British Recipes
171 recipes found
Beef Wellington
In this British classic, tender beef fillet is blanketed with browned mushrooms and shallots, then wrapped in layers of prosciutto and buttery puff pastry before being baked until golden and flaky on the outside, juicy and rare within. Worthy of the most elegant, blow-out meal, save this one for Christmas, New Year’s Eve or your next big birthday. One thing to note: You really do need a full pound of puff pastry here to cover all the meat, so if your package weighs less (some brands weigh 12 ounces), you’ll need to supplement with another package.
Classic Trifle With Berries or Citrus
Trifles are as adaptable as desserts get. As long as you have layers of cake, custard, some kind of fruit or jam, and a fluffy cloud of whipped cream on top, they make festive desserts that you can vary as much as you like. While most trifles are boozy — the cake soaked with sherry or other spirits — orange juice makes a fine alternative, especially if you pair it with syrupy sugared orange segments. Or go more traditional, and use berries and sherry. This trifle is more about the interplay of soft vanilla-scented custard, whipped cream and fruit, with only one layer of cake at the bottom of the dish. If you’d like a higher cake-to-custard ratio, add more ladyfingers as directed in Step 9. And don’t neglect the garnish. Topping the trifle with sliced almonds or amaretti lends crunch and looks pretty, too.
Raisin-Hater’s Apple Chile Chutney
Chicken Braised With Potatoes and Pine Nuts
Margot Henderson is the chef at Rochelle Canteen in Shoreditch, where London’s cool kids wait hours to score a garden table for lunch. Her food is mainly English classics, but this one-pot meal — more home cooking than hipster — has hints of Spanish and Portuguese flavor. Except for the sherry vinegar, the seasonings here (bay leaves, cloves, saffron) can be adjusted for your taste and the contents of your spice drawer.
Toad-in-the-Hole
Among the breakfast options at SingleThread is an English menu, with toad-in-the-hole as its centerpiece. Mr. Connaughton calls it an homage to Heston Blumenthal — the innovative English chef and owner of The Fat Duck — for whom he worked for several years. For the eggs, Mr. Connaughton uses sous-vide techniques: vacuum-sealing the eggs, processing them in a water bath and using a siphon canister. Lacking such equipment in your kitchen, you can still approximate the result by gently and softly scrambling the egg mixture. And if you prefer, even a well-trimmed poached egg can be centered on the toast and cheese.
St. John Beans and Bacon
The London chef Fergus Henderson specializes in making British classics even more delicious at his popular restaurant St. John. Here’s his fragrant, richly flavored version of traditional baked beans with salt pork, a dish that evolved into an American staple. Using lots of fresh herbs and a little canned tomato is the key; pass crusty bread at the table to mop up the sauce.
Cider-Spiked Fish Pie
This recipe for a smoky fish pie comes from the British food writer Ruby Tandoh. The filling is a simple mix of peas, cod and smoked haddock, gently poached in milk, thickened with roux and spiked with dry cider. Don't worry if the fish isn't completely cooked when you're putting together the pie; it will finish up in the oven, where it bubbles under a thick layer of mashed potato and grated cheese. The result is tender and luxuriously creamy comfort food.
Baked Fish and Chips
Baking fish and chips is not only easier and less messy than frying, but it also has the distinct advantage of allowing you to cook both fish and potatoes at the same time in your oven. The key to getting the crunchiest fries is to cut them thin (leave the skin on for extra flavor) and spread them out in one layer onto a preheated sheet pan to jump-start the crisping. (If you want to save a few minutes, start the potatoes in the oven while you prepare the fish.) We’ve paired this dish with a piquant horseradish tartar sauce, but ketchup works well, too, particularly for the grade-school set.
Seeded Whole-Wheat Scones
True scones are not overly sweet. These have wonderful texture; even with whole-wheat flour and all the seeds, they’re light. The seed mix I use includes sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, flax and poppy seeds.
