1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (7 page)

Mushy peas complement a meal of haddock and chips.

Don’t be put off by the name. This soothing jade-colored puree of fresh green peas fluffed with butter, salt, pepper, and perhaps a touch of cream or a handful of chopped mint is the traditional side dish served with Fish and Chips (see
listing
). It also provides a cushy accompaniment to boiled beef or ham, or roasted meats and game, and is an essential component of the northern English comfort dish pie and peas. In Tudor times, dried peas were used and were wrapped in pudding cloths to be simmered in stock along with boiling pickled pork, ham, or beef. Many recipes still call for dried marrowfat peas, soaked overnight, but fresh peas provide sweet, luscious flavor. (For purists, canned mushy peas are to be scorned.)

For best results, the cooked fresh peas should be rubbed through a sieve before being beaten smooth with a wooden spoon. That way, they attain a velvety texture that cannot be matched with an electric blender or food processor, which tend to liquefy the mixture. Garnishes of minced fresh chervil or parsley add elegance.

Mail order:
For marrowfat peas, English Tea Store, tel 877-734-2458,
englishteastore.com
(search peas).
Further information and recipes:
getmecooking.com
(search mushy peas);
bbc.co.uk/food
(search mint mushy peas).

To those unfortunates who know only of quick-cooking rolled oats, oatmeal is a sad proposition indeed. Minus the rolling, oatmeal is a nourishing, comforting tradition that is lately much in vogue on trendy brunch menus all over the place.

Originally a grain cultivated by Central European Celts, oats made into breakfast porridge in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales are more coarsely milled than those used for bread flour or sausage fillings. Ideally, they are steel-cut rather than rolled, to retain a bit of the bran layer that lends them their nutty flavor and chewy texture. Simmered very slowly in spring water, or steamed in a double boiler, the oats should be seasoned with salt only midway through cooking, lest it toughen the cereal.

Way back when, oatmeal was served in communal hardwood bowls to be eaten with horn spoons that did not draw out heat. Each person would dip each spoonful of porridge into a small bowl of cold milk, cream, or buttermilk. For maximum satisfaction today, serve it in individual heated ceramic bowls, and do dip each spoonful into the milk of your choice or, as many prefer, into hot melted butter—or both. Deserving children were once rewarded with a trickle of honey or treacle on their Sunday porridge, but grown-up palates may mature beyond that state, perhaps even to adding a sprinkle of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Young or old, anyone can reap the benefits of this now-trendy cereal that is high in protein and said to be helpful in lowering cholesterol and blood pressure while soothing the gastrointestinal tract.

Where:
In London
, St. John Bread & Wine Spitalfields, tel 44/20-7251-0848,
stjohngroup.uk.com/spitalfields
;
in New York
, Tea & Sympathy, tel 212-989-9735,
teaandsympathynewyork.com
.
Mail order:
bobsredmill.com
(search steel cut oats); amazon.com (search mccann’s steel cut).
Further information and recipes:
mccanns.ie
;
epicurious.com
(search griddled steel-cut oatcakes).

Any meat or shellfish can be potted; shrimp is a favorite.

What might also be called a shrimp terrine or pâté was a popular English appetizer as far back as the eighteenth century, and no wonder: Tiny shrimp, gently simmered, are stirred through lots of melted butter spiked with mace and cayenne pepper. The mix may be packed into small, round individual ramekins to be chilled to a congealed, pâté-like firmness, then turned out onto thin toast or lacy salad greens like
frisée or cress; or it might be poached in crocks or jars to be scooped out in portions, as is generally the case in takeout food shops. If the tiniest shrimp are not available, larger ones can be cut into small pieces after being cooked, for an only slightly less delicate result. Either way, the pure, almost naive flavors prove that there is nothing remiss in simplicity.

6 servings

1 pound shrimp, approximately 25

¼ to ½ teaspoon powdered mace, or to taste

½ to 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Pinch of cayenne pepper, to taste

7 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 small individual ramekins

1.
Rinse the shrimp, then place in a saucepan with cold water to cover. Bring water to a boil, cover pot, and turn off heat. Let stand for 5 minutes or until all shrimp are pink. Drain shrimp and immediately cover with cold water to stop the cooking.

2.
Peel and devein shrimp and chop them coarsely. Sprinkle with mace, salt, and cayenne pepper.

3.
Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in an 8-inch skillet over a very low flame and add seasoned chopped shrimp. Stir, still over low heat, until butter is absorbed and evenly distributed throughout shrimp mixture. Taste to correct seasonings. It should be fairly spicy, so add cayenne and mace accordingly.

