Wartime Bara Brith

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus…. Happy Saint Davids Day

Welsh National Dress
1948

It was a beautiful morning... it felt like Spring. For the first time in a while we walked home from church. And yes...I wore my daffodil with pride

Back home.. Mr D joined a few of our neighbours with the weekly ritual of mowing the front lawn. I know pride is a sin... but boy... these men love their lawns!

Meanwhile.. I used the dried fruit I had soaking in tea over night and made a delicious Bara Brith.. the last of my Welsh dishes for this week

“Bara Brith” is a traditional Welsh fruit loaf that literally means speckled bread. The recipe calls for lots of dried fruit, soaked in tea overnight and orange zest to give it a little zing. Using only one egg it easily fit into a rationed diet... and could be easily adapted during the war to use orange marmalade instead of orange juice and zest. Finely grated carrot could also be used to replace some of the fruit.

Delicious spread with a little butter....and served with a nice cup of tea

Dried fruit soaking in tea

1lb of self raising flour (I used plain with 5 teaspoons of baking powder)

1/2 pint of tea

1lb of mixed dried fruit (substitute 1/3 with finely grated carrot to save on rations)
6 oz of light brown sugar
1 medium egg
1 or 2 teaspoons of mixed spice
1 tablespoon of honey
1 tablespoon or orange juice
1 tablespoon of orange zest (or use 2 tablespoons of orange marmalade to replace the honey, orange juice and zest)

• Make 1/2 pint of strong tea and add the dried fruit and grated carrot to the tea
• Place in fridge overnight
• The next day mix the honey, orange juice and zest (or marmalade) with the sugar and egg
• Add that to the fruit and tea mixture
• Sift the flour and spice into a large bowl
• Add the fruit/tea mixture
• Mix until all flour is mixed in
• Place in two small greased loaf tins or one large one
• Cook at 160C or 320 F for about 1 to 1.5 hours (use foil to cover if getting too brown)
• Remove and cool for a while then glaze with honey or a sugar water mix
• Remove from tin and cool thoroughly before storing in a tin
• Slice and serve with butter

We ended the weekend listening to the happenings of the week on the radio... 

with a nice cup of tea.. and of course.. a lovely slice of Bara Brith

Week Ending February 28, 1942 

 Old Time Radio

Ponch Maip

 Happy Saturday Lovelies..

And our celebration of our favourite Welsh food continues

With a very busy day ahead, we started the morning with a lovely breakfast of Ministry of Food Wartime Welsh Eggs..

Wartime Welsh Eggs

I’m not quite sure what Welsh about it unless it’s a play on Welsh Rarebit but all the same..it’s quite delicious.

We spent the day pottering in the garden Our lovely friend Primo had gifted us with a couple of plumeria trees from his yard and MrD had to get them in the ground pretty quick before the day got too hot. And believe me..it got hot. 91 degrees..and its only February

After tending my flowers, I managed to plant all my seed potatoes. 

I’m hoping for a bumper crop again this year.

Dinner was another Welsh dish and one of our favorites Ponch Maip

Ponch Maip.. also known as Ponchmipe.. is a local dish from North Wales, where I was born.  Maip is the Welsh word for turnip/swede. Ponch, as it sounds, means to punch or to mash.

So quite simply, its mashed potato and mashed swede or turnip, mixed together with a little butter and salt and pepper to taste. 

Often served with savory dishes like sausages it can also include carrots, be served with onion gravy, or be used as a topping for shepherd's pie.

Real comfort food... and absolutely delicious

And to end the day, we watched our favourite Welsh movie 

how green was my valley starring Maureen O’Hara and Walter Pidgeon 

Perfect!

Quick Welsh Rarebit

Happy Thursday Lovelies

Breakfast this morning was another Welsh favourite... Welsh Rarebit

Welsh Rarebit is basically posh cheese on toast...and there are many versions. this one comes from the Margueite Patten book Feeding the Nation and it quick..easy and tasty. It incorporates a layer of chutney.. a pefrect use for my Green Tomato Chutney that I made last year

2 slices bread
1 teaspoon margarine
1 teaspoon chutney, or yeast extract
2 tablespoons grated cheese

• Toast the bread
• Spread with margarine and a thin coating of chutney, or yeast extract.
• Cover with grated cheese
• Place under the grill till golden brown.
• Eat with a raw vegetable salad.

