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.

Whole Wheat English Muffin Loaf / Basic Homemade Bread Recipe

I needed a loaf of bread to make Welsh rabbit or a cheese topped toast. I found this recipe here and and adapted it. The original recipe called for all purpose flour. I replaced it with King Arthur whole white wheat flour.

The liquid in this recipe is heated to 120 degrees allowing the dough to rise quickly. There is just one rise in the loaf pan. The bread turned a lovely golden brown on the top. It is a little dense as most whole wheat breads are but has an even crumb. It is perfect for toasting.

You will need

2 1/2 cups whole white wheat flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup + 2 tbsp. milk

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. instant yeast

1.5 tsp. salt

Grease a loaf pan and keep aside. Sift the flours in a bowl. In a separate bowl heat the milk, water and oil to 120 degrees. 

Add the sifted flours, baking soda, yeast and salt to the milk mixture. Knead until the dough comes together and is smooth. The dough will remain sticky and will be warm. 

Transfer the dough to the loaf pan. Cover and let it rise for an hour. During the last 15 minutes preheat the oven to 400 F. 

When the rim of the dough is just above the loaf pan place the pan in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Let the loaf cool in the pan for a couple minutes.

Transfer it to a cooking rack. Slice when it is completely cool.

Enjoy!

Venezuelan Meal

I cannot believe I was stumped on what I should cook from Venezuela. This was one of the most delicious meals I have cooked. All three dishes were tasty, unique and very good.

For the main dish I decided to make Pasticho Venezolano or Venezuelan lasagna. This lasagna is not vegetarian. I made it vegetarian with the use of crumbled paneer. I retained the rest of the recipe which calls for béchamel sauce layered along with the lasagna noodles, fresh mozzarella cheese and the prepared paneer mixture. Simply delicious!

I paired this with salsa carioca, a simple salad made with tomatoes , onions, avocado and hard boiled eggs. The salad is dressed with a simple oil and vinegar dressing that has hot pepper sauce added to give it a nice kick. For dessert I made Besitos de coco, coconut cookies, that browned beautifully. They were crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. The entire meal was very satisfying both to cook and to eat.

I did not use any new ingredients in this meal. The addition of the béchamel sauce to the lasagna was very interesting as was the addition of hot pepper sauce to the salad dressing. My father who is visiting is not particularly fond of tomatoes. Both the main and side dish have tomatoes in them. But the tomatoes do not overpower the dish, merely flavor it and so he was able to enjoy the meal too.

As they say in Venezuela, Buen Provecho!

Here are the recipes for the dishes on the menu

• Pasticho Venezolano 
• Salsa Carioca 

And for dessert

• Besitos de Coco

Besitos de Coco (Venezuelan Coconut Cookies)

I love coconut in desserts. These baked coconut cookies are almost all coconut and brown sugar with a little egg yolk and flour for binding. They are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

I made these cookies as part of a Venezuelan meal. They are bite sized cookies and it is hard to stop with just one.

I cut this recipe to a quarter and made just eight.

You will need for 8 cookies
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 tbsp. all purpose flour
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tbsp. butter at room temperature
1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a mixing bowl combine all the ingredients and form a dough.

Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Form bite size balls of the coconut dough and place them on the baking sheet.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until they are brown.

Cool on a baking rack.

Enjoy!

Salsa Carioca (Venezuelan Salad)

Salsa Carioca is a simple Venezuelan salad. It is made with simple ingredients, tomatoes, onion, hard boiled egg and avocado. It is really the salad dressing that makes the salad. It has a good amount of hot pepper sauce giving it a real kick.

We like salad in my family and we like all the ingredients that went into this one. I used tomatoes and the Serrano pepper from my garden. The hot pepper dressing took the salad to a whole new level.

Recipe adapted from here
You will need
1/2 onion
1 tomato or 10-12 cherry tomatoes
1 medium avocado
1 Serrano pepper
1 hard boiled egg

For the dressing
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. white vinegar
1 tbsp. hot pepper sauce
salt and pepper

Slice the onion. Remove the seeds and dice the tomato. Remove the seeds and vein from the Serrano pepper and mince it. Peel and dice the hard boiled egg. Combine these ingredients in a mixing bowl and keep aside so the flavors blend together.

When you are ready to mix the salad remove the seed and peel from the avocado and dice it. In a separate bowl combine the ingredients for the dressing and whisk together. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well. Salsa carioca is ready.

Paneer Pasticho Venezolano (Venezuelan Lasagna)

When we think of lasagna we think Italian. But this version is from Venezuela. It is not a vegetarian recipe but I made it vegetarian with the use of crumbled paneer. I adapted this recipe. This Venezuelan lasagna has béchamel sauce in it which I found very interesting.

I used home grown cherry tomatoes for the filling and I think they made the dish more flavorful. It takes some time to prepare everything and put it together. To hurry things up I asked my daughter to put the last layer of cheese over the lasagna and as you can see she went crazy with it cutting up thick slices.

By the time the lasagna came out of the oven it was past lunch time. These pictures were clicked while everyone waited patiently at the table. Everything and everybody was at the table except the food. I barely had time to click pictures before it was all gone.

You will need
For the filling
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
12 cherry tomatoes or 2 large tomatoes, pureed
a handful cilantro
1 tsp. oregano
salt and pepper
7 oz. paneer

Refer here for the béchamel sauce

To assemble the lasagna
8-10 lasagna sheets or enough to form 4 layers in the pan you wish to use
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, sliced

Heat the butter and oil in a large pan. Add the onion and saute until tender. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about a minute. Add the pureed tomatoes, cilantro, oregano, salt and pepper.

