Eating for England

England has a reputation for bland and stodgy cuisine, and fish and chips, toad in the hole and spotted dick can be left in the shadow of sushi, cordon bleu menus and tortellini.

But those who shun English flavours don't know what they are missing, says North Yorkshire cookery writer Penny Abbey.

Penny was brought up on Yorkshire cheese, lamb from the dales, British beef and proper, home-made Yorkshire puddings.

"I think traditional English food is dying because we've become very ethnic in our tastes," she said. "But having said that, revival is imminent and I think that is to do with environmental awareness.

"How many times do you hear now that you should support your local farmers? A knight in shining armour like St George should be going forward with his banner saying buy British, buy local."

Penny inherited her love of roast dinners from her grandmother, who made her Yorkshires deep, crisp and high, just as they should be.

"My Granny was a traditional miner's wife and back then, your beef had to last for longer than just Sunday. It had to provide cold meat on Monday and to make shepherd's pie on Tuesday.

"You would have Yorkshire pudding with gravy as a first course to fill you up - but never with the beef - then you'd have Yorkshire pudding as a desert too, with what they called treacle, but was actually Golden Syrup."

For Penny, the proper place for Yorkshire puddings is with beef, vegetables and gravy.

But as a Bridlington girl, her favourite British dish is fish and chips.

"In England, we wrap fish in batter and okay, the batter is fried but the fish inside is steamed to conserve all the flavour and vitamins and minerals and it's cooked to perfection," she said. "It's delicious."

For York food writer Laura Mason, baking is her real love.

"I do like traditional English baking. Particularly yeasty things like breads and tea breads and fruit cakes and everybody likes puddings," she said.

"We've got a fantastic range of puddings; real comfort food for our climate, such as steamed puddings with lemon zest. Nobody makes them anymore and I think it's a bit sad. If you've been for a long walk, it's a nice thing to have."

The flavours of traditional English food are missed indeed, says Laura.

Chefs of the past enjoyed hearty game and hare stew, meat slow-roasted by roaring fires and hot, steamed puddings.

"I think people are a bit frightened of seasonings," she said.

"People in the past were really quite bold if you think of the traditions of using curry powder and mint sauce. They added red currant jelly to game and hare stew which gives it a flavour unlike anything else.

"They used a lot of oranges and lemons in both sweet and savoury foods.

"But we have become very enthusiastic about flavouring again, particularly in the past 30 years and with Indian and Thai foods. Even 20 years ago it was hard to get ingredients such as lemon grass and coconut milk, and now they're everywhere."

English menus have a lot to shout about, she says. Cooked well, traditional stews and shepherd's pie can taste wonderful.

Our countryside rears excellent meat and we produce excellent eggs, vegetables and fruit. Our problem, says Laura, is that we don't experiment with ingredients.

"We have some great quality meat in this country but we tend not to do anything really fancy with it. It's all roast beef."

Cooking techniques have changed too, she says.

Older cookery books imply that everything was roasted or boiled. By boiling, they probably meant poaching, she says, cooking just below boiling point for subtle result, and joints would have been roasted in front of a huge fire.

"If you go back to the 18th century books, the recipes are fantastic. You can see why everybody was bananas about it. It must have been very wasteful of fuel though - I dread to think what their carbon footprints would have been like."

Laura's favourite English dishes include poached salmon with cucumber and cream and anchovy sauce, and herrings fried in oatmeal.

She still likes shepherd's pie, but thinks it is better suited to cooking at home, rather than in restaurants.

"If you want to eat English food at its best, make sure you go to a good butcher where they know their animals have been grass fed, make friends with the fishmonger and go to a good grocer," she said.

"Don't be afraid to use seasoning, but use them with discretion.

"The key is to keep tasting. As everything's coming underway, taste it to decide if you should use a little bit more salt or pepper or if chopped parsley would help it along."

To celebrate St George's Day, supermarket chain Morrisons has compiled a medieval English recipe booklet. You can get a copy at store checkouts and online at www.morrisons.co.uk

Three of the recipes are featured below:

PEA SOUP

500g English frozen mushy peas
2 English onions, finely chopped
Olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper
Pinch of ground saffron
200ml Bombardier Lancaster Bomber ale
300ml vegetable stock
400g English farmhouse white loaf, cut into squares

Tip the peas into a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer until they form a smooth paste.

Fry the onions in olive oil until golden then add to the pea mixture along with the salt, pepper, saffron, ale and stock.

Simmer the mixture until it turns golden.

Lay the bread in serving bowls, pour over the soup and serve.

ROAST CHICKEN WITH SAUCE MADAME

Handful fresh English parsley, mint and sage, finely chopped
2 English pears, peeled, cored and chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
150g seedless grapes
1 chicken
100ml white or red wine
half teaspoon ground ginger
half teaspoon ground cinnamon
half teaspoon of sugar
100ml of white wine vinegar
half teaspoon of salt

Mix the herbs with the pears, garlic and grapes Stuff the chicken with the mixture and use a skewer to close the opening Roast the chicken for 35-45 minutes per kilogram of chicken in a moderate oven (200 c, 400f, gas mark 4).

Pour off the fat as necessary during cooking and set aside.

When the chicken is cooked, remove the stuffing, cover with aluminium foil and allow it to rest.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, blend the stuffing with the wine, spices, sugar, salt, vinegar and juices from the chicken then warm through to serve.

ALMOND CAKES

125g ground almonds
125g fresh white breadcrumbs
125g sugar
Pinch of salt
2 English free range eggs
Oil
50g sugar

Mix together the almonds, breadcrumbs, sugar and salt, then blend in the eggs.

Form handfuls of the mixture into small cakes Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and fry each cake until golden brown, turning once Serve sprinkled with sugar.