Celebrating The Jubilee

You may have noticed the U.K. is having a bit of a celebration at the moment.  In addition to the official events, thousands of people are putting on street parties over this Jubilee week.

As newcomers to the USA we will be taking the opportunity to invite neighbors and workmates to a garden party next weekend - and with the weather turning decidedly British today I thought I would share with you a few ways you could put on a "spread" and join in the celebrations. - Please excuse me if I mention something that is also a familiar American meal.  I am still learning about our new home culture.

I have been surprised by how many people over here are interested in the Royals. Coming to the U.S. just after THE wedding people in supermarkets and coffee shops have heard the accent and wanted to know all about the fairy tale romance.

Of course I am sure there are more than a few on here who will say "who cares?!", and that is no different to the U.K., where some people have just been happy to have a four-day holiday.

That is why I thought I would focus on food. Who doesn’t like an excuse to plan something a little bit different for a Monday night meal?

The classic British street party comes from the old tradition of people simply bringing the food they have and sharing it with their family or neighbors. Winter food in the U.K. is often "one pot" and we get all kinds of expressions from putting something "in the pot". Cheap cuts of meat can be bulked up with grains and vegetables, ale or pastry toppings.

In the summer (which is very short!), my family would eat "from the fridge" - that is by simply emptying out the fridge onto the table and each of us making a plate from what was available. We would eat cold meat, cheese, salad and cold vegetables. Or we would cook up the leftovers into a new meal.

Monday meals would often be some twist on Bubble and Squeak, which is the cold potatoes and vegetables from Sunday's meal, cut up and fried into a kind of hash and served with the cold meat.

We would eat up any left-over Yorkshire puddings (which is a basic pancake mix, but cooked in a pre-heated muffin tin... the outsides rise and cook leaving a bowl shape) filled with cold meat, vegetables and gravy with a little mustard or horseradish.

Coronation Chicken will be gracing many a table this week. It was invented to celebrate the Coronation 60 years ago and also introduced many households to new ways to use store cupboard foods. It is a mix of cold chicken, cubed, mayonnaise, curry paste, almonds and apricots. It is fabulous in a sandwich or on a salad.

Another quick and easy salad topping is the Prawn Cocktail. I use the smallest and cheapest frozen prawns or shrimps and mix them into a sauce of mayonnaise and ketchup. When I was growing up this was a "posh" first course and I still feel like I am spoiling myself. It’s nice to serve on a small bed of lettuce in a martini or cocktail glass with a slice of cucumber or lemon on the side.

Cornish pasties have almost as many traditional recipes as there are towns in Cornwall, but they are basically a mix of meat and vegetables baked in a pastry case. For a simple pasty I fry off some onions and mince beef and add diced vegetables (frozen will work fine). The mix wants to be dry enough not to make the pastry soggy and yet moist enough to be tasty - and add as much black pepper as you like to warm your boots. The pastry is rolled into circles and the mix is put on one half, then the other half is flicked over and sealed with pinches or tiny folds, and then baked.

When we were growing up my Mum would cook us a pasty to take to the football and do a half and half. That is where one half of the pasty has meat and the other half has fruit with a slip of pastry dividing them. Taking them out of the foil we would sniff each end to work out which should be eaten first - and more often than not we would "accidently" eat the sweet end.

I am also going to be cooking sausage rolls and Scotch eggs this week.  Sausage rolls are simply sausages (or English Bangers as they call them here), rolled in pastry and cut into inch-long chunks to be baked.

To save on cost many people will buy a mix of cheap and more expensive sausage meat and mix their own blend with their favorite herbs. Scotch eggs take that sausage mix and turn it into a coating for cold, boiled eggs. The sausage covered eggs are then rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried.  Our village pub did a huge trade in scotch eggs and chips (fries), with HP sauce and a pint of bitter.

If you are interested in more ideas you can visit this web site: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search.do?keywords=Jubilee&orderFilter=hrated...

Or I suggest looking for YouTube clips by Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson. Nigella has been credited by some with getting a whole generation of men interested in cooking!