Friday, 28 January 2011

An Englishman's lunch...

I went to our local butcher's shop today to buy some meat. They had just cooked a batch of beef-and-potato pasties, which were out on the counter, hot and steaming and smelling just heavenly. How could I resist buying one? (I did remember to buy some meat as well, though)


So that was lunch sorted out then... Served with tomato, pickled onions and  Branston pickle.

This is a fairly typical English snack meal. The sort of thing you might get in a pub (Public House - i.e. bar - for those of you who are not familiar with this term), and therefore likely to be consumed with a pint of our delicious Bitter (beer).

Another favourite lunchtime meal is what we call a Ploughman's Lunch, which is basically bread and cheese (normally Cheddar and/or Stilton), usually served with pickled onions or red cabbage, and sweet pickle, as in my picture, although these days you often see a "Ploughman's" being served with things other than cheese, such as ham or sausage.

Ploughman's Lunch, featuring Stilton cheese and pickled red cabbage

In the Winter-time though, nothing is as warming and as satisfying as a bowl of soup. Do you remember that tomato soup I showed you just before Christmas? Well, I'm proud of this picture, so I'm going to show it to you again!




Call it luck if you like, but I'm SO happy to have captured the swirl of steam rising from the soup in this picture. Couldn't it just be an advert for Campbell's?
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14 comments:

  1. Sue Garrett28 January 2011 at 18:15

    Not a good idea to read this just before dinner - my mouth is watering and dinner isn't ready yet!

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  2. Alison28 January 2011 at 18:21

    Pasties.. a favourite of my OH, he would eat them everyday given the chance!

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  3. Mark Willis28 January 2011 at 18:31

    Hi Alison; as a Cornishman, I'm glad your OH appreciates a good pasty! Maybe you should check out the recipe on my Recipes page...

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  4. Ali28 January 2011 at 21:27

    Mark that soup photo is a bit fabulous, I'd also be proud if I captured that steam. And was that taken before the new camera?

    I remember being a huge fan of those little pork pies you get in shops in England, they are small and compact, and just delicious. I also remember being in hysterics at the "spotted dick" on a menu board, I wanted to order it to see what it was but was a teenager and there was no way I was prepared to utter the name to the shopkeeper.

    So I still don't know what spotted dick is.

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  5. Mark Willis28 January 2011 at 21:41

    Ali, sorry to disappoint you, but Spotted Dick is a cylinder-shaped pudding made of suet, containing currants (the spots) - traditionally served with custard. At school we used to call it "Nelson's Arm" [think about it...]
    Re soup photo - yes, it was taken with the old camera. Pure luck.

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  6. Egretta Wells blog28 January 2011 at 23:02

    Mark, now you've got me all hungry, so I must rush off the computer and go cook a bite! All your food looks yummy and I, too, love that soup photo!

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  7. Hazel29 January 2011 at 00:17

    I love a good pastie...we have em here as a remnant of our colonial history. I prefer mine to be vegetarian. There is an excellent bakery up the mountain who do a great range of pies and pasties...and cakes. Yum. Might just go for a drive today.

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  8. David P. Offutt - The Gastronomic Gardener29 January 2011 at 00:46

    All lovely pics! The ploughman's lunch looks particularly tastey! Might have to try my hand at the pasties! Keep up the good work! Anything happening in your garden?

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  9. Ali29 January 2011 at 07:44

    The chopped off arm? Did he have freckles?

    I was out and about today and noticed a ploughman's lunch on the menu at the garden centre we were at. It was a fancy pants one, with gourmet sausages. For some reason I had always though a ploughman's lunch included meat pie.

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  10. Anonymous29 January 2011 at 09:53

    I just had my breakfast, but I am hungry again! I would love some of that warm tomato soup right now!

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  11. Eliza @ Appalachian Feet29 January 2011 at 17:08

    These foods look delicious -- and more or less unfamiliar to me (at least in these combinations). I have a recipe for those pasties in a Tamasin Day-Lewis cookbook though. Since we don't have pubs or bakeries near me that sell them, it will have to be a DIY project.

    Also, I thought I was a lone weirdo for eating a pile of pickled pearl onions. Now I can just tell baffled onlookers that I'm having a Ploughman's lunch.

    I bet your soup tastes so much better than Campbells that they aren't even in the same category. Great photo!

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  12. Mark Willis29 January 2011 at 17:15

    Hi Eliza; Actually, the pearl onions (we call them "Silverskins") are not the authentic accompaniment to the Ploughman's Lunch, which would normally be served with the bigger type of onions pickled in malt vinegar, as in the pasty photo. I just wanted the pictures to look different! Anyway, I like eating a pile of silverskins as part of a selection of hors d'oeuvres, along with a cocktail, such as a Dry Martini... How do you eat yours?

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  13. Jenn31 January 2011 at 01:27

    I am ready to devour all of that!

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  14. Mark Willis31 January 2011 at 19:40

    Hi Jenn; Why not tell us about some of your favourite snack foods...? [And this also applies to anyone else who reads this]

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