British Comfort Food Recipes to Nourish Royal Watchers from Scotch Eggs to Pot Pies

Our British comfort food recipes from the British Isles, from Great Britain and Ireland, should keep royal watchers nourished today – from a classic British fish pot pie recipe for mini mashed potato and creamy salmon pot pies baked in ramekins to a Scotch eggs recipe for the classic British picnic snack to which we’ve given a Thai-inspired twist.

We first shared these British comfort food recipes back on 14 September 2022 for dishes that royal watchers could make to nourish them as they watched the journey of Queen Elizabeth’s coffin from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall to lay-in-state before her funeral.

My thinking was that whether you’re a monarchist mourning the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, a history lover taking in the momentous events, or, like Nick Cave you have “an inexplicable emotional attachment to the Royals”, you’d be glued to your screens, engrossed in the archaic rituals, pageantry and spectacle, and these British comfort food recipes would make you dishes to keep you nourished through the long hours of watching.

We thought we’d update and republish these British comfort food recipes for those of you planning to do the same and take in the coronation of King Charles III today.

With Charles and Camilla due to depart Buckingham Palace at 10.20am UK time / 7.20pm AEST time in Australia, and the official ceremony commencing at 11am UK time / 8pm AEST, our readers in Australia, Asia and Europe had better get cooking.

For our American readers, who are fast asleep right now and might be planning to rise at the crack of dawn (the coronation ceremony commences at 6am for New Yorkers and the rest of you on the east coast), we suggest you make our British fry-up for breakfast.

Now before I share these British comfort food recipes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded, so if you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could buy us a coffee and we’ll use that money to buy ingredients for recipe testing, make a donation toward our Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon. or shop our Grantourismo store on Society6 for gifts for foodies designed with Terence’s images.

Another option is to use our links to book accommodation, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, buy travel insurance, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. Or purchase something on Amazon, such as these James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or cookbooks for culinary travellers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay extra. Now let me share our five British comfort food recipes to cook this week.

British Comfort Food Recipes to Nourish Royal Watchers from Scotch Eggs to Fish Pot Pies

Our British comfort food recipes to nourish royal watchers from Scotch eggs to fish pot pies.

Full English Breakfast Recipe for a British Fry-Up

My top recommendation for what to cook this weekend for Saturday breakfast is our full English breakfast recipe for a British fry-up for two to share – although if famished you could try tackling this on your own, and if not, it could even stretch to feed four.

We first shared this in Weekend Eggs, our 12-year-old series of recipes for quintessential egg dishes from around the world, with our British readers in mind following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and proclamation of the new monarch, King Charles III. So it would be just as fitting to make this today for King Charles’ coronation.

Known as a classic English breakfast, traditional English breakfast, British fry-up, and English fry-up, this very British breakfast consists of a plate abundant with baked beans, fried eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, sausages, and black pudding. It’s a comforting and filling breakfast, and also a fantastic hangover cure.

Our full English breakfast recipe calls for each of the elements to be fried up or grilled separately, but they come together in a Dutch oven shakshouka style, which is then served at the table with plenty of toast and, if you like, sides of fried potatoes, bubble and squeak, and fried bread.

Tips: use Heinz baked beans for an authentic taste; a fish slice is handy so the black pudding doesn’t fall apart; we recommend one of these small single-egg frying pans to fry the eggs; and HP sauce and tomato sauce (ketchup) are also a must. We also like a squirt of chilli sauce, such as our homemade Sriracha.

Full English Breakfast Recipe for a One-Pan British Fry-Up for Two to Share

Scotch Eggs Recipe with a Thai Inspired Pad Kra Pao Twist

This Scotch eggs recipe is another one of my favourite British comfort food recipes. It makes the classic British picnic snack, only our recipe is not strictly British. Terence has given these classic Scotch eggs a Thai-influenced twist, inspired by the beloved Thai stir-fry dish, pad kra pao or pad gaprao.

Authentic Scotch eggs have traditionally been made with a boiled egg wrapped in seasoned sausage meat, which is then crumbed and deep-fried. Terence gives the popular British snack a Thai-inspired makeover by infusing it with the flavours of Thailand’s pad kra pao.

