By Sunil TannaSometimes under-appreciated, traditional British cuisine offers many wonderful dishes and great variety from the different corners of the United Kingdom. British culture (and cooking!) have been greatly enriched by immigration and overseas influences.
Although there are commonalities throughout the British Isles, it should be remember that the United Kingdom is a union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, each of which has their own distinctive cultural and culinary traditions. Additionally, as already mentioned, immigration and trade with other nations have greatly influenced British food, and caused the emergence of new culinary styles such as Anglo-Indian.
British, and especially English cuisine, has not always had the highest reputation abroad. For example, in 2005, French President, Jacques Chirac described English food as the second worst in Europe (he considered Finnish cuisine the worst). However, while it's true that there are some poor quality restaurants, despite this reputation, there are in fact many excellent British restaurants too (in 2005, Restaurant Magazine said 14 of the 50 best restaurants in the world were in the United Kingdom), and a willingness among the British population to experiment with new styles and dishes, both at home and when eating out.
Some popular British meals and foods include:
- Full English breakfast - Sausage, bacon, eggs (usually fried or scrambled), fried bread, fried mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, black pudding (a type of blood sausage) and baked beans.
- Sunday roast - Roasted meat with roast potatoes and vegetables, traditionally eaten on a Sunday. There are several common varieties: roast beef (beef with gravy, horseradish sauce and mustard, served with Yorkshire pudding - a dish made from baked dough), roast pork (pork with "crackling" (crispy cooked pork rind), apple sauce), roast lamb (lamb with mint sauce or redcurrant jam), and roast chicken (chicken with chipolata sausages (small thin sausages), bread sauce, and cranberry sauce or redcurrant jam).
- Toad in the hole - Sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter.
- Fish and chips - Battered and fried fish (often cod or plaice) with French fries. Mushy peas (a green "soup" made from peas) is a popular accompaniement.
- Bangers and mash - Sausage and mashed potato.
- Pie and mash - A pie containing ground ("minced") meat, served with mash potato. Traditionally, in the East End of London, pies were made with water left over from stewing eels, which are served as a cold side dish ("jellied eels").
- Shepherd's pie - Ground ("minced") lamb covered with a layer of mashed potato, and optionally cheese. Variations exist with beef ("cottage pie") or fish ("fisherman's pie").
- Lancashire hotpot - Meat, onion and potatoes baked in a pot or casserole dish for a long time on low heat.
- Cornish pasty - A baked pie with a distinctive shape, traditionally filled with beef, onion, potato and swede (rutabaga). Traditionally, these were eaten by miners working in the Cornish tin industry, and it sometimes claimed that fruit would be placed at one end of the pasty to serve as a sweet dish.
- Kedgeree - Flaked fish (usually smoked haddock), with boiled rice, eggs and butter. The dish has its origins in the time of the British Indian Empire.
- Chicken tikka massala - An Anglo-Indian dish made by cooking chunks of marinated chicken in a curry sauce. Usually eaten with rice or naan (Indian bread).
- Balti - An Anglo-Indian dish originating from Birmingham: A thick curry made using lamb ("balti gosht") or chicken ("balti murgh"), cooked and served in flat-bottomed iron or steel pot. To eat it, naan (Indian bread) is used to scoop up the sauce.
- Cock-a-leekie soup - A Scottish soup made from potato, leek and chicken stock.
- Arbroath smokie - Lightly smoked haddock, originally from Arbroath in Scotland.
- Haggis - One of the most famous Scottish traditional dishes, haggis is made using a sheep's heart, liver and lungs (collectively known as the "pluck"), minced (ground), and mixed with oatmeal, onions, suet, spices and stock, and then boiled in the sheep's stomach.
- Mince and tatties - Minced (ground) beef and mashed potatoes.
- Welsh rarebit (sometimes called "Welsh rabbit") - Grated cheese mixed with beer, milk and butter, and then spread on toast and grilled (broiled).
- Bakewell tart - A traditional English pudding, consisting of a pastry shell, filled with jam (fruit preserve) and a sponge-like filling.
- Spotted dick - A steamed pudding containing dried fruit and raisins. Often served with custard.
Originally published at http://www.recipesmaniac.com/cook_british.php - visit this site for more information, photographs and cook books.
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