What is Bubble and Squeek?
A letter to America…..
Here’s one for Annie in California and fellow blog visitors from the US who may be feeling a little jaded with election fever.
Bubble and squeek is the name given to leftover potatoes and vegetables which are combined to give a substantial side dish full of colour and flavour.
Where the name comes from I cannot be entirely sure but I believe it has something to do with the noise the vegetables are supposed to make whilst frying in the pan. In some parts of England it is known simply as bubble and for some children probably a lot worse but don’t let that put you off.
As with most traditional dishes variations abound, some insist on one vegetable, others on a number of different ones. I use two versions, one with just cabbage and the other with carrots, cabbage, sprouts and sometimes leek. Whatever vegetable I choose it is always combined with mashed potatoes, the proportions are left to the cook’s discretion.
This is a great way of using up your leftovers from a roast lunch or dinner, think late lunch following thanksgiving for instance.
How to Make Bubble & Squeek - Recipe
Take some mashed potatoes, nothing too creamy and some cooked cabbage and/or brussels sprouts from the day before. Fry some sliced onions in a little oil and butter until soft but not brown. Add these to your potatoes and vegetables, season generously and mix well.Heat a suitably sized frying pan, add some oil and butter and then the bubble mix. Form the mix into a cake shape and allow to cook gently until crisp, flip over and repeat on the other side. After eight minutes or so you shall end up with a crisp potato and vegetable cake full of flavour, speckled with the greens of your choice and crying out for something nice to serve with it.
If you are feeling flush then some lamb chops or calves liver would be ideal, if the gas bill has just arrived then it’s fried eggs and bacon with tomato ketchup. If you’ve got a hangover and can’t be bothered then eat it as it is and drop me an e mail telling me you’re cured.
Finally, when this takes the United States by storm, remember where you read it first, all royalty cheques made payable to me please.
Miles,
My own version includes dusting the potato cakes (2 cm thick approx) into seasoned flour before frying in a little olive oil, to make them extra crisp….. and that folks, is what I’m having tonight!
Cid
January 9, 2008 @ 9:16 am
Cid,
Good idea especially if your mix is a little ‘wet’. Enjoy!
Miles
January 9, 2008 @ 3:34 pm
Miles & Annie,
I love this for leftovers and I have often used it with bacon and egg.
Cid, a good idea to toss them in flour. I shall do that next time.
Superb - all this food and thought
Elsie
January 9, 2008 @ 7:40 pm
Miles,
The definition of Bubble and Squeak according to Brewer’s is: “Cold boiled potatoes and greens fried up together. They first bubbled in water when boiled and afterwards hissed or squeaked in the frying pan”.
Elsie
January 10, 2008 @ 7:31 pm
Elsie,
Makes sense, thanks for the information.
Miles
January 10, 2008 @ 10:13 pm
Well, I’ll be jiggered!!! So Bubble and Squeak is a variation on the potato pancake (which were staples in our house as I was growing up and old) and not an old song and dance team. I shall have to remember this for the future.
Thanks for the recipes and for thinking of your forlorn American correspondent, who has decided to adopt Mum Collins’ New Years’ philosophy of “carpe diem.” At first I thought she was telling me carpet heave ‘em, so I moved the area rugs in my house from one room to another (no easy task). Then she told me I was a silly goose, and I got my act together and began to seize things (like the carpets, and my laundry) anew. Strange she should remind me of this adage, as it is one I used to drum into my students at the beginning of every new school year. I guess it must have taken, for I received three letters today from former students telling me they learned so many good lessons from me which they have carried into their lives. Now how is that for a great diem?
Annie
January 10, 2008 @ 11:27 pm
Annie,
Good luck with the carpets! I shall be doing a carpe diem tomorrow when I finish work for a few days. It will make a pleasant change from ‘carping’ a chef!
Make the most of it
Miles
January 11, 2008 @ 8:42 am