cooking a l'anglaise

[Patf]

Is this really as bad as the french think? I bought some frozen

julienne root vegetables and looked at the cookery suggestions : a

l'anglaise which is boil in water, microwave or sautee.  As it

happens I cooked them in olive oil salt and pepper and they were

delicious. Do the english really boil everything in water until the

flavour has gone? The only things I think are better boiled in water

are beans - various kinds of haricots. Pat.

[Viv]

I don't think we do anymore, I think English food is no longer the joke that it was and the style of cooking changed/ improved as well.

Certainly my long dead nan could boil everything to death.I can still remember visiting her on sunday afternoons and being almost overwhelmed by the smell of overboiled cabbage ( green cabbage boiled white!) and her parrafin heater [+o(].

 

[Clair]

[quote user="Patf"]Is this really as bad as the french think? I bought some frozen

julienne root vegetables and looked at the cookery suggestions : a

l'anglaise which is boil in water, microwave or sautee.  As it

happens I cooked them in olive oil salt and pepper and they were

delicious. Do the english really boil everything in water until the

flavour has gone? The only things I think are better boiled in water

are beans - various kinds of haricots. Pat. [/quote]

Well, when I was a young girl watching my mother cook, she used to make "patates à l'anglaise" (as she used to call them!). They were peeled sliced potatoes, just covered with salted water. We used to add sliced garlic to the water to get a bit of flavour!

My English OH (bless him!) once served me some boiled peas straight from the pan, in their own jus so to speak (i.e. cooking water), as that's the way his mum used to do it...!

I suppose that a lot of French people based their conception of English cooking on what they see as the "worse" food combination: jam with meat or cheese, boiled veggies, overcooked (to them... and me) roast beef and so on...

Not much different to English people's idea that in France you eat snails and frogs legs for brekkie, lunch and dinner! Except when they're  having horsemeat of course!

[nimportequoi]

As far as vegetables are concerned - I always cook them al dente (steamed or partly boiled). Whenever I have had French friends to dinner they think it is strange and don't like eating vegetables cooked in this way. Likewise when I go to their houses for a meal, the vegetables are boiled/cooked to a tasteless pulp and I don't like that!