Paeon to British food

AS we dug into yesterday's dinner, we couldn't help wondering why we, the British, are so shame-face about British food. We often watch cookery programmes on TV. At the beginning of "Daily Cooks Challenge" the guest is inevitably asked what sort of cooking they love. Usually it turns out to be Italian, Mexican, Moroccan, Thai (very in vogue at the moment), Chinese, Indian. Very rarely is it British, & when it is, the guest is usually apologetic. Yet what is wrong with traditional British food? It no longer has to mean the poor quality, bland food it was immediately after the the last world war & the aftermath of rationing.

Maybe the thought just struck us because we were eating a home-made chicken & vegetable pie with cheesy champ, runner beans & lashings of gravy. Where in the world produces something as satisfying as a good British pie, with a meaty saucy filling encased in melt-in-the-mouth shortcrust pastry? I used to have an employer who adored pies. Admittedly it was partly because his wife banned pies at home. I never quite understood his passion, mainly, I suspect, because we had pies so often then. We don't seem to have them so often now which is maybe why I enthuse so much now.

My mind drifts off to some memorable pies. There were Mrs Fry's fabulous black peppery steak & kidney pies we had whenever we ate at the Britannia at Elterwater in the 1970s. Or the amazing pies we used to get at the Wheatsheaf at Beetham in the 1980s - so often a mixture of meat, especially poultry, & fruit.

There is something comforting & satisfying about a good pie. And something very British.

Having said that we're going Italian tonight with Chicken Cacciatore. We do appreciate variety in meals. It will be our third day of chicken, with the Fox's wok meal on Monday, my pie yesterday using up some left over roast chicken, & now the tomatoey pasta dish today, but what different meals, reflecting such different culinary traditions & flavours. But that is the glory of chicken. It is so versatile, capable of being cooked in such different ways & with such different other ingredients & flavours.