Recreating British Meals in America

Being a British expat in America, so far from home, can be difficult sometimes. I try my best to honor the sacrifices Ryan has made moving here and maintain connections to his homeland as best we can. One of the best ways we do this is through food. And as they say, a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. This post is not recipe listings per say but I have linked to a few favorites we follow from others. I am by no means a chef , so I generally don’t presume to tell other people how to cook although I do tend to pull out some pretty bomb desserts. What I did want to share is how we track down the ingredients for these classic recipes to recreate them in America as a lot of the recipe elements are not easily found in supermarkets here. Read on for how we recreate our favorite British meals in America.

Full English Breakfast

The most difficult part of the full English breakfast in America is getting the black pudding. It’s not something you can easily order online given it’s perishable and it is not easily found in stores because I think I speak for most Americans when I say.. gross. But, as it is a European delicacy, and something Ryan enjoys, we have found it out at a local Bakery that caters to the Polish community. Shout out to Kolatek’s Bakery for carrying this British meat product fresh in store. Your best bet will be to find a European grocer or butcher to find it locally. Same with the sausages and bacon as the American versions of these meats are completely different. Heinz Beans are a lot easier to find with them being available at Whole Foods or World Market chains. We are lucky in our area to additionally have the upscale grocery chain Marianos carry them, and you can order them bulk on Amazon. No matter where you find them though, be prepared for a much steeper price then you would find back in the UK. But, we often find it can be worth it for a little taste of home.

Sunday Roast Dinner

There are some products that you just can’t find in the store when you are trying to recreate British Meals in America. This is especially true for Sunday roast dinner. We are lucky to be able to bring back nonperishables with us from visits or have family haul things over when they visit ( I think Ryan’s brother is officially starting to feel like a British candy mule at this point) But in between we have found that amazon is the best place to go to order British products. We were able to order the Mushy Peas, Gravy Mix, Yorkshire Pudding Mix and Duck Fat for our Christmas dinner this year. We even had the pudding mix sent via Amazon straight to my parents house; we got the big pack as we knew we would use it all eventually if not all for that meal. Click through on each item to see their current prices.

Sausage Rolls

We base our sausage rolls off of the recipe by Julia Frey of Vikalinka. We came across it on Pinterest and it is a quick and easy version. Our personal take usually involves skipping the sesame seeds on top and adding chopped red onion inside with the sausage. We generally use the prepackaged sausage and puff pastry brands pictured above. With the puff pastry I will use one sheet per meal. The sheets are folded into three parts and we use two sections to make two rolls each. Making them look the right shape is a work in progress, but we make these pretty regularly so practice makes perfect right? I save the third section of puff pastry for apple turnovers. I honestly just winged it on the recipe initially to use up the extra dough but I have honed it now and it’s one of our favorite desserts that always goes with the sausage rolls. Click here for my two full dessert recipes sent to your email. Add a little ice cream or custard made from Birds’ Custard Powder and you’ve got a real treat.

Fish and Chips

As with it’s history fish and chips remains a quick, easy and cheap meal that we like to throw in on a particularly busy evening or after a particularly long day. Any packaged battered cod and French fries (I know, I used the F word) will do. I love that you can just toss them in the oven and have a good meal. We have also played around with making our own batters for when you have the time and frying the fish in oil which turned out just as good but not necessarily better considering the extra work. Now, the important part is making sure you have the right dressings. You can go with the American favorite of tartar sauce or go authentically British with Malt Vinegar and a side of coleslaw.

Bangers and Mash

Upon writing this post I began realizing how many English dishes involve sausages. Ryan tells me that the ones we find at our supermarkets and even the ones at the Polish Supermarket are not quite right. Finding the perfect sausages is fairly difficult, especially if you do not live in an urban area. The ones from the polish grocery were pretty close, but the one’s at the Irish grocery store, located farther from our home in the south suburbs had the real deal. Winston’s Market is an Irish grocery with all kinds of Irish goodies including the sausages, bacon, pies and pasties along with the nonperishables. They also have an Irish restaurant next door that had the full Irish Breakfast and other Irish favorites . Ryan said his brekky was Englishman approved. You can get the potatoes for your mash in the usual places. Ryan insists that bangers and mash should always also include some Heinz Beans, which we discussed above for breakfast.

Steak and Kidney Pie

Steak and Kidney Pie has been our most ambitious English meal to recreate. You can get recipes that include making your own crust but if I have learned anything from the British Bake Off it is that puff pastry is best left to the experts. So I use the prepackaged stuff like with the sausage rolls. It took a whole sheet for bottom and whole sheet for the top with a little extra cut off the edges for another dessert each, a chocolate vanilla tart. Click here for my two full dessert recipes sent to your email. The vegetables and chuck steak are found easily at the grocery store. Finding the kidney was not so simple. We tried chicken liver instead once which was not a great substitute. Walmarts are supposed to be the best place for finding organ meats in general, in the frozen section. I have been using this recipe from food.com to make ours.

While there is nothing quite as good as home, we do our best in recreating British meals in America. It’s important to us to maintain that connection to England and our family there and what better way to do that than with food. Thanks for reading and good luck with your own British Meal recreations. We would love to hear how yours go in the comments below.