The British Are Coming!

Dinner this week was fun, delicious, and overly patriotic! With it being 4th of July, we thought it would be fun to plan a dinner around the independence of the good ol’ USA and ‘The British Are Coming’ dinner was born. We had a combination of British and American dishes — I made the English dessert, Mary made the American side, and Taylor made an American recipe by an English chef for our main dish. See how we did that?!

4th of July is the one day Mary and Taylor give me all the crap I can handle about being English. These are some sassy ladies! But don’t worry — I give as good as I get 🙂 I’d say the British came out on top this year, did ya see Andy Murray win Wimbledon yesterday? The first British male champ in 77 YEARS.

 

But back to dinner. You should definitely try out all of our recipes, they were so, so delicious. I found the recipe I used on a website that “debunks the myths of English cookery”. The link is posted below with the recipe, so check it out. Lots of great stuff on there!

Red and White Double Dippers with Blue Corn Chips: 

Via

Ingredients:

Red Pepper Salsa: 

• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 tomato on the vine, quartered
• 1/3 cup piquante peppers, such as peppadew, mild or sweet
• 1/4 of a large white onion, cut into chunks
• 1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8-1/4 tsp hot sauce

Creamy Garlic Lime Dip: 

• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
• 2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp. lime zest
• 2 small cloves garlic, finely grated
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Blue corn tortilla chips, for serving

Directions:

1. Preheat the broiler. Place the bell peppers on a large baking sheet and broil, turning, until the bell peppers have blackened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let stand until cooled.
2. While the peppers cool, make the creamy garlic lime dip. Stir the sour cream, lime juice, cilantro, coriander, zest, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl until smooth. Stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of water to adjust the consistency to your liking.
3. Rub the skin off the bell peppers and remove the stem and seeds. Put in the bowl of a food processor or the carafe of a blender. Add the tomato, piquante peppers, onion, lime juice, cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Pulse until chunky. Transfer to a serving bowl and season with the hot sauce, salt and pepper.
4. Serve the blue corn tortilla chips with the red pepper sauce and white dip.

Red & White Dips

Corn Chowder: 

Via

Ingredients:

• 1 stalk celery
• 1 medium onion
• Olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 3 cups 1% milk
• 1 medium Yukon gold potato, peeled and cut into little cubes
• 3 spring onions
• 2 cups frozen corn
• 1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped, or parsley

Directions:

1. Pull the leaves from the celery stalks and set them aside. Chop your celery and onion. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add the celery (not the leaves), onion, and thyme. Stir until the vegetables start to brown.
2. Sprinkle the flour over the veggies and stir for a few more minutes. Pour in the milk, add the potato and bring to a boil, stirring the whole time so the soup doesn’t stick to the pot. Cook until the potatoes are tender, but not mushy – this will take around 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, chop the celery leaves, trim the ends off the spring onions and slice them thinly. When the potatoes are tender, stir in the corn, spring onion and celery leaves. Bring the soup back to the boil, then serve.

Corn Chowder

Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble: 

Via

Ingredients:

Filling: 

• 600g rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2 cups)
• 400g fresh strawberries, hulled and cut into quarters
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 100g (little less than 1/2 cup) sugar
• 3 tbsp. cornstarch
• Pinch of salt

Topping: 

• 200g (1 1/3 cups) flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 3 tbsp. brown sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 4 oz (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. First, make the topping. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, both sugars and the lemon zest. Stir the melted butter together with the vanilla and the cinnamon. Stir this into the flour mixture and mix together with a fork until it clumps, making both large and small bits.
2. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
3. Place the fruit into a bowl along with the cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add the lemon juice and toss together. Dump into a large square baking dish.
4. Cover the fruit thickly and evenly with the crumble topping. Place on a baking tray and bake for 40-50 minutes, until the crumble topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling beneath. Cover with foil if your topping is browning too quickly without the fruit cooking.
5. Serve warm or at room temperature with custard or cream.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

Happy eating, everyone!