One of the very different things about living in Wales as compared to England is the strength of feeling invested in rugby. In England, yeah, plenty of people like rugby, but it's not a patch on the all-consuming, national pride inducing, mass tear provoking, beer fest PASSION that it is here in Wales.
For a start, EVERYONE is involved. I mean everyone. When I went to London on the train last November, everyone between Carmarthen and Cardiff was either going to to the game or talking about the game and using it as an excuse to have a drink at 10.00 a.m. And I mean EVERYONE.
At the start of the Six Nations tournament a couple of weeks ago, the kids came from school engaged in a very serious conversation.
"Did you sing?"
"No".
"I opened my mouth but I didn't sing the words"
What?
Apparently, the school had assembled to sing the Welsh national anthem in advance of the competition, and specifically the opening match against England. While I haven't asked about this year, I can attest that in their primary school in Hampshire, there was no singing of the English national anthem prior to the Six Nations in the years before we moved.
Despite the grumblings of the Husband, I haven't investigated this further to find out exactly what happened, and much as there's a worrying voice at the back of my mind questioning whether such displays of patriotism are strictly necessary, there's another part of me that admires this devotion to their national sport that the Welsh have. True, I haven't been on the receiving end of this passion in any negative sense (not that I'm aware of anyway - my welsh skills being nascent and distinctly wobbly), and I can see that taken to the extreme, it could lead to all sorts of unpleasantness, but on the whole, the passion seems to be a good natured and healthy love of Wales and the Welsh rugby team. The children do tell me that on the board in school featuring pictures of the different national rugby teams involved in the 6 Nations, the English players do seem particularly Neanderthal-like. Whether those responsible did that on purpose, or whether the English rugby team is simply looking a little Neanderthal these days, I couldn't possibly comment...
Anyway, given this background, you'll appreciate that it's not as surprising as it might otherwise have been to have a baking event themed to the Six Nations. Branching away from cakes (although there will still be clandestine cakes), the Cardigan Bay Bakers has formed to bake beyond the boundaries of a cake tin, and the inaugural meeting had 'Six Nations Savouries' as its theme.
Now, despite having an idea that I'd make 6 kinds of flavoured savoury scone each reflecting a different nation, the reality of doing so was slightly traumatic given that I'd been back in England, in Leeds to be precise, for my school reunion involving 12 hours driving and an extremely late, riotous and thoroughly enjoyable evening on Saturday. Visions of 6 differently and delicately flavoured scones went out of the window when I realised I had hardly any flour in the house, nor much to add to create the '6 nations-ness'. I did have a leek, some parmesan cheese and some cold mashed potato, but such was my panic that I didn't take many pics, preferring to concentrate on actually cooking something.
I made leek & parmesan scones using welsh butter & leeks (doubly appropriate given St David's Day) and also some pesto (Italy again as well as the parmesan) potato (Scotland & Ireland) scones, some to serve with goats cheese (France) and some with smoked salmon (Scotland) which I purchased on my way to the event. So I figure I got most nations covered given that the flour I did have was English, and there's some mustard powder in there. Nothing like being organised, is there?
Leek & Parmesan Scones
makes 10 medium sized scones
1 small leek, trimmed and finely chopped
50g butter
75g plain flour (I ended up using 00 which was all I had)
75g wholemeal self raising flour
1 tsp English mustard powder
a pinch of cayenne
1 tsp baking powder
good pinch of salt
about 80g parmesan finely grated
1 large egg
3-4 tbsp buttermilk
Pre-heat the oven to 200C (Fan) and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Make sure you have your biscuit cutter (I used a 6cm one) to hand.
First, melt 12g of the butter in a small pan and sweat the leeks till softened. Don't let them catch. Set aside.
Combine the flours, mustard and cayenne, baking powder and salt in a bowl, then add in the cooked leeks and the grated cheese and stir together.
Combine the egg with 3 tbsps of buttermilk and stir into the dry mixture - add the extra tbsp of buttermilk if you need it to make a soft dough.
Pat out the dough on a floured surface and use a 6 cm cutter to cut out your scones, reshaping the dough if necessary to get more scones.
Bake for 15-20 mins until browned and ready to eat. Serve with good, salted butter. Preferably Welsh...
Just as surely as things that go up have to come down, it is also the case that, unless they are incredibly organised and have a bigger freezer capacity than I, people who go out and enjoy themselves 2 weekends on the trot end up with nothing in the fridge and a bit of a crisis - especially given that it's now officially 'Christmas' (having got the Husband's birthday out of the way) and my organisational skills have had to be turned to that rather than the day to day food regime.
