Cawl...My Way

Cawl my way

My sister told me yesterday that she is making Cawl in her slow cooker for the first time ever this weekend at the request of her husband. It's nearly St David's Day which is when my son insists we have to eat Cawl to be a proper Welsh family so maybe it's not that surprising that both us London girls are turning to the same simple, warming winter Welsh dish this week.

Essentially, as I understand it, Cawl means soup in Welsh but the dish 'Cawl' is a very specific sort of soup made with cubes of lamb (or mutton), swede, potato and leeks in a broth.  Sorry if I have this wrong or have offended your old family recipe for authentic Cawl!  There are a zillion different recipes and descriptions and photos if Cawl on the web of this dish and each family (Mam) has their own way of making it.

The traditional approach as I understand it is to use stewing lamb (or mutton) and to cook it slowly and for a long while.  My wonderful M-I-L, AKA the Queen of Traditional Welsh Cooking in our house, remembers her mother explaining how important the tiny  'spangles' of rich golden lamb fat globules floating on top of the soup were.  In harder times, when people worked their bodies hard, every scrap of energy giving fat and goodness from the inexpensive stewing meat and common winter vegetables was precious.  I'm all for fat, it gives flavour and texture, I love vegetarian food but as a non veggie I can say I do really appreciate the taste of meat and it's fat when I have it.

 

Anyway, back to Cawl - I had THE MOST AMAZING bowl of Cawl in a fish and chip shop in Laugharne (Castleview Chip Shop, Laugharne, Carmarthen SA33 4ST), about 5 years ago, it was quite simply fantastic and I have been trying to recreate it myself ever since with varying results. I asked the staff at the Castleview how they had made it at the time and they told me that they had marinated the lamb in honey and had not used stewing lamb but lamb steaks.My version of this has not yet quite achieved the sheer perfection of the original, but I am going to keep trying til I get there!

Non Traditional Recipe for Cawl My Way - makes a vat full!

• use x 2/3 lamb steaks (the sort meant for frying fast in a pan or grilling)  and cut up into small chunks about 2 cm across
• pair the fat off the lamb (usually around the steak) and set aside
• put the lamb cubes into a bowl and add a few squeezes of runny honey and stir around until each has a light honey coating
• put the lamb fat in a hot v large saucepan and fry it until it releases the fat in liquid form
• then throw in the lamb cubes and fry them hard and hot until they are golden and v slightly brown - try not to let them burn badly (where the honey 'catches' they might get quite brown), then set aside in a clean bowl and cover with foil - keep the pan and the fat!
• peel and cube a swede into v small pieces - ideally 1 cm across (swede takes ages to cook!)
• peel and cube 2/3 large potatoes into slightly larger cubes about 2cm across
• peel and cube  4-5 large carrots (or 7-8 small ones) into cubes a little larger than the swede
• wash and slice 4-5 leeks into 1 cm rounds
• add a little olive oil to the large pan which you cooked the lamb in which should have the lamb fat still in it and the juices and colour from the cooked meat
• and add the chopped swede to the pan and cook for 8 or so minutes, stirring around
• then add the carrots and stir around for a further 5 or so minutes
• then add the potatoes and stir around over the heat for a further 5 minutes
• then add MOST of the leeks to the pan (keep some of the greener leek slices aside - put them in the set aside bowl with the lamb if you wish) 
• stir the whole lot around in the lamb juice and fat until the leeks are softened and then add 2 pints of chicken stock and bring up to the boil
• add more stock or water if necessary
• cook until the swede finally feels like to might be cooked, maybe 45-50 minutes - try hard not to crush the potatoes when you stir the Cawl if they are looking crumbly 
• once the swede is cooked add the cooked lamb cubes and raw green leeks slices you set aside earlier
• cook for a further 5 minutes until the green leek slices are just cooked
• and serve with bread to dip and, if you wish, cheese crumbled on top of each bowl

Blasus Iawn! Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus i chi!