WELSH RECIPES

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At any time, it's tempting to make a Glamorgan sausage or two !

Ingredients:

5 oz of fresh breadcrumbs
1 medium onion, grated
4 oz strong Cheddar cheese, grated
1 tsp Dried mixed herbs
3/4 tsp English mustard powder
1 egg yolk, (keep egg white for coating)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 oz Parmesan cheese, grated, mixed with -
1/2 oz breadcrumbs.

Method :
Mix everything together, using egg yolk to bind.
Form into sausage shapes.

Next, dip in egg white then coat in
1/2 oz grated parmesan cheese, mixed with
1/2 oz breadcrumbs.
Fry in shallow oil until crisp and golden.
Drain and serve.

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Leeks With Creamy Wine Sauce

Trim off the root end of each leek
and about 1/4 inch of the white base.
Remove any ragged, coarse outer leaves and discard.
Trim each of the darkest portion of the leaves
down to the light green, more tender portion,
leaving about 2 inches of green.
Slice the leeks down the center
and rinse under cold running water
being careful to get in between the leaves.
Drain on paper towels and proceed with recipe.

Cut leeks in half lengthwise
then cut into thin half moon slices.
Place in a colander & rinse again.

Melt butter in a saucepan or large frying pan.
Add leeks, wine, salt & garlic.
Cook over low heat for 10 minutes.
Add chicken stock & continue cooking
until leeks are soft, another 10-15 minutes.
Remove from heat & stir in the creme fraiche,
parsley, lemon juice & Tabasco.

3/4 cup butter
6-8 leeks
1/2 cup white wine
4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup creme fraiche
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (or to taste)

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Image: fireworks

Bannock Bread.

Throughout the British Isles and Ireland,
great ceremony attended the cutting of the last sheaf;
the last refuge of the harvest.

Then Michael's Bannock bread was made.

St. Michael's Day was held on September 29th.
The Struan Micheil was a special cake, more like a heavy bread,
that was made from all of the different types of grain
that were harvested during that time of year.
Various large round loaves were marked with deep crosses.
These loaves were each cooked on separate fires.
Each woman's fire contained special sacred woods
in which their loaves were baked.
Oaks, rowan, and bramble wood were loved best.

There are many recipes on bannock
including different grain types, depending on
the availability of various grains and flours,
and the times during the year that the bannock loaves
were cooked and for what purposes they were made.

Wales and Ireland are not as similar as you might think.
In Ireland, the bannock is typically made from a wheat flour.
Barley flours were used extensively in Wales.
Bannock loaves provided a main staple food and
were eaten at feasts as well as all the daily meals.

During harvest, women made and stored
as many loaves or cakes as they had enough flour to cook.
All during September, families cooked enough bannock loaves
to supply them throughout the harvest season,
the coming Winter, and throughout most of the Spring.

Folk tradition has it that the baker imbues each cake
with a blessing during every stage of the bannock:
mixing the ingredients, kneading the dough,
leaving it to proof, baking the cake, and
a special blessing if it was a gift.
Therefore, care must also be taken during this day
in respect to how many cakes are cooked.
It is traditional for many in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland
to bless each bannock as it is removed from the fire.

All day long families baked.
There were also processions, songs to Michael,
and horse racing in the afternoon that almost everyone attended.
People returned home early in the evening
to enjoy music, dancing and the exchange of gifts.

Maybe, during your celebration of Samhain,
or St. Michaels Day this year,
you would perhaps like to add the custom
of preparing a bannock to your own celebrations.
Do not be afraid to use and try different flours
of your region as well as whole grains and spices.

The following is a simplified version of
the bannock recipe that you can try at home.

Bannock Recipe

1 Cup Barley flour
1 Cup Wheat flour
1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
1 Cup White Sugar
1/2 to 1 Cup Sultanas or White Raisins
1 1/2 Cup Buttermilk
2 tbsp. Baking Powder
2 tbsp. Baking Soda
1 tbsp. Coarse Ground Salt
1 tbsp. Allspice
1 tbsp. Cinnamon
1 tbsp. Cloves
1 tbsp. Nutmeg

Instructions

Gas Mark 400 Fahrenheit or 200 Celsius for 20-25 minutes.
Electric Oven 375 Fahrenheit or 190 Celsius for 40-45 minutes.

In a large bowl, sift both flours fine, add salt,
baking powder and soda to sifter.
Re-sift the mixture of flours, salt, and baking soda
then add the spices and sift.
Remove sifter and add the next set of ingredients
by tossing in the rolled oats, sugar, and sultanas.
Slowly add the buttermilk and mix by hand
until mixture forms a ball.
Next, turn the dough out onto a well-floured board.
Knead, turn about 50 or 60 times,
and re-flour as needed.

You will then need to decide the size of your loaf.
You can turn this recipe into a large loaf,
or split it into two medium cakes.
Separate the dough into small rounded balls
and then flatten it into a small round
flat cake about 3/4 inch thick.
For medium or large sized loaves,
score the top of each cake with a cross.
Bake as directed above.

