Scrutable

I was very disappointed last year when A Finger of Fudge got much smaller.

I've been too busy to be on the forum much this week but I've just caught up with the thread and have a few things to say:

Sausage rolls are f.cking brilliant.

Mrs PD is fond of a bit of pork in cider.

Thanks for the book recommendations. Not sure if I'll get them as it's taken me two years to not quite finish the book I'm currently reading, but I will think about it.

For some reason when I couldn't get to sleep last night, I was thinking about quiche v flan. I don't know which came first or if they evolved independently but it has been around since the Middle Ages so it does count as English. It's a good one for parties, picnics etc as it can be made in advance with any number of things in it (and ready-made pastry if needs be). I once had a vegan one which just about worked, a bit soft in texture.

(The difference: https://www.askdifference.com/quiche-vs ... egetables.)

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 8:01 am

For some reason when I couldn't get to sleep last night, I was thinking about quiche v flan. I don't know which came first or if they evolved independently but it has been around since the Middle Ages so it does count as English. It's a good one for parties, picnics etc as it can be made in advance with any number of things in it (and ready-made pastry if needs be). I once had a vegan one which just about worked, a bit soft in texture.

(The difference: https://www.askdifference.com/quiche-vs ... egetables.)

Now I want some flan (or quiche) suggestions...

El Pollo Diablo wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 7:49 am

Mrs PD is fond of a bit of pork in cider.

Very droll

jimbob wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 8:05 am

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 8:01 am

For some reason when I couldn't get to sleep last night, I was thinking about quiche v flan. I don't know which came first or if they evolved independently but it has been around since the Middle Ages so it does count as English. It's a good one for parties, picnics etc as it can be made in advance with any number of things in it (and ready-made pastry if needs be). I once had a vegan one which just about worked, a bit soft in texture.

(The difference: https://www.askdifference.com/quiche-vs ... egetables.)

Now I want some flan (or quiche) suggestions...

Pretty much anything you fancy of veg, meat and dairy. Just think of your favourite pizza topping and put it in a flan.

This probably doesn't qualify as British food but I made this a few weeks ago and it was delicious, more than the sum of its parts: https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/roast-vegetable-tart I don't make pastry stuff very often so I'm not privy to all the tips and tricks, so not sure if the onion on the bottom thing is a common method but either way it's a good one.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 3:56 pm

This probably doesn't qualify as British food but I made this a few weeks ago and it was delicious, more than the sum of its parts: https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/roast-vegetable-tart I don't make pastry stuff very often so I'm not privy to all the tips and tricks, so not sure if the onion on the bottom thing is a common method but either way it's a good one.

you can even top with a scattering of pumpkin seeds for a more luxurious look

That's an interesting take on 'luxurious'.

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:06 pm

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 3:56 pm

This probably doesn't qualify as British food but I made this a few weeks ago and it was delicious, more than the sum of its parts: https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/roast-vegetable-tart I don't make pastry stuff very often so I'm not privy to all the tips and tricks, so not sure if the onion on the bottom thing is a common method but either way it's a good one.

you can even top with a scattering of pumpkin seeds for a more luxurious look

That's an interesting take on 'luxurious'.

Hahaha! At least he doesn't go down the Anna Jones path of 'if you're really hungry, you can have a few pieces of pasta with your pasta sauce rather than courgetti'

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:16 pm

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:06 pm

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 3:56 pm

This probably doesn't qualify as British food but I made this a few weeks ago and it was delicious, more than the sum of its parts: https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/roast-vegetable-tart I don't make pastry stuff very often so I'm not privy to all the tips and tricks, so not sure if the onion on the bottom thing is a common method but either way it's a good one.

you can even top with a scattering of pumpkin seeds for a more luxurious look

That's an interesting take on 'luxurious'.

Hahaha! At least he doesn't go down the Anna Jones path of 'if you're really hungry, you can have a few pieces of pasta with your pasta sauce rather than courgetti'

My eldest daughter was quite excited about using "sea spaghetti" in a meal the other day - she's working on the island of Handa for 5 months and sent me a video of it cooking

jimbob wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 10:28 pm

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:16 pm

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:06 pm

That's an interesting take on 'luxurious'.

Hahaha! At least he doesn't go down the Anna Jones path of 'if you're really hungry, you can have a few pieces of pasta with your pasta sauce rather than courgetti'

My eldest daughter was quite excited about using "sea spaghetti" in a meal the other day - she's working on the island of Handa for 5 months and sent me a video of it cooking

Given what a sea cucumber is, I'm not sure I want to know more...

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:16 pm

Hahaha! At least he doesn't go down the Anna Jones path of 'if you're really hungry, you can have a few pieces of pasta with your pasta sauce rather than courgetti'

Calling spaghetti made from courgettes "courgetti" offends me on two or three levels and I'm not even a real Italian.

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sun May 09, 2021 11:09 am

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:16 pm

Hahaha! At least he doesn't go down the Anna Jones path of 'if you're really hungry, you can have a few pieces of pasta with your pasta sauce rather than courgetti'

Calling spaghetti made from courgettes "courgetti" offends me on two or three levels and I'm not even a real Italian.

I'm not even a pretend Italian and it offends me

And so it should.

]

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Sun May 09, 2021 10:58 am

jimbob wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 10:28 pm

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:16 pm

Hahaha! At least he doesn't go down the Anna Jones path of 'if you're really hungry, you can have a few pieces of pasta with your pasta sauce rather than courgetti'

My eldest daughter was quite excited about using "sea spaghetti" in a meal the other day - she's working on the island of Handa for 5 months and sent me a video of it cooking

Given what a sea cucumber is, I'm not sure I want to know more...