Wartime Welshcakes (Pice ar y Maen)

 Happy Wednesday Lovelies

Well the weather has suddenly turned much warmer. Even though there is still snow on the mountains, it actually felt like a Spring day today. Flowers are starting to bloom in the garden.. but what Im missing are daffodils.. especially this time of year. Daffodils are the national of flowers of Wales and where I grew up they were everywhere.. 

I will have to buy some on Friday as this Sunday is St Davids Day...  

the feast day of the patron saint of Wales

To celebrate.. over the next couple of days.. I will be making a few of our favourite Welsh dishes. To start..today I made a batch of  Wartime Welsh Cakes... or Pice ar y Maen.. which literally means "cakes on a stone" They are small, spiced, currant-filled griddle cakes cooked on a bakestone or hot plate rather than in an oven. They are a cross between a scone and a pancake and also known as a Welsh teacake.  A perfect sweet, afternoon tea treat. 

I used a WW2 recipe. Quick and easy to make, these little cakes are a wartime classic that provided soldiers and coal mine workers during the World War with a sense of happiness. to me they are a taste of home

You can take this girl out of Wales.. but you can’t take Wales out of this girl.

6 oz plain flour with 3 teaspoons baking powder added (or use self raising flour)
2 oz margarine, butter or dripping
2 oz sultanas (or mixed dried fruit)
1 small carrot grated
2 oz sugar
1 fresh egg or 1 dried reconstituted egg
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

• Rub fat into the flour and baking powder mix until resembles bread crumbs
• Stir in nutmeg, sugar and dried fruit
• Mix the egg and milk together and add to dry mix to form a stiff dough (add more liquid or more flour as needed)
• Treat mixture as pastry and roll out on floured surface to 1/4 inch thick
• Use 3 inch rounds to cut out
• Pre-heat griddle or heavy frying pan
• Grease
• Put in Welsh Cakes and cook until golden brown on both sides over a moderate heat (about 4 minutes)
• Set aside a cool
• Sprinkle with a little sugar
• Serve with butter/jam and a nice cuppa strong tea!

Cheese, Potato and Onion Pie

Happy Tuesday Lovelies

 You know... the best thing about keeping chickens.. 

apart from the conversation.. 

is having fresh eggs every day

But you would think that with all the room in the hen house... 

Poppy and Rosie wouldn't fight over the same laying box....

On my breakfast tray this morning... 

Scrambled Egg on National Loaf toast...

with a slice of bacon...

So dinner tonight was...I dont think a typical 1940s recipe... although my grandmother, mother and I have made it for years.. with differing quantities of ingredients. I was reminded of it when watching one of my favourite channels Rebecca at Railway Cottage and right now she is doing a Ration Challenge. And like Rebecca this dish brings so many childhood memories

So tonight Cheese, Potato and Onion Pie.. served with sausages.. was on the menu. This time Im used the recipe she showed..although I'm not sure what book its from. It features a mashed potato and breadcrumb crust and a caramalized onion filling...

As it was a spur of the moment dinner, I only had two tomatoes.. and had no parmesan so I used cheddar but still it was easy to make and absolutely delicious. Thank you dear Rebecca!

2lb potatoes, peeled and quartered.
12oz  onions, peeled and sliced.
6oz mature Cheddar cheese, diced or grated.
3oz butter
2–3 Tablespoons milk
1/2–1 level teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon caster sugar 

4 sliced tomatoes

1/2 oz dry white breadcrumbs

1/2 oz grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Recipe from the Book

• Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until cooked, 
• Drain well and mash with 2oz of the butter and the milk. 
• Season and mix in the Cheddar cheese.
• Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F, gas mark 6). 
• Melt the remaining butter in a frying pan
• Add the onions and cook over a moderate heat for to minutes. 
• Stir in the thyme and sugar and continue cooking until golden brown and caramelised.
• Spread half the mashed potato in the bottom of a pie dish or ovenproof dish. 
• Spread the onions on top, then cover with the remaining potato. 
• Arrange the tomato slices on top 
• Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and cheese.
• Bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes until golden brown and piping hot. 

Chocolate Queen Pudding

Happy Monday Lovelies

and it was laundry day again, Even though the sun was shining it was still a cold morning.. mainly because of the wind blowing down from the snow topped mountains. It was a good drying day though... and the bed sheets were dry in no time... Thank you wind!

