Cawl au Feu
January 26, 2010
Two great recipes: Cawl au feu and Irish Soda Bread.
“You can take the girl out of Wales, but you can’t take Wales out of the girl!” This rang true yesterday as I invented my version of Cawl – amazing that it was the first ever Cawl I’ve made! For those of you that don’t know, Cawl is a traditional dish from Wales which is like a stew. It usually contains Lamb and Leeks along with Potatoes, Carrots, Swede – anything that’s in season/left in your cupboard. Historically it was a poor man’s meal, but now it is probably on the menu at the Celtic Manor!
My Cawl was not a traditional Cawl as I made it with smoked lardons instead of Lamb and I took some ideas from a recipe for Pot au Feu (France’s very own Cawl) – hence the name Cawl au Feu. Anyway, it was so delicious that the recipe is worth sharing. Serves 3-4 people.
250g chunky (about 2cm cubes) smoked lardons, 1 large leek, 4 carrots, 1 onion, 1/4 celeriac, 1/4 white cabbage, 2-3 bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme, 12-15 pink peppercorns, 4 cloves, a cinnamon stick (about 3cm), 1 tsp salt
In a large pan, fry the lardons for a few minutes while you roughly chop all the vegetables to about the same size as your lardons – it doesn’t need to look pretty! Add the veg to the lardons and fry for a few minutes then add everything else and cover with boiling water (about 4 pints) and simmer gently for about an hour and a half – don’t let it boil vigorously as this will break up the veg.
Some people serve the broth as a starter and then the meat and veg as a main – I served it all in one bowl with a slice of home made soda bread. The Irish soda bread is so easy to make and doesn’t involve the hassle of rising and kneeding dough – just add about 420 ml of milk to a bowl of 500g flour (white/brown or both) a tsp bicarbonate of soda and a tsp of salt and mix with a spoon until you get a really wet dough – flour the surface of a baking tray and then flour your hands and lift the wet dough (it should stick togother, but be really floppy) onto the baking tray. Flatten it into a disc about 5cm thick and score a cross on the top. Sprinkle it with more flour and bake in a preheated oven (200°C) for 40-45 minutes.
Bread of Heaven…feed me til I want no more!
