People often joke about receiving socks for their birthday or Christmas, but they are such an easy gift idea when you don’t really know what to buy. They make good stocking fillers (weirdly presenting socks inside one giant sock), and they are useful for the receiver as much as they might roll their eyes. As a gift, they get a bit of a hard time, but I can’t think of anything I’d rather see under the tree wrapped rather awkwardly but in its tell-tale shape than a pair (or several) of socks.
I love socks. That feeling of putting on a new pair on Christmas morning, well… any morning really, fills me with a little bit of joy and definitely puts a spring in my step. And as anyone who knows me will testify, the brighter the colour, the better.
The problem is, I seem to go through socks at pace, because I am terrible for wearing them around the house without slippers or, on occasion, shoes. Whether I need to put something in the big bin outside or quickly water the plants on my balcony, there never seems much point in finding a pair of shoes to put on. And so, I tiptoe out in my lime green (or sometimes *whispers* white – sorry Nannie Gwen) cotton hosiery trying to avoid damp or muddy looking patches. And they socks come in so handy when you spill a little bit of tea on the floor and you want to mop it up – I can’t be the only one that does this.
Now, I know you’re always supposed to wear shoes in the kitchen for safety, and yet, the feeling of my socked feet on the tiles is rather lovely, and the child in me still loves a good slide from one side of the kitchen to the other. But of course, as clean as the floor might be when you start cooking, inevitably by the end of your meal prep, bits and pieces have found their way to the floor – and onto the bottom of your socks.
All of a sudden you’ll feel a bit of something stuck under the ball of your foot – a bit of chopped leek perhaps – and you’ll do a little shuffle to see if it’ll come off. Ahhh, it’s gone! But what’s this now? Oh no, you’ve stood on a wet patch from where you dripped water over the floor when you were rinsing that salad. Water on a sock in a kitchen is like Velcro for food detritus. Everything that you thought you’d hoovered up before you started seems to have reappeared and latched itself onto your sole. It feels awful, but you can’t take your socks off now, otherwise you’ll be barefoot, or you’ll have to change into a clean pair of socks. You’re going to have to persevere until you’ve finished cooking.
And then the moment finally comes, you lift your foot and look underneath. Where has the lime green gone? It’s now a murky orange-brown colour peppered with debris: that bit of leek you had previously dislodged, breadcrumbs, the tiny sticker off a granny smith apple, and a squashed baked bean. Where did it all come from? It definitely wasn’t there on the floor when you started, and you haven’t eaten baked beans in weeks. It’s all part of the great mystery of kitchen socks.
The Recipe
Minty Welsh lamb kofta skewers with flatbreads and yogurt
A bit of a Middle Eastern feel to this week’s recipe, but made with fantastic Welsh ingredients – and an ideal dish to do on the barbecue or for a lighter lunch or dinner. I use my bakestone to cook both the skewers and the flatbreads because it has a lip around the edge to catch any juices from the lamb, but you can easily do it in a heavy-based frying pan instead. If you don’t have skewers, you can just form them into sausage shapes instead. If using wooden skewers, soak them for 30 minutes in water beforehand.
Ingredients (serves 2-4)
For the koftas
500g Welsh lamb mince
1 clove of garlic, finely grated/minced
1 small leek (or onion/shallot), finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
For the flatbreads
200g plain flour (or self-raising if that’s what you have in the cupboard)
Pinch of salt
100ml water
2 tbsp olive oil
For the yogurt dip
4 tbsp Rachel’s Organic Greek-Style Natural Yogurt
1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Method
In a large mixing bowl, tip all the ingredients for the koftas and mix well to combine. I like doing this with my hands and squelching it through my fingers.
Once well mixed, divide into four or six even balls depending whether you want four large skewers of six smaller ones. Shape the meat mixture around the skewers so they form sausage-shaped lollipops, and then put to one side.
In a separate bowl, tip in the flour, salt and water and mix together with your hands or a wooden spoon. Add the olive oil and bring together into a ball of dough. Gently knead for a few minutes until it’s smooth.
Heat up your bakestone to a medium heat. Meanwhile, divide the dough into four and roll out into rough circles.
Place each circle of dough one-by-one onto the hot bakestone and cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side. You’ll see the dough turn lighter at first and then start to form brown patches. This means they are done. Set them aside while you cook the lamb.
On you bakestone or frying pan, cook the skewers on each side for about 3-4 minutes (about 15 minutes in total should do the trick), so they are beautifully seared brown and cooked through. You could also do them under the grill if you wanted.
While they are cooking, mix together the ingredients for the yogurt dip in a little bowl.
When everything is ready, take a flatbread and spread liberally with the yogurt dip, then slide the lamb off the skewers on top. Roll or fold the flatbread around the filling and enjoy as the yogurt and lamb juices drip down your chin.
If you try the recipe out, don’t forget to tag any photos with #mywelshkitchen.
The Playlist
To me, cooking and music go hand in hand, whether that’s singing at the top of your voice using a wooden spoon as a microphone while waiting for pasta to boil, or dancing around with the oven gloves on as the oven timer counts down. Here are this week’s ideas for your Welsh Kitchen playlist.
This Tom Jones video popped up on my YouTube suggestions again this week and I just love the emotion in his voice when he sings it – you feel every word. And talking of boys from Ponty, second up we have Tom Jenkins who manages to tell such evocative stories with his music.
With These Hands by Tom Jones
When The Coal Dust Settled by Tom Jenkins
The Pantry
Good food is nothing without good ingredients and thankfully there are plenty of fantastic Welsh products on the market. Here is where you’ll find recommendations to stock up your cupboard, fridge or fruit bowl.
Gwynt Y Ddraig
Come hot summer days, I’m partial to a cool glass of cider, and Gwynt Y Ddraig has a whole range to choose from. This year, the company is celebrating 20 years of brewing up cider and perry at its farm in Llantwit Fardre. They place an emphasis on flavour and only use the best apples and pears to make drinks they describe as “refreshingly Welsh”.