Wales
Lamb, leeks and the bakestone. Frugal by habit, rich by result — food that came off hillsides and out of coal-fired kitchens.
Welsh Cakes
Picau ar y maen — little cakes on the stone. Cooked on a hot bakestone or heavy pan, spiced with mixed spice, freckled with currants, and best eaten warm with a dusting of caster sugar.
Bara Brith
Speckled bread — a Welsh tea loaf, deeply fruited, gently spiced, and made even better by an overnight soak of the fruit in strong black tea. Sliced thickly and buttered generously.
Welsh Rarebit
Not just cheese on toast. A proper Welsh rarebit is a savoury sauce of strong Cheddar melted with ale, mustard and Worcestershire, poured over toasted bread and grilled until blistered.
Welsh Cawl
Wales's national dish: a clear, unshowy lamb-and-leek broth cooked slowly with root vegetables. Traditionally made a day ahead, skimmed of fat, and reheated — the flavour deepens overnight.
Welsh Leek & Potato Soup
A quiet, silky soup that leans on the two ingredients Wales does best: the leek and the potato. Butter, patience and good stock do the rest.
Glamorgan Sausages
Vegetarian 'sausages' from South Wales, older than most sausages proper. Caerphilly cheese, leek and breadcrumbs bound with egg, rolled, breadcrumbed and pan-fried.
Slow-Roasted Welsh Lamb Shoulder
Welsh mountain lamb is prized. A whole shoulder, rubbed with rosemary and garlic and cooked long and low, gives fork-tender meat with a burnished, sticky crust.
Leek & Caerphilly Pie
A double-crust shortcrust pie of slow-sweated leeks bound in a white sauce with crumbled Caerphilly. Warm from the oven with a spoonful of chutney, or cold in a picnic basket.
Cockles & Laverbread
A Swansea breakfast. Laverbread is not bread but purple laver seaweed cooked to a dark savoury paste. Served with fresh cockles and bacon, it tastes of the sea and iron.
Laverbread Cakes
Small patties of laverbread mixed with oatmeal and pan-fried until crisp at the edges. A classic South Welsh breakfast dish, often served with bacon.
Monmouth Pudding
A Welsh border pudding from Monmouthshire. A milky breadcrumb custard base with a layer of raspberry jam and a light meringue top — like a queen of puddings with a different accent.
Bakestone Scones
Not oven scones — these are cooked flat on a hot griddle, the way scones were made before every kitchen had an oven. Soft in the middle, spotted bronze on the outside.