Just like pasties! (Week 29 - Argentina)

Sorry this one is short, but it is school holidays and I have an eager 7 year waiting for me to play on his mini-scalextric which he has proudly fixed!


Last time we ate Argentinian food it was in honour of the new pope being announced. We celebrated by having the Guiso, and it was delicious, I served it along with the Fugazza, which was lovely. We really enjoyed the subtle flavours of the stew and didn’t have any left overs. This time I didn’t make the Fugazza to have with it and my husband didn’t score it as high as previous, instead I did the recommended rice. It was still tasty though. I made Empanadas this time, and my son thought they were different tasting pasties. The fugazza was done another day and as there was some empanda meat left over I popped this on the top along with the onion and put cheese on for the boys. Very tasty, we all liked this one. 


Next week we are off to Ireland, spuds here we come!

Cooked with score (out of 100):

Guiso (Pork Stew)...................................................................80

Fugazza (Onion Bread)...........................................................93

Empanada’s………………………………………………………………………..90

 

Guiso

This delicious guiso, or stew, has pieces of tender pork, cumin and other seasonings, sweet potatoes, and raisins. The sweet and mildly spicy flavors come together beautifully for a simple one dish meal. Serve pork and sweet potato stew over rice with a side of arepas. Leftover can be used for empanadas.

 

Prep Time: 15 minutes, Cook Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes, Total Time: 2 hours

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

1-2 pounds of pork shoulder, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 teapsoon cumin

2 tablespoons flour

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 sweet potatoes

2 cups chicken broth

1 packet sazon Goya with achiote and culantro (optional)

[Sazon means seasoning in Spanish; salt, ground black pepper, granulated garlic or garlic powder, dried ground coriander seed (I doubt whether you can find dried culantro, unless you get some and dry it yourself,) cumin, oregano and annatto seeds, ground. The achiote (annatto) is what makes the sazon reddish. You could sub paprika for the achiote, if need be. A good ratio is one Tbsp of each spice. Mix well and use 1 1/2 tsp for each packet of the Goya sazon called for]

3/4 cups raisins

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. In a heavy, deep-sided skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil with 1 tablespoon butter. Add the onions and cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown (about 10 minutes).
2. While the onions are cooking, toss the cubed pork with the cumin, flour, sazon Goya (if using) and salt and pepper.
3. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a separate skillet, add pork pieces, and sauté until well-browned on all sides (work in batches if necessary). Remove pork to a plate and set aside.
4. Add 1 cup chicken broth to the skillet and deglaze, scraping up any pieces of pork from the pan with a wooden spoon. Add chicken broth to onion mixture.
5. Add the pork to onion mixture, along with enough chicken broth to cover. Simmer gently for 1 hour.
6. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes. Add the sweet potatoes to the stew with the raisins and simmer until the pork and the sweet potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
    

Fugazza

Fugazza makes a great appetizer or main dish. You can add other toppings of course - olives, herbs, ham, etc. The onions are typically not pre-cooked in Argentina.

 

Prep Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, Cook Time: 25 minutes, Total Time: 2 hours, 55 minutes

Makes 1 14-inch pizza.

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups bread flour

5 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup warm water

1 large white onion

2-3 teaspoons dried oregano

Grated Parmesan cheese

Thin slices of mozzarella cheese (optional)

Preparation:

1. Place the warm water (100-105 degrees F) in a small bowl. Stir 1 teaspoon sugar into the water and sprinkle the yeast over the water. Set aside for 5-10 minutes, until mixture is bubbly.
2. Place the flour, olive oil, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer and mix together briefly using the dough hook. Add the yeast/water mixture and begin to knead. The mixture should come together as a soft, stretchy dough, pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Add a bit more flour if mixture is too wet, and add a bit more water if mixture seems dry, crumbly, or overly firm. Knead for 5-10 minutes, until dough is smooth, soft and elastic.
3. Oil a bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise until doubled in size.
4. While the dough is rising, peel and slice the onion into very thin strips. Place them in a bowl of cold salt water and soak for 30 minutes. Drain onions well and dry them with paper towels.
5. Once it has risen, punch down the dough and shape into a smooth ball. Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a 14-inch pizza pan with 1 inch sides. Place the ball of dough in the middle of the pan and flatten gently with your fingers. Let dough relax for 10 minutes.
6. Continue to flatten dough into the pan, flattening it and pushing it toward the sides of the pan, letting it relax in between, until dough covers the bottom of the pan.
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Sprinkle the onions over the top of the dough. Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over the onions, and sprinkle with the dried oregano.
8. Place the fugazza in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, or until edges start to turn golden brown. If desired, remove fugazza from oven and top with thin slices of mozzarella cheese and sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Return to oven and bake until fugazza is golden brown and crispy around the edges. Brown onions under the broiler for the last 3 minutes of cooking if desired. Remove from the oven and cut into slices to serve

