English With a Difference: a seasonal cookbook is a favourite book of mine; it was published in 1988 and is by Steven Wheeler. It is arranged by months, so there are twelve chapters and within each are recipes making the most of English fruit and vegetables, meat, fish and game which are in season, but also taking advantage of the wonderful variety of produce brought in from abroad.
So in January you might expect to find English apples, nuts, quinces and forced rhubarb, you might see English beetroot, celery, leeks and root vegetables in the greengrocer’s, sea bass, skate and whiting at the fishmonger’s, and a whole range of the finest English game from the butchers.
So for starters in January Steven gives recipes for game soup, pea and ham soup, carrot and nut soufflé and a delicious sounding chicken liver, apple and walnut paté. He follows that with a great selection of main courses, to suit all tastes:
- Grandad’s gudgeons of sole with bananas and almonds
- an English fish stew with parsley dumplings (monkfish, conger eel, squid)
- Stilton and celery soufflé
- slow beef casserole cooked with Guinness
- a Lancashire hot pot of lamb
- roast duck with cardamom and orange
- turkey gratin with leeks and garlic
What a selection! Meat, fish, poultry, game, vegetarian… each recipe is prefaced with a little comment or suggestion or family story. To finish the dinner he suggests four puddings, an upside down apple sponge cake, Manchester pudding with bananas and lime, butterscotch meringue pie and orange and lemon cheesecake!
Lois Elsden 