Fic-related Welsh food geekery

[hi_mi_tsu]

I plotted out a Welsh-market picnic menu for part 24b and then I had to try making it. ^__^ It turned out pretty darn tasty...

Drinks:
Reed's Spiced Apple Brew (this is the closest I can get in the States to what Eirfon would've made for Sophie with a bar's apple juice and ginger-beer; it fizzes almost like a pint of ale when you pour it into a glass, and it's darn tasty too)

Main dish:
Two variants on pasties, which are kind of the British edition of calzones -- take a pie crust, fill half, fold over, seal, and bake, very handy for taking down the mines because they're a portalunchbox all in themselves. Welsh oggies have meat, vegetables, and jam for dessert in separate sections of the same pasty shell.

1) Pastai cig oen / Lamb pie
Scale this down to about 1/2 lb or so and cook it in chunks in a frying pan instead of doing the hour-forty thing. Make gravy with pan drippings and a little flour. Put some aside for putting in pasty shell and baking alongside the pastai cennin below:

2) Pastai cennin / Leek pie
Ingredients:

• Pie crusts or fridge biscuits 
  (this time I did it with pre-made pie crusts though I read in another recipe that using buttermilk fridge-biscuits makes easy pasty cases too)
• 1-3 leeks, chopped & rinsed thoroughly
  (I had 3 cleaned leeks, and ended up with enough innards for about 6-8 pasties. Must scale back next time since you only get 4 pasties out of 2 pie crusts.)
• A squeeze of lemon juice (brings out the lemonish tinge in the Caerphilly - that was my own improv bit)
  
• 1 Tbsp flour seasoned with salt & pepper
• 2-4 oz. of shredded Welsh Caerphilly cheese (or 1/4 to 1/2 bag preshredded cheddar or mozzarella)
• 1 egg beaten with 2 Tbsp milk (I used half for the pasty innards and half for glazing the tops)

Directions:

• Make, thaw, or de-can your pie dough.
• After slicing your leeks in half and then into 1/2 to 1 inch half-rings and rinsing like mad to get rid of the grit, par-boil them in salted water until they're soft, then drain thoroughly (I put 'em in a salad spinner). Divide your leeks up into batches fitting the number of pasty cases you've got, to see if you'll end up with leftover leeks (I did). Put the extra leeks in the fridge or freezer for some other project.
  
• Sprinkle the seasoned flour over the pasty-destined leeks, then add 1/2 of the egg mixture, a squeeze of lemon, and what looks like the right quantity of cheese for that many leeks, and stir through.
• Cut the pie crusts in half (or roll out the biscuits until they're reasonable-sized rounds).
  
• Put the leek-cheese-egg mixture on one half of the pastry, fold over, and seal the edges.
• Glaze the tops with the other half of the egg mixture.
  
• (Also wrap up the lamb mixture in a pasty shell and bake alongside the leek variety.)
  
• I cut little sheep or leek shapes in the top of the pasties for air vents, but a couple pokes will do just as well.
  
• The original pie recipe said to bake at 425 for 30 minutes. I don't know how it would end up not charred at that rate, since my pasties were on the edge of overdone in 12 minutes. Next time I'll try 400 for 10-12 minutes and see how it works.

Fruit/veg:
Find yourself a good tomato to go with the leek-cheese pasty and some nice grapes and pears for snacking on. There's a lot of leek in the leek pasty so I let that cover for greenery. ^_^

Dessert:
Cage bach / Welshcakes
I first encountered both these and lamb pasties in the Carmarthen market. Madly homesick-making. ^_^;;

Ingredients (makes about two dozen):

• 2 cups self-rising flour (or regular flour plus 1-2 tsp baking powder)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine (but try to find nice fresh unsalted butter)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Between 2/3 and 1 cup currants (or sultanas or raisins, but again, try to find the currants; raisins are a little too big for how delicate the cakes turn out)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ea. nutmeg and ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1 lg egg, beaten
  
• Up to 1/2 cup milk
• Hot liquid of choice to plump up the currants in (hot water, hot apple juice, hot Ribena (which is currant-flavored), hot brandy or creme de cassis if you like being a little adventurous...)

Directions:

• Rinse the currants well and put them in the hot liquid to soak. This wasn't in the original recipe I found, but it makes them turn out tastier and more like the market-ones.
• Stir together the flour, baking powder (if needed), salt, and spices.
  
• Cut the butter into small bits (I quarter a stick lengthwise and then chop into little bits that way) and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it's like fine crumbles.
  
• Drain the soaking liquid off the currants.
  
• Make a hollow in the middle of the flour mixture and add the sugar, the beaten egg, about 1/4 cup milk, and the drained currants. Stir together. If it needs more liquid, add the rest of the milk, but it should be a somewhat stiff dough (stiffer than chocolate chip cookie dough).
  
• Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick (I often do this between two floured sheets of waxed paper) and cut in three-inch circles (you can use a juice glass for this).
• Cook over low heat on a griddle or nonstick frying pan that's been very lightly oiled with something flavorless like canola oil. (Don't use olive oil or they'll turn out smelling like a salad!) Cook them like little pancakes -- wait a while until one side is toasty golden, then flip and toast the other side. They won't really toast any further if you keep flipping them, so make sure one side's nice and golden before you flip the first time. (Try one as an experiment to get the timing right before you cook up a big batch, because I never seem to get the same amount of heat out of my stovetop twice in a row.)
• Sprinkle the top with sugar while they're still warm.
  
• Eat as is or top with something like honey, jam, lemon curd, a bit of butter, or Devonshire double cream. They keep well in an airtight tin if any survive the initial ooo-warm nibbles from anyone in the building. (don't put toppings on until you're ready to eat them though)
  

Yummmmm....

So anyway, that's the picnic that's going to show up in-fic whenever I get this bit done... ^__^