Welsh Meal

A very rustic meal today from Wales, the country that is part of the United Kingdom or Great Britain. I was careful to pick dishes that are Welsh in origin and not from the other regions of the UK. Welsh rarebit or rabbit is a simple melted cheese on bread recipe that I picked to build this meal.

Cheddar cheese is melted with very few ingredients and poured over toasted slices of bread. The bread is then toasted again before it is served. Some regions serve a fried egg on the top. I baked a loaf of whole wheat English muffin bread to make the rabbit. I paired this with an onion cake that I baked and served in my cast iron pan. The onion cake is made of potatoes and onions baked in layers with butter. Needless to day, my daughter loved it. The teisen lap or Welsh moist cake was delicious. This was the first time I baked a cake on a dinner plate. You cannot get more rustic than that! The cake is filled with raisins and stayed moist for 3 days. My father enjoyed it a lot.

No new ingredients for this meal but like I mentioned above I had never baked anything on a dinner plate. The meal was very filling.

As they say in Welsh, Mwynhewch Eich Bwyd!

Here are the recipes for the dishes on the menu

• Whole Wheat English Muffin Bread
• Welsh Rabbit (Rarebit)
• Potato and leek soup
• Onion Cake 

And for dessert

• Teisen Lap (Welsh moist cake)

Welsh Moist Cake

This Welsh cake is a true delight. It is very flavorful but very rustic at the same time. The batter is assembled and piled on a dinner plate and baked. Now I had never baked anything on my dinner plate before so I was understandably a little skeptical. During the first few minutes the cake looked like it was going to go over the edges of the dish instead of growing upwards. But then after another few minutes it sprung in the right direction. It was moist and stayed that way for a couple of days in our hot summer. This is definitely something I will try again.

I halved the original recipe and wished I had not. My father enjoyed a small slice of the cake with his afternoon tea until it was all gone.

Recipe adapted from here

You will need
4 tbsp. butter
110 gm flour
55 gm sugar
30 gm raisins
1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. nutmeg, powdered
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Sift the flour in a bowl. Bring the butter to room temperature and rub it in to the flour. Combine with sugar, raisins, baking powder and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Add it to the flour mixture. Pour in the milk. Bring the batter together with a fork until there is no dry flour left. Do not over do it. Grease a side plate and transfer the batter to the plate.

Resist the urge to smooth out the top. Bake the cake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Cawl Cennin (Welsh Potato Leak Soup)

I make potato and leek soup often during winter and on cold rainy days. It is rich and creamy. This version is from Wales and is called cawl cennin.

I used white potatoes for this soup but you could use red or russet too. I use almond milk to make soups creamy. I used soy milk in this soup.

Recipe adapted from here

You will need
1 medium potato
1 slender stalk of leek
2 cups vegetable stock
salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 cup soymilk

Wash, peel and dice the potato. Clean the leek and dice the white and tender green stalk. Put the potato and leek in a pan with the stock and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until the leek is cooked and the potatoes are tender. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Turn off heat and let the soup cool a little. Run the hand blender through the soup or transfer it to a blender and puree. Transfer the pureed soup back to the pan and reheat. Do not let it boil. Add the milk. Heat through for another 5 minutes. Turn off heat.

The soup is ready. Enjoy!

Welsh Potato and Onion Cake

This was the first dish I baked in my cast iron pan. I made it as part of a very rustic meal. I baked and served it in the pan. My daughter loved it.

Recipe adapted from here.

You will need
1 large Russet potato
1 medium onion
2 tbsp. butter, melted
salt and black pepper to taste

Some butter for brushing

Preheat oven to 400 F. Wash, peel and slice the potato. Soak it in water for a few minutes. Drain and discard the water. Wipe off water from potatoes using a tea towel. Combine with the butter, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Keep aside.

Dice the onions. Season them with salt and pepper.

Apply some butter to the cast iron or any oven proof pan. Layer the potatoes and onions, starting and ending with a layer of potatoes. Bake covered with aluminium foil for 30 minutes. Uncover and brush the top with a little butter. Bake uncovered for another 7-10 minutes to allow the top to brown.

Enjoy!

Welsh Rabbit (Rarebit)

Welsh rabbit is really an open face cheese toast. Toasted bread slices are slathered with cheese sauce and toasted again. I baked a loaf of fresh bread for this recipe. You will find the recipe for the bread loaf here.

I used whole wheat bread but you could use white bread. For the cheese I used American sharp cheddar. English or Welsh cheddar would have been better suited but I stuck to the American cheese. I bought a block of good quality white cheddar but it got used up. So I used yellow cheddar instead. I looked at a lot of sources for the recipe.

You will need
For the sauce
2 tbsp. butter
3/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp. mustard
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

6 slices fresh bread

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Melt the butter in a pan. Gradually stir in the milk and mustard. Add the cheese and mix well until it has melted completely. Turn off heat.

Toast one side of the slices of bread in a pan. Lay the toasted side on a baking sheet. Pour the cheese sauce over the top and toasted again.

Serve hot.

Digestive Biscuits

I had never heard of digestive biscuits until I tried making Banoffee Pie a couple of months ago. The recipe called for digestive biscuits for the base of the pie so I bought a packet. My family liked these biscuits because they are not sweet so I wanted to try baking them at home.

The recipe is pretty simple. I reduced the quantities by half and got 18 biscuits. I did not have confectioners sugar so I used brown sugar as suggested by one of the reviewers. 

You will need 

4 tbsp or half stick of unsalted butter

3/4 cup Whole Wheat flour

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp. cold milk

Bring the butter to room temperature and place it in a mixing bowl. Sift in the flours and baking soda. Using a pastry blender or knife combine the butter with the flour. Sift the brown sugar and add it to the flour along with the milk.

Combine the ingredients with your hands to form a ball of dough. Knead for 5-7 minutes until smooth. 

Preheat oven to 350 F. On a floured surface roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Using a round mold (I used a steel bowl) cut out round shapes in the rolled dough.

Place the cut out shapes on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes or until the biscuits are a pale brown color. Transfer to a cooling rack. 

Store in an airtight container when completely cooled.

 

 

Enjoy!

Lemon Posset

Lemon Posset is a medieval cream based dessert. It has a strong lemon flavor and a smooth creamy texture. Letting it sit in the refrigerator really brings out the lemon flavor. The candied lemon peel garnish enhances the taste.

This is my third recipe from the 'How to make a perfect...' series that runs in the Guardian Newspaper. I served this dessert after a meal of black bean burger and salsa. The recipe can be found here.

According to the linked post the recipe as written produces a grainy texture. The recipe calls for the cream mixture to be added to the lemon and not the other way around which may cause the grainy texture. As I read through the comments on the post I found a recipe posted in one of the comments that produces the expected smooth texture. The trick is to boil the cream for exactly three minutes and add the lemon to it. That is the recipe I followed and the texture was amazingly smooth.

You will need
half pint whipping cream
50 gm sugar
1 lemon
candied lemon peel for garnish (recipe here)

Bring whipping cream and the sugar together to a boil in a pan. Mark a timer for 3 minutes and whisk the mixture on medium high heat for the entire 3 minute duration. When the timer goes off take the mixture off the heat. Allow it to cool for about 5 minutes.

To this warm mixture add the juice of a little over half a lemon and stir. Taste and add more if needed. The mixture should thicken but not curdle. Pour it into molds and allow it to cool completely. Refrigerate for 5-6 hours.

Serve chilled garnished with candies lemon peel.

This is my entry for week one, day three of BM #38 for the theme How to make the perfect... Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#38.