Tracy's Tuesday Dinners: September 2011

Wondering why no blogs for the past month? Well, I’ve been on an amazing holiday in the wonderful United Kingdom!

With being in a new country, far from home, I decided to make it my mission to try some of the commonly known foods of the area.

Rather than a reuglar Tuesday Dinner blog, this posting is more of a little food diary of my trip.

I hope you enjoy!

Faggots, Mushy Peas, and Mash

Faggots are a traditional dish in the UK, especially South and Mid Wales and the Midlands of England. A faggot is traditionally made from pig's heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes bread crumbs. The mixture is shaped in the hand into balls, wrapped round with caul fat (the omentum membrane from the pig's abdomen), and baked.

Mushy peas are dried marrowfat peas which are first soaked overnight in water and then simmered with a little sugar and salt until they form a thick green lumpy soup

Faggots, Mushy Peas and Mash at The Gadleys Arms

Bangers and Mash

Enjoyed at The Three Mariners Pub in Tenby

Bangers and mash, also known as sausages and mash, is a traditional English dish made of mashed potatoes and sausages, the latter of which may be one of a variety of flavoured sausage made of pork or beef or a Cumberland sausage. The dish is sometimes served with a rich onion gravy. It can also often be found served with fried onions. This dish may, even when cooked at home, be thought of as an example of pub grub.

Cream Tea, Anyone?

A cream tea, Devonshire tea, is tea taken with a combination of scones, clotted cream, and jam.

Cream teas are offered for sale in tea rooms throughout Great Britain (especially South West England) and the rest of the Commonwealth.

There are regional variations as to how a cream tea should preferably be eaten. The Devonshire (or Devon) method is to split the scone in two, cover each half with clotted cream, and then add strawberry jam on top.


Yes, it was delicious!!!! Oh so delicious!

But I do like to share.

Cockles

At the Swansea Market

Cockles are a popular type of edible shellfish in both Eastern and Western cooking. They are collected by raking them from the sands at low tide.

Cockles are sold freshly cooked as a snack in the United Kingdom, particularly around the parts of the British coastline which are inhabited by cockles. Boiled then seasoned with malt vinegar and white pepper, they can be bought from seafood stalls, alongside mussels, whelks, jellied eels, crabs and shrimps.