Summary of My Experience

Overall, I have found this experience to be very rewarding. I really have enjoyed not only my time in England, exploring the food and trying new things. But I have also very much enjoyed making a blog about it. I have shared this link with my family now that I am done with the process for them to read and see about my experiences. I think this has definitely broadened my horizons and made me realize that 1. I can't listen to other people's opinions and take them 100% mater of fact, that I need to experience things for my self and formulate my own speculations about things.

As far as reading food literature, it was a completely new territory for me. I know that I have not even begun to scratch the surface of cookery books as well as other food literature books, but I have grown to become more acquainted with them and seem to enjoy them (especially the ones that have a bit of humor in them as well.) I would have never guessed that there is more to a cook book than the recipes. But rather, that the author is perhaps telling us a story about a time in their life, or how this dish may help create new memories in your life as well. Food literature has been apart of our history for decades and it will continue to be ever so present in the years to come.


CHEERS!

Cock and Leek Soup

With all of this bitter cold weather that we have been having, I thought it would be appropriate to have some traditional English soups. The one that I have come to fancy very much is the Chicken and Leek soup (or as Gordon Ramsay says "Cock-a- leekie" soup. In his book, "Great British Pub Food" Gordon gives a great  recipe for this delicious soup. Just like the beginning of the other recipes, Gordon gives a good brief summary as to why this dish is ideal during the cold winter months. "It was originally served during the Scottish holiday feasts as a starter, like Hogmany and Burn's night. It can be a light savory broth when you add the prunes to the soup, or you can leave them out if you would prefer." I like that with this style of his writing it seems as if he is more directly talking to the reader than just giving directions and telling you what to do (like we have seen him on the cooking shows like Hell's Kitchen, yelling at his poor little chefs.) He seems to be having more of a conversation like interaction with the reader, instead of just pure robotic instructions. His recipe is very easy to follow for a fairly simple, but scrumptious meal.

Cock-A-Leekie Soup

Serves 6-8
1 chicken, about 1.5kg, jointed
sea salt and black pepper
1 bouquet garni (ba lead, few thyme and parsley sprigs, tied together)
1.5-2 litres chicken stock, or water
5 large leeks, about 500g in total, trimmed
200g cooked rice
200g soft pitted prunes

Fish and Chips

Now, I know that I seem to have a lot of "favorite" dishes.. but I think that Fish and Chips are by far my favorite! I don't know if it's because I douse my fish with loads of Ketchup (I'm slightly in love with Ketchup) or if its the delicious beer batter that is fried around those succulent pieces of Haddock. I have also come to enjoy mixing the whole plate together. I like to get a big scoop of fish, with a few garden peas, and maybe even a chip on the fork all at the same time (covered in Ketchup of course!)

Fish and Chips may be the epitome of Traditional British food. When I was leaving the United States to come over here, my family members were all raving about how good the fish and chips were going to be (especially compared to the fish that we get in Arizona, which is a landlocked state with no ocean or body of water within hours from us.) I think it is safe to say that I had to include Fish and Chips into my blog. For this entry I will look at the recipe from the ever so infamous, Gordon Ramsey, and his cookery book of "Great British Pub Food."

Gordon Ramsey and Michelle (The previous author who's cook book I examined) have polar opposite ways of writing. Gordon is very straight to the point, no funny business, "this is the way it is." type of author. Where as Michelle was very sarcastic, funny, and didn't really give many precise instructions, unlike Gordon. The first section of Gordon's book he makes sure that you know your measurements, and that you must use the top notch ingredients in his recipes. The one thing that I do like that Gordon does right away is give an alternative to his demands for pregnant women or others with health issues. "Use large eggs unless otherwise suggested, ideally organic or free-range. If you are pregnant of in an alternate health group, avoid dishes using raw egg whites of lightly cooked eggs." Throughout his introduction to the book he tells a brief history of British pub food and how it wasn't always common to eat traditional meals inside the pub. "The earliest taverns may have served bread and ale, but the concept of eating out had not been born. You ate at home and you went to the pub for your social needs."

His recipe is as fallows:

Hake with Mushy Peas

Hake
4 hake fillets, or other chunky firm- textured white fish fillets, about 140g each
50g plain flour, plus extra to coat
50g rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
sea salt and black pepper
450ml light ale
40ml vodka
1/2 tps runny
honey groundnut or vegetable oil, for deep- frying

Mushy Peas

Few mint sprigs, leaves only

350g frozen peas

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

To serve

 Chips 

Tartar sauce

Along with savory pies, fish n' chips with mushy peas represents true British pub food. Fry the chips first and keep warm in a low oven- uncovered to keep them crisp.