I was watched intently by a little bird sitting in the ivy...

He disappeared for a moment and returned with a friend and they tucked into some juicy berries..

I hope they're not the ones who ate my seeds last week!

The weekly baking of the National Loaf is done and as usual the kitchen smelt delicious. This week I made one loaf in a loaf tin... the other in a cob..

There was still a bit of stale bread left from last week which made into bread crumbs and incorporated into a Wartime recipe... Chocolate Queen Pudding... from Feeding the Nation by Marguerite Patten

It was a very simple dessert... soaking breadcrumbs in a chocolaty jammy liquid.. baking in the oven and spreading more jam on top. But with just two teaspoons of cocoa powder and two tablespoons of sugar it was surprisingly very sweet. It must have been all that jam.. Four Tablespoons of it... one at the bottom of the dish.. two in the mixture and one on top.

MrD's verdict.... "odd!". And although its being eaten... I must agree!

1 level teacup breadcrumbs ( approx 2 1/2 oz)

Small knob margarine, 

Level tablespoon sugar

pint milk, 

2 level teaspoons Bournville Cocoa, 

4 tablespoons jam or jelly, I used home made strawberry jam

2 dried eggs, reconstituted, 

1 teaspoon vanilla essence. 

• Put the breadcrumbs, margarine and sugar in a basin. 
• Boil the milk, cocoa and half the jam and pour it over the breadcrumbs
• Stir the mixure well together. 
• Cover with a plate and leave half an hour. 
• Beat eggs thoroughly. 
• Spread a tablespoonful of jam over the bottom of a greased pie-dish. 
• Add eggs and vanilla essence to the breadcrumb mixture. 
• Pour the pudding into the pie-dish 
• Bake about half to three quarters of an hour, in a moderately hot oven till set. 
• Then spread the re-maining jam over the top.

Feeding the Nation
by Marguerite Patten

Wartime Braised Lamb Chops

Happy Sunday Lovelies

We had another inspiring morning at church. 

It really does recharge my batteries for the week

It was a chilly but beautiful walk home from church...

 palm trees and snow... so pretty

Photo: 1940

I do love my Sundays.. church.. relaxing with my dear husband.. doing a bit of stitching or reading...and sharing a cosy, relaxed meal together. It sets us both up for the hustle and bustle that hits every Monday morning

Another Sewing Project 

Dinner today used a meat that we havent had in a while.. Lamb

I dont buy lamb very often...even though I love the flavour. Its very hard to find where we live...and if I do see it in shops its quite expensive. But this week I found a pack of chops in the the reduced section in the butchers market... and I couldnt resist. So this Ministry of Food recipe for Braised Lamb Chops was put on the menu. Its a slow-cooking method using bacon rinds and fresh vegetables to create a flavorful gravy.

I halved the recipe as there are only two of us.. and I didnt have any rinds or mace... so I cooked without... and it still turned out to be a very tasty dish. The vegetables I used were leeks, turnip, carrots and a handful of peas. And I only had one tomato.. but Im sure canned could be used too. I also thickened the gravy with a little cornflour.. just because we like it that way

4 lamb chops (trimmed of surplus fat)
½ oz. fat or dripping (for frying)
3 bacon rinds
Mixed vegetables, diced
8 tomatoes, sliced
Seasoning: 1 teaspoon salt, pinch of pepper
Liquid: ½ pint stock or water
Flavourings: 1 clove, 1 blade of mace, 2 or 3 peppercorns, a tiny sprig of thyme, and 1 or 2 leaves of mint

Recipe from the book

• Brown the meat:
• Heat the fat (or dripping) and bacon rinds in a pan.
• Fry the trimmed chops until they are well-browned on both sides.
• Remove the chops from the pan and pour off the excess fat.
• Place the diced vegetables, sliced tomatoes, flavourings, seasoning, and stock (or water) into the pan.
• Lay the browned chops on top of the vegetable mixture.
• Cover the pan with a lid and cook very gently for approximately ¾ hour.
• Remove the bacon rinds.
• Serve the tender chops on a hot dish accompanied by the vegetables and the resulting gravy

Eating For Victory
Collection of Official WW2 Recipe Leaflets