Welsh Rabbit

Welsh rabbit is a funny thing. To me it represents (along with rice pudding and any number of potato-based things covered in gravy) the quintessence of childhood comfort food. Yet many Americans have never heard of it, and the basic definition - "melted cheese on toast"- is sadly inadequate to describe its ineffable homespun charm. The inexhaustible font of wisdom that is Wikipedia tells us: "The first recorded use of the term Welsh rabbit was in 1725, but the origin of the term is unknown. It may be an ironic name coined in the days when the Welsh were notoriously poor: only better-off people could afford butcher's meat, and while in England rabbit was the poor man's meat, in Wales the poor man's meat was cheese."

That seems fair enough. My mother (who introduced me to this dish, probably in the womb) grew up in England's industrial Midlands during WWII, and there were times she'd have been lucky to get anything on toast, so we've got the poverty thing covered. The interesting part about my own early experience with Welsh rabbit is that, for some unknown reason, it was always associated with Sunday evenings in our house; I'm honestly not sure if we ever ate it on any other day of the week. Sometimes my mom made it, and sometimes my dad did, but in my memory it is inextricably linked with an early bathtime followed by The Wonderful World of Disney (each week, as Tinkerbell flew up to Cinderella's Castle and tapped it with her wand, you'd hope for something like Lady and the Tramp or Sleeping Beauty, but more often than not it would be some tedious offering like The Nutty Professor or The Apple Dumpling Gang. (*YAWN*). On such occasions, a few slabs of toasted crusty bread covered with gooey, mustardy, vaguely booze-scented cheese were the high point of the evening.

Now, the weirdest thing about this is that my partner recalls having exactly the same experience, right down to the Sunday-night-specifics! Since he grew up about 600 miles north of me, we are left to speculate that it must have something to do with my mother being British and his parents being Anglo-Canadian. Perhaps, in their tender, formative years, Churchill had extolled the virtues of eating Welsh rabbit on Sunday as a means of defeating the Hun? My inner folklorist wonders if a tradition of having a comparatively "light" meal in the evening might have arisen as a result of the big Sunday lunch so beloved by the English at midday, but research into the matter has thus far yielded nothing to link this poor Welshman's treat to the Lord's day of rest. So if anyone out there knows anything about this, let me know, okay?

At this point in my ramble down Memory Lane, the gentle reader would be forgiven for thinking, "Oi! You don't eat cheese or rabbits, innit? So wot's yer bleedin' point?" Well, last week it occurred to me that some melty cheesy stuff on bread might be just the thing to temporarily chase away those overscheduled mid-semester blues. There was about a cup remaining in our dwindling hoard of cheddar-flavor Daiya, but with the addition of some Coleman's mustard and help from the one lonely bottle of ale in the house (among other things), I was able to come pretty close to the taste of those long-ago Sunday nights. The first two times I made it were on a Tuesday evening and a Saturday morning; the fact that this radical departure from tradition caused no discernible tear in the space:time continuum leads me to believe it would be perfectly safe to whip up a batch any day of the week, so suit yourself! But I think next time I'll make it on a Sunday, then get into my pajamas and fire up 101 Dalmations for old times' sake.

Who says you can't go home again?

Welsh Rabbit
Ingredients
~2 tbsp. Earth Balance or other vegan butter like Miyoko's
~1/3 cup finely minced onion
~2 tbsp. flour
~1/2 tsp. each: salt, white pepper, turmeric
~1 heaping tsp. dry mustard (I used Colman's)
~ Tiny pinch nutmeg
~ 3/4 cup decent brown ale or stout
~ 2 tsp. vegan Worcestershire sauce
~ 1 tsp. Marmite
~ 1 cup shredded cheddar flavor vegan cheese (Daiya, Miyoko's, VioLife, Cheezly, etc.)
~ 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
~ 1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced and browned in a very hot pan (optional, but nice)
~1 large baguette or other good white bread, cut into 8 slab-like slices and toasted lightly

Directions
~Preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit.
~In a saucepan, melt the butterand saute the minced onion over medium-low heat about 5 minutes, until softened but not browned.
~Stir in the flour, salt, turmeric and mustard. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, another 3 minutes or so.
~Whisk in the ale (or stout), Worcestershire sauce, and Marmite; keep stirring!
~When the mixture is smooth, turn heat to low and add the vegan cheese and nutritional yeast, stirring until you get a smooth, uniform texture. You can add a dash more liquid if it starts to catch too much, but not too much; it's not a sauce!
~ Continue cooking another minute or two, then remove from heat and allow to sit about 5 minutes. (It will get a bit gloppy as it cools; no worries!)
~ Spoon the mixture onto the toasted baguette slices, top with the sautéed mushrooms if using, and place on a baking sheet.
~Cook at 425 degrees for about 10-12 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly. If you like, turn the broiler on for the last minute or two, but keep a careful eye so they don't burn!
~Allow to cool for a few minutes before eating.