Potatoes, Pies, and Pluck...

This is my first of several ventures into British cuisine, and yes, there is such a thing!  I am constantly hearing from Americans how poor food is over there, but the same as anywhere else, you have to know what to get, and where to get it.

This post will be something of an overview of what we like to eat for dinner, and I will go into specifics at a later date.

One of the most common complaints I hear is that the food is bland.  I admit, British food tends not to be highly spiced, but then, many of the spices used in ethnic cuisines are not native to the British Isles.  However, lack of spice does not mean that it is poor.  In fact, really good British food is some of the heartiest, stick-to-your-ribs, meat-and potatoes kind of stuff you will find anywhere.

Meats

Beef, pork, lamb, and chicken are the four main staples, with turkey, duck, and rabbit also found.

Vegetables

The British are big vegetable eaters, particularly when it comes to potatoes and root vegetables.  Potatoes are the main starch of the meal, far more common than rice or pasta.  In the United States, the choice of potatoes in restaurants is usually restricted to mashed, baked, or french fries. The British may also offer roast, boiled, scalloped, or even potato croquettes (similar to Tater Tots).

Parsnips are a staple of the diet, and are frequently served roasted, which brings out the real sweetness of the vegetable.  Turnips and swedes (rutabagas) are also widely used.

 Parsnips by whatleydude is licensed under CC BT 2.0 

Other usual sides are leeks, cabbage, cauliflower, garden peas, mushy peas, baked beans, and butter beans.  Corn is not as popular as it is here.

Pies and Pastries

When an American talks about pies, he (or she) is invariably discussing dessert.  Not so in Britain.  Sure, there are "pot pies" in this country (and dessert pies in the UK), but savoury pies are a massive part of British cuisine.

Common varieties found are steak, steak and kidney (not, as Americans often think, a piece of steak, with a kidney pie), beef and onion, meat and potato, and chicken and mushroom.  Others found include cheese and onion, chicken and bacon, and - embracing Indian cuisine - chicken tikka pies.

These are usually served hot as an entree, but can be eaten cold as a snack.  Pies to be eaten cold are pork pies (made with a hot-water crust), and veal and ham pie.  The latter will also have hard-boiled eggs enclosed in the meat.

 Pasty01 by Gareth Rogers is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

The fact that Britons love putting meat in pastry means that this category is not just limited to pies.  There are also Cornish pasties (meat and potatoes, without the thick gravies found in pies - shown above), and sausage rolls (pork sausagemeat wrapped in puff pastry).

Fish and Chips

This deserves a post or two of its own, so I will do that at some point in the near future.

Offal

Not a term familiar to many Americans - and not always appealing to them either!  This pretty much covers the organs and other parts of animals usually neglected.

As I already mentioned, kidneys are used in pies.  Liver is often served with bacon.  Stuffed sheep's heart has long been a delicacy.  Beef tongue - when cooked properly - is one of the most tender and delicious sandwich meats out there.  Another wonderful sandwich meat is brawn.  This is the meat taken from a pig's head (after boiling) set in aspic.

Perhaps the most famous Scottish dish is haggis, which is a sheep's pluck (heart, lungs, and liver) mixed with oatmeal, and traditionally cooked in a sheep's stomach.  Another regional delicacy (most famously associated with Lancashire) is black pudding.  Known outside the UK as "blood sausage", it is made with oatmeal and pig's blood.

I'm getting hungry now, so I think I'll sign off!  See you tomorrow...