Welsh Rabbit for Breakfast, Anyone?

We explored the land and traditions of Wales today and had two major questions:

• Is Wales a separate country?
• Why oh why is it called Welsh rabbit when there is no rabbit about it?!

We kicked off the morning with a bit of welsh rarebit or rabbit, as it can sometimes be called. As I asked Vincent to stir the cheesy, beer mixture he quickly came to conclusion that it smelled like fondue. It turns out this tasty, toasted rye toast topped with fondue is actually something that the Welsh would eat and reflects the Welsh love of cheese. Everyone found it to be a wonderfully tasty way to enjoy fondue. In fact, it was great later in the day as a snack!

As we worked our way through our checklist of things to learn about our selected countries, we were struck by the unique structure of their government and their independence from England. They are on their own for the World Cup but join England for the Olympics – who knew? Their rich past and history was a little easier to understand once we watched a show on Netflix that focused on one of their castles in Cardiff, the capital. “Secrets of Great British Castles” showed us a how independent the Welsh people are.

We played Fidchell, which I was very excited to learn since it looked similar to the game they play on Vikings. We merged two different sets of chess pieces to make our own version and printed out the RULES. It turns out it is actually an exciting game similar to chess but much more ruthless.

We listed to Welsh music while we enjoyed the country’s national dish – Cawl. I ended up using a mixture of different recipes and the Instant Pot – that modern marvel that takes a 5 hour recipe down to 2. The finished product was so good that I have to be sure to write down the final recipe here. It was my first time making lamb stew and it was delicious! We finished it all off with this delicious apple bake.

Cawl Recipe for the Instant Pot

Ingredients:

• 2 lb of lamb shank and lamb steak
• 2.5 litres water – or 1.5 litres of water and 1 litre of fresh vegetable stock
• 1 large onion (quartered)
• 2 large leeks (washed and sliced)
• 4 medium carrots (peeled and sliced)
• 1 medium turnip (peeled and diced)
• 2 large potatoes (peeled and diced)
• 1/2 small cabbage (quartered)
• 2 tsp of sea salt
• 2 tsp freshly ground black peppercorns
• 1 tsp thyme
• 2 bay leaves

Instructions:

Add olive oil to the instant pot and press Saute. Cook onions, leeks, carrots, and turnip until browned. Remove the veggies and add salted meat and sear. Return the vegetables to the Instant Pot and add water to the top fill line. Cook at high pressure for 60 minutes. Let it release naturally. Strain the liquid and use a gravy separator to remove the fat and add it back to the pot. Separate the meat from the bone. Add the chunks of vegetables and meat back to the soup and add the potatoes and cabbage. Return to high pressure for 8 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Eat with a nice crusty bread.