British Recipes
171 recipes found
Whole-Wheat Crumpets With Mock Clotted Cream
I cheat a little with the crumpets, frying them up free-form without employing crumpet or English-muffin rings. They come out flat, like pancakes, with a deep yeasty flavor and crisp crust. Though if you like molds, try using cookie cutters: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades give the party a very “Alice in Wonderland” feel. Hot crumpets beg for clotted cream. Traditional recipes call for simmering cream for a couple of hours in a double boiler, then removing and chilling the cream, or clot, that forms on top. I did this once, and it was delicious, though not entirely worth it since you can buy clotted cream, or make a fake, mascarpone-based version that’s just as good.
Classic Coronation Chicken
To celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, a dish of cold poached chicken with a curry cream sauce was served at a banquet luncheon for 350 of the queen’s guests. That dish, originally called “Poulet Reine Elizabeth,” became known as coronation chicken, spurring a thousand variations in Britain and beyond. This one, from Tea & Sympathy in New York City, is closely based on the original recipe, and includes a mix of curry powder, red wine and tomato purée folded into a mayonnaise dressing. At the luncheon, the chicken was served alongside a rice salad studded with peas. But it’s also excellent piled on lettuce leaves or stuffed into sandwiches. For a meatless version, you can try these cauliflower salad sandwiches.
Boiled Potatoes With Butter and Mint
The chef April Bloomfield cooks from a place of profound hunger for good food: specifically, Birmingham in the Midlands of England, where she grew up in the 1970s and 1980s just as English food reached a low point. The childhood food she remembers most fondly: the hot buttered potatoes served in her school cafeteria. Her homage to that dish is this basic but stunningly good recipe for freshly boiled potatoes thickly glazed in butter and brightened with lemon, garlic, cracked black pepper and what she calls a "five-fingered pinch" of fresh mint leaves, "as much as you can grab with just the tips of all five fingers."
Lemon Curd
Lemon curd sits in that elusive space between soothing and exciting. Its texture is smooth and comforting and its flavor is zesty, a delicious contradiction. Curd is easy enough to make, just stand by the pot — it calls for attention. Once made, the curd can be packed in a closely covered jar or container; it will keep well in the fridge.
Lemon Drizzle Cake
This light and moist lemon poundcake has a crunchy sugar glaze that crystallizes on top, giving a contrasting texture to the soft crumb underneath. It’s an easy-to-make, crowd-pleasing cake that’s excellent on its own but takes well to embellishments. A scoop of ice cream or sorbet, fruit compote and-or lemon curd are all wonderful alongside.
New-Wave Piccalilli
This New England staple, originally brought over from India, is best used as a topping after grilling meat or fish. It also adds zip to sandwiches.
Mushrooms on Toast
Beloved by British and other Anglophone cooks, mushrooms on toast is a hearty savory dish that can be made quickly. It’s cheap and delicious if you use ordinary cultivated mushrooms, and suitable for any time of day: breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner or late snack. One pound of mushrooms is just right for two servings.
Venison and Trotter Pie
This lavish, British-style meat pie is a delicious, time-consuming project. It comes together over many hours, layering the flavors and textures of many different meats, and seals it all in a buttery homemade dough. The recipe belongs to the chef Angie Mar of the Beatrice Inn in New York, who makes the pie at her restaurant in smaller ramekins, so that each person gets her own marrow bone. This family-style version serves several people, but a single bone works beautifully: As the pie bakes in the oven, most of the marrow melts out, bubbling into the sauce, making it even richer. The pie filling, made from potatoes and venison braised in trotter stock, is thickened with a little flour, but it should be slightly loose when you're putting the pie together. The crust requires suet, and though you could make it all-butter if you wanted to, it seems that if you've come this far, and located the marrow bone, the trotters and the venison meat, you may as well go all the way. The finished pie is certainly worth it.
Curried Shepherd’s Pie
This spiced version of the traditional English dish was developed in 1984 by Pierre Franey and Craig Claiborne for an article about budget-friendly meals. Here, the ground beef base is laced with curry powder, cumin and coriander then topped with a pile of fluffy, mashed potatoes dotted with green peas.
Cornish Pasties
Watercress, Oyster And Scallion Soup
English Toffee
This heavenly chocolate-toffee is one of our favorite holiday treats to make (and eat). We know the thought of making candy can be intimidating, but it really needn't be. Sure, you need a candy thermometer, and you do need to pay close attention – the toffee can go from perfect to burnt in a matter of moments - but beyond that, it's pretty simple, and the results are spectacular. We recommend making two batches; one to give away as gifts, and the other to keep for yourself.
Blackcap Pudding
Master Shortbread Recipe
If you use half a pound of butter in a batch of cookies, it becomes “short” — because “short” means, historically, pastry with a high percentage of fat. Thus shortbread cookies are — when correctly made — rich, crumbly and impossible to resist. In their simplest form, they taste mostly of sweet and sweetened butter, so the best butter you can lay your hands on will make a difference here. I like that side-of-the-tongue tingling presence of saltiness, and so I tend to use a little more salt than is strictly necessary, hence the range in the recipe.
Freda Mary Lord's Date And Walnut Loaf
Veal Steak With Pesto (Hilaire)
Summer Pudding
English Tea Cart Wafers
Spotted Dog
Rona Deme's Traditional Scones
Spiced Potted Shrimp
In the history of British cuisine, potting perishable foods — that is, sealing ingredients in a crock under a thin layer of clarified butter — was a way to preserve them. Thanks to modern refrigeration, preservation is no longer the point, but luscious, buttery potted dishes are still popular throughout Britain. Here, diced shrimp are aggressively seasoned with anchovy, celery seed, lemon zest and garlic before being sealed into ramekins. Potted shrimp is a very rich dish, best served in small quantities with hot toast on the side to melt the solidified butter back into a creamy sauce. Or, scoop out the shrimp and butter and mix it with hot pasta to create an instant scampi-like dish.
Pimm’s Cup With Watermelon
Parsnips, Potatoes and Bacon (Old English country method)