We love banana loaves in this house.  I am not overly fond of eating bananas themselves, but bake them into a loaf or pie or cookie and I am all over them.  The Toddster could eat a raw banana every day.  I actually have to hide bananas so that I can bake with them . . .

 

This is my all time favourite banana bread.  Okay . . . I know . . . I say that about every banana bread I bake.  I guess I just love banana breads and this one shines!



Stogged with beautiful jewel-like dried cranberries, and crunchy toasted English walnuts, it is pleasing on many levels!



It's moreishly moist . . . with sticky little sweet bits and crunchy nutty nobbles scattered throughout.   It's lovely eaten plain and out of hand . . .



Or gently warmed and spread with cold butter . . .

 

It's gorgeous toasted and spread with butter . . . the stale bread makes great French Toast, or bread pudding . . . I hardly ever have any that goes stale however, it's that good.



It's also my next door neighbors' favourite banana bread that I bake for them.   I usually send half of it over to them every time I bake it.  They love it and I love to give.  It's win/win really!  Put it this way, they've never turned the gifting of  it down . . . never.

 

 

Since my kitchen is still not quite in working order, I thought it would be fun today to talk about some of the more traditional Savoury Dishes that I have cooked here in The English Kitchen. In some cases I have taken the traditional and added a slight twist, which I love to do. The essence remains the same and all are quite delicious, if I don't say so myself!



Toad in the Hole

This is my meat and potatoes loving husband's favourite meal, and who wouldn't like it. With it's delicious Yorkshire Batter Pudding Base and Thick English Bangers, it is a family pleaser all round. Especially when served up with mash and lots of onion gravy!




Lancashire Hot Pot. Lancashire hotpot is a culinary dish consisting essentially of meat, onion and potatoes left to bake in the oven all day in a heavy pot and on a low heat. Originating in the days of heavy industrialisation in Lancashire in the north west of England, it requires a minimum of effort to prepare.



Beer Battered Fish and Chips Moist and flakey fish encased in a traditional crisp beer batter, fried until golden brown. Oh so delicious, especially when served up with fat chips and mushy peas, or minted peas if you have no mushy peas to hand! (I love it both ways!)



Perfect Egg and Chips A perfectly fried egg, served with crisp chips and slices of buttered bread in the traditional way. All the better to make a hot chip buttie with! (Yes that's hot chips wrapped up in a buttered slice of white bread. The butter melts and the whole thing is just fabulously tasty.) Simple and filling and oh so wonderfully comforting.



Welsh Cheese Pudding A bread and butter pudding of sorts filled with lovely leeks, welsh cheese, eggs and milk. A simple and comfortingly filling dish.



Bangers and Mash
and not just any Bangers and Mash, but Sticky Bangers with a Chive and Buttermilk Mash! Scrummo!!



Spam Fritters, surprisingly tasty! Don 't knock them or turn your nose up til you try them. They are oddly addictive!


Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder. Oh, this is a gorgeous Sunday Lunch Treat! With lovely crisp roast potatoes, and vegetables, lotsa gravy. Oh yum...



The Great Cornish Pasty. A beautiful thing, filled with steak, potatoes, onions and swede. Oh, and that pastry. So delectable!



Posh Beans on Toast. Dressed up tinned beans served on cheese and onion toasties.



Lamb Stew with Feather Dumplings. So called feather dumpling because they are made with potato and light as a feather!



Cauliflower and Cheese. The ultimate in comfort and tradition, and not boring in the least.



Cottage Pie with Potato Cobbles. Oh so delicious with the surprise of a sliced potato and cheese topping over a rich beef, vegetable and gravy base.



Macaroni Shepherds Pie. A delicious Shepherds Pie with a twise . . . delicious lamb filling, topped with a scrummy Macaroni and Cheese topping!



Baked Corned Beef Hash. The traditional with a little twist, baked and topped with cheese. Delicious!



Beef Stew with Herbed Dumplings. We are great stew lovers in this house, and dumplings make a fabulous dish every fabulous-er! (yes, I know, not a real word.)



Perfect Roast Chicken. Deliciously flavoured with carrot, leek, onion and butter. Moistly delectable.



A Mild Lamb Curry. Creamy and mild, with tender chunks of lamb in a well flavoured curry sauce. In short, delicious.



Chicken and Mushroom Casserole with Crusty Dumplings. Tender bites of chicken, with savoury mushrooms in a rich sauce, topped with crusty dumplings. Need I say more???

Of course there are many, many more traditional recipes on my site, but I've made myself rather hungry now. I think I'll have to go and make myself some bread and marmite and dream about a day in the not too soon future when my kitchen is again workable. Buttered Bread and Marmite . . . another tasty tradition, which you either loathe or love, or both.



