Wales in the world: USA
Pumpkin pie recipe
I was in New Zealand about five years ago and my friend’s mum (who I was staying with) took me to a few vineyards around Matakana. As we approached one, I spotted a giant Welsh dragon decoration on the side of the house and tasting room. I presumed that the owners just thought it was a cool decoration. When we started chatting to the lovely owner, she told me she was born in Wales but moved to New Zealand when she was about two, and has been there ever since (she was past retirement age). With that, her husband walked in and asked me to guess where he was born. His distinct American accent led me to say the USA. I wasn’t wrong, but he told me he was born in Bryn Mawr. Not the one (Brynmawr) just up the road from my home in Newport, but the one in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania has long been associated with Wales and the Welsh, and Bryn Mawr is not the only place name in the state with Welsh associations, with Bala, Merion and Radnor to name a few. William Penn (after whom the State gets its name) agreed to give an area of around 60 square miles to the Welsh Quakers who emigrated to the USA in the 17th Century in order to set up a ‘new Wales’ where they could self-govern and speak Welsh – something that was becoming increasingly difficult to do in Wales. The plan was never fully realised (unlike its later trial in Patagonia), and yet the area was populated with Welsh-speaking people. Welsh communities later sprang up in Tennessee, Ohio, and California.
But, this is supposedly not the first time the Welsh have gone to the USA. According to a 15th Century poem and books, the Welsh Prince Madoc sailed to America in 1170 – a whole 320 years before Columbus – and retuned to Wales to take people back with him to the plentiful land he had experienced. The story goes that the group was never seen again, although much later, when an explorer set out up the Missouri River, he encountered the Mandan Native American tribe – many of whom could speak and understand Welsh. It’s a great tale, but probably nothing more than that.
Welsh people and those with Welsh heritage have been making waves in the States for centuries now, with at least eight US presidents having Welsh ancestry and it’s believed, a fifth of the signatories on the Declaration of Independence were of Welsh extraction. Griffith J Griffiths of Bridgend is probably best known these days as the man after whom LA’s observatory and park is named, but he made his money from mining and land ownership after moving to the USA aged 16. Staying around Los Angeles, Peg Entwistle – the actress who took her own life by jumping from the Hollywood sign – was born in Port Talbot. On the other coast, JP Morgan is descended from the Morgan brothers who emigrated from Cardiff back with the first wave of Welsh immigrants. The list goes on and on.
These days, there are thriving Welsh societies across the states and the North American Festival of Wales is held each year, celebrating American-Welsh relations and Welsh culture. I’ll leave you with this little video created by the US Embassy in London in celebration of President Obama’s visit to Wales for the Nato Summit in 2014.
The Recipe
Pumpkin pie
Who’s to say whether it was a Welsh person who is responsible for the US tradition of pumpkin pie? But pumpkins have been grown in the Gower for centuries and used in a variety of ways, from pies to soups, sweets to mash, so it could have been a recipe taken over in the first wave of immigration. Marrow has always been a bit more common in the rest of the country and across the UK, but for some reason, the Gower climate and soil has been a good one for pumpkin growing.
When you make this recipe, don’t discard the pumpkin seeds, they are great to top salads or as a snack with a beer of glass of dry sherry. You can roast them at the same time you cook the pie. This recipe for salt and pepper pumpkin seeds from BBC Good Food works a treat: how to use pumpkin seeds.
Ingredients (Serves 8)
1 medium eating pumpkin (about 1.5kg)
120g plain flour
50g butter
Pinch of salt
Drop of cold water
1 can condensed milk (about 400g)
1 tbsp Demerara sugar (or soft brown sugar)
3 free-range eggs
1 tsp ground mixed spice (or pumpkin spice)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/ Gas Mark 5.
Carve the pumpkin into palm-sized pieces and remove the seeds and stringy bit. I just scrape with a spoon. Place face down on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about an hour and fifteen minutes until the skin has started to change colour and the flesh is soft. Allow to cool.
Meanwhile, make the pastry by rubbing together the flour, salt and butter until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add a touch of cold water at a time until it comes together into a moist but not sticky dough. Place in the fridge to rest.
Remove the skin from the pumpkin pieces and place the flesh in a large bowl. Mash with a whisk. Add in the condensed milk, sugar, two of the eggs and spices and beat together well until smooth. I do this bit in a food processor for ease and a smoother filling.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/ Gas Mark 4.
Roll out the dough into a circle big enough to line a pie dish. Gently line the dish and trim off any excess pastry. Prick the bottom well with a fork and then brush the base and sides with the remaining egg. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and tip in the pumpkin mixture. Return to the oven and bake for a further 30 minutes until the filling has set (it shouldn’t wobble too much with a bit of a shake). Allow to cool before serving. I think it tastes even better having been refrigerated.
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 week we have one of the only Welsh artists to take the number one spot in the US, Donna Lewis from Cardiff. Then we have Gruff Rhys singing about his ancestor who went in search of the Welsh-speaking tribes of North America. Finally we have Côr Cymry Gogledd America with a Welsh choral classic.
Love Him by Donna Lewis
Lost Tribes by Gruff Rhys
Tangnefeddwyr by Côr Cymry Gogledd America
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, or a really great place for food.
Mama Halla
Before I got to New Zealand on the trip I mentioned above, I stopped off in South Korea. It was one of best places I’ve ever been and the food scene was incredible. I discovered the delights of Korean BBQ, soju and makgeolli with Korea Food Tours in Seoul, and was in absolute awe of the skills of the fishmongers at Jagalchi Market in Busan – not to mention getting a lesson in chicken galbi and corner shop rice bars from my friend Sarah. That’s why I was delighted to learn about Mama Halla, a Korean condiments company based in Cardiff, started by Mi-sook, whose grandmother was one of the famous women divers of Jeju-do.
And talking of Korean food, I recently wrote a piece for Metropolitan magazine about the Korean food scene in New Malden. Check it out here.