My Favourite Home Cooked Menu del Dia

[BENIDORM]

Forget your Fancy Steaks and Eastern Delights....

My favourite three course Menu del Dia would start with Heinz Tomato Soup, a full tin,...served with doorstops of crusty bread smothered with Anchor Butter..

For my main course I would have a large helping of Cottage Pie, with a lava flow of melted Cheddar Cheese, served on a Desperate Dan sized plate,the Cottage Pie towering in the middle of the plate , surrounded by a sea of thick onion gravy, with a fleet of garden peas bobbing around....

And for Pud..
I would have good old fashioned Sherry Trifle,... a light fluffy sponge heavily steeped in Oceans of Sherry with big chunks of fruit and shivering flows of strawberry jelly, topped with lashings of thick Devon Cream....Yum Yum..

By Eck....I'd better go and have a cholesterol test.....

So what be your favourite grub, that would bring back floods of happy memories from days gone by

What's in Your Larder....

[ken2]

if i could turn back time, i would go down Wandsworth road, Clapham south west london, the shop was Harrington's pie mash and liquor,i would enjoy the Que, because of the lovely smells of the pies cooking, i would have two pies and double mash, lots of spice vinegar on the dinner then half way through eating it most of the liquor would be gone ,so i would have another 2D worth on it, me wife cooked it last week, no good could not get any mutton to make the pies, ha ha ha ask the Spanish butcher for lamb mince, he said no have any, i say what lamb can you mince, he shrugs his shoulders ,says i can mincer a lambs leg , OK says i, but no was not the same, for a start the liquor never had any eel's in it cooking,

[Travelogic]

Forget your Fancy Steaks and Eastern Delights....

My favourite three course Menu del Dia would start with Heinz Tomato Soup, a full tin,...served with doorstops of crusty bread smothered with Anchor Butter..

:

That Anchor butter is from New Zealand. I think we should support UK produce and then that of our european cousins before shipping in the far away stuff. I hear they're opening up a factory in the E.U. to make the Anchor Butter but the name will have to change.
The new name..........



























EURO ANCHOR !!!!!!!

[olive]

Apart from food miles which is obviously an issue of mega proportions, I personally find it very sad that Britain doesn't support the Commonwealth countries more. Just one reason would be the lives and support they gave Britain during various wars.

Nowadays that all seems to have been forgotten and Britain just can't get enough of "foreign" produce. It is a shame that our "European cousins" don't reciprocate! You have to look really hard in Spanish and French supermarkets for anything British!

olive

[katy]

Absolutely agree! The caribbean islands have also been sold down the river. Nearly all the bananas sold in Europe come from French owned plantations.

[scarlet]

OLIVE. you can get british food in loads of spanish supermarkets, not mercadona, they only do heinz beans, but they have started selling their sliced bread which is english style and a lot better than the bimbo bread, carrefour, supersol , corte ingles all do a good selection of british food, I cant eat a lot of british food as it tastes horrible, we only eat tomato soup, beans and pickle. heinz soup is cheaper in supersol than any of the british supermarkets. also theres iceland in mijas costa.

[ken2]

but if you get back to the thread, what menu of the day do you like to eat?????? what about mussels coooked in wine and cream, and if the wife as gone visiting, slip in some garlic, then a french stick to dip in the soup, lovely,Ohhhhhhhhhh and you know that cheap cut of beef,about €7 a kilo stick in a sloooooooooooowwwwwww cooker with lots of nice freash veg, leave it to cook over night, make some dumplings to float on the top, ohhhhhhhhhhhh god how nice, the butcher in euromarket takes all the fat of for us,nice to have a butcher ,most have gone from the markets,

[Wicksey]

It is a shame that our "European cousins" don't reciprocate! You have to look really hard in Spanish and French supermarkets for anything British!
olive

When I lived in France it was very noticable that nearly everything had huge labels on it saying it was French produce, or from the French colonies. The were very nationalistic - they seemed to be saying that if it wasn't French, it was cr@p!

I suppose it's good to be proud of your local produce which is something that I think may have been lost in the past in the UK, although I believe more people are now thinking about the air miles side of it and trying to buy more locally grown produce.

