Good British recipes to introduce to French people

[duchesse]

Hello all! I'm going to France (Brittany actually) for a few months and I am going to be holding language and culture classes through the twinning association in the village I'll be in. I want to introduce the students to a new British recipe every week of my stay, so I'm after ideas of things that aren't so outlandish that they'll put people off, but are different enough from French things to be interesting.

I think I'm looking mostly for things like cakes and biscuits (although any other finger food suggestions would be good). The reason I'm asking now, before going, is in case there are special ingredients that are hard to find in France (like the porridge oats and golden syrup I'm going to take for flapjack).

All suggestions very gratefully recieved, thank you!

Maybe some kind of hot pudding? I know that someone I knew from southern France was horrified and disgusted amazed to encounter hot puddings when she first came to the UK. Presumably that wouldn't apply to those from Brittany though. Eve's pudding?

Scones/clotted cream? Or do they have those in Brittany too? I was going to say drop scones, but are they eaten much even over here any more??

Gingerbread?

Carrot cake? Jacket potato and toad in a hole

Joan- I think it might be worth trying things like drop scones as well just to show that we have similar things with subtle differences. I know that traditional scones will go down well as well, but I need to take the clotted cream with me, so thank you.

Esmerelda- good idea with carrot cake. Not sure I could pull off toad in the hole at 9pm though

Sticky toffee pudding
Banoffee pie
What about porridge? That's pretty different, and you could use the oats again.
Mince pies - you'll have to promise there's no meat in them.

My first thought on reading your post was yorkshire pudding, but that is not a biscuit or a finger food.
Or even a small jar of Thai green curry paste and make a chicken Thai green curry?

mince pies (definitely must bring a jar of mincemeat)
pork pies or cornish pasties
crumpets
hot cross buns

super traditional finger sandwiches (cucumber, coronation chicken etc..)

Millionaire's shortbread
Coronation chicken
Victoria Sponge
scotch egg
eton mess
jelly & ice cream!
fairy cakes

Shepherds pie
Toad in the hole
Yorkshire pud
Scrambled egg & smoked salmon (is that British?)

Lunch time...

Trifle

i was going to say scones and cream too.

maybe do Afternoon Tea?

Welsh cakes always go down well here at the local ecole primaire

The majority of French people where I live are pretty scathing about British food (with the exception of the English breakfast, which is pretty much universally agreed to be a Good Thing) so be prepared to meet with some sceptisism! But maybe people are nicer in Brittany than in Paris ;-)

Desserts/cakes my French boyfriend has appreciated:

• Sticky Toffee Pudding
• Christmas Pudding
• Mince Pies
• Lemon Drizzle Cake
• Scones with jam and clotted cream

Things that haven't gone down so well:

• Jelly
• Spotted Dick

And some savoury ones that I've had success with:

• Meat pies (they just don't exist in France)
• Cornish pasties
• Toad in the Hole (Jamie Oliver recipe)

Another word to the wise: a lot of French people seem to think that "pudding" is a dish in and of itself. The horrors of British "pudding" are a common joke amongst foodies (i.e. nearly all French). When you actually ask them what they mean by pudding, they generally have an unspecific image of a hot, sweet stodge, but they can be sceptical when you explain that in fact a generic "pudding" doesn't really exist, and this is a word that can be used in sweet and savoury contexts and for a variety of types of recipe. So I would be prepared to tackle this issue with your students!

Bretons are often quite proud of their Celtic heritage, so if you had any Welsh/Cornish/Scottish/Irish recipes these might go down well.

RE: ingredients, things like golden syrup you can find in the World Foods aisles of larger supermarkets, but you will pay a premium. Things like mincemeat, clotted cream, suet etc are much more difficult to find and you may wish to take them with you.

Have fun, it sounds like a great class to be teaching!

Great thread - I was just thinking about what typically British dishes to cook for my French friends when they come over!

Trifle is a favourite of theirs. And Christmas cake!

Ooh, good call bigTillyMint, I can't believe I forgot about trifle! My boyfriend loves my mum's trifle.

Round my way - France profonde - the following have gone down well:

Bread + butter pudding (the dinner lady at dd's school asked for a recipe)
Tandoori chicken
Ginger cake
Ginger biscuits - the roll out type with treacle in

Forgot, meat pies do exist, just unrecognisable. Paté en croute, is vacuum packed slices of pork pie, so that the lovely crunchy hot water crust is a horrible soggy slightly damp shadow of its former self.

Thank you very much everyone. I have some jars of mincemeat left over from last year- mince pies are a very good idea. Most other things I can get in France I think. Isn't suet "saindoux"? Is it worth hoping I can get it in Brittany or should I really take some with me?

Steamed syrup sponge
Baked jam roll
Sussex (?) pudding (the one with a lemon inside)
Fruit crumble
Parkin
Fudge

yes suet is saindoux, you should have no trouble finding it.

My french friends find christmas pudding quite unpalatable unless drenched in butterscotch sauce.

they also absolutely love proper lemon curd.

lemon drizzle cake with sandwiched lemon curd maybe? or in butterfly cupcakes. They do love pretty cupcakes, its a bit of a novelty.

eton mess
summer pudding
beef and ale stew/pie
welsh cawl

Saindouz is lard, for suet you need the crumbly fat that is found around the kidneys. Butchers will probably give it to you - it's graisse de rognons, and you grate it. Failing that, take some Atora with you.

Saindoux

Monoprix sells porridge oats and golden syrup - so don't worry too much about ingredients for flapjacks.

Agree that proper freshly-made lemon curd is very popular with French people - try making it with French lemons, the "niçois" variety, that have a really fabulous flavour and are available in January/February.

Eton Mess is very popular indeed with my DSSs. Jersey cream is available in better supermarkets.

Really good Yorkshire pudding (neat individual ones are best), with roast beef and gravy, goes down well with French people. Roast or braised parsnips and turnips are good too, as is mashed swede - "les légumes d'antan" are very fashionable in France and readily available but the French aren't very good at knowing what to do with them.

Ooohh lovely thread!

I live in France and in general, they all have very good taste buds and expect good quality food.

• I'd try a Victoria sponge, which has always been a hit with my French in-laws.
• Sherry trifle would go down well.
• Goosberry crumble and real custard.
• Anything with smoked salmon would also work well or fish in general for Brittany, with a British twist.
• I also agree about parsnips - which you now see more and more often at food markets here. I do them with honey and mustard and the French go wild over them.

bon ap!

Jellied eels?