Argentina is famous for its beautiful wilderness, huge grasslands supporting sheep and cattle, beef are an important part of the national diet and a major export. In the southern more remote area is the “Land of the Fire” Tierra del Fuego. The famous dance, the tango originates from Argentina, and is a dance that tells a story. The longest mountain range in the world, the Andes, separates Argentina from its neighbouring country Chile. The capital is Buenos Aires, and some of the older buildings are painted in very bright cheerful colours, although in the last 100 years it has grown to a staggering 15,000,000 population.

CUISINE

Argentina is a large and very developed country that produces and exports many different foods, including beef, grains, and wine.  Argentina is particularly famous for its wine and its beef. The asado, an elaborate meal of grilled meat, is one of the most important culinary traditions in this country.

Argentina's cuisine is very influenced by Europe, and includes many Spanish-style dishes, Italian pastas and pizzas, and French pastries. The Argentinians add their unique style to these dishes, however, making them their own. Take focaccia, the Argentinean derivation of this is fugazza, but like its name, fugazza is a uniquely Argentinean dish. Fugazza is a kind of pizza, though it lacks a tomato-based sauce and has a thicker, airy crust. It's always topped with a pile of sweet onions, and sometimes with mozzarella cheese as well, and cooked in a deep pizza pan or cast-iron skillet. Fugazza is not to be confused with fugazzetta, which is a stuffed pizza that is filled with cheese and topped with the same onions.

I also found a recipe that originated in Wales (looked like Welsh cakes), but with an Argentinian twist.

Does Pot Noodle count! (Week 28 - Singapore)

We loved it, and I loved the idea that you didn’t really have to stick to a recipe to create the dish, the dish was a concept and the ingredients were what were around and what worked. We had some amazing meals, and we all really enjoyed them. They were comfort food with chop sticks. I even managed to make the flat bread, although mine where not as thin as they should be, but they tasted good for breakfast one morning. My son and I did feel a little full afterwards though, as we ate a little too much! Why the reference to Pot Noodle, well our son only experienced that for the first time this year when we went caravanning for a week and we went caravanning this weekend with his great-aunt, so suggested pot noodle as it was something we could have in the caravan that was from Singapore!


It is Summer holidays soon, so our son picked out the next country and it is Argentina, which we have ate once before we had a lovely dish with beautiful bread. Just a question of where did I put those recipes!

 

Cooked with score (out of 100):

Char Kway Teow……………………………………………………………95

Hokkien mee…………………………………………………………………83

Hainanese Chicken Rice…………………………………………….….83

Roti Prata (flat bread)……………………………………………………90

 

Char kway teow

This is a popular dish of flat rice noodles with a vibrant history. In its early days, char kway teow was mostly sold by fishermen and farmers who doubled up as food peddlers at night to supplement their income; they used to use leftovers from meals to whip up this dish, hence its multiple ingredient mix. 

Char kway teow, loosely translated as “stir-fried rice cake noodles”, is made by stir-frying flat rice noodles (similar to the Italian tagliatelle) with light and dark soy sauce, a dash of belachan (shrimp paste), tamarind juice, bean sprouts, Chinese chives, lap cheong (Chinese sausages) and cockles. In its original recipe, the rice noodles are also stir-fried in using crisp bits of pork lard thereby giving the dish its distinctive, rich taste.

In recent years, the dish has evolved into a healthier version with hawkers adding more vegetables and using vegetable oil instead of lard. This not only makes the dish healthy but the greens and bean sprouts give it a freshness and crunchy texture, adding to the overall star quality of this old-time favourite. The clanging wok and sweet-smelling hot air wafting from it gives it a heady, sensuous dimension of sight, smell and sound; and that’s even before you’ve taken a bite! 