Hot-Cross Buns
The hot-cross bun has been a Good Friday treat, eaten to mark the end of Lent, for centuries. It is a sweet yeast roll, fragrant with warm spices, studded with dried and candied fruit, and decorated with a cross on top. Bakers traditionally created the cross by slashing the dough or by laying strips of pastry across the crown of the bun; modern bakers usually use white icing to make the cross. While these are at their best when served warm, preferably soon after they have been baked, a quick toasting a slather of butter would more than salvage a day-old bun.
Whole-Wheat English Muffins
Yes, it is worth your while to make English muffins from scratch. Not only is the texture lighter and crisper, homemade muffins taste better, too — yeasty, wheaty, complex. You will need to sear these muffins on the stove top before baking. That’s what gives them their unique crunch on their bottoms. This recipe does not require muffin rings, but if you have them and would like to use them, go right ahead. Just add a few minutes onto the baking time to accommodate the muffins’ increased thickness. Then fork-split them, toast and serve with plenty of butter. After all, that’s what those crevices are made for.
Apple-Walnut Drop Scones
There are many reasons an apple a day may keep the doctor away. Among popular fruits, apples rank second (after cranberries) in antioxidant power, according to the nutritionist Jonny Bowden. They are extremely high in phenolic compounds (polyphenols), particularly quercetin, and if the apple is red, anthocyanins. These phytochemicals carry many health benefits, both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Apples have been linked to lower rates of heart disease in several studies. The phytonutrients in apples are concentrated in and right under the skin. So whenever it’s possible when you’re cooking with apples, it’s best not to peel them. Seek out organic apples if possible, as the skin is also where you’ll find most of the pesticide residue, and conventionally farmed apples are on the Environmental Working Group’s list of the most contaminated produce.Scones are easy to make and lend themselves to whole-grain flours. These are particularly moist because of the grated apples.
Brandied Fruit Scones
A great batch of scones requires only a few ingredients, but fast hands are essential for working the flour, cold butter and cream into a firm, substantial dough. Brandied dried fruit is added to this traditional dough, and the result is a holiday treat that carries notes of warming spices and citrus. The dough can be cut and baked immediately, or stored in the freezer and baked to order. Brush with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar before they go into the oven, and you’ll have a batch of scones with perfect crackly tops. These are best served warm with a generous slather of salted butter and a dot of piquant marmalade, but they’ll keep for a day or two if stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Welsh Rarebit
Anyone can lay a few slices of cheese on toast and melt them, but creating a thick sauce of cheese, beer and spices and then spreading it on toast creates one of the best late-night snacks I know. This is Welsh rarebit, or rabbit, a traditional British dish whose name has a long and complicated history, one we will not go into here.
Meringue Mess With Rhubarb and Strawberries
There is a traditional English dessert called Eton Mess, attributed to Eton College, in which broken meringues, strawberries and softly whipped cream are folded together. “Mess” in this context doesn’t mean “messy,” but rather “mixture.” This recipe is a springtime mess of rhubarb and strawberries. Feel free to substitute other berries or stone fruit as they come into season. It’s an easy dish to put together, especially if you use store-bought meringues. Instructions are given here for making meringues, but it is a bit of a project and one that should not be attempted in humid weather because the meringues will not set properly. If you prefer a more refined version, spread meringues with whipped cream, spoon the fruit on top, and call it Pavlova.
Cranberry-Lemon Eton Mess
This is not a traditional Eton mess, the renowned British dessert usually comprising meringue, whipped cream and strawberries. I made one like that and loved it, but the elements just begged to be played with. For this, my favorite mess for the fall-into-winter season, I’ve added spice-cookie crumbs to the meringue for more flavor and a bit of surprise, made two add-ins — a quick-cook cranberry jam and a lemon curd — and stirred in some fresh raspberries (more tang, more color). Of course, I kept the whipped cream — it’s essential to a mess. Going with cranberries and curd make this a good choice for the holidays. You can serve the mess family style or in bowls, coupes or even canning jars. And if you want a bit more texture and another flavor, speckle the top with chopped pistachios.
