Boston Baked Beans

Although not a British invention, baked beans are perhaps more popular here than anywhere else in the world. Invented in America, the upmarket grocer Fortnum and Mason was first to introduce them as a luxury item back in 1901. Baked beans have since become a British institution and are universally popular. It's hard to believe baked beans were ever considered a luxury, they are now one of the cheapest foods around.

I find canned beans an unexciting food, these Boston baked beans on the other hand were in a different league altogether. Far better than the bland cans of beans that line the supermarket shelves.
Big chunks of bacon and generous spoonfuls of molasses and brown sugar gave these beans an amazing richness and depth of flavour. I served my beans in the traditional British way, on toast, they would also make a delicious filling for a baked potato.

Not only are they cheap but apparently eating beans can help you to live longer, what more reason do you need to get cooking!

I used this recipe taken from the River Cottage meat book, I highly recommend this book, it can everything you could ever want to know about meat, and has great recipes too.

A day at a food festival

Yesterday was the first day of the East Midlands Food And Drink Festival and I was lucky enough to be there. The event marks the culmination of British Food fortnight and is a showcase for local producers to show off there food. Amongst the hundreds of stalls was Sparkenhoe Red Leicester, a company that makes traditional Red Leicester cheese selling it in huge wheels weighing a whopping 20kg, I considered buying a whole wheel but reluctantly had to settle for a small piece instead! Almost every stall had samples to try and there was plenty to tempt me, the apple and blackberry brandy was a particular hit although the chocolate truffles came a close second, they were extremely tasty!

There was so much to see including breads, cakes, jams, fruit, veg and meat. Of the more unusual products on offer were ostrich meat, smoked garlic and purple cauliflowers all of which looked great but I resisted the urge to buy.
I spent the day eating my way around the halls as there were so many samples on offer! All in all it was a brilliant event and I will definitely be going again, it's just a shame I have to wait a whole year!

Enormous wheels of Lincolnshire Poacher cheese
A more sensible sized piece?
Fantastic bread. The breadsticks in the background are flavoured with olives and fennel and were delicious
An impressive display of pastries, these were huge!
A very colourful display!

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.