The skies are blue, the days are long and the strawberries and cream are flowing at Wimbledon. The British summer has arrived with fervour. This might seem a trivial thing, but on an island where even the sunniest regions get over 100 days of rain per year, (close to 300 days in other areas) we have an understandable appreciation of sunshine. Knotted handkerchiefs become customary headgear, our trousers rolled up to the knees, and we pour ourselves a long glass of that most essential of all summer accessories, Pimm’s.

Pimm’s is regarded to be epitome of English refinery, the drink of choice for the Wimbledon hat-wearers and every polo tournament frequenter in the Royal Shires. Order a pint of Carling at a polo match and you’re in for some stern looks. Shellfish monger-turned restaurateur James Pimm came about the idea for this gin-based cocktail in 1823 whilst searching for the ideal digestif for his oysters. Thirty years later and demand for the ‘No.1 Cup’ was such that the company moved to large scale production in order to keep gentlemen’s bars and officer’s messes well stocked up. Pimm expanded his range in the years to come, using his herbal recipe with other base liquors; vodka, scotch, rum and the like, although few of these survive to this day. Marketing variations on an original brand is a difficult proposition, one which only the KitKat Chunky has met with success in recent years.

So dust off your top hat and sock garters, stiffen your upper lip, go out in the midday sun and enjoy the taste of a very upper class England.

Toodle pip!

GDave

The lowly potato has been taken unto the bosom of so many nations. Who would have thought that when Sir Isaac Newton brought the potato back from the Holy Land it would have proven the cornerstone of our diet? (this actually happened, I read it in a book about history ‘n’ stuff) As soon as we were convinced they weren’t poisonous we went on to discover just how versatile potatoes truly were; creating chips, mash and other delicacies. But it was the potato cake that ultimately united the world. Enjoyed on every continent of our Earth, they might be different shapes, sizes and flavours but they all contain that same key ingredient… cake! (uh no, make that potato)

Enough waffle, this version of an English potato cake comes from Gateshead and Durham in the Northeast of the country. Bacon Floddies are a traditional breakfast course said to have been a staple of the ‘navvies’ working on the northern canals in the 19th century, a tale leading to them being otherwise know as Canal Floddies. A hearty start to the day for labourers and the big-boned alike, they would be served with rashers of back bacon and good butcher’s bangers. An interesting story, if not a little fanciful, is that the navvies would cook these up for themselves on their shovels over an open fire. Undoubtedly a romantic image, but I’m having difficulty seeing hardened canal workers leaving home with empty stomachs and knocking up potato cakes on frosty mornings. Isn’t that what wives are for?

Floddies belong to the Swiss rösti/hash brown school of potato cakes, using grated potatoes rather than mashed, although the addition of flour make them a little heavier than a rösti. But I can see these babies coming to the rescue on a hungover Sunday morning. Here’s the forme… > > Read on > >

Today in the Commonwealth we celebrated The Queen’s Official Birthday. The Queen’s real birthday is on 21st April but this is a day to mark her coronation to the throne and a day of pageantry and celebration for our Royal Family, armed forces and anyone who wants to revel in a bit of national pride.

I’m not much of a monarchist and about as likely to put my hand on my heart when the national anthem plays as John Lydon, but something very strange hit me during the 2003 celebrations of The Queen’s 50th anniversary, even stranger than Bryan May’s guitar solo on top of Buckingham Palace. The thing was, I actually buy into this stuff! I love the fact that The Queen is adored by millions of Britons. That Australia, who by all rights should be a republic, still voted to retain her as head of state. That Fiji, after more than 20 years of independence, still celebrate her birthday. Despite all of her offspring’s (and husband’s) misdemeanours she remains a talisman of Britishness and, for me, Englishness. I’ll leave it to Stephen and Hugh to sum up what it means to be English.

Coronation Chicken was a dish created in 1953 for The Queen’s coronation by Rosemary Hume and subsequently published in her, and Constance Spry’s, cookery book. The recipe has been changed and adapted over the years but this is quite a faithful version of Hume’s original. > > Read on > >

Ynys Môn, better known to non-Welsh speakers as Anglesey, is an island that lies a short distance off the Northwest coast of Wales across the Menai Strait and is the fifth largest island off the British mainland.

A large part of the local economy depends on tourism thanks to its outstanding rural beauty and dramatic coastlines, very typical of North Wales, but that’s not to say entirely dependant. Industry and agriculture also play big roles for the population of 69,000 people, two of its largest employers being the Wylfa nuclear power station and Anglesey Aluminium (owned by Rio Tinto). However, Anglesey faces testing times in the coming years. Wylfa is provisionally earmarked for closure in 2010 (a good or bad thing is not for me to comment) and as a result Rio Tinto have decided that the aluminium smelters cannot viably survive without their cheap source of energy. Combined job-losses could total over 2000 people, obviously a devastating blow for a community of this size.

But Anglesey has a few rays of hope on the horizon. There are discussions to keep Wylfa open until as late as 2014 which will at least secure those jobs for the near future (and hopefully beyond the recession) after which, German company RWE npower have an option on the site. But Anglesey has also secured part of a £38m EU regeneration grant aimed at helping the most deprived areas of Wales as well as private companies looking to invest in the area. Further to this, a new scheme is being rolled out to encourage the placement of students with existing island businesses designed to stem the “brain drain” of high achieving school-leavers and university graduates from leaving Anglesey, a statistic recorded as a massive 89% by the 2001 census.

Hopefully the proposed support will make a difference to Anglesey’s inhabitants. My own countless holiday experiences in North Wales (albeit never across the strait) have always been a joy and it would be terrible to see their community degenerate as is currently threatened.

Okay, no more ‘heavy’ stuff. Let’s see what Anglesey has to fill our bellies! Here’s a very tasty dish from the island.

Ŵyau Ynys Môn (lit. Anglesey Island Eggs) is a gratin of mashed potatoes and boiled eggs, topped with white sauce and cheese. Very simple to make and is destined to be a regular at Chez Greedydave. > > Read on > >