Preconceived Notions..

Before I came over to England, my friends and family members that have been here before, so graciously gave me their opinions and experiences that they once had here. The ranges of times that each of my friends and family were here were very widely spread out.

My grandfather, Mel Sorensen,  was the first (in chronological order)  to come over and visit London when he was apart of the U.S. Navy. He was here from September 1948- November of 1948. Grandpa's bit of advice was this: "When you get there, don't expect to have any drinks that have ice cubes in them. They don't even serve beer cold, everything is room temperature." So right away I thought, "Oh wonderful, I am not going to be able to get a cold drink anywhere I go. This is going to be a long trip.." (And this was going to be a "problem" for me because I do like my water and beers ice cold.) However, I was pleasantly surprised when I got here, and it turns out that England in fact does not live in the Dark Ages, and they indeed serve their beverages cold.

The next bit of information I got was from my cousin, Michael. He did a back packing trip throughout Europe back in August of 2011, and he made a stop in London for two days. Michael had nothing but good things to say about London and their culture, however he said that he didn't fancy the "traditional English" dishes very much. "After you've had 'fish and chips' once or twice, you wont want to eat that any more. Everything that you order, they will serve chips with. And the rest of it, is kind of just bland. I don't think they believe in seasonings." And yet again, I have been proven wrong by these assumptions that I formulated before even arriving in England. However, Michael was right... They do serve chips with just about everything.. But I wont complain about that! I have come to love Traditional English dishes very much. I would have to say that Vegetable Pie is the winner, but overall, I can't complain about any of the food that I have encountered thus far.

Beef Kabobs

My next dish that I found to be quite tasty were some Beef Kofta's or Kabobs. I am not much of a beef eater but I must say that these were some delicious Kabobs that I had one night when I was out with some friends. So like the good blogger that I am, I decided to have Beef Kabobs be my next cooking adventure. I turned back to my lovely British Cookbook "The Frugal English Paleo/ Caveman Cook: Budget Recipes For Gluten Free/Paleo Dishes Suited for British Tastes." Searching throughout the Beef section of recipes, I finally stumbled upon the Spicy Beef Kofta. In each new section of this cookbook the author, Michelle Newbold, gives a few words of wisdom to her reader on how to make the best selections on ingredients as well as prep skills that may be needed.

In this section she gives a few words to get the reader going in the right direction on "Dishes using beef Mince as a base." My favorite part of this is how honest and forward she is with the reader. She just comes out and tells you not to buy bad meat. "When buying mince try to buy good quality fresh mince rather than the cheap and nasty frozen stuff that is a mixture of pork and mince. Using the nasty stuff will result in a tasteless mush swimming in greasy fat that will ruin the consistency of any dish you go on to use it in." THe language that she uses is just hilarious to me. She is very real and just tells you how it is with out sugar coating it so to speak/

Michelle's recipe is as follows:

for 4 koftas
175g/6 oz lean minced beef
1/4 tsp ground turmeric powder
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
pinch of salt
2 tsp dried oregano
2tsp ground coriander seeds
Olive Oil, for frying

1 small bunch of fresh parsley leaves
2tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the koftas, soak five wooden skewers in a bowl of water for ten minutes to prevent the sticks from burning during cooking.
Place all of the kofta ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor and blend until smooth. Use your hands to divide the mixture into five equal portions and squeeze the mixture around the top half of the skewers.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Fry the koftas on both sides for about 5-6 minutes or until cooked.

Steak and Vegetable Pie

Being an American and all.. When I hear the word "pie" only one thing comes to mind. Dessert. I do love my desserts and sweets very much, so you can imagine how I was thrown off a little bit when I continued to read on and it said "Steak and Ale Pie, Chicken Pie, Vegetable Pie.." and so on. I thought to my self.. "What kind of Pie do they serve over here? This should be in the dessert section and not with meat in it." I was very much confused. However, the vegetable pie has become one of my most favorite dishes since I have been here.. The combination of pie crust, cheesy vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, and an extra helping of fresh steamed veggies on the side... Delicious! After experiencing this amazingness, I knew I had to put it into my food blog as a main event.

