That's not Foreign! (Week 2 - England)

My son was so disappointed that when he picked out "England" as our second country. I pointed out to him that to people from other countries, our food is foreign but I am not sure if he believed that. He just complained that the food would be 'boring' and that there would be no pasta! My husband, on the other hand, was a little more excited as his instant thought was 'man food' and he has been happy with what we have had...

 

I know the idea was to do at least one dish, but I have done several. We had a lovely beef casserole, with onions, mushrooms, carrots and dumplings (forgot to add the pearl barley). Then we had home made fish and chips, Roast chicken and I used the rest of the chicken for chicken and mushroom pie and I am in the process of making a chicken soup for tonight, with some lovely crusty bread. I also did a apple crumble. No English cakes this week, as I had some blueberries I needed to use up ( I turned them into muffins, which are American more than English).

 

This morning we pulled out the country for next week, which my son is excited about - Barbados, so that should be interesting and maybe a little more exciting for him than England!


Chat more next week, need to do some research!

 

Cooked with score (out of 100):

Beef Casserole..............87
Chicken Pie..................90
Chicken Soup................90

 

 

Beef Casserole

 

Ingredients:

Serves 4

 

1lb braising steak, bite sized tossed in seasoned flour

1 onion, sliced

(Optional: pearl barley, mushrooms, carrots)

 

Gravy:  2 Oxo cubes,

2 rounded tsp Bisto powder

1 heaped tsp cornflour

 

Method:

 

1. Fry the onion, until golden and place in the casserole dish. Fry the seasoned meat until golden and place in the casserole dish, with the sliced mushrooms, chopped carrots and pearl barley if using.
2. Boil 1 pint water and crumble in oxos, lower the heat. Add bisto and cornflour (which has been combined in a little cold water). Stir to avoid it going lumpy.
3. Pour over the meat and place in pre-heated oven on GM4, 180C, 350F, when bubbles lower oven to 140C, GM1 275F for 2 ½ hrs. (or it can be cooked at GM4, 180C, 350F for 2 hours)
   NB: Dumplings can be added 20 mins before serving. It can also be served with lovely greens and mash, or rice and other veg.
    

Chicken Pie

Makes 1 pie (8”)

Ingredients

Left over chicken from a roast (I cook a roast, I always cook a big bird to get the leftover meat)

Packet Puff Pastry (or you can use short crust)

Mushrooms

Onion

Veg stock cube 

 

Method

1. Lightly fry off the mushroom in a big pan, add the chicken and mushrooms and let it warm through.
2. At the same time roll out the 2/3rds of the pasty to line the bottom of the tin.
3. Make a well in the centre of the pan mixture and put in the vegetable stock cube with a small amount of water.Crush down the cube and then mix it through the pie filling.
4. Pour the filling into the pastry case and then roll out the remaining pastry to make the top. (You will have some left over, which you could turn into a jam roly-poly and pop into the freezer for another day)
5. Make a hole into the top of the pie and pop into the oven for 20-30 minutes at 180C

 

 

Chicken Soup

 

Ingredients

 Left over chicken carcass

 Onion

 Root vegetables: we prefer carrots, sweet potatoes and parsnip

 

 

Method

 

1. After picking off most of the meat for the pie put the carcass into a large pan and cover with cold water. Bring the water to boil and skim off any fat off the top. Simmer for at least 1 hour, but not more than 2 hours. You might need to top up the water a little.
2. Strain the liquid and pick off bits of meat and pop into the stock. You have now made your base for your soup.
3. Making the soup. Pop some butter / oil in a large saucepan and put in the chopped onion (if using). Prepare the vegetables and add to the saucepan along with the stock (it will look like jelly when cold)
4. Again, bring to the boil and then simmer for at least 1 hour, no more than 2 hours. You may need to add more water. Also, you could add lentils or pearl barley or chick peas if you want more of a meal.
5. We just love this as is, with fresh crunchy rolls.