More Than Just Rarebit Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bara lawr

Bara lawr is made with seaweed (lawr - pronounced lah-ver). Lawr is a fine seaweed that is often referred to as sea-spinach and it is gathered from rocks on the seashore and dried. Bara lawr is pureed lawr which forms the base for other dishes and has a faint caviar-like flavour. It can be mixed with fine oatmeal and shaped into little cakes, fried in bacon fat, and served with grilled ham or bacon (rather like grits in the southern states). It also makes a good base for soup, chowders and any fish dish. Lawr sauce - made with dried lawr, a squeeze of orange juice, a little butter and cream - makes a splendid sauce for lobster, and when it is mixed with a little lemon juice and olive oil it makes a terrific spread for hors d'ouevre. Needless to say, it is, like caviar, oysters and olives, an acquired taste. It is a good source of iron. You're more likely to enjoy (once you've acquired the taste) lawr in South Wales - particularly in the neighbourhood of Swansea.

Bara ceirch is oatmeal bread (ceirch is oatmeal), bara brith is bread with raisins, currants and candied peel (brith means speckled), and bara gwenith (gwenith means wheat) is wholewheat bread.

Answer: Caws pobi

Caws pobi (pronounced Cowsse Bobby) is the delicious Welsh rarebit. If you want to whip up a batch of genuine caws pobi, you'll need 250g (half a pound) of strong cheese, like Cheddar or Cheshire, grated; 15g (1 tbsp) butter; 10g (2 tsp) Worcestershire sauce; 5g (1 level tsp) dry mustard; 10g (2 tsp) flour; 60mL (4 tbsp beer) - or milk, if you prefer; pepper to taste; 4 slices of bread, toasted on one side only (or lightly toasted on both sides). Combine the grated cheese, flour, mustard, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and butter in a saucepan and stir well to combine ingredients. Add the beer (or milk) to moisten the mixture (don't make it too wet!) and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture melts into a thick paste. Stop stirring and set the cheese paste aside to cool a little. When it is cooled, spread the paste over the toast and pop the slices under the grill to brown. Enjoy! (If you want to make the mixture ahead, you can. It will keep for several days in the refrigerator.) Sometimes, instead of beer or milk, my Welsh mother used white wine - gave the caws pobi a nice lift!

Crempog is Welsh for pancakes, cawl Cymreig (pronounced cowl Coum-rige) is Welsh soup (or broth) - Cymreig is Welsh for Welsh and cawl is Welsh for soup). Cregyn Gleision is a dish made with mussels (cregyn means shell and gleision means blue). Wales is a coastal country - you're not that far from the sea anywhere in Wales, and fish and shellfish feature prominently in Welsh cuisine.

Answer: Welsh cakes

Melt-in-your mouth Welsh cakes are still a favourite even though I'm now thousands of kilometres away from the Land of My Fathers. I've never met a person who didn't enjoy Welsh cakes. Try a batch for yourself.

You'll need 500g (2 c) flour; 125g (1/2 c) butter; 125g (1/2 c) sugar; 5g (1 tsp) baking powder; pinch of salt; 2.5g (1/2 tsp) grated nutmeg; as much as you like of mixed raisins and currants; 1 egg, well-beaten; a little cream, milk or buttermilk.

Rub shortening into flour until you have a mixture resembling coarse oatmeal. Add remainder of dry ingredients and combine well. Mix in the beaten eggs, then gradually add cream to make a dough (be careful not to make it too moist). If you're going to bake the Welsh cakes in the traditional manner - on a bakestone or a griddle - roll out the dough on a floured surface to a one-inch thickness, cut into rounds and bake on moderate heat for 15 minutes each side, until the Welsh cakes are nicely browned (you can also use an ungreased skillet over medium heat). If you are going to bake your Welsh cakes in the oven, grease a cake tin and pat the dough evenly into it. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 275 degrees and bake a further 40 minutes. You'll know the Welsh cake is ready when you insert a knife in the centre and it comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack and cut into wedges before serving. Welsh cakes are good hot or cold, and you can eat them plain or spread them with butter and jam or honey. Yum.