Meatball Toad-in-the-Hole
This version of the British classic has meatballs instead of the traditional sausages, but feel free to revert to the original if you like. It is served with a rich onion gravy that is made in the oven, just like the main dish. The secret to a perfect toad-in-the-hole, in which the batter gets airy and crisp on the surface but remains soft and bready on the bottom, is making sure your oil is smoking hot when you pour in the batter, so be sure to heat up the oil well and then work quickly when adding the batter. This is best eaten immediately out of the oven, as it starts to deflate as it sits.
Yorkshire Pudding
This recipe is from the British-born chef April Bloomfield, who says it dates back to an era when an English pub might cook a hunk of meat by dangling it from a hook above a roaring fire. The “pudding” emerged from a pan full of runny batter that would have been placed beneath the meat to soak up the juices. “The heat of the fire would make the Yorkshire pudding rise up, and all the fat would seep in,” she said. (Life back then was “nasty, brutish, and short,” as Thomas Hobbes once griped, but apparently there were upsides.) Of course, making Yorkshire pudding these days is a more domesticated undertaking. “Now what happens is you kind of recreate that,” said Ms. Bloomfield, who serves it as part of an order-ahead prime-rib feast at the Breslin Bar & Dining Room in the Ace Hotel in Manhattan. “It’s very soulful,” she said. “Give me 10 Yorkshire puddings and a thin sliver of beef, and I’ll be very happy.”
Pimm’s Cup With Muddled Cucumber
Pimm’s No. 1, a gin-based liqueur, is named after James Pimm, the bar owner who created it in the mid 1800s. By the 1860s, it was bottled. At one point, there were other “cups,” numbered 2 through 6, based on brandy, rum and other spirits. But the No. 1, a reddish tonic with citrusy and bitter notes, has always been the star, and it is not quite like anything else on the shelf. The Pimm’s Cup’s skeletal components are nothing more than a measure of Pimm’s and roughly three measures of either lemonade, lemon soda or ginger ale (your preference), served over ice in a long glass and typically garnished with cucumber.
Steak-and-Kidney Pudding
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Simon Hopkinson is a first-rate pleaser, a chef who was never after recognition but one who wanted to produce terrific food his customers would love. He’s best known as the founding chef of Bibendum, the London restaurant started by Terence Conran in 1987 and recognized as one of the restaurants that marked the end of that city’s postwar cooking slump. His perfect (and not difficult) sticky toffee pudding is a dessert that according to Hopkinson first appeared on menus in Britain in the late 1960s but in fact has its origins in Canada. Whatever: it’s insanely delicious. And it will please you.
No-Bake Lemon Custards With Strawberries
Ultracreamy but still ethereally light, these individual custards are set with lemon juice rather than eggs, cornstarch or gelatin. They are thick and velvety, but not overly rich, with a bright, clean citrus flavor. Based on a British dessert called a posset, the key is to simmer the cream and sugar before adding the fresh lemon juice, giving the cream a chance to thicken slightly. In this summery version, the custards are served with a topping of syrupy, sugared strawberries and a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper, which adds a gentle spicy note without overwhelming the fruit.
Queen of Puddings
Scones
Traditional English scones are barely sweet — they are usually eaten with sweet jam and clotted cream — and they are lighter, flakier and tastier than their American counterparts. You can make the dough in the food processor (do not overprocess), but if you’re willing to incorporate the butter by hand it is of course fine to do it in a bowl. You’re looking for a slightly sticky but not messy dough; start with a half cup of cream and increase it as needed. Serve the baked scones warm, with the best jam you can lay your hands on, and a dollop of crème fraîche, mascarpone or, if you can find it, clotted cream.