 

I found several recipes for this dish, but in the end I did my own based on the historic version of it:

I used:

flat noodles,

thin noodles

sausage ( I used a chilli flavours sausage)

beansprouts

dark and light soya sauce

mushrooms

sesame oil

 

I pre-cooked the sausage and then just cooked everything up together – we loved it!

 

Hokkien mee

I got confused with what was and what wasn’t hokkien mee based on this description (I did my own version):

 

“Simple Fried Hokkien mee recipe. To start with, there are two types of Hokkien mee, which are  Hokkien hae mee and Hokkien char mee. Hokkien hae mee (Hokkien prawn noodles) is commonly served in Singapore while Hokkien char mee (Hokkien fried noodles) is commonly served in K.L, Malaysia. The dish commonly referred to as "Hokkien mee", depending on the locality, can mean either Hokkien hae mee or Hokkien char mee. For example, Hokkien mee in Kuala Lumpur refers to Hokkien char mee.”

 

Ingredients:

1/2lb yellow Hokkien noodles

1/4lb rice-flour noodles or "laksa mee"

1/2lb boiled squid

1/4lb cooked prawns

1/2lb turkey bacon finely diced and deep fried until crisp

1/4lb bean sprouts

2 eggs beaten

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 Chinese chives (Kucai) - cut, chopped

1 1/2 tsps salt or to taste

1 tbsp light Soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster or Hoi sin sauce

2 tspns chicken oil

Oil for cooking

 

Directions:

1. In a medium wok, fry the Hoklkien noodles and the rice-flour noodles with 1 tbsp oil with 1 beaten egg over high heat until fragrant but do not overcooked. Put aside. Clean wok.
2. With a clean wok, add 1 tbsp oil, saute minced garlic and remaining 1 beaten egg till fragrant.
3. Put the mixed fried hokkien and laksa mee and stir a bit. Add 1 tbsp of water and stir the contents continuously for about 30 seconds.
4. Add chicken oil, salt, oyster or Hoi sin sauce and soya sauce.
5. Sitr over high heat for a few seconds and add another tbsp water.
6. Cook a further 5 seconds then add the prawns, chopped squid, Chinese chives and turkey bacon.
    
    

Roti prata

Roti prata (flat bread) is found in practically every neighbourhood in Singapore. The Indians knead and flatten an oiled ball of dough, and flip it with practised flair until the dough is a tissue-thin sheet. This is then folded into multi-layered pancakes and griddle-fried til crisp. It’s usually served with curry or a sprinkle of sugar. Nowadays, prata makers get creative with all kinds of fillings and combinations -- cheese, mushroom, durian, ice cream, honey, banana, cashew nuts, and even sardines.

Enriched Prata Dough Recipe (Richer taste, more tender)

Plain Flour 600g

Water 270ml

Condensed Milk 80g (1/4 cup)

Oil or Melted Butter/Ghee 15ml (1 tablespoon)

Salt 1 teaspoon

1 egg

 

Here is another recipe without the condensed milk

Leaner Prata Dough Recipe (Crispier texture)

Plain Flour 600g

Water 300ml

Salt 1 teaspoon

Sugar 1 tablespoon

Oil 15 ml

1 egg

 

I found a website that seemed to have spent ages researching how the make this bread, I didn’t follow all of it to the letter, but what we did get was lovely. Here is how I made ours, based on the various information out there:

 

I used the Leaner dough recipe, and made half quantities (still with 1 egg). The dough needs to be right.

 

1. Put all the ingredients, except the oil in a basin and mix well. Leave to stand for 20 minutes. Apparently this stage is known technically as the autolysis stage. If you continue to force it to combine together, you are just wasting your time and energy. Give it 20 minutes and when you start to knead, you will get a smooth dough in no time.
2. Then you just need to knead, to develop the gluten a bit. This takes time and I usually do this listening to the radio or my son reading to me and telling me about his day. You want to end up with is a tacky dough which becomes smooth as a baby’s bottom with just a bit of dusting of flour.
3. Right after kneading, divide the dough into equal parts. The full recipe does 10 balls, half would do 6 nice size balls (I had 5, and they were a little big). Pop them in oiled muffin tins, making sure that there are no folds and this will make your bread break when you flatten it.
4. I let mine rest overnight, because during this time, the enzymes in the flour will start working on the sugars and some of the wild yeast in the air will start fermenting the dough. The resting makes the dough more pliable and easy to flip as well as give it a more complex flavour. Remember to cover the dough balls with clingwrap to keep the surface from drying out. If you are in a hurry, you can flip the dough in as little as 50 mins after balling, but you might find it breaks a little easier.
5. Take them out of the fridge, heat some oil/butter in a pan and then flatten the dough. Ideally it needs to be spun and whirled around to make it really thin, so you can fold it. I couldn’t manage it but I did manage to make it the size of our frying pan. I didn’t fold it, just cooked it like that and it crisped up and was very tasty!
    
