The traditional meal is known as ‘meat, potatoes and two veg’ (vegetables), but these days people in the UK are just as likely to eat Italian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, or junk food (including hamburgers and döner kebabs). In fact, the nation’s current favourite is Indian food, which has been adapted for British tastebuds and is served in thousands of Indian restaurants all over the country. There is also a growing number of vegetarians - people who do not eat meat, poultry or fish on either health or moral grounds.
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| take-away chips |
Fish and chips is another well-known meal - it is usually bought from special shops where the cooked food is wrapped so that customers can carry it home to eat with salt and vinegar or, in Scotland, with lemon juice. There are lots of traditional regional specialities, including haggis - the Scottish national dish which is made of sheep’s stomach stuffed with oatmeal and spices. Haggis is eaten with 'neeps and tatties' (root vegetables and potatoes).
Other regional dishes include Yorkshire pudding (made with flour and water) and roast beef, toad in the hole (sausages inYorkshire pudding), and a meat or vegetable soup called cawl, which is eaten in Wales. The Cornish pasty comes from Cornwall, in the south-west of England. In times of poverty, the pasty might just have been filled with potatoes or turnips, rather than meat. Pasties were traditionally a favourite lunch for miners, school-children and fishermen. Sometimes the owner’s initials were marked in the crust, which was used as a handle (useful when there is nowhere to wash your hands) and thrown away once the rest of the pasty had been eaten.
The traditional English drink is tea, which is leaves boiled in water and mixed with milk. The pub (public house or inn) is a traditional place for people to socialise and drink alcohol, usually beer. When people drink together they often raise or clink their glasses and say "Cheers" or wish each other good health and the best of luck.
Ireland's most well-known drink is Guinness. This is a dark, heavy beer with a good half-inch creamy head. Its particular taste and texture depends on how it's stored and poured.
tea
"Shall I put the kettle on?" or "Would you like a nice cup of tea?" are questions you might be asked if you visit someone’s home in the UK. The traditional English drink is tea - it is drunk throughout the day and is often made during social occasions. Coffee has become popular in recent years, but many people continue to drink tea.
In the UK there are as many different ways of making and drinking tea as there are flavours. People drink Indian teas, Chinese teas, herbal teas, and fruit teas. English tea is specially adapted for UK tastebuds.
To make a cup of English tea the first step is to boil some water - usually in an electric kettle. Traditionally the drink is then made by pouring the boiling water into a teapot and adding tea leaves. The leaves are left to infuse, or brew, and when it is ready the liquid is poured into teacups through a strainer and drunk with milk. Nowadays, many people use teabags, which are perforated pockets of paper with leaves inside. There is some controversy over the use of milk in tea - some people say that milk should be put in the cup or mug before the tea, and others are equally insistent that it should be put in afterwards.
christmas cake
This recipe uses Fair Trade ingredients and can be found in the Fairworld Cookbook, published by Oxfam and Cassell, priced £7.99. Fair Trade means that the people who actually grow and produce our food get a fair return for their work.
Christmas Cake is traditionally served on Christmas Day. It is often made weeks in advance of being eaten, so that the cake matures and has a richer taste.
Ingredients (serves 6-10 people)
225g (8oz) Fair Trade organic sultanas
175g (6oz) currants
100g (4oz) glacé cherries, rinsed and dried
125-250g (2-4 fluid oz) brandy
225g (8oz) butter, diced
225g (8oz) Fair Trade golden caster sugar
4 eggs
225g (8oz) plain flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
50g (2oz) Fair Trade almonds or pecans, roughly chopped
For the icing:
450g (1Ib) icing sugar
1 egg white
juice of 1 lemon
Method
Soak the fruit overnight in half the brandy. Preheat the oven to 110 degrees C (225 degrees F, gas mark 1/4), and grease a 20 cm cake tin. Cream the butter and the sugar together for about five minutes until light and fluffy. Slowly add the eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition. Sift all the dry ingredients together. Fold into the batter, sugar and egg mixture by hand. Lastly, fold in the fruit, with any juices, and the nuts.
Pour the batter into the tin and bake in the centre of the oven for about 2.5 to 3 hours, or perhaps a little longer. If the top starts to brown you can simply cover it with greaseproof paper or foil. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean and the sides of the cake are pulling away from the sides of the tin. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for ten minutes before turning out on to a wire rack. Using a skewer, or a cocktail stick, poke holes all over the top of the cake and pour over the rest of the brandy. The cake will absorb all of it. The cake is best eaten if made a week in advance and stored in a plastic container. The flavours will blend and develop during that time.
To make the icing, mix all the ingredients together until smooth and shiny. If you prefer to have a layer of marzipan on the cake, roll it out and shape it over the cake, then ice with the icing and decorate as desired.
lost bread
This recipe uses Fair Trade ingredients and can be found in the Fairworld Cookbook, published by Oxfam and Cassell, priced £7.99. Fair Trade means that the people who actually grow and produce our food get a fair return for their work.
Lost bread is an ancient English sweet-bread which was originally called payn pur-dew - taken, very loosely, from the French. It is also known as eggy bread, and it can be eaten at breakfast or as a snack.
Ingredients (serves 2)
75g (3oz) butter
2 egg yolks
50ml (2 fluid oz) milk
2 teaspoons Fair Trade ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
Fair Trade ground black pepper
4 slices of bread
a knob of butter for frying
1 tablespoon Fair Trade golden caster sugar
Method
Heat the butter in a pan until it separates into a liquid and sediment. Drain off the melted butter into a bowl, discarding the sediment. Whisk the egg yolks into the butter, then stir in the milk, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Dip the bread into the egg mixture and let any excess egg drip off the bread before frying. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and keep it hot. Fry the bread for three minutes on each side until crisp and golden. Remove the bread from the pan, sprinkle with sugar and eat while still hot.
Top photo for Oxfam GB by Crispin Zeeman; middle photo for Oxfam GB by Corinne Welch; bottom photo courtesy of Bob Burch
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