Let the mixture cook for about 5 minutes then crumble paneer over it. Mix well and let it cook until it dries out a little. Keep aside.

Meanwhile prepare the béchamel sauce by following this recipe. Bring water to a boil and add the lasagna noodles. When the noodles are cooked you are ready to assemble the lasagna.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare your casserole dish by rubbing a little butter on the bottom. Add a layer of the noodles ensuring they cover the entire bottom of the dish. Spread a fourth of the béchamel sauce over the noodles.

Next spread a third of the paneer filling.

Finally add the slices mozzarella. Repeat 2 more times until the filling runs out. On the last layer of noodles place the béchamel sauce and mozzarella. Thinner slices of mozzarella will work just fine.

Bake open for 20-30 minutes. If you use fresh mozzarella the cheese will not brown. You can broil the dish for a couple minutes if you like a brown top.

This lasagna tastes best when hot. You can reheat leftovers.

US American Meal

A classic American burger meal with onion rings and mashed potato on the side and ice cream soda to wash it all down. My initial plan was a native American meal using recipes I had collected years back. That was back in Arizona where prickly pear grew in my garden and I had sources for saguaro fruit jelly and all the other ingredients. I don't have that yet here in Texas. So I switched to a classic burger meal.

The burger buns were fresh from the oven. I did not make my foolproof sourdough buns but instead made these quick rising buns using commercial yeast. For the patti black beans wins hands down. This black bean and oats patti was moist and flavorful. The onion rings are 'fried' in the oven and were a real hit. They were so loved that I have made them a couple times already. Mashed potatoes are always welcome in our house. The ice cream soda was delicious made the old fashioned way.

I did not use any new ingredients for this recipe but the whole meal is a keeper. I had made blueberry sauce for an experimental recipe that did not go as I planned and I had plenty of sauce left over. My daughter used the blueberry sauce to make ice cream soda everyday for a week after we had this meal.

Here are the recipes for the dishes on the menu

• Burger Buns
• Bean & Oats Burgers 
• Onion Rings 
• Mashed Potatoes 

And for dessert

• Ice Cream Soda

Black Bean Burgers

Black beans, garbanzo beans and rolled oats form the base for this flavorful moist burger patti. Don't be intimidated by the list of ingredients. They are all thrown together in a mixing bowl. The burger buns are fresh out of the oven. I have included a link to the super easy recipe to make your own burger buns.

Black beans in my opinion are the best for burger pattis as they are so flavorful. This is my favorite black bean patti recipe.

Recipe adapted from here
For the patti (for four patti)
You will need
12 oz. beans (I used half black beans and half garbanzo)
3 tbsp. yellow onion, diced
3 tbsp. red bell pepper, diced
3 tbsp. black olives, diced
1 Serrano pepper, minced
4 oz. rolled oats
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. cilantro, minced
1 tbsp. cumin seeds
2 tbsp. bread crumbs
salt and black pepper to taste

If using dried beans for the patti soak them overnight and pressure cook the next day. If using canned or a carton of beans skip this step.

Bake either sourdough buns or buns made with commercial yeast like the ones below. You will need four buns for this recipe. You could use store bought buns too.

To make the patti drain the beans and transfer to a bowl. Combine with all the other ingredients. Use your hands to crush the beans a little without turning them to mush. Let the mixture sit in the refrigerator for half an hour. Prepare a ramekin by placing a rectangular piece of plastic wrap in it such that it extends beyond the sides. Divide the patti mixture into four portions. Place one portion in the ramekin over the plastic wrap and press down.

Once the patti shape is formed pull the plastic wrap to release the patti. Continue to shape the remaining three portions. Place in a refrigerator to firm up until needed. Heat a griddle pan and add a few drops of oil on it. Place one or two patti on it and brown both sides flipping over just once. Repeat for the other two.

Prepare burgers with onions, tomatoes, lettuce and anything else you like.

Enjoy!

Burger Buns

I have the perfect recipe for sourdough or homemade wild yeast burger buns here. But those buns need advance planning and sometimes you want to get the burgers ready in a couple of hours. Those are the times when this recipe is perfect.

The buns are light and fluffy and just the right size for your burger patti. This recipe makes eight buns. You can double or half the ingredients if you want more or less. I halved the recipe and made four buns. If you half the recipe always reduce water by a little more than half so the dough does not become wet. The way you would do this would be to reduce water by half and reserve a tablespoon or two of the reduced amount. Use this reserved amount only if needed.

For the buns (for four buns)
500 gm flour
3 tsp. yeast
50 gm sugar
2 scant tsp. salt
1 egg
2 tbsp. butter, melted
1 1/4 cup water
1 tbsp. butter, melted for brushing
sesame seeds for topping (optional)

To make the buns sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Mix in the other dry ingredients. Add the egg and melted butter. Add the water and form into a soft dough. Knead until the  dough is smooth and elastic. Cover and keep aside until it is doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.

Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. I halved the recipe and got 4 portions.

Gently fold over dough from all sides to the center. Pinch closed. Roll on a floured work surface with pinched side down. Cupping the dough with your finger pull towards you to create some tension in the surface. Place the shaped bun on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Repeat for the other portions. Using a plate or bowl gently flatten each bun.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise another 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375 F.

Brush the tops with half the butter reserved for brushing. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the top if you like. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven and brush again with remaining butter.

Use as needed to make burgers.