British Classics For The Weekend

British food can be a wonderful mix of hearty and whimsical. It's a hearty fair of meat and mash - potatoes or sausages and savory pudding. It is a sturdy meal, easily made.

The New York Times Food section yesterday had a kind of mini salute to the United Kingdom Melissa Clark,  gave us a recipe for a sheet pan supper of sausages with potatoes,  red cabbage and onions.It's an easy  go to  meal for the English, making it as much as we cook roast chicken.It's also easier and less time consuming too.It starts with wedges of red cabbage and halved potatoes.Ms Clark seasoned the cabbage with sprigs of rosemary and thyme.along with lightly crushed caraway and coriander seeds.Next is a layer of thinly sliced onions which will soften and brown, melt into the veggies beneath them. The sausages used are usually pork, chicken or turkey but bratwurst and spicy chorizo can also be used as well. She brushes them with mustard, a practice not widely done in Britain but doing this creates a kind of gravy with the meat's juices. This is great in flavoring the veggies, Use a nine by thirteen  rimmed sheet pan.It should have some depth because the heat will steam the sturdier cabbage and potatoes.It's an easy dish but it does take about an hour to cook with a break in between to flip over the cabbage and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Serve a good ale with it for a true pub feel.

Famed London based chef and baker Yottem Ottolenghi loves the whimsical sounding Toad In The Hole. Like Ms. Clark, he makes this British classic his own by changing up the recipe.It's a two hundred year old recipe with meat bits being dropped in a Yorkshire pudding batter. Chef Ottolenghi combines what he loves in British cooking well cooked meat - crisp pancake and a velvety gravy.However he deviates with subbing in homemade meatballs in for the sausage. These have an Italian vibe to them thanks to the addition of pancetta., Italian bacon. There's also rosemary sprigs and garlic added along with the surprising lemon zest.Pork, onions and sourdough  are the main ingredients with milk added for moisture. The batter itself is a Yorkshire pudding zinged up Indian pale ale and Dijon mustard. The gravy itself get a boost from the pale ale but it 's mostly a chicken stock also flavored with two small onions, rosemary sprigs and  balsamic vinegar. Flour thickens it to the velvety texture Chef Ottolenghi loves.The batter is prepared first followed by the gravy and the meatballs. After the meatballs have been made, it's then roasting them before encasing them in the batter. It's then baking them in a 400 degree oven for half an hour more.

Nothing beats a hearty British meal , whether it's a sausage sheet pan one or toad in the hole. Have it with a mug of ale and enjoy. It's the best of England at home.