    

Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe

Servings: 6

 

While your chicken is cooking, it helps to prepare the ingredients for your chili sauce and rice. Both of these are usually assembled after the chicken is done because they require the chicken broth, but you can get started washing and soaking the rice, chopping the garlic and ginger before then. In this recipe, all of the poaching broth is reserved -- some is used in the rice, a small amount is used in the chili sauce, and the remainder is saved to be heated and served as a simple soup to accompany the chicken.

 

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (3.5 lbs, 1.8kg), preferably organic

salt

4'' section of fresh ginger, in 1/4'' slices

2 stalks green onions, cut into 1" sections (both the green and white parts)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Rice

2 tablespoon chicken fat or 2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1'' section of ginger, finely minced

2 cups long-grain uncooked rice, washed and soaked in cool water for 10 min or longer

2 cups reserved chicken poaching broth

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon salt

Chilli Sauce

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoon reserved chicken poaching broth

2 teaspoon sugar

4 tablespoon sriracha chili sauce

4 cloves garlic

1'' ginger

a generous pinch of salt, to taste

 

Garnish

1/4 cup dark soy sauce

Few sprigs cilantro

1 cucumber, thinly sliced or cut into bite-sized chunks

 

Directions:

1. To clean the chicken, with a small handful of kosher salt, rub the chicken all over, getting rid of any loose skin and dirt. Rinse chicken well, inside and outside. Season generously with salt inside and outside. Stuff the chicken with the ginger slices and the green onion. Place the chicken in a large stockpot and fill with cold water to cover by 1 inch. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then immediately turn the heat to low to keep a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes more (less if you're using a smaller chicken). Check for doneness by sticking a chopstick into the flesh under the leg and see if the juices run clear or insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh not touching bone. It should read 170F.
2. When the chicken is cooked through, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Immediately lift and transfer the chicken into a bath of ice water to cool and discard the ginger and green onion. [Don’t try to grab the chicken legs to pull the chicken out. You’ll end up tearing the skin and maybe even tearing the drumsticks out of the chicken which results in you standing there holding two drumsticks and the rest of the chicken plopping back into the boiling hot broth which then splashes back on your arms and face!] Don't forget to reserve the poaching broth for your rice, your sauce, and the accompanying soup. The quick cooling will stop the cooking process, keeping the meat soft and tender, and giving the skin a lovely firm texture.
3. To cook the rice: Drain the rice. In a wok or sauce pan (use a medium sauce pan if you plan on cooking the rice on the stove top), heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add the ginger and the garlic and fry until your kitchen smells like heaven. Be careful not to burn the aromatics! Add in your drained rice and stir to coat, cook for 2 minutes. Add the sesame oil, mix well.
4. In the same sauce pan, add 2 cups of your reserved poaching broth, add salt and bring to a boil. Immediately turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit (with lid still on) for 5-10 minutes more.
5. While your rice is cooking, remove the chicken from the ice bath and rub the outside of the chicken with the sesame oil. Carve the chicken for serving.
6. To make the chili sauce: Blend your chili sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth and bright red.
7. To make the soup: You should have six or seven cups of the reserved poaching broth left over to serve as soup. Just before serving, heat up the soup, taste and season with salt as necessary.
8. Serve the chicken rice with chili sauce, dark soy sauce, cucumber slices, and a bowl of hot broth garnished with cilantro or scallions
    

About Singapore....

The earliest recorded name for the present day Singapore is 'Temasek' (means 'Sea Town' in Old Javanese language) Sang Nila Utama, a Srivijayan prince from Palembang (of present day Indonesia) went to the island of Temasek for hunting and saw a strange animal with an orange body, black head. He was told that it probably was a lion. He believed it to be a good omen and founded a city in 1324. He named the city "Singapura" ("Singa" is a Sanskrit word for lion, and "Pura" means city in Sanskrit - The name thus means the "Lion City").