4.
Divide warm shrimp mixture into 6 portions and pack each firmly into a ramekin, leaving about a ¼-inch space at the top. Melt the remaining butter and pour a layer into each ramekin to make a cap about ¼-inch thick. Cover each crock with plastic wrap and chill for at least 6 hours before serving.

5.
Just before serving, turn contents of each ramekin out onto a salad plate and garnish with thin toast slices, a wedge of lemon, and greens, too, if you choose.

Where:
In London
, Wiltons, tel 44/20-7629-9955,
wiltons.co.uk
.

The lyrical partridge in a pear tree means far less to lovers of wild game than does richly flavorful red grouse, a small, portion-size bird with dark, gently gamy meat. Native only to the British Isles, the red grouse resists being farm raised
or reared in captivity and is the only game bird in Britain that is still considered truly wild. By law it may be killed only by gunshot, and hunters pay steep fees for the privilege (£150–£200 for a brace of birds), especially on the Scottish moors. Some hunt the birds for their own use, but others do so to fill orders from restaurants and game wholesalers. Because the birds may not be unsportingly shot on the ground, beaters are hired to shoo them into the air, where they become fair game.

“To be on a grouse moor with a loaded shotgun at dawn on the 12th of August is to know the true meaning of exclusivity,” one writer recently opined in the
Telegraph.
The Glorious Twelfth—August 12—is the much-celebrated opening day of red grouse hunting season, and the period from mid-September through the rest of the autumn season sees the bird featured on many menus. Like other game birds favored by the British—pheasant, quail, partridge—grouse is traditionally roasted and garnished with bread sauce, game chips (thin, crisp potato chips), a gloss of pan juices, and a Cumberland sauce, a combination of red currants, port wine, orange, and mustard.

Where:
In London
, Wiltons, tel 44/20-7629-9955,
wiltons.co.uk
.
Mail order:
Scottish Gourmet USA, tel 877-814-3663,
scottishgourmetusa.com
; D’Artagnan, tel 800-327-8246,
dartagnan.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Mrs. Bridges’ Upstairs, Downstairs Cookery Book
edited by Adrian Bailey (1974);
saveur.com
(search roast grouse with bread sauce and game crumbs).

In many British households, the “Sunday roast” is the most important meal of the week.

Only one cut of the best, fat-enriched beef will do for this most regal of meat dishes—the standing prime rib roast, bones and all. Not for serious carnivores is the boned and rolled version, no matter how easy it is to slice, nor roasts cut from other parts of the burly Aberdeen Angus steers. Rubbed with dry mustard and black pepper, then lightly dredged with flour (add salt only after slicing) and roasted to a turn, the beef turns a silky American Beauty rose-red, trickling juices at once slightly salty, beefy, and with a mellow edge of flavor, while the outer fat becomes bacon-crisp. Those who like beef cooked beyond rare will endure a loss of texture and flavor; a similar fate befalls those who ask for their roast beef thickly sliced. Technically known as an English cut, the proper slice is supple and thin, easier to cut and chew, and best experienced with enhancements of brassy English mustard and horseradish sauce. As a lagniappe the next day, leftover meaty bones can be deviled—brushed with melted butter, mustard, and bread crumbs—and slowly broiled under low heat until crunchy and brown on all sides.

For the perfect roast beef feast, a slab of puffy, eggy Yorkshire pudding is the proper accompaniment, especially if that giant popover is made the traditional way: the golden batter poured into a pan, placed in the oven, and then moistened with seasoned drippings from the roasting meat itself. That is about as close as we come these days to the original method of preparation, when the meat was roasted on a spit above the Yorkshire, gilding the pudding’s crust with its flavorful drippings.

Where:
In London
, Simpsons in the Strand, tel 44/20-7836-9112,
simpsonsinthestrand.co.uk
; The Goring Restaurant (on Sundays), tel 44/20-7396-9000,
thegoring.com
;
in New York
, Tea & Sympathy (Sundays), tel 212-989-9735,
teaandsympathynewyork.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Ploughman’s Lunch and the Miser’s Feast
by Brian Yarvin (2012);
foodnetwork.com
(search roast prime rib of beef with yorkshire pudding).
Special event:
World Yorkshire Pudding Championships, North Yorkshire, June,
grassington-festival.org.uk
.