Recipes from professional Chef Tallyrand:

• Swansea Fish Cakes with a Cockle Sauce and Minted Peas •

Wild about Wales! . . . . .
Croeso! (Welcome) . . . and diolch yn fawr (thank you) for joining me this week).

March 1st (as I am sure you all know) is St David's Day. No not the day Hubmaster David is canonised, but the day the Welsh all over the world, like David and I, celebrate our national day - St David being the Patron Saint of Wales.

You may or may not have heard that we have a village in Wales with the longest place name in the world? (There is a longer one here in New Zealand but, unlike in Wales, it is not in common use). The place name is:

Llan-fair-pwll-gwyn-gyll-go-ger-y-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysiliog-ogo-goch which translates as: "The church of St. Mary, in the valley of the white hazel, near the rapid whirlpool, nearby the red cave of the church of St Tysilio"

• llan = church
• Mair = (St) Mary (becomes Fair)
• pwll = here: valley
• gwyn = white
• cyll = hazel (becomes: gyll)
• go = about, (almost) at
• ger = nearby
• y = the (often omitted)
• chwyrn = rapid
• tro = turn, whirl (becomes: dro)
• pwll = pool (becomes: bwll)
• trobwll = whirlpool
• llantysiliog = of the church of St Tysilio
• ogof = cave (f is dropped at the end)
• coch = red (becomes: goch)
• ogogoch = the red cave

Besides celebrating being Welsh this week, the weekend will see me participating in the Hokitika Wildfood Festival once again; this festival celebrates all the wildfoods found in abundance here on the West Coast of New Zealand. Yet again we are expecting to feed over 20,000 visitors on the day; visitors that are local, from other parts of New Zealand and the 1000's of overseas visitors that make it here each year for this unique food festival.

• For previous columns about the festival
  • Its fair game at the 2002 Hokitika Wildfood's Festival <click here>
  • Wild? They were livid! <click here>
• For my involvement: organisor and judge of the New Zealand Festival Chef of the Year competition <click here>
• For more complete knowledge about the whole festival, go to the official Wildfood Festival website <click here>

So I would be very remiss, not to mention get my chops torn off by all my family back home if I did not give a Welsh recipe of some sort this week . . . so why not something that combines the two, Welsh and using something that can still be gathered at the UK beaches, if one so chooses, or you could just go and buy some. I am talking of that wonderful shellfish, cockles. Cockles bring back a flood of childhood memories for me, as every Thursday in our village in Wales, 'the cockleman' used to visit. Going around in his van, selling fresh cockles, mussels, etc that had been gathered and cooked that morning. A childhood treat for us was a small bag of cockles smothered in salt, pepper and vinegar and eaten with a toothpick.

This week's recipe which features cockles made into a sauce to accompany fresh fish cakes, was featured a couple of years ago in an article I wrote on Welsh cuisine for the National Geographic magazine.

For previous Welsh influenced recipes (a little less wild):

• Barabrith <click here>
• Welsh cakes <click here>

Swansea Fish Cakes with a Cockle Sauce and Minted Peas
(Teisennau pysgod Abertawe gyda saws cocos a phys ffres mintys)

To serve this dish, pour a little of the sauce onto the plate, place the fish cake in the centre and top with fine strips of leek that have been deep fried until crisp. Serve the peas separately

Fish Cakes
(Teisennau Pysgod)

Ingredients

fish fillets	300	gm
potato purée (dry)	300	gm
hard boiled eggs (chopped)	1	pc
spring onions	30	gm
mild mustard	1/2	tsp
Worcester sauce	5	ml
chervil (chopped)	5	gm
mayonnaise	15	ml

Method

1. Cut the fish into even 2cm dice, season and quickly pan fry in a little butter
2. Mix the potato purée <click here> together with the rest of the ingredients and then fold in the fish
3. Mould into 4 even sized balls and flatten slightly and allow to set in the fridge
4. Lightly flour, pass through some beaten egg then through breadcrumbs, repeat this process to give a better coating
5. Place back into the fridge for 30 minutes
6. Gently pan-fry until golden brown all over and place in an oven pre-heated to 180ºC for 10 minutes

Cockle sauce
(Saws Cocos)

Ingredients

butter	25	gm
flour	25	gm
milk	200	ml
fish or seafood stock	200	ml
mild mustard	1	tsp
cockles	4	tbs
tomatoes	1	pc
chopped parsley	1	tsp

Method

1. Combine the milk, stock and mustard, gently warm through and set aside
2. In a separate saucepan, melt the butter over a gentle heat and add the flour
3. Cook gently for 5 minutes, ensuring it does not brown
4. Gradually add the warmed milk and fish (or seafood) stock, while stirring with a wooden spoon to ensure there are no lumps
5. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure it does not burn
6. Cut the tomatoes into small dice and add to the sauce with the cockles and parsley just before serving

Minted Peas
(P hys Ffres Mintys)

Ingredients

fresh garden peas	160	gm
castor sugar	1	tsp
mint leaves - chopped	1	tsp

Method

1. Place the peas in some boiling salted water and gently simmer for 5 minutes or until cooked
2. Drain
3. Gently stir through the sugar and mint leaves

Chef's Tip:

Chop the mint leaves just before required or they will turn black very quickly

Enjoy and bon appetit . . . . .

Published 03 March 2003