 Kallang River, the longest river in Singapore, is just 10 km long. The Singapore River, the most famous river in the country, is also extremely short and small. Some of the much smaller rivers are Geylang River and Rochor River. You can complete your morning jogging tracing any of these rivers' entire length! Bukit Timah (means 'tin hill' in Malay language) is the highest natural point in Singapore. The peak stands at 163 metres (537 ft.) and there are buildings in Singapore that are taller and higher than its natural peak. The 25-km long Bukit Timah Road is the longest road in Singapore. Singapore is the second most densely populated sovereign nation in the world.

 About 7,600 people live per square km in Singapore. (Monaco, at 18,500 persons per square km, is the most densely populated sovereign nation in the world. Mongolia, at 2 persons per square km, has the lowest population density among all sovereign nations. Canada has about 4 people living per square km and Australia has about 3 people living per square km).

 Singapore is a tiny nation and it has no natural resources, so it has to import almost everything it needs. It imports not only sand, but even the fresh water from Malaysia.

CUISINE

This extract sums up Singaporean food: (sourcehttp://www.seriouseats.com/2012/07/an-introduction-to-singaporean-food-cuisine.html) Singapore is a tiny country with a voracious appetite: "we'll eat five or six meals a day," is a local saying. Like in Malaysia, those meals will draw from Malay stir fries to Chinese noodles to Indian curries, all slurped down with coffee, hot gingery tea, or the sweet and herbal citrus vibe of calamansi limeade. And no matter where you are, or what you're eating, you'll hear someone tsk-ing about a better noodle, porridge, or bean curd at their favorite hawker. This is a country of five million dead-serious eaters, the kind of people who ask, "have you eaten?" as a form of greeting and whose arguments are about the best food in town. Food from Singapore hails from everywhere, but also, in a sense, from nowhere: the local cuisine is defined by what it's borrowed, and how those puzzle pieces are assembled into something totally unique.

Cartref (Week 27 - Wales)

We are on the home (cartref) leg of our year long journey. My sister picked this one out, which was of funny as it was on her birthday and her nephew (my son) had just given her a card with a 3-d whale on it! I could find recipes from Wales, all using welsh ingredients, but the only true Welsh dishes I could find (I am sure there are more, I was just looking in the wrong places) were Welsh Cakes, Cawl, Bara Birth (bara meaning eat, sustenance) and Rarebit. I also came across a Huish cake, and eventually a recipe for it. The Welsh cakes were a big hit, even cold. I have made them before and I recall one cold winter’s eve when some Jehovah Witnesses called we were cooking these, so I offered them some at the door! As I don’t eat cheese, I found a recipe for Cawl; and as lamb was the meat I opted for this. It was lovely, although I tried to cook it in the oven and it failed, I did it again – the proper way and it was a hit. It was similar to the Bulgarian ‘stew’ I invented from last week.


I do have recipes for Bara Birth but never got round to cooking it, instead I made a treacle cake, which turned out to be the oddest textured cake I have made; I liked it my son didn’t and my husband never tried it. I also did a simple dish with leeks, I cut some leeks into thirds, cooked then in water for 10 minutes, then wrapped them in bacon and put them in the oven for 15mins, while I cooked some sweat potato (or parsnip works just as well). This is then mashed, topped with the bacon rolled leeks and covered in hollandaise sauce or parsley sauce. Mmm, lovely….


Next week we are jetting off to Singapore, which my son is really looking forward to as he gets to use his chop sticks!

 

Cooked with score (out of 100):

Cawl (Lamb stew)…………………………………………………..85
Welsh Cake………………………………………………………….…80
Cacen goch (Treacle Cake)……………………………………..50
 
Wanted to cook:
Bara Birth
Tiessennau Mel (Honey Cake)

Cawl

Serves 6

6 x small Welsh lamb shanks
1.2L/2pts water
225g/8oz potatoes, peeled and diced
225g/8oz swede, peeled and diced
225g/8oz onion, peeled and chopped
225g/8oz carrots, peeled and diced
225g/8oz leek, cleaned and sliced thin
A bunch of herbs: Bay, thyme, rosemary and parsley
½ a small Savoy cabbage
2tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and pepper

 

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan, season the lamb shanks add to the pan together with the onion and brown all over (you may have to do this in batches if your pan is not large enough).
2. Pour over the water and add the bunch of herbs. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer.
3. Cover and cook for 40 minutes.
4. Add all the vegetables except for the cabbage, bring up to the boil again, reduce to a simmer and cook for a further 40 minutes.
5. Shred the cabbage and add to the cawl, cook for about 5 minutes, then serve.
   