And no, I didn't know either

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 3:56 pm

This probably doesn't qualify as British food but I made this a few weeks ago and it was delicious, more than the sum of its parts: https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/roast-vegetable-tart I don't make pastry stuff very often so I'm not privy to all the tips and tricks, so not sure if the onion on the bottom thing is a common method but either way it's a good one.

"Yotam Ottolenghi" is an anagram of "Ole! Tomato thingy".

jimbob wrote: ↑

Sun May 09, 2021 12:07 pm

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sun May 09, 2021 11:09 am

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:16 pm

Hahaha! At least he doesn't go down the Anna Jones path of 'if you're really hungry, you can have a few pieces of pasta with your pasta sauce rather than courgetti'

Calling spaghetti made from courgettes "courgetti" offends me on two or three levels and I'm not even a real Italian.

I'm not even a pretend Italian and it offends me

Why can't they just call it courgette worms? I've tried 'noodles' made from butternut squash and they were fine but I would have preferred them to be called ginger worms. After all, vermicelli means little worms.

Spaghetti comes from "little strings" and anyway in Italian courgettes are zucchini.

jimbob wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 10:28 pm

My eldest daughter was quite excited about using "sea spaghetti" in a meal the other day - she's working on the island of Handa for 5 months and sent me a video of it cooking

I don’t like to, er, pour cold water on her discovery but you can buy it in packets here.

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sun May 09, 2021 11:09 am

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:16 pm

Hahaha! At least he doesn't go down the Anna Jones path of 'if you're really hungry, you can have a few pieces of pasta with your pasta sauce rather than courgetti'

Calling spaghetti made from courgettes "courgetti" offends me on two or three levels and I'm not even a real Italian.

Is this how you make them?

shpalman wrote: ↑

Mon May 10, 2021 8:26 pm

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sun May 09, 2021 11:09 am

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 08, 2021 4:16 pm

Hahaha! At least he doesn't go down the Anna Jones path of 'if you're really hungry, you can have a few pieces of pasta with your pasta sauce rather than courgetti'

Calling spaghetti made from courgettes "courgetti" offends me on two or three levels and I'm not even a real Italian.

Is this how you make them?

Brilliant!

A friend of mine once said to me that he only eats traditional British food such as Italian, Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern. No weird or fancy stuff for him.

There is something to this idea of Italian and Indian, at least, being traditional British food. We've been borrowing from around the world for a long time, though we may not have noticed every case. There is a recipe that is recognisably lasagne in the first known English cookery book, The Forme of Cury, c 1390. (Though there isn't actually any curry in the book, cury was an early word for cookery, allied to French cuire. But this usage may explain why the English were receptive to adopting the word curry to mean a made-up spicy dish when they later encountered it in southern India.) The lasagne-like recipe is called something like loseynes, and involves layers of flat pasta separated by cheese sauce. And that also demonstrates that pasta has long been eaten in Britain, though it only became food of the masses relatively recently.

Perhaps the first Indian-origin dish in Britain was the Cornish pasty, though food historians have to whisper it very quietly, especially in the SW. It is actually a Cornwallised samosa, albeit that it arrived indirectly via a chain of adaptations. Said historians believe the Cornish adopted the pasty from visiting Galician fishermen, around 500 years ago. Similar pasties are attested in Spain several hundred years before that. Anyone who has ever had a Chilean or Argentinean empanada al horno, also based on the Galician original, will recognise how similar it is to a Cornish pasty. The Spanish got pasties from the Arabs, who ruled them for several hundred years. And the Arabs got them from the Indians, who they intermittently conquered while spreading Islam far and wide across Asia. And around there, the pasty was a samosa.

So there's how we've been eating Indian and Italian food in Britain for a surprisingly long time.

Curiously, as it may now seem, early cookbooks indicate that mediaeval and early modern English recipes - at least for the well-off who could afford it - are rather flavoursome and spicy in comparison to what later became standard British bland fare. Blandness in British food was a tendency that came in with the Victorians, and possibly allied to the rapid expansion of the middle class in that period. The nouveau middle class were encouraged by household manuals to boil their food to death to avoid risk of disease.

IvanV wrote: ↑

Mon May 17, 2021 7:06 pm

There is something to this idea of Italian and Indian, at least, being traditional British food. We've been borrowing from around the world for a long time, though we may not have noticed every case. There is a recipe that is recognisably lasagne in the first known English cookery book, The Forme of Cury, c 1390. (Though there isn't actually any curry in the book, cury was an early word for cookery, allied to French cuire. But this usage may explain why the English were receptive to adopting the word curry to mean a made-up spicy dish when they later encountered it in southern India.) The lasagne-like recipe is called something like loseynes, and involves layers of flat pasta separated by cheese sauce. And that also demonstrates that pasta has long been eaten in Britain, though it only became food of the masses relatively recently.

I’ve made that very recipe a while ago, it basically tasted like a cheesy lasagne and was nothing at all unusual.

This one you're talking about?
https://youtu.be/CilkAVJLBUY
Don't know if the link works as I'm on the phone. (Otherwise, just go to YouTube and search for " tasting history Max Miller English lasagne")
I haven't watched this episode yet, but this is usually a great channel for weird historical recipes from many places and quite a lot of them are English.