I've been racking my brains trying to think of a 3 course purely English meal but I'm struggling. On the rare occasions I go back to the UK I crave Thai or Indian food. I think the best things that the UK produce are puddings/desserts. Apart from my German friend who makes the most wonderful cakes, I don't know of many other countries that has the range of yummy puds that we Brits have.

[katy]

I do miss fresh cream cakes. I don't like the cakes and puddings here, seem really artificial.

[daisylulu]

I agree Katy.....I really miss my english puds and cakes.

Love sticky toffee pudding and cream teas were a fav in my part of the country

[safeashouses]

I do miss fresh cream cakes. I don't like the cakes and puddings here, seem really artificial.

There used to be a wonderful REAL cream cake cafe & take-away in Fuengirola, wonder if it's still there I haven't been to Fuengirola for a few years. It was next door to a seafood cafe & takeaway, not far from the harbour and not very far back from the beach.

[safeashouses]

ken2 I vote for your mussels and BRISKET menu del dia.

You missed off the pudding though.

[ken2]

what can i say, its got to be spotted *beep* with home made custard,

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Ken

I've seen those bags of mussels in the local upermarket.

How do you cook em?

is it just chuck in a pot with wine and garlic, turn on the heat, and wait till they open , then add the cream?

[ken2]

well a little bit more work, clean the out side shells of the mussels ,like if they have barnacles on ,scrape them off with a knife, put some onions in the pan, i like to use a wok, and a little chili and garlic to taste, say about 1/2 pint stock (fish, or veg or what you like) do like normal get you onions chili garlic soft then add stock, during to boil, then add you mussels, and cream, check your mussels the ones that don't open, don't eat,if you like you can just before serve add a little parsley, loads of nice bread to mop up the soup, god its great,i can't have the garlic if fay is home, it really makes her bad, but if she visits my daughter for a week i go barmy for the first three days, then stop, cos it starts leaking out of me skin ha ha ha ha

[safeashouses]

If the mussels are open before they are cooked and don't close when tapped don't cook them but discard them.

How about giving this Rick Stein recipe for mussels cooked in beer a try.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/datab ... 1399.shtml

[olive]

SCARLET-

The point I was trying to make is that whilst British supermarkets stock produce from other countries by the bucketful, our European cousins just don't reciprocate. Just two examples of wonderful British produce that should be stocked are cheeses and beef. I once talked to a Frenchman who honestly thought Britain didn't produce any cheese whatsoever!

Personally I don't miss anything British - not sure what a British meal is anymore either. I'm with Katy on the cream cakes though. I certainly don't go looking for it in any of the supermarkets.

olive

[scarlet]

OLIVE. I dont think they want to risk having british fresh products such a beef due to health problems, I usually find spanish cheeses and meat superior to british products, I think they are wary of food frm the uk, but irish beef is readily available in most spainsh supermarkets, I remember my son having his spanish friends round, and I offered them food, they looked at me with a horrified look on their faces and said no thank you.
do prefer british cakes though, I recently had some eccles cakes and they were lovely, britain isnt famed for its food products compared to france, italy etc. except fish and chips, In a village near me they have 3 english fish and chip shops and they are all awful.

[BENIDORM]

I've been eating my way around Europe for many years, and have found
good and bad restaurants everywhere....


The worst steak that I've ever tasted was in Spain, and by the way, I know of people with 'mad cow' disease, in Spain, long before it was 'discovered ' in UK. In fact I've found it difficult to find Spanish beef that has any real flavour, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg....
Most of the beef in Spain seems to come from South America, however lots nice pork available in Spain...
I've brought loads of meat pies and cakes , and English bacon,for Spanish friends, and they think that they are great...
I'm quite happy to eat whatever is locally produced, always have been, and long before the 'Green' propaganda, but now and again I do like to eat something from the 'old country'.
With regard to cheese , each country produces great cheeses, all different, and I still love UK Cheddar, Cheshire and Stilton. ...Red cheddar on toast......yum yum.....

[katy]

Alcampo sells English Cheddar. Have to watch here if you order a rare steak (I don't). OH has often sent them back as they are frozen in the middle.
I do find I miss UK foods that I didn't eat in the UK Pies and pasties etc.