Welsh poltroon or pudding, ...

... the crème catalana gets our vote, another superb recipe of Bill Granger, one of Australia’s top chefs.

To serve 6

Ingredients: 

625ml cream

170ml milk

2 tsp natural vanilla extract

2 cinnamon sticks

Peel from 1 orange

Peel from 1 lemon

6 egg yolks

4 tbsp caster sugar

2½ tbsp soft brown sugar

Method
 

Preheat the oven to 140C/Gas 1. Put the cream, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, orange and lemon peel in a saucepan over a medium heat and bring just to boiling point, then remove from the heat. 

Whisk together the egg yolks and caster sugar in a large bowl. Strain the cream and pour slowly over the yolk and sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Skim off any foam that rises to the top. 

Put six 125ml ramekins or dariole moulds in a large roasting tin and spoon the mixture into the ramekins. Pour hot water into the tin to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins and cover the whole tin with foil. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until just set. Lift the ramekins out of the roasting tin and leave to cool before chilling in the fridge for 2 hours. 

Preheat the grill to its hottest temperature. Put the ramekins on a baking tray, sprinkle brown sugar over the chilled creams and then place under the grill for a couple of minutes until the sugar is melted and dark golden (if you have a chef’s blowtorch, this is the time to use it). Leave for a few minutes for the sugar to cool and harden before serving.

 

Why poltroon you might wonder, Plaid MEP Evans is calling for a mass refusal to pay the TV licence fee (backed by the Plaid machine).  Plaid politicians are encouraging people to replace the £145.50 licence fee with a fine of £1000.  Now I'm sure that an MEP earning close to a hundred thousand pounds can afford such a gesture, it is unlikely she will share a cell with a drug-addict, but the rest ...... 

... this Plaid largess, largess with the earnings of those on minimum wage, might extend to words of encouragement thrown over the jail walls ... it remains for many a choice ...

A choice between a cynical protest advocated by politicians or the antipodean pudding, Australia wins the day, it's no contest .......

When Jonathan Edwards, Plaid MP and Westminster rabble-rouser ...

... calls for greater investment in existing Welsh TV services, he is calling to the nationalist faithful.  He is saying ...

"That means stopping the cuts being made to S4C and BBC Wales and giving ITV Wales the scope for improvements.  Wales must have a national television service worthy of the name, with quality programming that represents us as a nation."

He continues the rhetoric ...

"Welsh is an everyday language amongst audiences across Wales, and this must be reflected in the television services which they receive.  Our priority here in Wales, though, must be improving and developing the level of Welsh news and current affairs rather than furthering the ill considered agenda of a Westminster minister."

This ill considered agenda is no agenda at all, Westminster believes the UK would benefit from local TV coverage, and the envisaged TV has to be self financing ... and that could be a problem, who wants to sponsor current affairs on "TV Swansea" when there is an opportunity to sponsor "Four Weddings and a Funeral" ... on ITV.

The bottom line for the separatist at work at Westminster is he wants three terrestrial channels ported to a Welsh platform working at the behest of and directed by the politics of Welsh Nationalism. Not once does the man offer a financial model to pay for his proposed extravaganza, he would like his scheme paid for by the taxpayers of Britain ....

.... in a world of shrinking budgets, the nationalists would expect a larger share, in the world of television they would like a louder voice, but only if it in Wales ...