While mass-produced Scotch eggs were once best-known as supermarket and service station snacks in the UK, the gastro-pub revolution saw the humble Scotch egg elevated to such an extent that they graced the menus of Michelin-starred restaurants.

Those posh Scotch eggs have long been a source of inspiration for Terence who has always wanted to experiment with a traditional Scotch eggs recipe. He did just that for our Weekend Eggs series on quintessential eggs dishes from around the world, giving them Southeast Asian flavours. We’d love to know what you think.

Traditional Scotch Eggs Recipe with a Thai Inspired Pad Kra Pao Twist

Beer Battered Fish and Chips Recipe for Perfect Fish and Chips

This beer battered fish and chips recipe makes the perfect fish and chips for the classic takeaway that is an iconic dish for we Australians, as well as our British and New Zealander cousins. It’s so iconic for the British that there’s a national fish and chips day in the UK celebrated on 4 September, which is FryDay.

We don’t need an excuse to eat fish and chips nor share our recipe for the best beer battered fish and chips ever. Eating fish and chips, preferably by a beach, is intrinsic to our culture.

Use this recipe, along with our hand cut potato chips recipe and easy homemade tartare sauce recipe and you’ll be enjoying your best fish and chips. What makes it the best?

This beer battered fish and chips recipe results in perfect fish and chips with the beer batter crunch we all love while keeping the fish fillets deliciously moist. The secret is that the heat of the fryer goes mostly into the batter rather than the fish itself and quickly forms a crunchy crust – every single time.

Best Beer Battered Fish and Chips Recipe for Perfect Fish and Chips

Sausage Roll Recipe for Delicious Homemade Sausage Rolls

This sausage roll recipe for addictively delicious homemade sausage rolls couldn’t be more easy and is very in keeping with our British food theme. While sausage rolls are quintessentially Australian, sausage rolls like pies originated in Britain.

Why make homemade sausage rolls when you can go buy them from a bakery? Homemade sausage rolls are a breeze to make, you know what’s going in them, and you can easily tweak the recipe each time to your taste.

In Australia, sausage rolls are warming snacks when you’re at a chilly sports stadium watching footie in winter; they’re morning tea for ‘smoko’ (a break) for a hungry tradie; they’re a party food staple for Aussie children, when we serve mini-sausage rolls; and, washed down with a thermos of tea, they make the best road trip lunch (with a meat pie, of course) when bought from a country bakery.

If you enjoy these classic sausage rolls, try making Terence’s Cambodian-inspired sausage rolls and meat pies, such as his sausage rolls with eggplant and pork based on the traditional Cambodian char-grilled eggplant and minced pork dish; Saraman curry sausage rolls and a curry beef pie made filled with the rich Cambodian Saraman curry, a relation of Thailand’s Massaman curry); a spicy pork minced pie filled with prahok k’tis, a rich pork mince, prahok, coconut cream, and pea eggplant dip; and a curried chicken pie inspired by the gently-spiced Cambodian chicken curry.

Sausage Roll Recipe – How to Make Delicious Homemade Sausage Rolls

Fish Pot Pie Recipe for Mini Mashed Potato and Salmon Pot Pies with Crispy Melted Cheese

Even better than a pie with pastry, particularly if you plan to spend Saturday in front of the television with family rather than in the kitchen, is the pot pie – a pie without pastry baked in a small pot or ramekin.

This classic British fish pot pie recipe makes mini mashed potato and creamy salmon pot pies baked in individual ramekins and it’s one of my favourite British comfort food recipes.

Delicious as they are, these adorable salmon pot pies are also very versatile. You could replace the salmon with a white fish, combine types of fish, add prawns or mussels or both, and add spices such as nutmeg.

These little salmon pot pies may look simple but beneath the crispy cheesy lid are layers of buttery mashed potatoes infused with fresh fragrant herbs that sandwich a layer of chunky salmon pieces simmered in a rich creamy sauce. All the pies need is a classic garden salad on the side.

If you’re a salmon lover, you’ll find more of our best salmon recipes here, including recipes for devilled eggs with smoked salmon and caviar, blini with smoked salmon, a salmon ceviche-style appetiser, fish soup with salmon, salmon potato salad, and salmon pasta.