Answer: Cig oen rhost

Cig oen rhost is literally meat (or flesh) lamb roast. Eidion is beef, llo is veal and carw is venison - all very tasty but not as good as roast lamb as far as I'm concerned. My mother prepared a leg of lamb by rubbing the entire piece with a mixture of pepper, salt and a pinch of ground rosemary. Then she would spread it with dripping (preferably lamb or mutton, of course) and dredge it in flour (for a nice crispy skin). Roast the lamb in a 350 degree F oven - 20 minutes per pound if you like your meat pink, or 25 minutes per pound if you prefer it well-done. About 15 minutes before it's finished cooking, dust a little more flour over it and sprinkle it with a few drops of ice water to make it wonderfully crispy. To make the gravy, pour the drippings into a saucepan and add a glass of cider (that's the traditional method, but my dear old Welsh mum used to splash in a glass of red wine) and about 1 cup of water (use the water in which you cooked the potatoes - perfect!) Let the gravy reduce for about 10 minutes before serving. In some parts of Wales, lamb is served with saws criafol (rowanberry sauce). If you want the recipe for rowanberry sauce, send me a PM.

Thomas Love Peacock, a 19th century English poet wrote a poem about sheep (and lambs, I suppose) called 'The War Song of Dinas Vawr' and one verse goes:
"The mountain sheep are sweeter,
But the valley sheep are fatter.
We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter."

What that boils down to when cooking lamb or mutton is that mountain sheep are leaner and require more basting than the fatter valley sheep.

Answer: toffee

Cyflaith triog was a special treat during the war years (1939-45) when treacle was in short supply, and, oh, it is good. I used to make it for my own children. Try making a batch for yourself.

500g (2 c) brown sugar; 375g (1-1/2c) butter; 375mL (1-1/2 c) syrup (golden syrup, sugar syrup, or corn syrup). Boil all the ingredients together while stirring gently for about ten minutes or until a teaspoonful dropped into cold water hardens immediately. Pour onto an oiled cookie pan (use one with edges or you'll have a heck of a mess to clean up!) and when it is almost set, score it into squares and loosen it from the pan a little. Let it set completely then remove it from the cookie pan and break it into pieces. Store the toffee in an airtight tin. This recipe yields about a kilogram (2 lbs) of toffee. If you like dark toffee, use molasses (black treacle) instead of syrup.

Answer: Mead

In Myffanwy's book it is called medd hen ffasiwn, which translates to old-style mead (Myffanwy's book is dated 1768, so heaven only knows how old the recipe for this "old-style" mead is!). My mother's modern rendition of the recipe requires 4-1/2 litres (1 imperial gallon) water; 1 litre (2 c) clear liquid honey; 2 lemons; 4 cloves; 455g (1 lb) white sugar; sprig of rosemary; 1 4-inch long piece of root ginger, bruised (bruised means that you smack the ginger a few times with a meat mallet or similar heavy implement - don't break it into pieces, though; 28g (2 tbsp) yeast spread on a piece of toast. Boil together the sugar, water and honey, skimming off the froth that forms. Pour into a large basin (earthenware is best - just don't use a metal basin metal!) and add the juice of both lemons and the peel from one of the lemons. Also add the cloves, the rosemary and the well-bruised ginger. Let the mixture cool to room temperature then add the yeast-on-toast (if you add the yeast before the liquid is cooled, you'll kill the yeast). Cover and let stand. After three days take out the lemon peel, then let the fermentation continue until the mead has stopped making any hissing noises. Cover the basin and don't do anything for one week, then strain the mixture and bottle it (use well-sterilized bottles). Don't tighten the top if the mixture is bubbling; wait until it is still. Store in a cool, dry place for at least three to six months before you drink it.

If you plan to make mead for your Christmas/New Year's celebrations, start now.

Answer: shire

Why would a vegetarian enjoy Glamorgan sausages? Because they contain no meat! Try them, you'll like them.

2 eggs, separated; 15g (1 tbsp) grated onion; 5g (1 tsp) fresh mixed herbs (I use Mrs. Dash - it works just as well and saves the trouble of all that mincing for just one teaspoonful!); 5g (1 tsp) dry mustard; 375g (1-1/2 c) strong hard cheese, grated (I use old Cheddar. The original recipe in Myffanwy's book called for Glamorgan cheese, which was made from the milk of Gwent cows, but, alas, it's no longer available. Neither, I understand, are the cows); 750g (3 c) fresh breadcrumbs; salt and pepper to taste; 125g (1/2 c) flour for coating; 125g (1/2 c) crisp breadcrumbs for coating; oil or shortening for frying.

