My week of eating British

Gordon, Hugh and Jamie - they talk constantly about how great it is to eat local produce. And having a diet made up of UK food is one to which many of us aspire.

So I wanted to find out how feasible is it to buy only British food during my normal shopping trips? And is eating only British entirely ethical?

I'm hardly what you'd call a foodie. Hosting a dinner party fills me with dread, I have one cookbook (from my Mum) and instead of shopping for dinner, often I'll just eat at the local pub.

So when I decided to do this challenge - namely, eat only British for and entire week- I wasn't prepared for what lay ahead.

Take a sandwich. Easy to find one that's British? Not so.

Bread, for example, is the flour and wheat British? What about the butter? Has it been churned from British cream? Is every single ingredient grown on British soil?

Usually for lunch I'll pop to the local Italian deli and get a lovely mixed salad: the food highlight of my day. But this week I had to make my own (bland) version of my favourite sandwiches.

Come day three of British food week, and the headaches begin. No coffee and no tea. And no biscuits because they contain sugar, nor chocolate because they contain cocoa; both these staples flown in from miles away.

What am I doing? I ask myself. I haven't had a decent glass of wine in ages and of course my body was in revolt, some sort of mini-detox, perhaps.

There were, however, some highlights.

I found out that I like goat's cheese, I rarely eat cheese (too smelly). And I made the best roast chicken of my life. I cooked it in British wine. (I found it tasted better round the chicken rather than in the glass.)

Apart from discovering that my culinary skills weren't as bad as I thought, there were other revelations this week. Like finding out that sometimes it may be better to eat the imported, rather than British, version of a food.

And choosing not to eat Fair Trade chocolate or bananas might be positive for my waistline, but it could have a negative impact on producers from developing countries.

So roll on tomorrow. I'll be stuffing my face with chocolate bars, quaffing Pinot Grigio, and drinking as much caffeine as I can get my hands on.

If you want to know what I've been eating look at the best recipes below (not very adventurous I'm afraid, looks like I need to invest in another cookbook) and watch my More4 News report here.

The recipes

Roast chicken in red wine sauce with all the trimmings

Ingredients:
Chicken- large
Fortified British red wine
Cornish butter
rosemary from my garden
jersey potatoes
carrots


Method:
Heat oven to 190c. The chicken needs to be cooked for about two and a half hours. First, rub chicken with herbs and vast quantities of butter.

Put lots of red wine around the chicken and in the cavity with herbs. Stick in the oven for an hour. With one hour to go, boil the potatoes for 10mins and carrots for 3mins. Put around chicken and cook everything together for final 45mins-hour. Charcoal chicken with wilted spinach

Ingredients:
Chicken pieces already diced
fresh spinach


Method:
Cover chicken in butter, seasoning and garden herbs, leave for 5mins. Make sure griddle pan is turned up on high. Throw the chicken on. It should only take 5mins and have nice charcoal strips on it. At the same time, add spinach to melted butter. It should only take about 3mins. Sirloin steak and mash

Ingredients:
Suffolk classic English mustard
sirloin steak
onions
small vine tomatoes
asparagus
Jersey potatoes
milk


Method:


Heat the oven to 200c. Stick the tomatoes in the oven for 30 to 40mins. Put the potatoes on 10minutes later and steam them to death! With 10 minutes before tomatoes are ready melt butter in a shallow frying pan with the onions. Add the steaks.

With 3 mins to go before tomatoes are ready, add asparagus to boiling potatoes. Take potatoes and asparagus off the boil, put lots of butter, full fat milk and mustard into potatoes and pummel to a good mash.

Eggs on toast

British organic bread from local farmer's stall scrambled, fried, poached... you name it, I've had it.

Nina's not-very-exciting sanwiches

Ingredients:
British organic bread from local farmer's stall
Goat's cheese
tomatoes


Method:
Bung together and hope it is more tasty than mine were Other things I've eaten:

• Fantastic cheese tart and salad from restaurant 'Konstam at the Prince Albert' near King's Cross: 85 per cent of the ingredients are sourced from the Greater London area
• Lovely veg quiche and a strawberry trifle from 'Bea's of Bloomsbury'
• Fish and chips from my local chippie: fish from Grimsby, potatoes from Cambridgeshire. But the cooking oil was from Argentina! Oh well, you can take things too far sometimes...

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