Monday, June 13, 2011

We the Foodie People...Week 2: The British Isles

So, you came back for week two?

While we were eating food during our Assyrian week, we were discussing what to do for week "B". We tossed around several ideas, and then (after watching a British show...) we thought that making homemade Fish'n'Chips would be oodles of fun! But we were so settled on Indian food for week "I" that we came up with a great idea..."B" week would cover the British Isles!

Unfortunately, last week was insanely busy due to a wedding on Saturday. The bride, who is a friend of ours, wanted Apple Pie instead of a wedding cake, so we made 32 pies for the event. Since we were oot'n'aboot prepping, cooking and serving at her wedding for a few days, we ended up only eating three meals at home! :( But we enjoyed all of them and have pictures to share!

The first meal wis Scottish (of course *grin*). We haed chicken breasts cooked in lemon, honey an' rosemary wi' side dishes o' Tattie Cakes an' Green Beans glazed in a wee bit o' beer.

Actually, a good many of the recipes that we used called for beer...

What recipes?

'Allo govnah! Fish'n'Chips to name one! The batter for the fish was...interesting. You take the fish, dredge it in flour, then dip it in this thick beer batter and then fry it. Now, I will admit that I've never been much of a deep fried food person, and therefore don't fry a bunch of things...so I'm still working on oil temperatures. The flavor was good and Ben really liked the batter...so I'll try the recipe again once we've finished with our experiment.

This dish was our favorite of the week! I marinated the beef in whiskey, Dijon mustard and some other things before Ben grilled it. The beets were also grilled, but they marinated in vinegar and rosemary before he put those on. The other side dish was Colcannon, or mashed potatoes with kale...YUM! Each piece of this dish complimented the other just beautifully! We'll be making this one again!

So what do you think? Good food this week? How about a recipe? I think we'll post....*drum roll please*...the Colcannon recipe!

Colcannon

1 lb potatoes
½ lb Kale
1/3 C Half-n-half
1/3 C Milk
Chives/Scallions (as much or as little as you like)
1/3 C Butter

Removed the kale stems and chopped the kale finely. Cook and mash the potatoes. Add butter. Once the potatoes are getting close to being soft, cook the chopped kale in salted water for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the half-n-half and milk with the chopped chives. Beat the milk mixture into the mashed potatoes, then add the kale. Salt and pepper to taste.

Yup...cooking makes her tired. If you do try the recipe, please let us know how you liked it!
Check back later this week for our family update!

Cheerio!

6 comments:

Thomas and Lindsey said...

Did you actually drink the beer, Tiffany?

The Girl with the Red Lenses said...

WOW!! 32 pies!! You are amazing! All that food looks so good. I am really enjoying your posts and can't wait to see what next week brings.
You should try out Shock Top Raspberry flavored beer, that is if you don't really like the barley taste of beer. I love it!

Love you guys!

Anonymous said...

Hi Tiffany,
Colcannon is also a very dutch traditional recipe, but called Stomppot Boerekoel (kale in dutch), so you can have it again if you do dutch food :). It is generally served with sausage (fried or boiled) dill pickles, and applesauce. Jummy :)

I have followed your mom's blog for a long time, so that is how I found you :)

Cindy
tcvp@bmts.com

Josiah David said...

Haha! Liliana is such a little ham in front of the camera! I can't wait to meet her. :)

That's such a fun idea going through the alphabet for your food choices. I do believe we'll have to try it sometime! Great post!

Anthony said...

That looks so very good!!! I do not like fish and chips, but that looks so good.( could be that I am writing this right before dinner.):) Love the pictures of Lilyana! She gets prettier every time I see her! I say that all the time.:P

Anton, Esq. to be

Lindsey said...

Lilyana looks adorable in pink...and green...and yellow. She is absolutely my favorite niece!

Do you think the slow boat to the next country could make a stop in San Andreas before heading out ;)

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