, haha.

Now is time for the big meal, representing England: Beef, Ale, and Parsnip Pudding. Pudding in this sense is different from how we use it in the US, which we know as a sweet dessert (and they call custard). In this sense, pudding seems more like a pot pie to me, although I think technically the pastry and method of baking may be different. I started off with cooking some onion and fatty bacon (it called for lardons, but I substituted for bacon) for about 5 minutes. Then I scooped it out and set it off to the side. Adding a little oil to the pan, I dusted some stew beef with flour and then browned over high heat. Next, I added in the sliced parsnips, some brown ale, beef stock, cranberry jelly (that I saved from my cans of cranberry), a few thyme sprigs, and the onion-bacon mix. I brought everything to a boil and then covered it to simmer for the next hour to an hour and a half until the meat was tender. I buttered a round ceramic baking dish (about 1.5L big) since I don’t have an actual “pudding basin.” And now I made the pastry by mixing together 2 ⅜ c of flour, 2 tsp of Dijon mustard, ¾ c of shredded suet (I used frozen vegetable shortening that I grated), and ½ tsp of salt. Then I added enough cold water (about 150 mL) to make a soft dough. I removed about a quarter of this dough and set it off to the side (this will cover the top). On a floured surface, roll out the remaining dough to make a round disk big enough to line the basin. As I laid it in the basin, I tried to make sure there was a bit of overhang on the rim of the basin, but it was really stretching it. Then I rolled out the quarter piece of the dough big enough to cover it. After pouring off the cooking liquid from the beef into a small pan, I set it off to the side and threw out the thyme sprigs. I carefully spooned the beef mixture into the lined basin and then poured in about 100mL of the cooking liquid into it. When it was done, I brushed the edges of the pastry overhang and then pressed the top pastry to it. I took a piece of parchment paper and buttered one side of it and put it on top of the pastry. I found a larger pot that I could balance the handles of pudding basin on and filled the larger pot with hot water until it was high enough to cover the basin halfway. I covered it and set the whole thing to simmer for nearly 2 hours. When it was almost done, I reheated the cooking liquid with a little bit of flour to thicken it until it had cooked down into gravy. I also ran a knife around the edge of the rim, loosening the pastry and served this with the gravy. This is often served with greens as well, which I intended to sauteed some kale to go with this but it didn’t get done. I thought the stew itself was kind of tasty, but I didn’t like how the pastry part turned out. It was almost too moist, like a dumpling. I think if I do this again, I might bake this instead.

Honestly, what's better than creamy mashed potatoes with butter and onions?

And finally to go with this, I made Irish Champ. I peeled about 2 lbs of potatoes (about 5-6 of them, I guess) and cut them into cubes. I placed them in a pot of water and boiled them until they were tender. I drained them well and then returned the pot to very low heat to let them dry off just a bit. In a separate pan, I heated my milk and green onions together until it was warm. While that was heating, I mashed the potatoes with a little salt and butter until it was smooth. Then I stirred in the milk and green onions until it was smooth, and I seasoned it with a bit of black pepper. The family loved this, and it was such a comfort food. My husband was just disappointed I didn’t make more of it.

Overall, this was a fantastic meal! Cheers!

As I was reading through a lot of material over the past few weeks about British culture and its impact on world history, so much can be attributed to some of its most talented citizens. I came across an article similar to one I’ve read in college about the number of words and phrases invented by Shakespeare. There’s some dispute over when he was actually born (or even the legitimacy of who wrote his works), but there’s no debate the impact he’s had on the English language. I’ll leave you with 45 Everyday Phrases Coined by Shakespeare.

Up next: United States of America