Welsh Rarebit

[Dom Stocqueler]

Here's how I make it - anyone have other recipes?

RECIPE
Introduction
There are many versions of this dish. Traditionally it is served on toast, sometimes with a poached egg on top. However many chefs have taken to using the rarebit mixture for more adventurous dishes such as a topping for fillet of Welsh beef, or for fillet of roasted cod. Of course it is ideal as a vegetarian dish and is exceptionally good poured over a dish of roasted vegetables, then baked in the oven until golden. The following recipe is a basic rarebit mix, but the application is definitely a contemporary version of the toasted sandwich. You can add various flavourings to the rarebit base such as herbs, fresh chilli, garlic, cooked leeks, chopped ham, crispy bacon or chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

Serves 6

Ingredients
For the rarebit -

* 25g/1oz butter
* 375g/12oz Mature Welsh Farmhouse cheese
* 100ml/4floz ale or milk
* 1/2 tsp mild mustard
* Salt and pepper

For the sandwich -

* 18 medium size circles of bread
* 6 large, ripe tomatoes sliced thin
* Fresh flat leaf parsley or basil
* Salt and pepper

Method
To make the rarebit- Melt the butter in a pan, add the grated cheese and stir over a low heat until melted. Pour in the ale or milk, add the mustard and any other flavouring you wish. Season to taste. Bring the mixture up to near boiling point, then remove from the heat.
To prepare the sandwich- either toast of fry the bread (use a little light olive oil, and drain off any excess after cooking on some kitchen paper). Assemble a three tier sandwich with the sliced tomatoes, herbs and seasoning between the layers. Place on a baking sheet, pour over a good helping of rarebit mixture and brown either under a hot grill, or in a hot oven (preheated at the highest setting). Serve immediately.

[Wild Canary]

Hi, Tam...just a comment...I was taught that I am English, Irish, (PA) Dutch, Welsh, German and All American.
I married into an English/Scots family.
My growing up family was mostly plain, traditional fare, filler-up kind of food.
When I married, my mother-in-law, a Brit straight from Blackpool, taught me alot of what she learned growing up. She had a Welsh step-mum and learned to make tea cakes. We always made sure to have clotted cream on the table for Christmas, as she wouldn't spend the money to buy it for herself. Most of what I know about Wales, I learned from her. She can say the name of the longest railroad station very well in Welsh.
I wish she was living down the block like she did for twenty years, before we moved. Maybe that is what I can contribute, some of her recipes.

[Ceri Shaw]

We would definitely love to see some more genuine Welsh recipes. I am not allowed in the kitchen because my culinary incompetence and ineptitude is apparently beyond toleration but I know that Gaabriel is hoping to develop a "magazine" style page for this group along the lines of the ones we already have for music, books and humor.

Diolch

Ceri

[gaabi]

Yes, thank you very much for posting this, Dom, I'm going to follow your recipe this weekend, love the fresh parsley and basil.

[Wild Canary]

Okay, I will start here. Your recipe sounds yummy. When I was first married, about a hundred years ago, I received a beautiful copper chafing dish as one of the gifts. Since my grandmother was Welsh, I decided to make Welsh Rarebit, even though, while she was living, to my knowledge she never served Welsh Rarebit at her table. The melting of all the ingredients into the pot was easy and sometimes I served it over toast, while other times I cubed the French bread toast and used skewers to dunk the bread into the brew.
My husband really enjoyed it and we had some variation of it until my son, Ian, grew up, became a chef and started collecting copper.
I have gotten lazy with recipes and usually create lovely meals of whatever is at hand. I call it grazing.
Gaabi invited me to share a bit of how I make goat cheese.
First I milk the goat. Right now I am milking Light. While she doesn't give light milk, it is rich and pure white with a beautiful foam. She is an Alpine (not registered, just family) like my other girls.
After milking, I toddle back to the kitchen and filter the milk into a pottery bowl, while the three cattle dogs wait for their taste.
The bowl sits covered over the dishwasher for one to three days, depending on how it sets. When the pure white milk has solidified enough to put a knife through, I dump it into a stainless steel pan and slowly, over a half hour period, bring it up to about 160 degrees.
At that point, I get a strainer out, again filter the stuff, and separate the curds from the whey...ala little miss muffet. I used to give the chickens the whey until I got brave enough to taste it...WOW!
Now I can't decide whether to scoff down the cheese or the whey first.
Somedays, I just eat the cheese right there, warm and yummy.
Other days I add a little cream. Yesterday, I put the warm cottage cheese on the plate, surrounded it with discs of cooked-in-butter sweet potatoes (skins on) topped it with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of nutmeg.
All is organic, due to my health.
I wasn't always a farm girl, but the people around here were so kind to us and I had a couple dairy farmers teaching me how to milk proper. The goats are also very patient.
My husband will tell you I never cook, but he forgets to put gas in the truck, so I prefer to think his memory is going. I know mine is:)
He just came in and brought a pail of eggs he found. It has been really rainy here, too, and they haven't been laying. I guess after a week of sun, they decided to give us our omelets.
Well, there is the end of our sun. I gotta go put the goats away. They don't like being out in the rain.
Happy day to all!

[Wild Canary]

OH, I am sorry this is so long. I will try to edit better next time.

[gaabi]

I just read this - thanks so much for the description of cheesemaking! I love goat cheese and would love to be in a position to have a goat and do this someday.

[Wild Canary]

Dom...the dried tomats and leeks...yum! I like the contempory version. Thanks.

[Christine McSorley(nee Jones)]

WIth the egg on top it is called a " Buck Rarebit"