England

We chose to cook England tonight even though there was some debate as to whether it should count as a country. We cooked Roast Lamb with gravy, roast potatoes, pumpkin and broccoli. This meal is super easy and I don't think I would change anything about this meal if I ever cooked it again. The lamb was tender and the potatoes and pumpkin were delicious as was the gravy (YUM). However, I personally prefer other meals and would only give this 6 stars out of 10.

History of England

England is made up of the island of Great Britain as well as the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly. The mild temperatures are perfect for wheat, barley and sheep (there are approximately 23 million sheep in the UK which is about the same as the population of Australia). England is a wealthy country that conquered a lot of land.

Agriculture in England started around 6,500 years ago where farmers began clearing the forests that covered England. They grew crops of wheat and barley and they raised herds of cattle, pigs and sheep. However as well as farming they also hunted animals such as deer, horse, and wild boar and smaller animals such as beavers, badgers and hares. They also gathered fruit and nuts.

Food

British cuisine has been influenced by many different civilizations which is one of the benefits of having an empire. It has been influenced by the French and the Normans who brought numerous different spices including cinnamon, saffron, mace, nutmeg, pepper, ginger. Sugar came to England at that time, and was considered a spice -- rare and expensive. Before the arrival of cane sugars, honey and fruit juices were the only sweeteners. They also learned a lot from these colonies like how to make tea (China), curry-style spicing (India) and many sauces that were developed by the British themselves (ketchup, mint sauce, Worcestershire sauce).

The British tradition of stews, pies and breads, and cold meat with vegetables was unpopular according to the rest of the world, went into terminal decline. These days, England has some of the best chefs in the world.

Roast Lamb

Ingredients

A 2 kg leg of Lamb

1 bulb of garlic

½ a bunch of fresh rosemary

olive oil

Directions

Remove the lamb from the fridge 1 hour before you want to cook it, to let it come up to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºC/gas 6

Break the garlic bulb up into cloves, then peel 3, leaving the rest whole. Pick and roughly chop half the rosemary leaves.

Crush the peeled garlic into a bowl, add the chopped rosemary, finely grate in the lemon zest and drizzle in a good lug of oil, then mix together.

Season the lamb with sea salt and black pepper, then drizzle with the marinade and rub all over the meat. Place on the hot bars of the oven above the tray.

Cook the lamb for 1 hour 15 minutes if you want it pink, or 1 hour 30 minutes if you like it more well done.

When the lamb is cooked to your liking, remove from the oven and leave to rest for 15 minutes or so before carving.

Remember to keep the excess fat to make gravy with

Gravy

Ingredients:

leftover fat from the lamb

flour

water

salt

Directions:

Put the pan used to cook the lamb in on the stove on low

Add a couple spoonfuls of flour (more or less depending how much fat there is) and mix it around

Add some water and keep stirring until it thickens (but not too much)

Roast Potatoes and Roast Pumpkin

Ingredients:

Potatoes

Pumpkin

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Rosemary (Optional)

Garlic

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into big chunks (It doesn't really matter what size as long as it's the same size so they all cook evenly. We did about 2 inches cubed)

Slice the pumpkin into about 1 inch slices and drizzle all this in olive oil then salt and pepper to taste

Add rosemary and peeled garlic cloves

Toss this around a little bit and then put it into the oven