Mix together the cheese, fresh breadcrumbs, mustard, herbs and onion and season to taste. Beat the egg yolks and stir into the dry ingredients, combining well. Beat the egg whites until they are frothy but not stiff. Form the mixture into balls, patties or sausage shapes, roll them in flour, then dip them into the egg whites and finally roll them in the crisp breadcrumbs. Fry over high heat until they are golden brown. Makes about 20 Glamorgan sausages.

These can be served hot or cold, and they make a tasty hors d'ouevre or a side dish, in place of potatoes.

Answer: Onion

Alas, there are no Cornish speakers extant, but the Breton and Welsh languages continue to flourish. I'm sure that the Welsh use some of the Breton onion-sellers' wares to make onion sauce (saws nionod). It makes a zesty accompaniment for roast duck or goose.

450g (1 lb) finely sliced onions; 250mL (1 c) vegetable stock; 250mL (1 c) light cream; 15g (1 tbsp) butter; 15g (1 tbsp) flour; salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer sliced onions, seasoning to taste, in stock for about 30 minutes or until the onions have softened. Melt the butter in another saucepan and add the flour to make a roux. Let it cook for about a minute, then strain the stock into the roux, stirring all the time until you have a smooth sauce. Add the onions and mix well, then add the cream, stirring until the sauce is heated through. (To give your onion sauce an extra zip, add 5g (1 tsp) dry mustard to the flour.)

Answer: Rice

The Welsh for raspberry is afanen, the rowanberry is criafol and rich (as in food) is breision.

I've tasted rice puddings from many different cultures, but none beats the traditional Welsh rice pudding. Try it for yourself.

50g (1/4 c) rice; 25omL (1 c) water; 50g (1/4 c) soft brown sugar; 20g (1 heaped tbsp) butter; 500mL (2 c) milk (or light cream); pinch of ground nutmeg; 1 large egg, separated; 20g (1 heaped tbsp) berry sugar (also known as castor sugar in the UK. It's an extra fine sugar whatever it's called).

Bring water to a boil, add the rice, and let simmer for ten minutes. Drain. Add brown sugar, butter, milk, nutmeg to rice, mix well and pour into a baking dish. Cook in a moderate oven (300 degrees F) for about 90 minutes. Remove from oven, stir in beaten egg yolk and return to the oven for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile add the berry sugar to the egg whites and beat until the mixture is stiff and stands in peaks. When the rice pudding is cooked, stir in the egg white mixture. If you are serving the pudding hot, turn off the oven and place the pudding in the oven so that as the oven cools the egg whites will set.

Answer: Leek

Anyone daft enough to eat anything made from daffodils would develop at least a nasty tummy ache if not a quick trip into the afterlife. Daffodils are toxic. I don't know where you would be able to find a dragon, let alone tell you how to cook one. And you can't eat Cader Idris because it's an 893m mountain in Snowdonia (the name means Seat of Idris. Idris is a giant in Welsh mythology).

Of course, it's the leek to which I refer and they grow wild in Wales and some parts of southwestern England and also in the eastern US, from Virginia north to southern Canada. In North America wild leeks are known as ramps.

For the filling for a tarten gennin (leek flan) you'll need 10 large leeks; 15g (1 tbsp) butter; 4 slices of cooked bacon, chopped (or an equivalent amount of chopped cooked ham)*; 2 eggs, well-beaten; 250mL (1 c) light cream; salt and pepper to taste.
*Vegetarians can use soy-bacon bits instead of real bacon or ham.

Line a lightly-greased 8-inch flan or deep pie dish with short crust pastry and brush the bottom with some of the beaten egg to prevent the pie shell from getting soggy. Wash and clean the leeks throughly (this takes almost as long as cleaning spinach, believe me!) and then slice them into 1/2 inch slices. Melt the butter and lightly toss the leek slices in the butter until they soften. Don't let them brown! Spread the leek slices on the bottom of the pastry shell and top with bacon (or ham), seasoning to taste. Combine the beaten eggs and the cream, mix well and pour over the leeks and bacon. Bake in a moderate oven (about 350 degrees F) until the flan is slightly golden on top and the custard is set (insert a knife into the middle; if it comes out clean your flan is done). Serve hot, lukewarm or cold.