British Recipes & Cookbooks

How to Cook dishes from the United Kingdom

• Arbroath Smokie - A smoked haddock, from Arbroath in Scotland.
  
  
• Balti - Balti is an Anglo-Indian dish originating from Birmingham. A thick curry made using chicken ("balti murgh") or lamb ("balti gosht") and served in flat-bottomed iron or steel pot ("balti" means "bucket", hence the name). To eat it, naan (Indian bread) is used to scoop up the sauce.
  
  
• Bangers and mash - Sausages with mashed potatoes, usually with served with gravy.
  
  
• Chicken tikka massala - An Anglo-Indian dish made by cooking chunks of marinated chicken in an Indian-style curry sauce. Chicken tikka massala is usually eaten accompanied with naan (Indian bread), or rice, but so popular has it become that versions of it are even sometimes used for pizza toppings and sandwich fillings!
  
  
• Cock-a-leekie soup - A traditional Scottish soup made from leeks and potato with chicken stock.
  
  
• Cornish pasty - A baked pie with a distinctive shape, traditionally filled with beef, onion, potato and swede (rutabaga). Cornish pasties are said to have originated as a meal eaten by the miners who were working in the Cornish tin mines.
  
  
• Fish and chips - Battered and fried fish (often cod or plaice) with French fries. mushy peas (a green "soup" made from peas) is a popular accompaniment. The dish is usually flavored with salt and vinegar, although ketchup or Tartar sauce may sometimes be used.
  
  
• Full English breakfast - Sausage, bacon, eggs (usually fried eggs or scrambled eggs), fried bread, fried mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, black pudding (a type of blood sausage) and baked beans. The exact elements of the meal may vary somewhat. It should also be noted that basically the same meal is sometimes described as "Full Scottish breakfast" in Scotland, as a "Full Irish breakfast" in Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland), etc.
  
  
• Haggis - Perhaps Scotland's most famous traditional dish, haggis is made using a sheep's heart, liver and lungs (collectively known as the "pluck"), ground ("minced"), and mixed with oatmeal, onions, suet, spices and stock, and then boiled in the sheep's stomach.
  
  
• Kedgeree - Smoked haddock with boiled rice, eggs and butter. The dish is believed to have originated during the period of the British Indian Empire.
  
  
• Kipper - A split smoked herring. They may be grilled, and are most often eaten for breakfast.
  
  
• Lancashire hotpot - Meat, onion and potatoes baked in a casserole dish for a prolonged period on low heat.
  
  
• Mince and tatties - A popular dish in Scotland. it is ground ("minced") beef and mashed potatoes.
  
  
• Pie and mash - A hot pie containing ground ("minced") meat, traditionally served accompanied by mash potato. In the East End of London, such pies were traditionally made with water left over from stewing eels, and the eels were then served with the pies as a cold side dish ("jellied eels").
  
  
• Pork pie - A pie containing pork and pork jelly in a pastry crust. It is normally eaten cold, often as a snack.
  
  
• Scotch egg - A hard-boiled egg, coated in sausage meat and then bread crumbs, and then deep-fried. It is then allowed to cool, stored refridgerated, and eaten cold. Scotch eggs are normally eaten as a snack food, and are readily available from convenience stores as well as supermarkets. Despite the name, Scotch eggs are not originally from Scotland, but were first created by Fortnum & Mason (a famous food shop in London) in 1738
  
  
  
• Shepherd's pie - Ground ("minced") lamb, covered with a layer of mashed potato, and sometimes cheese. Versions of the dish can also be made with beef ("cottage pie") or fish ("fisherman's pie").
  
  
  
• Steak and kidney pie - A pie containing diced beef steak and ox, lamb or pork kidney, in a thick sauce. The sauce is usually made from beef broth with onions, flour and seasonings. The dish is served hot and is known in the British army as "Baby's Head".
  
  
• Sunday roast - Oven roasted meat with roast potatoes and vegetables. This is a traditional British Sunday meal. There are several common varieties: roast beef (beef with gravy, horseradish sauce and mustard, served with Yorkshire pudding - a dish made from baked dough), roast lamb (lamb with mint sauce or redcurrant jam), roast chicken (chicken with chipolata sausages (small thin sausages), bread sauce, and cranberry sauce or redcurrant jam), and roast pork (pork with "crackling" (crispy cooked pork rind), and apple sauce),
  
  
• Toad in the hole - Sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter.
  
  
• Welsh rarebit (sometimes called "Welsh rabbit") - Grated cheese mixed with beer, milk and butter, and then spread on toast and grilled (broiled).

• Bakewell tart - A traditional English pudding, consisting of a pastry shell, filled with jam (fruit preserve) and a sponge-like filling.
  
