Wales in the world: Australia
Ice (custard) slices recipe
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit Australia for the first time to visit friends, family, and experience the country for myself, spending time in Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania.
As I made my way off the plane in Hobart Airport after a short hop from Sydney, I walked out into the arrivals lounge and there was my Welsh-Australian family – my great auntie and my second cousin. There were tight cwtches and tears from all sides. For me, to see family of any kind this far from home and after having been travelling for many weeks, felt like safety. In truth, we’d only met each other a handful of times before, when they had visited home in Wales, and yet it felt like I’d known them and seen them all my life – without the years and miles between us. After family times in Tasmania, it was off to see my friend and old housemate Betsan in Melbourne.
Walking through central Melbourne on one of my sightseeing days, I spotted a gothic-style church dwarfed by the high-rises around it. I looked up at the wrought iron sign above the entrance: Welsh Church. Here right in the heart of the city was also a little piece of home. I found out that it opened in 1871 for the provision of Welsh language services – something it still does today. Over flat whites and avo on toast, Betsan told me she’d been there for the St David’s Day celebrations – something that the Welsh in Australia have been celebrating since their arrival.
The first Welsh in Australia (four men and two women) were sadly – but somewhat unsurprisingly – convicts, who arrived with the First Fleet at Botany Bay in 1788. The convict ships and colonies continued for a long time, and many were sent from Wales to Tasmania and mainland Australia to serve their time and sentences. Among these were Lewis Lewis, one of the leaders of the Merthyr Riots of 1831, and the Chartist leaders responsible for the Newport Rising of 1839, including John Frost (who would later be pardoned and return to Wales and become mayor of my hometown of Newport).
While there were also a few ‘free’ persons from about the early 1800s, it wasn’t until the mid 1800s that people really started to emigrate to work in the copper and gold mines that were springing up all over South Australia, particularly in Victoria. During this time, Welsh culture also became more present, with eisteddfodau and Welsh language celebrations taking place regularly.
A famous story is of Joseph Jenkins, a farmer from Cardiganshire, who apparently fled to Australia to escape a nagging wife. He lived as a swag man and travelled from place to place and wrote a series of diaries – and is thought to perhaps be the inspiration for the famous song Waltzing Matilda.
Following the Second World War, the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme was created to encourage migrants to move and start new lives in Australia. Those who took up the offer of passage were known as “Ten Pound Poms” – due to the cost of the fare from the UK when the scheme started. It’s estimated that between 1945 and 1980, more than a million Brits emigrated to Australia – including some of my own family, who I got to visit when I went to Tasmania. Many famous Australians are the children of Ten Pound Poms, including former Prime Minister Julia Gillard whose family came from Barry, and Kylie Minogue, who can trace her ancestors back to Maesteg.
More than 100,000 Australians claim Welsh ancestry these days and you can find pockets of Welshness across the country, from Sydney to Alice Springs, Perth to Darwin. I hope I get to visit again one day and find out more about Wales in Australia, but until then, to any Australian readers, greetings from ‘old’ South Wales.
The Recipe
Ice slices
Earlier this year, chef and author Ross Dobson released Australia: The Cookbook. It’s an encyclopaedic collection of recipes and food history, and yet having read it, there was no real mention of Wales or recipes with Welsh origin, which I thought there had to be. It’s a great book nonetheless, but it did get me thinking.
The vanilla slice is somewhat of an Australian institution (also delightfully known as a snot-block), and some claim it comes from the French mille-feuille, but I’m going to suggest the idea that it might have come from a Welsh ice slice.
Common in every bakery in South Wales – along with corned beef pie and Welsh cakes – ice slices (as I know them) are very similar to vanilla slices and mille-feuille in that they have two layers of crisp pastry sandwiched together with custard and topped with icing of some variety. I guess the difference for me, is that a Welsh ice slice has to be made with Bird’s Custard powder so that it sets absolutely solidly and is perfectly punchy yellow in colour. You can half the measurements if you want to make fewer.
Ingredients (makes 8)
500g ready-made puff pastry (you could use shortcrust if you prefer)
7 tbsp Bird’s Custard Powder
6 tbsp caster sugar
1 litre (about 2 pints) milk
200g icing sugar
5 tsp cold water
Flour for rolling out the pastry
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/ Gas Mark 6 and line a baking sheet with greaseproof baking paper. Roll out the pastry into a rectangle about 20cm x 40cm/8in x 16in and then cut it into two, so you’re left with two squares.
Place the pastry onto the lined baking sheet, prick all over with a fork, and cover with another layer of greaseproof paper. Then put another baking sheet on top to weigh it down.
If you’ve got enough baking sheets, you can cook both at the same time, if not, cook them one after the other. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until crisp all over. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
While the pasty is baking, make the custard by heating the milk in a saucepan until simmering and then tipping it onto the custard powder and sugar that’s been mixed with a little milk in a large bowl or jug. As you tip the milk in and mix, the custard should become thick and glossy. Allow to cool, stirring regularly to stop a skin forming.
When everything has cooled, you can start to assemble. Start with one layer of the pastry and top with the custard (it should be really quite solid by this point but still spreadable), top with the other pastry layer.
In a jug or bowl, mix the icing sugar and water to form a smooth paste. Tip it over the top of the pastry and spread to the edges.
Place the whole thing in the fridge for 15-30 minutes to really solidify.
Remove from the fridge and using a sharp knife, cut the confection into eight rectangles – this is the tricky bit as the custard wants to squeeze out the sides. I use a long sharp knife and use a sawing motion rather than trying to press down.
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.
We have a song that I first heard by Welsh singer David Alexander, but sadly I couldn’t find a recording of him singing it, so instead we’ve got Tom Jones’s version. It talks of when many people moved away from Wales to try to find better lives for themselves and their families across the world. The second is a classic Welsh song from the late 70s, sung by the Melbourne Welsh Choir. And a cheeky third one this week is a song that calls to anyone who had left Wales, and this one is by the legendary Harry Secombe.
Come Home Rhondda Boy by Tom Jones
Ysbryd Y Nos by Melbourne Welsh Male Voice Choir
We’ll Keep A Welcome by Harry Secombe
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.
Hallets Cider
I’m not a big fan of flavoured cider, which is why Hallets is right up my street. They don’t believe in adding syrups or berries to their ciders, rather, they focus on producing the best possible apple cider from their farm in Crumlin. They have everything from sweet to dry, young to aged versions of their pure apple cider juice.