I grew up in Gloucester, little more than a stone’s throw from south Wales, on the other side of the Severn estuary. I played a lot of rugby, often against Welsh teams, and my resounding memory is of losing a lot. We frequently got a battering.
Even though we were all only kids, I remember how together and coordinated those Welsh rugby teams were compared to us West Country boys. They were a proud and organised pack with steely determination and huge strength. Today’s column is in their honour.
I’ve put my favourite Welsh ingredients and dishes to work in three beautiful dishes that will fuel you through the dark November days, whether you’re playing rugby, walking the dogs or just need something delicious to look forward to after a long commute home from work.
For many of us, lamb instantly springs to mind when we think about Wales. It’s a rolling green landscape studded with white, woolly flecks of grazing sheep. Lamb is a meat that reacts very sensitively to its environment – if it’s grown on salt marshes, for example, you get that briny kick. In Wales – a rugged, wild and very verdant part of the British Isles – you can really taste the green valleys. And the meat has excellent marbling, reflecting the gradient of the hills on which they march up and down to graze. I’ve put some gorgeous Welsh lamb meat to work in the pasties below.
The Welsh emblem is a famous one: the humble leek, an ingredient I’m pretty addicted to. Anything that tastes of onion is a winner for me, and leeks are like super onions. At The Hand and Flowers, we char small leeks, cook them on a plancha grill, or put them through soups for their lovely, almost lemony, sweetness. When cooking with leeks, make sure you wash them thoroughly (they often carry dirt and soil in their rounds) and make sure you really soften them down – I’m not a fan of that rather squeaky texture they retain when they aren’t cooked for long enough.
The quiche I’ve created here combines sweet and creamy leeks with two other ingredients that work together wonderfully. I chose smoked haddock because it is a robust and structured fish with a beautifully subtle smoky flavour. Caerphilly is a hard, crumbly white Welsh cheese that’s high in dairy acidity, cutting through the cream and fish richness to beautiful effect. This is essentially a posh cheese and onion pie. And who wouldn’t love that?
Lastly, my steamed Snowdon pudding is just the kind of dessert you want on a cold winter’s night. Imagine being stuck and hungry up a blustery hill in north Wales; a boozy hot pud like this is a bit like edible central heating, warming you from the inside out. It’s a very British dessert, really. Steamed puddings traditionally use suet – rendered beef fat, from a cow’s or sheep’s kidneys – because it has a high melting point. It keeps the pudding moist and dense, and adds great depth of texture to the finished product.
Who knows, if we Gloucester boys had eaten like this as kids, maybe we’d have had a shot at beating those Welsh lads after all.
Leek, smoked haddock and Caerphilly quiche
I’ve upgraded the classic cheese and onion combo with some smoked fish here: stronger mackerel or herring would both work in place of haddock, but avoid fattier salmon as this makes the quiche too rich.
For the pastry
225g flour
140g butter
1 tsp icing sugar
A pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp cold water
For the filling
1 large leek
40g butter
100ml milk
200ml double cream
300g smoked haddock fillet
5 whole eggs, beaten
250g diced caerphilly cheese
Salt and pepper
1 Mix together the flour and butter until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar, salt, yolk and water, and bring together into a dough. Rest in the fridge for at least an hour, then roll the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm thick.
2 Preheat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3½. Line a 22cm tart tin with the pastry, tucking it into the edges, then place parchment paper or clingfilm over it and fill with rice or ceramic baking beans. Blind bake for 30-35 minutes.
3 Remove the beans and parchment paper (or clingfilm) and bake the tart for a further 10-15 minutes until the tart base is fully cooked and crisp. Put aside to cool.
4 Cut the leek in half lengthways and then slice it into thin strips. Wash it in a colander under running cold water to get rid of any dirt and grit.
5 Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the sliced leek and season. Cook until the leeks are just soft. Drain and pat dry on some kitchen roll.