I do have a meal plan for December. It's filled in with the many Christmas related events the children are involved with, the Husband's not inconsiderable absences through work-related travel, some parties (more! hooray!) and a couple of food-related scrawls. I see "salmon?" against tomorrow. And (rather obviously) "turkey" against 25th. But for the rest of the time? We are doing a lot, and not, apparently eating much.
Actually that's not quite true - closer inspection reveals "leftovers" written in for Monday with an arrow wiggling across the rest of the week (until tomorrow when we are supposed to be having salmon...).
Leftovers on Monday and Tuesday consisted of a rather luscious cauliflower and bacon cheese using up the remnants of various cheese from the weekend, and a sausage and sweet potato casserole, again using up sausages we didn't cook on the beach. The same was on offer on Tuesday, and by Wednesday we had Sausage Casserole left. Left overs from the leftovers, you could say. (I'd over achieved when I bought the sausages).
Throw into the mix the fact that I've had to scrape together packed lunches and the fridge painted a rather grim picture this afternoon.
But a pot of cream, although a day out of date, was unopened and passed my 'does it taste off' test, and - hallelujiah! 4 slices of bacon. Potatoes an onion and some tired looking tomatoes, and dinner was born. A kind of take on a dauphinoise, I suppose, or a bacon hotpot.
I hesitate to offer a recipe - my dish is, shallow approx 20cm by 20cm, and I thinkly sliced 3-4 maris piper potatoes and an onion, then layered with the bacon and tomatoes plus a grated clove of garlic, salt and pepper and a mixture of 300ml of veg stock and about 100ml of cream, cooked for 40 mins in a hottish oven.
Coupled with some peas (from the freezer) and bingo.
Dinner.
As I haven't done so for ages, I'm linking this up with Dom's Random Recipes challenge #46 for December. He challenged us to take a photo of our Christmas fridge and post it. Granted this is more the pre=Christmas fridge than the Christmas fridge, but still...Thanks, Dom.
This is absolutely my favourite way to eat potatoes at the moment - and has been for some time but I've never got round to putting it up here because I just make them without regard for quantity. Smoked paprika potato wedges. Crunchy with salt; smoky with, er, smoked paprika.
Delicious.
I could just say, "Yeah, just slice up some potatoes, toss them in oil, smoked paprika, salt & pepper and whack them in the oven until they're cooked" (which is, really, how I roll) but really that wouldn't be much of a post.
When I look back, initially, I didn't put any recipes in these posts. The 'Recipe Junkie' was always about me devouring other people's recipes - whether in books or online, in newspapers, magazines or old notebooks, and was never about me suggesting my own recipes were really any good, despite what you might think, or how I might occasionally come across (in which case give me a slap)..
And that's still really where I'm coming from, although sometimes (if you'll excuse the conceit of the statement) I think that I come up with something that's pretty good. But I'd be the first to say that it's usually had its roots elsewhere. There's not a huge amount of completely original thought gone into anything I cook. I mean, how much original thought can there be? Someone might introduce a new fad in OUR food culture, a new idea, but you can be sure that somewhere else in the world, it's been consumed, cooked for years...
A quick Google tells me that chia seeds were being grown by the Aztecs in 3,500 BC. Yes, Gwynnie, really.
Woodfired ovens? Well, hello - hardly a new concept.
So I don't pretend that this is my idea - there are hundreds of similar recipes out there. But this is my current favourite way to eat potatoes (am I repeating myself?) and I thought I'd share it with you.
Smoked Paprika Potato Wedges
Serves 4
4 large-ish white potatoes (about 800g)
2 tsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
A good pinch or sea salt
2-3 grinds of black pepper
Pre-heat the oven to 220C, and put a baking tray into the oven to heat up.
Wash your potatoes, and slice them into wedges - about 10-12 from each potato.
Put the potato pieces into a bowl, drizzle over the oil and toss the potatoes so all are covered, then sprinkle over the paprika, salt and pepper and toss everything all together again.
Tip the potatoes onto the hot baking sheet, shake into a single layer, then pop back in to the oven and cook for at least 45 minutes, may be longer if needed, taking the sheet out every so often and stirring the wedges around to ensure even cooking.
Serve with burgers, with fish, or just on their own, with mayo to dip.
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