Hail Britannia: a Fish & Quips Extravaganza
Sam Breach, self-described English-girl-abroad and author of Becks and Posh, is hosting Fish & Quips, an online event designed to promote the idea that English cooking is not 
always a joke. I feel especially lucky and relevant since we spent 12 days in London last month, and as always, we found food. The feast you see above is representative of Borough Market’s exquisitely fresh purveyors, the luxe purveyor Harrod’s, and the cheese meca Neal’s Yard Dairy. I do regret not having a kitchen available while I was there. But we did manage to eat quite a lot of Wild Boar Pate from The Ginger Pig and the cheeses we picked up at the market and at Neal’s were worth the trip itself with fabulous textures and big classic flavors. I tasted a cheese called The Stinking Bishop…the name is appropriate and I think I showed good sense in not buying that particulary pungent fromage given the small size of our hotel room.
Our dining experiences in London certainly proved to me that English Food is no joke (but we did have fun). I heartedly approve of the Sunday Roast tradition. I ate delicious roast lamb and the potatoes…well they were the best. I really don’t know how they do it but they were unlike any I’ve ever had…they were crisp and golden on the outside and flaky and tender inside. According to Sam it is the English potatoes…check out her Sunday Roast.
We ate sushi, pizza, pasta, Indian cuisine, steaks, bangers and mash, fish and chips (of course), mussels, frites, pastries, macaroons, burgers, a “English breakfast”, Shepard’s pie, and chocolates. It was all befitting a world-class city and was consistently well cooked, well served, and delicious.
With fresh ingredients like the ones shown here I can’t imagine that English cuisine is a joke. Delicious, sumptuous, and satisfying…but not a joke.
Last week I tried my hand at Cottage Pie, which is Shepard’s pie made with beef instead of lamb. It turned out well and was flavorful and rich. GH certainly liked it and it heated up well for his lunch the next day. I thought it to be flavorful but heavy for a warm spring day… I could see really digging into it on a cold, snowy day.
Cottage Pie
1 large onion diced
2 pounds ground beef
6 large potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
Chicken Stock
Seasoning (I used a couple dashes of Maggi but Worchester seems to be the norm)
Preheat oven to 400º. peel and boil the potatoes until tender. Drain and mash/whip using a mixer. Add the butter to the potatoes and taste for seasoning.
Sauté the onion until it’s tender. Add the ground beef and brown it. If it’s fatty drain some of the fat. Add the flour to the beef and stir it in so that it is combined. Slowly add chicken stock, stirring until you have the consistency you want. Not too thick, not too thin. Add your seasoning.
Butter a baking dish and spread the ground beef evenly throughout the pan. Spread the potatoes evenly over the ground beef. Using a fork or a spoon create texture on the surface of the potatoes so they’ll brown well. Bake for 20-30 minuted or until golden brown.
