It says a lot about contemporary Cardiff that the hardest food to obtain, whether in shops or restaurants, is the food of Wales. The cuisines of everywhere from Argentina to Zambia are more readily available than anything Welsh, mainly because the city centre population has been more or less entirely purged of Welsh culture, Welsh businesses and Welsh people over the last decade or so and replaced by an ignorant, oblivious, hyper-individualised mass of obedient, conventional, thoroughly globalised clones from Asia, Africa and England, umbilically connected to their phones and barely aware that they are in Cardiff, let alone Wales.
I am not exaggerating – on the contrary, I am downplaying what amounts to the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Welsh from their own capital city. Who is responsible? Here’s a clue: a British Nationalist, devout Christian, rightwing neoliberal buffoon wielding an OBE. Frail pensioners and ADHD-diagnosed small children might be reading, so I will go no further and instead fill a glaring gap in this website’s ‘recipe’ category and provide just one example of the food Cardiff is missing: the unique, delicious, meat-free Glamorgan Sausage.
A travesty of the real thing can be bought at Asda for a suspiciously cheap £1.70 for a frozen pack of four, but the ingredients list tells you all you need to know about the quality, authenticity and taste: onions (34%), Cheddar cheese (15%), wheat flour, calcium carbonate, folic acid, iron, niacin, thiamin, water, leek (11%), rapeseed oil, potato flakes, cheese powder, milk, yeast extract, salt, cream powder, methylcellulose, black pepper, mustard powder, flavouring. All that onion, all those chemicals and additives and the complete absence of essential ingredients such as eggs, breadcrumbs and herbs means Asda is selling a pig in a poke. Here’s how to make the genuine article:
SELSIG MORGANNWG – GLAMORGAN SAUSAGE
Makes about 20 sausages
INGREDIENTS
2 eggs, separated
1 small, finely chopped leek
1 tbsp of dried herbs (parsley, thyme, chives)
1 tsp of mustard powder
6 ounces (170g) grated strong cheese (e.g. Llanboidy, Penbryn)
10 ounces (280g) fresh breadcrumbs (e.g. from Brutons wholemeal loaf)
2 ounces (60g) breadcrumbs, crisped in the oven
flour for coating
vegetable oil for frying
salt & pepper
METHOD
1) In a bowl, mix the cheese, breadcrumbs, leek, mustard and herbs and season well
2) Add the beaten egg yolks and stir thoroughly until it comes together into a dough
3) In another bowl whisk the egg whites until frothy
4) Sprinkle flour on a board, roll the mixture over it and then form into small sausage shapes
5) Dip each sausage in the egg white and then in the crisp breadcrumbs
6) Fry a few at a time in hot oil
7) Serve hot with mashed potatoes and spinach or cold for a picnic
Estimated total cost is around £10, working out at 50p a sausage – far better value than Asda’s concoction!