For this recipe I looked into the book "The Frugal English Paleo/Caveman Cook: Budget Recipes For Gluten Free/ Paleo Dishes suited for British Tastes." From the title alone I thought that this would be a good choice for me being a student having a budget and all. Right in the introduction it states that "Our modern lifestyles obviously do not allow us to hunt of gather our food anymore, so we have to adapt our lifestyle and consume commonly available foods found in our local shops and super markets." I think this really shows that the author Michelle Newbold, has a common sense sarcastic kind of humor which I liked and related to very much. They also very clearly identified the target audience right in the title and in the following sentence stating "This book is also aimed at people who are looking for budget recipes, and don't want to spend too much time preparing complicated British dishes using hard to find ingredients." After that sentence I thought to my self this may be the perfect cookbook for me! So I continued to flip through and search the recipes.. and this is what I found:

225 g (8 oz) plain wholemeal flour
pinch of salt
pinch of paprika
100 g (4 oz) butter
2 - 3 tablespoons cold water
beaten egg to glaze

225 g (8 oz) broccoli
2 celery sticks
2 leeks, trimmed
2 carrots
2 parsnips
1 red pepper, deseeded
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 quantity white sauce (see below).

Sift the flour, salt and paprika into a bowl. Cut the margarine into small pieces and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add enough water to mix to a soft dough. refrigerate.
Break the broccoli into sprigs. Cut the celery into chunks and slice the leeks into rings. Slice the carrots and parsnips. Cut the pepper into strips. Arrange the vegetables in a deep oval pie.
Add the lemon juice, nutmeg and seasoning to the white sauce and pour over the vegetables.
Roll out the pastry to 5 mm (1/4 in) thick, dampen the rim of the pie dish and cover with a strip of pastry cut from the outside of the oval. 
Brush the strip with water and cover the pie with the remaining pastry. Press the edges together, knock up and flute. 

Brush with beaten egg and decorate the pie with any pastry trimmings made into leaves. Glaze the decorations and bake in a moderately hot oven for 40-50 minutes.

Bangers and Mash

The first recipe that I want to take a look at is the traditional dish of Bangers and Mash. This dish came around during the first World War as a cheap yet filling alternative, and quite delicious. The word "bangers" comes from the sound that the sausage makes when it is cooked over a high heat. And "mash" is simply just a shortened version of mashed potatoes. This dish is still very popular across England and a largely popular dish served in pubs.

The recipe calls for:

8 Large baking potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 teaspoons of butter, divided
1/2 cup of milk, or as needed
1 1/2 pounds of beef sausage 
1/2 cup diced onions
1 packet of dry brown gravy
1 cup of water, or as needed
Salt and pepper to taste

The recipe goes on to explain:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place potatoes in a saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, and mash with 1 teaspoon of butter, and enough milk to reach your desired creaminess. Continue mashing, or beat with an electric mixer, until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage until heated through. Remove from pan, and set aside. Add remaining teaspoon of butter to the skillet, and fry the onions over medium heat until tender. Mix gravy mix and water as directed on the package, and add to the skillet with the onions. Simmer, stirring constantly, to form a thick gravy.
3. Pour half of the gravy into a square casserole dish so that is coats the bottom. Place sausages in a layer over the gravy (you can butterfly the sausages if you wish). Pour remaining gravy over them, then top with mashed potatoes.
4. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until potatoes are evenly brown.

Transitioning from American food to English food.

You might be wondering 'what is it like to eat like a college student in a foreign country?' Oh you weren't? Well, I was wondering that when I decided to study abroad for my last semester of school. I imagined that it would be very different cuisine from what I'm used to at my home in Arizona. I feared that there would be no salsa, burritos, or anything remotely hispanic or containing any spice. But, I was pleasantly surprised that indeed England does have a wide variety of foods sprinkled throughout the city. This quickly put my tastebuds at ease. On the other hand, the grocery store was a whole new adventure. The labels were different and things didn't quite taste the same. This once again put me in a state of nervousness for my pallet and its welfare.

I am very accustomed to eating pretty well between my parents cooking when I am home, and myself. I try to put some effort into meals back in the States, but when I got here I noticed that my effort drastically changed. Therefore, in this blog I will aim to dissect Traditional English cooking recipes and the language that the authors use throughout, and hope that it can drastically turn around my cooking habits once again. I want to fully adapt to the current culture that I am in and if that means I have to learn how to cook crazy meals.. so be it!

Enjoy!