   Cawl can be made throughout the year, just adjust the vegetables according to the season. Chopped runner bean, broad beans and peas are wonderful during early summer; add a little chopped mint at the end of cooking. During cooking the stock will reduce somewhat, so top up with more water, or some wine. You may also wish to add pulses such as lentils, or beans, pearl barley is also good during the winter months.
    
   Substitute lamb with a piece of gammon, just make sure you soak it before cooking. The broth will make an excellent soup, add peas and fresh mint. Serve the gammon with creamed potatoes, broad beans and parsley sauce.
    

Welsh Cakes

Source: Step-by-step Baking by Caroline Bretherton
 Makes 24
Ingredients:

200g /7oz self-raising flour

100g / 3 ½ oz unsalted butter, chilled and diced, plus extra for frying
75g / 2 ½ oz caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
75g / 2 ½ oz sultanas
1 large egg, beaten
 A little milk, if needed
 

Method:

1. Sift the flour in a large bowl, and rub the butter in until it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the sugar and the sultanas and pour in the egg.
2. Mix the ingredients together, bringing the mixture into a ball using your hands. This should be firm enough to roll out, but if it is too stiff add a little milk.
3. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 5mm (1/4 inch) thick and cut out disks, using a pastry cutter.
4. Heat a large, heavy frying pan (cast iron skillet, or flat griddle) over a medium-low heat. Fry the cakes, in batches, in a little melted butter for 2-3 minutes on each side, until they puff up, are golden brown and cooked through.
5. While still warm, generously dust the cakes with a little caster sugar, before serving. Welsh cakes are best eaten immediately. If you freeze them, reheat in the oven before after defrosting.
    
   
   

Bara Birth

Source: Step-by-step Baking by Caroline Bretherton
 

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:


2 tsp dried yeast
250ml (8fl oz) warm milk
60g / 2oz caster sugar, plus 2 tbsp for sprinkling
1 egg, beaten
500g / 1lb strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1tsp salt
60g / 2oz unsalted butter, softened and diced
1tsp mixed spice
Oil, for greasing
225g / 8oz dried mixed fruit (sultanas, raisins and mixed peel)

Method:

1. Whisk the yeast into the milk with 1 tsp of caster sugar and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes, until the mixture froths. Add most of the beaten egg, reserving a little for glazing/
2. Rub the flour, salt and butter together until the mixture resembled fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the mixed spice and remaining sugar. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour in the milk mixture, and mix it together with your hands to form a sticky dough.
3. Turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for up to 10 minutes until soft and pliable but still quite sticky. Add more flour, 1 tbsp at a time if it is not forming a ball. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Leave it to rise in a warm place for 1 ½ - 2 hours until double in size.
4. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface, punch the air out with your fists and gently stretch to around 2cm (3/4inch) thick. Scatter the dried fruit over the surface of the dough, and bring it together from the sides into the middle to form a ball again.
5. Now either shape the dough into your own desired shape and transfer to a greased baking sheet, or halve it and put into greased 2lb loaf tines, Cover with oiled cling film or a clean tea towel, and leave in a warm place to prove for another 1 ½ - 2 hours until doubled in size again.
6. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190C (375F, GM5). Brush the bread with a little egg wash and sprinkle it with 1 tbsp of sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes for loaf tines, 35-40 minutes for a large free-form loaf. Cover halfway through with a piece of foil or baking parchment if it browns too quickly.
7. The bread is done when it is golden brown, firm to the touch and the bottom is hollow when tapped. Leave it to cool for 20 minutes before cutting, as it will continue to cook after being removed from the oven. Cutting too early causes the steam to escape and the loaf to harden.
    
