Tuesday 17 February 2015

It's tradition, Jim, but not as we know it

It may be that my mother, grandmother and indeed all my foremothers are spinning in their graves even as I write, but the sad fact is that pancakes are not on the menu at Frugal Follies today.  I can't remember not having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday but there it is.  In the eyes of all those venerable women I Am A Failure.

But there is another British tradition which is sadly fading from common usage and that is Bubble and Squeak.  I should perhaps explain that B & S is a glorious fry up which has leftover mashed potato with leftover cabbage as its base and any other leftover vegetables added.  A glorious potato  and vegetable cake, fried until golden brown was a favourite way of using up the leftovers from Sunday lunch and making a really easy meal on Monday which was traditionally washday. Yum.

I don't often cook a traditional Sunday lunch.  It's not a meal for the single person household.  Last Sunday however, I invited five members of my extended family and we tucked into roast chicken and a lot more besides.  And as always I cooked too much.

So the Bubble and Squeak tradition had to come to my rescue.  I didn't cook mashed potato which is an essential ingredient but I had roast potatoes along with roast beetroot, carrot, parsnip, onion and sweet potato.  I'd also got sprouts with mushrooms and bacon and I'd got pigs in blankets, leeks and stuffing.  So I chopped up the lot and slung it into a frying pan with a little oil.

And  can still have pancakes on another day

12 comments:

  1. "Bubble and squeak"... Hm, that's the coolest name of a food I've ever heard of in my life. Just because of the name I want to make it now!

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    1. I've just been admiring the recipe on your blog, Rivulet, so we've managed an iunplanned recipe swap.

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    2. I'm not sure I accomplished to make actual Bubble and Squeak but I certainly made something related to it. I used leftover scraps of chicken drumsticks, mashed potatoes with carrots (I make very lumpy mashed potatoes and carrots), some corn, and after I fried the bottom to a nice brown I flipped it over and topped it with cheese while I fried the other side. (I am as much a cheese addict as I am with sugar) There was no cabbage involved and I know you said it was part of the base but we just don't eat cabbage.

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    3. It sounds as though you made a pretty good fist of that, Rivulet. I hope you enjoyed eating it. We'll make you an honorary Brit yet!

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    4. It was delicious! Although, my husband asked what in the world I was eating and I told him it was bubble and squeak and then he made fun of me, insisting that I had just mad that name up all on my own for the leftovers I fried up. He refused to believe me that this was really a name for a real dish.

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    5. And does he think that Hot Dog is a real dish? Or fish finger? Bubble and Squeak sounds comparatively sane to me!

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  2. I love bubble and squeak especially with left over mashed sprouts. Crispy top and bottom with a slice of crispy streaky bacon, crispy black pudding. And a fried egg, yum, yum. Proper Northern Monday tea.

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  3. It looks good! I don't think I can fit the pancakes in today either. Maybe tomorrow.

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  4. 30th anniversary special foe Eastenders showed the original cafe with Bubble and Squeak on the specials board. Just watched last night and now I know what it is!

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  5. I have always belonged to a church that promoted Shrove Tuesday -- I was raised Methodist, became Lutheran as a teenager and am now happily settled in as an Anglican. All of these churches would have Pancake Suppers (our church had ours last night) but I have only been to one. When my children were small I would make the pancakes myself and that would have to do. However, my husbands diabetes make all the syrup not a good thing so we just bypassed it. My daughter was upset that we didn't have pancakes last night and if I had been a thougtful, caring mother/grandmother I would have stayed at her house and made pancakes but.....well, I was tired!

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  6. When I was first married I acquired an "international Cookbook" and there was a recipe for bubble and squeak and I tried it. I loved it but then t contained two of my favorite foods -- cabbage and mashed potatoes!

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