Celtic Moment

Welsh cuisine is, unfortunately, often overlooked in cookbooks and online recipe collections. Many Welsh dishes are quite simple in both ingredients and flavor, but should not be forgotten! On a cold day, a hardy Welsh soup or tasty cake can be just the ticket to perking up both one’s attitude and energy. In this article I am including three of my favorite traditional Welsh recipes and I hope that your family enjoys them as much as mine does!

Welsh Cakes

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp all-spice
Pinch of salt
1 egg
4 tbsp lard
4 tbsp butter or margarine
4 tbsp currants (can substitute raisins)
Bit of milk

Directions:
Cut the lard into the flour, then massage it together until the lard is evenly distributed throughout the flour. Add in the baking powder, sugar, salt, and all-spice. When the mixture is well blended, add in the egg. Mix well, then add enough milk to turn the mixture into a stiff paste. Roll out the mixture and cut into round (I find an everyday drinking glass works well). Fry the rounds on a griddle or lightly greased skillet until golden brown.

Welsh Broth

Ingredients:
2lbs neck of lamb
1lb potatoes
2 leeks
1/2lb carrots
1 rutabaga
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Put the lamb meat into a large sauce pan and cover with water. Season with salt and pepper and allow the water to come to a boil. Peel and cut the carrots in half. Peel and chop the rutabaga into chunks. Chop the “white” of the leeks, but save the green bits (about an inch from where the stalk divides) for later. Add all to the sauce pan, then cover and reduce to a low heat. Allow this to simmer for about 2 1/2 hours. Peel and cut the potatoes, then add them to the pot. Recover and simmer for another half hour. When the potatoes are nearly done, add the flour (and a bit of water if needed) to thicken the broth. Chop the green bits from the leeks and add them to the pot, along with the parsley, and simmer for 10 more minutes before serving.

Seed Loaf

Ingredients:
2 cups self-raising flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp caraway seeds
5 tbsp margarine or butter
1/4 pint milk
1 egg

Directions:
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and mix well. Cut the margarine into the flour and massage until the texture takes on that of a coarse meal. Add the sugar and caraway seeds and mix well. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and milk, then pour them into the flour mixture. Mix well until the dough becomes soft. Grease a bread pan, then add the dough to it. Try to even out the top as much as you can. Bake for about an hour at 375 degrees F.

Originally posted 2010-08-10 19:56:17.

A short film made with the Neath Port Talbot Ramblers as they walk from Trefil to the Chartist Cave. The film features some historic facts regarding The Chartists and a famous Welsh political figure.

Originally posted 2011-02-17 14:20:33.

Product Description
This book identifies the origin, the development and, ultimately, the success of the Irish literary tradition in English as one of the first literatures that is both national and colonial. It demonstrates the remarkable relationships between works as diverse as Joyce’s Dubliners and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and the worlds of the French Revolution and the Irish famine. Deane also shows how almost all the activities of Irish print culture–novels, songs, typefaces, hist… More >>

Strange Country: Modernity and Nationhood in Irish Writing since 1790

Originally posted 2010-10-02 01:20:10.

To conclude, some speculation on what might actually have happened to him after he “disappeared”, and a summing up of his lasting contribution to Welsh identity and Welsh history.

Originally posted 2010-10-28 03:07:51.

Throughout history we were all taught that the noble Scottish, Welsh and Irish came from the “Celts” and that the English were invading “Anglo Saxons”.

However there have been some studies in recenet years [try googling 'stephen oppenheimer'] that traces the ‘Y’ chromosone gene [basically the male line, from father to father to father and on and on] and found that the vast majority of English are genetically the same tribes that inhabited the UK and Ireland before the Anglo-Saxons AND the Celts invaded.

In the southern and eastern parts of England the people are slighty related to this tribe because invaders CHANGED the gene of the English by taking wives etc

How do Irish Americans feel about this? Particularly aimed at the Irish-Americans who believed the English to be another race.

Originally posted 2011-09-30 14:21:45.

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i don’t live in britain so i don’t understand the history of these nicknames.
how did they come about & are they offensive to the recipient?
do people still use them?
are there any other british “location” nicknames , & how did they start ?

I don’t understand why Scotts want to leave the UK… And many welsh and Northern Irish.. The Uk throughout history has been an influential and great nation; it’s now going downhill and would become totally insignificant as just Wales, Scotland, England and Norther Ireland.

I do understand that devolution is important as then the countries can govern themselves better for their own interests, and I think patriotism is important amongst the countries.

But shouldn’t we still remain unified as Britain?

That includes:
English
Welsh
Scottish
Irish
Manx
Cornish
Ulster-Scotch
Breton

Thanks again!
Could you also tell me if this people like each other or not?

Originally posted 2011-03-13 13:21:38.

being from Wales and where Mryddin was born im curious – he was later written in 1150 and in geoffrey of monmouths story besides king arthur. but based on a prophet who lived in the woods in caerfyddin. he has never been written as a druid, BUT druid means “oak-knower”- from 100bc. And merlins oak was standing in Carmarthen for years (untill it died) and the branches placed in Carmarthen museum.
the earliest mention of Druid comes from 100bc onwards- there were three people within the celtic priesthood. the vates, druids and bards- the vates who were prophets and performed human sacrifice in order to predict the future. druids- that were philosophers and observers of the natural world- and bards that were professional poets.(found this early, only as welsh history and also the lifestyle of the late gaulish (celtic).
much later and much celebrated myrddin wyllt (540ad) was born a man who lived in the woods, recited poetry, prophesied and had a deep connection with the woodlands (oak) and astronomy, became king and law-giver. (and believed in magic just like all welsh people at that time). the old terminology “oak-knower” for druid came from the welsh although myrddin was described (his actual life) as a madman of the woods and never placed as a “druid”.
due to this lifestyle reaching Ireland the meaning of druid changed, and it is now currently being written that there is no such thing as welsh druids? although our books have been translated into english and they were placed with the name “magician”.
so was Merlin an oak-knower druid?