  
  
• Christmas pudding - This a traditional steamed dessert eaten at Christmas, especially on Christmas Day. It is made from suet (congealed fat) with dried fruit and nuts mixed in, and alcoholic beverages usually poured in (for example brandy). The pudding is extremely dark, almost black, and keeps very well, so is traditionally prepared many weeks in advance of Christmas. Christmas pudding is often eaten with brandy butter (a sauce made from unsalted butter, sugar and brandy), cream or custard.
  
  
• Mince pies - This is a traditional British pastry eating during the Christmas period. They are usually small in diameter (about the size of a cupcake) and contain minced fruit and nuts (chopped raisins, currants, apricot, cherries, walnuts, etc., with spices in suet) and are traditionally eaten with brandy butter (a sauce made from unsalted butter, sugar and brandy).
  
  
• Rice pudding - A pudding made from rice, milk, cream and sugar. Cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla are often used to flavor the dish. Rice pudding can be eaten hot or cold, and made from fresh ingredients or bought ready-to-use in cans. The dish was probably inspired by Indian cuisine's kheer, during the period when India was ruled by Britain.
  
  
• Spotted dick - A traditional English steamed pudding containing dried fruit and raisins, and usually served with custard.

The Complete Robuchon By Joel Robuchon Knopf Released: 2008-11-04 Hardcover (832 pages) List Price: $35.00 Lowest New Price: $19.74 Lowest Used Price: $17.77 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: An incomparable culinary treasury: the definitive guide to French cooking for the way we live now, from the man the Gault Millau guide has proclaimed “Chef of the Century.” Joël Robuchon’s restaurant empire stretches from Paris to New York, Las Vegas to Tokyo, London to Hong Kong. He holds more Michelin stars than any other chef. Now this great master gives us his supremely authoritative renditions of virtually the entire French culinary repertoire, adapted for the home cook and the contemporary palate. Here are more than 800 precise, easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes, including Robuchon’s updated versions of great classics—Pot-au-Feu, Sole Meunière, Cherry Custard Tart—as well as dozens of less well-known but equally scrumptious salads, roasts, gratins, and stews. Here, too, are a surprising variety of regional specialties (star turns like Aristide Couteaux’s variation on Hare Royale) and such essential favorites as scrambled eggs. Emphasizing quality ingredients and the brilliant but simple marriage of candid flavors—the genius for which he is rightly celebrated—Robuchon encourages the beginner with jargon-free, impeccable instructions in technique, while offering the practiced cook exciting paths for experimentation. The Complete Robuchon is a book to be consulted again and again, a magnificent resource no kitchen should be without.

Michael Jackson's Complete Guide To Single Malt Scotch 4th Ed By Michael Jackson Running Press Hardcover (336 pages) List Price: $27.50 Lowest Used Price: $8.97 (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: Now a classic reference, the fully revised and updated fourth edition of Michael Jackson's critically acclaimed connoisseur's guide provides tasting notes and scores for more than 800 single malt whiskies (500 of them new bottlings since the last edition). Anyone serious about his or her malts will find a storehouse of useful information in Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch. In addition to providing a succinct introduction to the world of single malts, Jackson, always passionate about his subject, gives detailed information on the malt whiskies produced by more than 100 distilleries. Color reproductions of the labels are accompanied with tasting notes and numerical ratings. For those headed to Scotland, he lists distilleries (with addresses and telephone numbers) that welcome visitors. -Food and Wine

The River Cottage Cookbook By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Ten Speed Press Released: 2008-05-01 Hardcover (448 pages) List Price: $35.00 Lowest New Price: $20.91 Lowest Used Price: $20.00 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: First published in the United Kingdom in 2001, THE RIVER COTTAGE COOKBOOK quickly became a hit among food cognoscenti around the world. Now tailored for American cooks, this authoritative and animated ode to eating well is one part manifesto and one part guidebook for choosing and storing food grown in the garden, butchered from prize animals, or foraged or caught locally. Fearnley-Whittingstall writes with humor, wit, and clarity, bringing American readers what his legions of British fans have enthusiastically embraced: the best techniques and recipes for getting the most out of simple, superior food, while supporting the environment, vibrant local economies, and resourceful use of plants and animals.

Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels (Patrick O'Brian) By Anne Chotzinoff Grossman & Patrick O'Brian W.W. Norton & Co. Paperback (336 pages) List Price: $18.95 Lowest New Price: $11.30 Lowest Used Price: $6.73 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: Celebrate the joys of Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series with this delightful cookbook, full of the food and drink that so often complement Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin's travels. Collected here are authentic and practical recipes for such eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century dishes as Burgoo, Drowned Baby, Sea-Pie, Solomongundy, Jam Roly-Poly, Toasted Cheese, Sucking Pig, Treacle-Dowdy, and, of course, Spotted Dog. Also included are historical notes on the origins of the dishes as well as sections on the preparing of roasts, puddings, and raised pies.