Fish Pot Pie Recipe for Mini Mashed Potato and Salmon Pot Pies with Crispy Melted Cheese

Irish Beef and Guinness Pie Recipe with Potato Mash for Mini Meat Pies

Our Irish beef and Guinness pie recipe with mashed potatoes will make you four addictive mini meat pies made in ramekins. This recipe was created to use up leftover Irish stew and mashed potatoes and it’s another of my favourite British comfort food recipes.

We used a store-bought puff pastry block that was already divided into 10 portions of layered sheets, which worked out perfectly for four mini ramekin pies. One sheet was used to create the pie base and sides, another sheet for the pie lid and the off-cuts of the round pie lids was used to fill gaps.

We had leftover Irish stew and mashed potatoes, however, instead of potato mash you could use Irish colcannon (recipe below). That would work, as would a layer of cheddar cheese on top of the mash…

Don’t forget to pierce a small hole in the pie lid and brush on the egg wash. Set the timer for 30 minutes, though we found that while our little pies were ready at 30 minutes, they needed a few more minutes to brown nicely on top

Irish Beef and Guinness Pie Recipe with Potato Mash for Mini Meat Pies Made in Ramekins

Classic Cottage Pie Recipe for an Old Fashioned Farmhouse Favourite

This classic cottage pie recipe is another one of my favourite British comfort food recipes. It makes the traditional Irish comfort food dish synonymous with hearty Irish farmhouse cooking, although the cottage pie would go on to be cooked right across the British Isles.

Endearingly old fashioned, this Irish comfort food favourite consists of layers of savoury beef mince and vegetables, and cheesy mashed potatoes, which are baked, and served with buttery green peas. Perfect washed down with red wine or Guinness.

Of course, it must be said that cottage pie is not only Irish and but is made right across the UK and in Australia and New Zealand, and so on – that, yes, it’s true, cottage pie is not confined to Ireland. We also grew up eating both cottage pie and shepherd’s pie in Australia.

However, there’s no denying the long history of cottage pie in Irish cooking that includes some of the oldest documented cottage pie recipes – as well as shepherd’s pie recipes – that are evidence that these savoury minced meat pies without pastry, topped with mashed potatoes, weren’t only made in England and its colonies.

Classic Cottage Pie Recipe for an Old Fashioned Irish Farmhouse Favourite

Salmon Fillet with Colcannon Recipe

We’re making this salmon fillet with colcannon recipe tonight. If you’re not familiar with colcannon, it’s a classic Irish mashed potato dish with kale or cabbage and spring onions, and can entertain other ingredients, such as bacon or pancetta.

We love colcannon with cabbage and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s one of our best cabbage recipes. If you love Terence’s creamy mashed potatoes recipe, you’re going to adore this colcannon.

Terence has added a brilliant cabbage side dish, too, Automata’s roasted red cabbage with bonito butter, but with the same Chinese cabbage that he uses in the colcannon.

Chef Clayton Wells’ recipe for cabbage is one of our favourite side dishes. It’s umami heaven and it’s one of the reasons that Wells became one of our favourite Sydney chefs after just one meal at his restaurant.

Terence also has some fantastic tips for a perfect crispy salmon skin in this recipe.

Salmon Fillet with Colcannon Recipe and How to Get a Perfect Crispy Salmon Skin

Best Irish Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Traditional Irish Beef Stew

This Irish stew recipe makes another one of my favourite comfort food dishes from the island of Ireland in the British Isles. If you’re a stew lover, you’re going to adore this Irish stew recipe.

The recipe makes an incredibly rich Irish stew that’s deeply flavoured thanks to slow-cooking, half a bottle of Shiraz and an easy roux – melted butter and flour whisked with the stew juices to create a flavourful gravy that’s stirred into the stew.

Arguably Ireland’s national dish, a traditional Irish stew is mostly made with lamb these days, but historically, beef, which was considered ‘winter food’ was used in stews.

Cattle dominated food production until the potato was introduced in the 17th century. Cows were kept for milk, curds and other dairy products – until winter, when there was insufficient fodder, so non-breeding animals were culled dramatically and salted to be used over the cold months.

Best Irish Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Traditional Irish Beef Stew

Published 14 September 2022; Updated and Republished 6 May 2023

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our British comfort food recipes as we always love to hear how our recipes turned out for you.