On a winter morning in the Emirati countryside, when the date palms have given their harvest, a pan of eggs scrambled with onion and chopped dates is a quick, filling breakfast eaten with flatbread and a glass of sweet tea. The dates melt into sticky pockets among the eggs, the onions add savoury sweetness and a pinch of cardamom ties it together. It is homely food rarely seen in restaurants, made in minutes from what every Gulf kitchen has. Chef's tip: use soft, moist dates such as khalas or medjool; dry ones stay chewy and never melt into the eggs.
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The stottie is the big flat round loaf of Tyneside and County Durham, with a dimple pressed in the middle and a dense, chewy crumb; bakers in Newcastle split them and stuff them with pease pudding, cheese or a bacon filling. Its name is said to come from 'stotting', or bouncing, because it is heavy enough to bounce off the floor. Chef's tip: bake it low in the oven so the bottom gets a deep golden colour while the top stays pale.
Singin' hinnies are the girdle cakes of Northumberland and Tyneside, named for the singing hiss of the butter as they cook ('hinny' is a Geordie word of affection, like 'honey'). Mothers made them for children coming home from school, cooked on a heavy griddle and eaten hot, split and buttered. They are scone dough studded with currants and cooked in the pan instead of the oven. Chef's tip: keep the heat medium-low so they cook through before the outside darkens.
In Stoke-on-Trent and the Potteries towns, oatcakes are not crisp biscuits but large, soft, holey pancakes made from a yeasted oat and wheat batter, sold warm from shop hatches in the morning. They are rolled around fillings of melted cheese, tomato and mushroom, or folded up with beans. Chef's tip: the batter should be thin like single cream; if it is thick the oatcakes come out stodgy instead of lacy.
The Derbyshire market town of Bakewell in the Peak District is home to the Bakewell pudding, and its descendant, the Bakewell tart, is the one baked in every English home and village tea shop. Shortcrust is spread with raspberry jam and filled with a soft almond frangipane, then scattered with flaked almonds. Chef's tip: spread the jam thinly and leave a 1 cm border, or it boils up through the frangipane.
Simnel cake is England's Easter fruit cake, once baked by girls in service to take home on Mothering Sunday and now the centrepiece of Easter tea. A light fruit cake has a layer of marzipan baked through the middle and more on top, decorated with eleven marzipan balls for the apostles, leaving out Judas. Chef's tip: wrap a band of baking paper round the outside of the tin; it stops the edges drying out during the long, slow bake.
Tablet is harder and grainier than fudge, a sugary square sold at every church fête, Highland games and corner shop in Scotland and taken home in paper bags by visitors. Sugar, butter, milk and condensed milk are boiled to the soft-ball stage and beaten until they crystallise, giving that crumbly, melting snap. Chef's tip: beat it hard off the heat until it loses its gloss and drags on the spoon; stop too early and you have soft fudge.
In many Moroccan homes, coffee is bought ready-mixed from the roaster with a spoonful of 'attria', a warm blend of ground spices such as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, black pepper and toasted sesame, that gives it a rounded, gently peppery aroma. It is brewed in a pan or a pot and sipped black and sweet, or with a splash of milk, after lunch, with pastries for guests, or on cold mornings. The spices soften the bitterness and make the whole kitchen smell wonderful. This home version mixes the spices into ordinary ground coffee. Chef's tip: keep the coffee at a bare simmer and never let it boil hard; vigorous boiling, the usual mistake, extracts bitterness from both coffee and spices.
No fish and chip shop in the North of England is complete without a tub of mushy peas, and in Nottingham and Leeds they are sold with mint sauce from pea stalls at fairs. Dried marrowfat peas are soaked overnight with a little bicarbonate of soda, which softens their skins, and then simmered until they break down into a thick, savoury green mash. Chef's tip: rinse the soaked peas very well, or the bicarbonate leaves a soapy taste.
Manchester tart is the school-dinner pudding generations of Mancunians remember: a shortcrust case spread with raspberry jam, filled with thick, cold vanilla custard and covered in desiccated coconut, sometimes with a glacé cherry on top. It is a nostalgic Northern bake for birthdays and school reunions. Chef's tip: make the custard really thick and cool it a little before pouring, so it sets in clean slices.
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