6 In a separate, wide pan, bring the milk and cream up to the boil. Place the smoked haddock fillet in the milk mixture. Remove from the heat and cover with clingfilm. Leave this aside to cool and the fish will cook in the residual heat. Remove the fish when cold and flake it.
7 Whisk the beaten eggs into the milk and cream mix. Mix together the leeks, Caerphilly cheese and flaked smoked haddock and fill the blind baked tart case. Pour on top the egg, cream and milk mix.
8 Place the tart in the oven and cook until the custard is just set – about 25-30 minutes. Then remove the tart from the oven and leave to cool for 20 minutes before serving.
Welsh lamb pasties
Beautifully golden and oozing with meaty, root veg filling, Welsh lamb meets the West Country pasty in this recipe. These are a homage to my early rugby matches.
Makes 4
For the pastry
500g plain flour
1 tsp salt
125g chilled diced butter
125g lamb fat or lard, chilled
6-8 tbsp cold water
For the filling
2 new potatoes, skinned
175g swede, peeled
1 large onion, finely diced
1 tbsp cracked black pepper
2 tsp salt
400g lamb neck fillets
1 whole egg, beaten
2 tbsp double cream
2 egg yolks
1 To make the pastry, put the flour, salt, butter and lamb fat or lard in a food processor and with the pulse button, blitz the mix together until it forms a breadcrumb-like mix. Add the cold water, mix, remove from the food processor and work into a dough. Wrap very tightly in clingfilm and put in the fridge to rest for at least an hour.
2 After this time, divide the dough into 4 equal parts. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece into a rough disc. Put a roughly 22cm plate on top of each piece of pastry and cut around the edge of the plates to create four neat discs.
3 Place each disc on a piece of clingfilm, then lift on to a plate. Repeat for all four discs, stacking each plate on top of each other. Cover with another piece of clingfilm and pop into the fridge for a further half-hour.
3 While they are resting, make the filling. With a Japanese mandolin, carefully slice the new potatoes and the swede thinly to the same size and thickness. We are using new potatoes because they have a fantastic, waxy quality. Put these in a bowl. Add the finely diced onion and salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.
4 With a sharp knife, slice the lamb neck fillets into small chunks. Add the lamb to the mixing bowl and work together with your hands.
5 Take the pastry discs from the fridge. Put a quarter of the lamb mix into the centre of each disc, leaving a margin. Brush the margins with the beaten egg and fold them into semi-circles. Pack them tightly, removing all air pockets.
6 Place the pastries on a flat baking tray lined with parchment. Bake for 45 minutes, then remove from the oven. Mix together the double cream and egg yolks and brush all over the pasties. Put them back in the oven and bake for a further 10-12 minutes until golden and glazed.
Snowdon pudding
This is a traditional suet pudding that’s perfect for the cold weather. I’ve added the lemon and wine sauce for extra sweet and sour. Hearty and warming, have this waiting for you after a cold weekend walk.
Serves 4
100g suet
80g brown sugar
A pinch of salt
20g cornflour
100g fresh white breadcrumbs
75g raisins, plus a handful for the bottom of the dish
3 whole eggs, beaten
85g lemon marmalade
Zest of 2 lemons
For the sauce
150ml water
75g sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
30g butter
2 tbsp cornflour
140ml white wine
1 To make the sauce, bring the water, sugar and lemon zest to the boil in a saucepan. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes. When reduced down by a third, stir in the butter.
2 Mix together the cornflour and the lemon juice to form a paste. Add the wine to the saucepan, then the lemon and cornflour paste. Bring the sauce back to a simmer and cook until thickened and smooth. Put aside. You can reheat this later.
3 To make the pudding, mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, apart from the handful of raisins. Pour in the beaten eggs and marmalade and mix together.
4 Grease a 1-litre pudding basin and sprinkle in the handful of raisins on the bottom. Pour the cake mixture on top. Cover with baking parchment and tin foil and tie up to seal the pudding.
5 Boil or steam in a pan for 1 ½–2 hours, checking the water level from time to time and topping up if needed. Remove and serve with the lemon sauce.