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Image: blackberries

Blackberry wine

INGREDIENTS:
6 lbs. blackberries
1 gallon of boiling water
4 lbs white sugar
1/2 oz yeast

Pour the boiling water on to the blackberries.
Stir well, night and morning for two days. Strain.
Add the sugar until it disolves,
then add the yeast. Stir.

Pour the liquid into a clean cask,
jar or bottle - to the top.
Keep any surplus for topping up during fermentation.
Stand on a tray in a warm room.
Fermentation soon begins and froth will pour out.
Refill from the surplus until froth stops.
Insert a cork loosely at first,
but when fermentation is over
and no bubbles of gas are seen,
then cork tightly.
If you want a really clear wine
it should be racked from time to time,
i.e. pour the clear wine from the old bottles, into clean ones,
keeping the yeast deposit to
re-clear in the old bottles.

The wine should be kept for six months -
without sampling !!!

Image: creamy crab

Welsh recipe of the week !!!
(Reproduced here, with the kind permission of Carwyn Edwards)

Creamy Crab of Cymry

2 ounces unsalted butter
1 ounce plain flour
6 fluid ounces milk
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 lb fresh backfin crab meat or frozen backfin crab meat, picked over
2 tablespoons double cream
2 ounces fresh white breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

Melt 1 ounce of the butter in a heavy 1-quart saucepan.
Stir in the flour and mix to blend thoroughly.
Slowly stir in the milk and boil gently to make a smooth thick sauce.
Stir in the mace, salt and pepper.
Mix in all the crab and bring just to the boil.
Stir in the cream and check the seasoning.
Pour into 4 small buttered ovenproof dishes
and sprinkle each with breadcrumbs and then Parmesan cheese.
The dishes can wait in the refrigerator
for several hours before cooking.
Dot the top of each dish with the remaining butter
and stand the small dishes in ½ inch of water in a baking tray.
Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 400°F.
The tops should be crisp and golden brown
and the crab thick and creamy !

Image: pancakes

CREMPOG !
Or, Pancake(s)....
(Printed with the kind permission of
CAMBRIA magazine)

Sour milk makes good pancakes, scones
(the sourer, the sweeter and lighter the scone),
white sauce (as long as the milk is not too far gone
or it will curdle), is fine in mashed potatoes
and in some soups.

Pancakes abound the world over.
We Celts are particularly fond of them,
however they can be found in a multitude
of varieties from China right through the western world;
they can make a delicate canape or hold a peasant’s lunch;
they can be unleavened or leavened,
the latter made with either yeast
(the mix for these keeps well and
actually improves with time) or baking powder.
Traditionally, in Wales, a mix of oatmeal
and white flour was very popular.
Pancakes provided a useful way of using flours
that were not appropriate for traditional bread making.

On Shrove Tuesday, I like the idea of
eating nothing but pancakes, so perhaps
for breakfast we might have traditional Welsh oatmeal pancakes,
delicious with bacon and drizzled with maple syrup.
Or we might grate some cheese into the mix -
my children love them like this, rolled up with tomato ketchup,
and this makes for quite a healthy start to the day.

Crempog

125g fine oatmeal
(I have done this with porridge oats
and found them quite OK)
225g plain flour
15g yeast (or 1/2 tsp dried),
(most good bakeries have yeast
or the bakery sections in supermarkets
are usually helpful.)
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1-2 tablespoons sour milk, buttermilk or yoghurt
1 pint cold water.

Method

Soak oatmeal in the water all day.
That evening strain the oatmeal, reserving the water,
and mix the yeast and sour milk (or whatever)
to a cream. Put the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl,
stir in the oatmeal, make a well in centre
and break in the egg. Now add the yeast cream
and then some of the reserved water, and carry on
adding water until the batter is thin enough to
drop from the spoon - not too runny.
Leave overnight.

Come breakfast, lightly butter or oil your
heated bakestone or a heavy frying pan.
Pour on a small ladleful. When the surface is
pitted with tiny holes and firm enough to turn,
do so, give it another 30 seconds or so, then
serve or keep warm in an oven until you are ready
to do so. This batter keeps for 4-5 days, but
you must bring it ‘back to life’ when you take it
out of the fridge, by allowing it to reach room
temperature and start to bubble again before using.

For supper, we might have Crempog a bwyd mor,
these can either be rolled or layered.
Rolled is perhaps more elegant, but layered is less fiddly
and works very well for a family supper.
The dish will look rather like lasagne.

Image: NETTLE SOUP

Nettle pudding

Ingredients

1 bunch of sorrel
1 bunch of watercress
1 bunch of dandelion leaves
2 bunches of young nettle leaves
Some chives
1 cup of barley flour
1 teaspoon salt

Method
Chop the herbs finely and mix in the barley flour and salt.
Add enough water to bind
and place in the centre of a linen or muslin cloth.
Tie the cloth securely and add to a pot of
simmering water.
Serve with chunks of bread.