    

Tiessennau Mel (Honey Cake)

Ingredients

Serves: 6 

110g (4 oz) honey

1 tsp cinnamon
110g (4 oz) soft brown sugar
1 egg
225g (8 oz) plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
110g (4 oz) butter or margarine
caster sugar
a little milk

 Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220 C / gas 7. Cream together butter and sugar. Separate the egg yolk from the white.
2. Beat the yolk into sugar and butter then, add the honey, gradually. Stir in the flour with a little milk as required and mix all together lightly.
3. Whisk the egg white into a stiff froth and fold into mixture. Half fill the cups in a small bun tin with the mixture; sprinkle the top of each with caster sugar. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. When ready sprinkle a little more sugar, if you like.
    

Cacen Goch (Treacle Cake)

Source: MyfanwyR

Ingredients

Makes: 1 treacle cake

225g butter

450g plain flour

225g dried mixed fruit

4 tablespoons soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 pinch ground cinnamon
150ml to 300ml milk
5 tablespoons black treacle

1. Method
   Preheat the oven to 190 C / Gas 5. Grease a deep baking tray.
2. In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the fruit, sugar and spices. Gradually add the milk and treacle to form a stiff mixture (you may not need the full 300ml of milk). Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tray.
3. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the cake is firm. Remove from the oven and serve. 

About Wales...

Wales is less than a sixth the size of England and while Wales is part of the United Kingdom and a member state of the European Union, it also has its own devolved Welsh Government, responsible for certain local affairs.   A quarter of the people that live in Wales were born outside of the country, the vast majority being migrants from England, yet the country is officially a bilingual nation. Almost a quarter of the population also speak Welsh, the strongest survivor of the Celtic languages. The vast majority of Welsh-speakers are concentrated in the north and west of the country.

 

Much of Wales’ appeal lies outside the larger towns, where there is ample evidence of the warmongering which has shaped the country’s development. Castles are everywhere, from the hard little stone keeps of the early Welsh princes to Edward I’s incomparable series of thirteenth-century fortresses and grandiose Victorian piles where grouse were the only enemy. The entire welsh coast is now linked by the 860-mile All-Wales Coast Path: much of which is unspoilt, although seldom visited.

Portmerion is the grandest folly of all, a unique village set on its own private peninsula on the southern shores of Snowdonia. It was created by Welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978) to demonstrate how a naturally beautiful place could be developed without spoiling it. It is made up of about 50 buildings most of which are now used as hotel or self-catering accommodation and surrounded by 70 acres of sub-tropical woodland gardens

 

CUISINE

Traditional Welsh cooking derives from the diet of the working man: fisherman, farmer, coal miner or labourer. Thus fresh vegetables from the garden, fish from the rivers, lakes or sea, meat from the family pig etc. form the basis of traditional Welsh cooking. Welsh lamb and beef feature prominently as do freshly caught fish such as salmon, brown trout, white crab, lobsters and cockles.

 

Bacon, along with the two Welsh staple vegetables leeks and cabbage, goes to make the traditional Welsh dish cawl, a broth or soup. This classic one-pot meal, originally cooked in an iron pot over an open fire, used all local ingredients: home-cured bacon, scraps of Welsh lamb, cabbage, swede, potatoes and leeks. Recipes for cawl vary from region to region and from season to season, depending on what vegetables and produce are available.

 

Only in Wales, and some parts of Scotland and Ireland, is an edible seaweed known as laver gathered and processed commercially. Available already cooked and prepared in numerous markets throughout Wales, bara lawr or laverbread is usually eaten sprinkled with oatmeal, then warmed in hot bacon fat and served with bacon for breakfast or supper. The seaweed itself can be found in some parts of the west coast, clinging to the rocks at low tide.

 

Caerphilly is a mild crumbly white cheese which originated in South Wales and is probably the best known Welsh cheese. Today farmhouse Caerphilly, made in traditional rounds with natural rinds, is made only in the West Country of England, not in Wales, although mild, crumbly block cheese is made in creameries in the Principality.

 

The Welsh love teatime! Traditional bara brith (the famous speckled bread of Wales), Teisen lap ( a shallow moist fruit cake) teisen carawe (caraway seed cake), tease sinamon (cinnamon cake) and teisen mêl (honey cake) are favourites for the tea table. Such cakes are still made today throughout Wales, although the ancient recipes have been updated to suit modern methods of cooking.

Source: http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Traditional-Welsh-Food/