There are many versions of course, but this is my family’s, and it is good. We always serve it with a pilaff of white long grain rice, with a little softened onion, and a green salad. If you are lucky there will be some sauce left over, and it is wonderful stirred into good spaghetti.
These are made with buckwheat flour (known as blé-noir, black wheat, or sarrasin in France), and are always served with savoury toppings (or simply with butter, but still as a savoury dish). I have used many recipes over the years, and this has been my favourite for sometime.
Junior-Junior has set me a challenge; he wants “pancakes for tea, pancakes for lunch, pancakes for snack and pancakes even for breakfast”. In a fit of weakness, I said yes. Of course we can’t make the same pancakes for every meal; even Jr-Jr would get bored of that, (probably). So we have a plan, and we’re going global.
In honour of Saint David’s day. Bara brith is the traditional “speckled bread” of Wales, and it is a perfect loaf cake for tea, or breakfast, or just because you want some.
Today is the 1st of March (you probably noticed), Saint David’s day. Saint David is the patron saint of Wales, land of song, rugby, daffodils, leeks, welsh cakes and bara brith.
This isnt really a recipe, more a guide. It’s too easy to be a proper recipe. There are really only four requirements; a bird, a brick, some veg and time.
March starts on Saturday, and I am looking forward to it with every fibre of my being. Every year I resolve to make peace with February. I focus on the little flowers, the days stretching out with a few minutes more light every morning and evening, the beauty of the stark branches, the joy to be had in a half-term holiday, hot chocolate and open fires, on and on with an increasingly desperate fervour.
The fireplace was where the middle cottager cooked, heated water, and made bread in a little brick oven off to the right. We still cook on the fire every couple of weeks or so in winter, just for fun really. I can stand up inside it, stretch out my arms and not touch the sides. It basically takes up an entire wall.
One of my uncle’s indicators as to whether a person is living a rewarding life, is whether or not they have friends and family around them with whom they can sing when they get together. It’s a bloody good indicator. And it seems that it’s one that fewer and fewer of us can say that we have nailed.
This is not the classic original, but it is a lovely dish.