Don't lose faith in me, there will be some new scrumminess soon, I promise!!

I was searching through the archives here the other day and I couldn't believe that I had never done a British Fry Up.  That is what they call a big breakfast over here in the UK.  

A fry up, and it is what will be offered you for breakfast at any B&B in the country.  It may vary slightly from area to area, but the basics are pretty simple . . .

 

It will consist of one or two British Bangers.  In a good place they will use quality sausages, but most restaurants (unless quality) will use cheap and nasty ones.  Blah.   

 Here at home I use only a quality banger.   It will also include a couple of rashers (slices) of good quality dry cure smoked or unsmoked British Back Bacon.  Both will have been grilled to perfection.



Along with a large free range (in the better places) egg done to your desire (scrambled, poached, or fried).  Also grilled fresh tomatoes.  

I have seen some places just heat tinned tomatoes, but I like to use fresh tomatoes myself.  There will also be fried mushrooms.  (Some places will serve tinned, again blah!)



What really surprised me when I first had a big breakfast over here was the addition of baked beans.  Back home we would never have thought about having baked beans with eggs.  

At least not in my experience, but it works quite well.  I enjoy them.  I  use tinned Heinz, Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce. It seems to be the British preference.

  

You can also choose to have black pudding if you wish.  (We never wish)  Toast will often be offered, sometimes at an additional cost, which I just don't understand because to me toast is a must, but to each their own.  

 You can also get fried bread, which is a heart attack waiting to happen, no matter how good it tastes . . .  just thinking about it makes my arteries start to ache.  

It's pretty tasty, but you can imagine how much fat a slice of bread being deep fried would absorb!

And thats the Great British Fry Up!

a slice of black pudding (optional)

Heat the grill of your oven to moderate.    Place the sausage onto a grill pan.  Grill the sausage beneath the grill for 15 minutes, turning occasionally.   Add the bacon slices for the last 5 minutes, turning them once they are golden on one side.  Remove and keep warm.  

Place your cut tomato under the grill, bottom sides up.  Grill for about 3 minutes, flip over and season with some salt and pepper.  Grill for about 3 minutes longer.   Remove and keep warm.  

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet until hot.   Add the mushroom slices and cook until golden, giving them a stir once or twice.  Scoop out with a slotted spoon and keep warm.  

Place the beans in a small saucepan and heat gently.   

Crack the egg open into a small bowl and slide it into the hot fat in the pan.   (You may need to add a bit more oil.)  Cook over medium heat until the white is completely set and the egg is beginning to turn golden at the edges.  Remove to a warm plate and keep warm.  (If you are wanting over easy, then flip it carefully, cook for about 30 seconds and then remove to a warm plate.)  

If you are having black pudding, fry it now in the residual fat in the skillet, until crisp on both sides.  

Toast your bread and butter it lightly, cut into half diagonally.  

Plate up the sausage, bacon, tomato, egg, mushrooms and beans.  Serve with the toast and black pudding ( if eating.)



I recently received a lovely little package from debbie & andrew's, makers of quality Pork Sausages.  They sent me a delicious package of their new Caramelized Red Onion and Pork Sausage and that is what I used here in my fry up, and they WERE very delicious, trust me on this.   Also included were the cutest little herb planter that is a pair of red wellies and a little sausage cookbook.

We really did like these sausages.   They are wheat, gluten and dairy free.  I wasn't sure how I would feel about that, but I was really surprised at how very good they were.  They were DELICIOUS!  I would and will buy these! 

Their sausages come in a variety of flavours including . . . . Harrogate 97%,  Perfect Pork,  Perfect Cumberland, and of course the Caramelized Red Onion and Pork.  debbie & andrews multi-award winning sausages are available in Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda, with the new Caramelized Red Onion Pork Sausages being available in Asda from mid April.

Everything which goes into a debbie & andrew's sausage is prepared from scratch, nothing is brought in pre-cooked and no short cuts are taken.  It starts with the pork, using only the cuts that are best for making a really juicy sausage, selected from British farms that meet good welfare standards.

With the Caramelized Red Onion ones, the red onions are pan fried to perfectly ensure that they are caramelized for a really deep flavour, adding muscovado sugar to bring out the natural sticky sweetness as the onion reduces.  To really get the taste buds tingling, Balsamic vinegar is also added towards the end of the process, making the onions darker and even more delicious.  Altogether this makes for one very delicious sausage indeed.

Many thanks to Debbie and Andrew for sending me this lovely pack.  Although I did receive a package of sausages for free, I was not required to write a positive review.  Any and all opinions are my own.