Monday 29 September 2008

Sausage and mash for british food fortnight

The 20th September saw the start of British food fortnight, now in it's seventh year British food fortnight is a celebration of great British produce and cooking. There are events taking place across Britain including several food festivals and tastings by local producers. The aim to educate people about British food which has suffered from a bad reputation for far too long.Jacques Chirac the French president famously said, referring to British food "One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad," I'm sure if Mr Chirac had sampled a delicious summer pudding or a freshly baked steak and ale pie he wouldn't have made such rude comments! There are some fantastic foods available to us in Britain, from wild Scottish salmon to Cornish clotted cream.
Clotted cream and scones

To mark British food fortnight Antonia from FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD! has set a challenge to create a dish that is thoroughly British, wherever possible it should use locally sourced British produce. For my entry I have cooked sausage and mash with apple cider gravy, it doesn't get much more British than that!
Sausage and mash with apple cider gravy

Sausage and mash is often referred to in Britain as bangers and mash, I don't know why this is, I can't say I've ever heard a sausage bang which is probably for the best. I would rather eat my sausages than have them explode in my face!
Bangers and mash is typical "pub grub"and can be found on pub menus up and down the country along with other British classics such as steak and kidney pie or the famous fish and chips.
I made mine with apple and cider gravy as apple is such a good partner to pork, other than that I kept to tradition serving it with buttery mash and peas. Comfort food of the highest order!

This is my entry to the British food fortnight blogging event, to enter a dish of your own click here.

11 comments:

Hopie said...

You don't have to convince me - I love scones and clotted cream! Bangers and mash sounds a bit vulgar, no? Or at least violent! Yours looks delicious though, esp with that gravy.

Katie said...

The term 'bangers' comes from WWII when a lot of water was added to sausages to make the meat go further. This made them prone to exploding when they were cooked.

Sylvie said...

One of my favourite comfort foods. I like onion gravy with mine though!

Anonymous said...

As someone has mentioned it is to do with the amount of water added during the Second World War when meat was in short supply.

Since then sausages in Britain have come a long way and the market is now worth over £530m a year.

You can read a little more about the history on my website: http://www.sausagefans.com//editorial/aboutus.php

Beth (jamandcream) said...

Glad you mentioned Clotted Cream! Will have to get my thinknig cap on for this event!

Laura Paterson said...

Oh thanks for the heads up about this event - sounds good!

I love bangers and mash - this has made me hungry!

Jo said...

I can testify that the apples made this a delicious dinner! I am fortunate enough to get to eat everything you see on here!

creampuff said...

I'll take one of everything with an extra helping of clotted cream, please!

Sam said...

Hopie: I never thought of it that way, but I guess it does sound a bit vulgar!

Katie: Thanks for that, I've learnt something new.

Sylvie: I did put onions in my cider gravy!

Sausage king: Thanks for that, I like your site, it's very interesting.

Beth: Maybe you should do scones!

Kittie: You're welcome

Creampuf:Hmmm not sure clotted cream goes with sausages!

Abitofafoodie said...

This really is the best of Brtish. Great entry. What could be better than a really good plate of bangers and mash? And the gravy sounds divine. Wish I could be digging into those right now!

Alicia Foodycat said...

How delicious! I am a big fan of sausages. British food is great. The potted shrimp is one of the most delicious dishes in creation! And never let it be forgotten that Creme Brulee is Trinity Burnt Cream...