For the Love of British Food

Today I am diverting a little from the subject of British food, but if you read on, you’ll find there is still a bit of a connection.

To celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the President of the USA, I’m planning to cook some American recipes.

Both of them have some symbolism. Southern Fried Chicken celebrates the states and the people without whose fight for civil rights we would not now be seeing a man of colour elected to the highest office of the land.

The other recipe for Apple Muffins comes from a really great website called Mennonite Girls can Cook. The Mennonites are a Christian sect whose ancestors came from Zurich in Switzerland in order to practise their faith in freedom from persecution. They are associated in most peoples’ minds with communities who try to live very simply, without modern conveniences and technology, and dress in old fashioned clothes. These are Old Order Mennonites and Amish and mainly found in the North Eastern USA states, but there are  many Mennonite communities around the world, including in the UK who do not follow these practices. Their hospitality and skill in the kitchen is renowned - and the website is a great example of that.

You can find muffins in just about any cafe, coffee shop and supermarket, but they are so easy and cheap to make at home, why bother? 

You can mix the dry ingredients and clingfilm overnight, mix the wet ingredients quickly the next morning and have a batch of muffins for a weekend brunch out of the oven in half an hour. You could hardly run to your nearest supermarket that quickly, and of course if you make them you’ll know what ingredients went into them - no preservatives or e-numbers.

My two Nigella cookbooks ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ (which I do not claim to be!) and ‘Feast’ both have muffin recipes and pointed me to another recipe book which I managed to find on ebay. It’s called ‘The Joy of Muffins’. I have also collected muffin recipes from other sources and invented a few!

So what’s the British link? Fast food. There is a Kentucky Fried Chicken on almost every high street, but I wouldn’t walk in the door since I found out that they use the cheapest battery chicken and were buying it from places that were barely legal in terms of animal welfare. They claim they have cleaned up their act since the story broke a couple of years ago, but if I’m going to have meat of any kind I want to know it hasn’t been factory-farmed and has eaten a natural diet.

Anyway, since watching Nigella Lawson’s easy method for this American favourite, it’s no trouble to do at home.

It’s going to be a cost conscious day as well. I checked the storecupboard, freezer and fridge this morning and have all the ingredients available with no shopping to do.

I don’t know if Barack likes to cook, and I don’t suppose Michelle is going to have much time for home cooking now, but I did wonder this morning what they might be eating for breakfast before this historic day!

(The image is a poster by artist Sterling Brown - see here)

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