British food

[hartfordco]

I have been adopting a slower approach to life lately and taking time for myself which has resulted in spending a lot of time in the English countryside/historical towns and cities and so I’m feeling very connected to our heritage. I cook more Mexican and Middle Eastern food than English in my house so im honestly a bit stumped for ideas!

Please give me your suggestions of your favourite British dinners, lunches! Even better if it can be made with things sourced in the UK and springtime appropriate recipes
thank you ☺️

Well early spring is the Hungry Gap traditionally (when the autumn food is finishing up and the spring crops aren't available yet) so you may struggle at this time of year if you want to eat seasonally.

British countryside makes me think of beef casseroles with horseradish dumplings or leg of lamb with root vegetables & redcurrant gravy. All followed by a rhubarb crumble or blackberry pie.

I haven’t had rhubarb crumble in about 15 years. It’s definitely going on my list

My favourite traditional British meal is a fish finger mayo sandwich with a side of chips and curry sauce. Very yum.

Stew with dumplings
Shepherds/cottage pie
Homemade fish and chips
Gammon with bubble and squeak

@FruAashild is right, we're deep into the Hunger Gap when the autumn and winter crops are ending but the spiring crops haven't started.

Celeriac is a great winter vegetable. As a purée, roasted, in a dauphois or sliced into matchsticks raw in a winter salad are all great ways to eat it. It goes very well with roast dinners.

There's parsnip, and that also works as purée, roast or mashed with carrots. It also makes great soup (I like to combine it with butter beans and blend it smooth).

There's also the wild garlic starting. I love it shredded, wilted like spinach and mixed through mashed potato like colcanon/bubble and squeak. It's good in curries and in egg dishes like a quiche or omelette. It's very potent raw but is much milder when wilted down.

Wild garlic, puy lentils and a grilled piece of fish is one of my favourite easy winter meals.

Steak and kidney pudding
Hot pot
Liver and onions
Anything with game - rabbit, pigeon, pheasant, venison

I made a rhubarb crumble a few months ago and had forgotten how amazing it is! Even better, nobody else in my house likes rhubarb 😋

Welsh rarebit
Haggis, neeps and tatties
Mince and tatties
Toad in the hole
Bakewell tart
Kedgeree
Cullen skink
Cock a leekie soup
Scotch broth
Irish stew
Lancashire hotpot
Cream tea - scones, jam, clotted cream
Afternoon tea - add dainty sandwiches and perhaps a Victoria sponge to the cream tea

In a few weeks we'll have the new season asparagus. Yum. Only time of year I eat asparagus. Not too long after that we'll have British strawberries too. Hurrah!

Cullen skink and Cock a leekie soup — I hope these foods taste better than they sound.

I second wild garlic. Can't wait to find it here and make some pesto.
Venison is good value these days and a sustainable source of meat.
Cauliflower cheese
Toad in the hole

Beef and ale casserole
Beef cobbler(topped with small cheese scones)and veg.
Minted lamb chops,mashed potatoes and veg.
Cornbeef and potato pie.
Chicken casserole.
Fisherman's pie and veg.
Cheese and onion pie.
Homemade soup and homemade bread.
Toad in the hole.
Cottage pie.
Sausage casserole.
Roast dinner.
We'll be eating like this till near Easter and then we'll start going for lighter meals.

Have a look at nigel slater

I have lots of Scottish ideas, but it's not clear from your post if you really want British, or if you actually mean English, as you use both?

Leeks are seasonal for now and Jerusalem artichokes. We've just harvested some from the allotment for soup 😋

I have many jerusalem artichokes. They're good chipped but oh the pain!

A mumsnetter recommended Hodmedods sellers of British grown pulses and I just ordered some, lots of good recipes on their website like medieval pottage.

We make a soup which tbh could be bottled as some sort of new age bowel remedy 😂

Both gorgeous. I am Scottish and so are they.

Cullen skink is a soup akin to a chowder. You make it with smoked haddock, potatoes, leeks, chives and milk.

Cock a leekie - a really good chicken stock, ideally some diced cooked chicken, rice, leeks, parsley. Historically it had prunes in it too, which I've never tried.

You can’t go wrong with British biscuits, cakes, sweet breads and puddings IMO. Lots of variety from all parts of the British Isles.
From trifle to Bakewell Tart, fruit crumble, flapjack, Welsh cakes, soda bread, shortbread, cream cakes and eclairs, Eccles cakes, Eton mess. Need I go on?

Fish cakes, rissoles, stew with dumplings, casseroles, shepperds/cottage pie, sausage and mash, faggots and peas
And or pudding, crumbles, tarts, steamed puddings, baked stuffed apples, Eton mess

I’m sure there are equivalents for Wales, Scotland and N Ireland as well as the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, but for England, Jane Grigson’s English Good book, is well written getting

It's avoidable, I promise! It's building up the right bacteria in your gut through exposure.

Cook one wee fartichoke and eat it one week, the the next week have an artichoke twice a week, and by the next week you can have a moderate portion and after that as much as you like!

If you par boil them before roasting them, that also reduces the farty aspect of them.

I had a huge patch for a few years and got to be a dab hand at avoiding the windy aspect from the family because 5 enthusiastic eaters of jerusalem artichokes in one house can get pretty lethal.