Breakfast, Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery By Rose Carrarini Phaidon Press Hardcover (192 pages) List Price: $29.95 Lowest New Price: $18.78 Lowest Used Price: $11.95 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: La Vie En ROSE -- New cookbook takes recipes from one of Paris's most fashionable restaurants and places it in the eager hands of home cooks. It might come as a surprise to some that one of the most trendy and successful bakeries in Paris is run by an Englishwoman. But it shouldn't. With the triumphant success of Rose Bakery in Paris's 9th Arrondissement, Rose Carrarini quickly earned a reputation for creating simple, yet uncompromising foods that focus on the importance of using fresh, flavorful ingredients and a loving attention to detail. Like the Rose Bakery itself, Carrarini's new cookbook BREAKFAST, LUNCH, TEA: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery dissolves the distinctions between restaurant cooking and home cooking, and holds firm to the belief that flavor need not be complicated. Carrarini has always believed that simplicity is the key ingredient to great food and a great life, and it was this philosophy that led her to open London's influential Villandry in 1988 and Rose Bakery, the Anglo-French restaurant in 2002. Tucked away on a side street near the Gare du Nord, Parisians line up daily to sample the lunchtime display of salads, tarts, cakes, and light fare at the charming bôite. At Rose Bakery, it is evident that Love of food has become a universal language. It is this universal language that makes BREAKFAST, LUNCH, TEA pure delight with recipes from 100 of Rose Bakery's most popular dishes, from breakfast staples such as Crispy Granola to afternoon treats, including Sticky Toffee Pudding and Carrot Cake, as well as soups, risottos and other perfect dishes for a light lunch. In BREAKFAST, LUNCH, TEA simplicity is indeed the golden rule, from the recipes and techniques to the structure of the cookbook itself. The book begins with a chapter on techniques and ingredients, with thoughts and advice on such matters as peeling, oven temperatures, and moisture, and descriptions and tips for such ingredients as olive oil, butter, vanilla, and marigold. Then Carrarini moves straight into Breakfast, providing dozens of simple and delicious recipes, including Fresh Mixed Fruit Salad, Lime Grapefruit and Ginger Juice, Honey Granola, Traditional Porridge, Perfect Scrambled Eggs, Ricotta Pancakes, and Blueberry Scones. Lunch begins with numerous soups, salads, pastries, and risottos, and then provides main courses that range from Asparagus and Almond Salad with Chicken to Braised Lamb Shank with Cumin, Aubergine and Chickpeas. BREAKFAST, LUNCH, TEA saves the best for last. The Tea chapter features more than fifty of the tarts, cakes, cookies, tray bakes, and puddings that have made Rose Bakery world famous and locally adored, including Lemon Blueberry Tart, Fresh Ginger Cake, Pine Nut and Almond Biscuits, Hazelnut Brownies, Apple and Blackberry Crumble, and Apricot Sorbet, just to name a few. More than 100 specially commissioned photographs from acclaimed photographer Toby Glanville make BREAKFAST, LUNCH, TEA a visually rich cookbook, allowing each recipe to seduce the senses from the very first read. These pictures are populated with the food, people, and shop atmosphere that make Rose Bakery so special.

Bittersweet: Lessons from My Mother's Kitchen By Matt McAllester The Dial Press Released: 2009-04-14 Hardcover (224 pages) List Price: $25.00 Lowest New Price: $9.95 Lowest Used Price: $8.95 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: Matt McAllester lost his mother, Ann, long before she died, as mental illness snatched the once-elegant woman away and destroyed his childhood. In this beautifully written memoir, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist chronicles the journey he took to forgiveness, which brought him straight to the place that evoked his happiest memories of his mother: the kitchen. Recounting the pleasures of his early days, culinary and otherwise, McAllester weaves an unforgettable tale of family, food, and love. BITTERSWEET: LESSONS FROM MY MOTHER’S KITCHEN At first, Matt McAllester’s childhood was idyllic, a time when his mother placed heavenly, delicious food at the center of a family life brimming with fun and laughter. Then came the terrible years, years when he had to watch helplessly as his warm, quick-witted mother succumbed to an illness that was never properly diagnosed or understood. Desperate to escape, he eventually found work as a foreign correspondent, hiding in the terrors and tragedies of other people as he traveled to the most dangerous places in the world, from Beirut to Baghdad. But nothing he saw on the battlefield prepared him for his mother’s death—and his own overwhelming grief. In the weeks and months that followed, Matt found himself poring over old family photos and letters, trying to reach out for the beautiful, caring woman who had now vanished for the second time. But as he looked anew at her long-cherished collection of cookbooks, it occurred to him that the best way to find her was through something they both loved: the food she had once lovingly prepared for him, food that introduced him to a thousand sources of joy—from spare ribs to the homemade strawberry ice cream that seemed in memory the very essence of happy times. With a reporter’s precision and a storyteller’s grace, McAllester guides us through a long season of grief—cooking, eating, and remembering—at the same time describing his and his wife’s efforts to conceive and nourish a child of their own. Complete with recipes to delight body and soul, Bittersweet is a memoir of extraordinary power, at once a moving tribute to his mother and a dazzling feast for the senses.

Naked Chef, The By Jamie Oliver Hyperion Released: 2000-10-11 Hardcover (256 pages) List Price: $34.95 Lowest New Price: $6.70 Lowest Used Price: $1.35 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: Naked? Its not himits the food! Jamie Oliver, a.k.a. the Naked Chefis Englands #1 bestselling food sensation, a charismatic, streetwise culinary wonder boy whose personality is as fresh and unpretentious as his cooking. In this extraordinary cookbook, Jamie takes all of the trade secrets he has accumulated since he started cooking at age eight and distills them into a refreshingly simple style that really works for people who are passionate about food, but dont always have a lot of time, money, or space. Jamie has applied his strip it bare then make it work principle to all his mealsfrom salads to roasts, desserts to pastasand has created a foolproof repertoire of simple, feisty, and delicious recipes that combine bold flavours with fresh ingredients. With more than 120 fuss-free recipes, The Naked Chef, a sumptuous feast for the eyes as well as the stomach, is modern cooking at its best.

Roast Chicken And Other Stories By Simon Hopkinson Hyperion Released: 2007-09-04 Hardcover (240 pages) List Price: $24.95 Lowest New Price: $2.74 Lowest Used Price: $2.76 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: "Good cooking depends on two things: common sense and good taste." In England, no food writer’s star shines brighter than Simon Hopkinson’s, whose breakthrough Roast Chicken and Other Stories was voted the most useful cookbook ever by a panel of chefs, food writers, and consumers. At last, American cooks can enjoy endearing stories from the highly acclaimed food writer and his simple yet elegant recipes. In this richly satisfying culinary narrative, Hopkinson shares his unique philosophy on the limitless possibilities of cooking. With its friendly tone backed by the author’s impeccable expertise, this cookbook can help anyone -- from the novice cook to the experienced chef -- prepare down-right delicious cuisine . . . and enjoy every minute of it! Irresistible recipes in this book include: Eggs Florentine Chocolate Tart Poached Salmon with Beurre Blanc And, of course, the book’s namesake recipe, Roast Chicken Winner of both the 1994 André Simon and 1995 Glenfiddich awards (the gastronomic world’s equivalent to an Oscar), this acclaimed book will inspire anyone who enjoys sharing the ideas of a truly creative cook and delights in getting the best out of good ingredients.

Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection: Reinventing Kitchen Classics By Heston Blumenthal Bloomsbury USA Released: 2006-10-31 Hardcover (304 pages) List Price: $34.95 Lowest New Price: $13.15 Lowest Used Price: $8.00 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: Fish and chips; roast chicken; spaghetti bolognese; steak and salad; pizza; sausages and mashed potatoes; black forest cake; and treacle tart and ice cream: all as good as they can possibly be. With this book, a tie-in to the BBC series of the same name, Michelin three-star winner Heston Blumenthal delivers the absolute last word in how to cook these timeless dishes. He looks at the origin of the dishes, how to find the best ingredients (in America as well as in the UK) and what to look for, and, of course, how to cook them to perfection. Along the way, readers are treated to priceless culinary lessons: everything from how to cut potatoes for flawless frying to where to find the choicest beef to the two secret ingredients in spaghetti Bolognese (nutmeg and cream!). Lavishly illustrated with gorgeous photos, and including “perfect” recipes for each dish, this unrivaled book deserves a place as a staple in every cook’s home.

The book of household management By Beeton Ward, Lock, & Co Unknown Binding (28 pages) Lowest Used Price: $226.75 (As of 10:23 Pacific 6 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here Product Description: An almost forgotten classic though a founding text of Victorian middle-class identity,Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management is a volume of insight and common sense. Written by what one might now describe as a Victorian Martha Stewart, the book offers advice on fashion, child-care, animal husbandry, poisons, and the management of servants. To the modern reader expecting stuffy verbosity or heavy moralizing, Beeton's book is a revelation: it explores the foods of Europe and beyond, suggesting new food stuffs and techniques, mixing domestic advice with discussions of science, religion, class, industrialism and gender roles. Alternately frugal and fashionable, anxious and self confident, the book highlights the concerns of the growing Victorian middle-class at a key moment in its history. This abridged edition serves as a cookery book, while documenting a significant aspect of Victorian social and cultural history.