Cawl - Welsh Lamb Stew

The only real difference between a traditional Welsh Cawl and its Celtic cousin Irish Stew is the more broth-like consistency, lack of barley and inclusion of leek, swede/turnip and dumplings in the Welsh version.   

It’s a delicious stew which benefits from being made a day in advance so that it as it sits in the oven overnight the flavours meld and mature.

For two to three people :

2 lamb leg steaks

1 stick of celery
1 large or two small leeks
2 medium carrots
½ medium swede / 2 small turnips
2 medium potatoes

Scant ½ tb flour
2 pints of lamb stock
1tb olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

To make the dumplings you need :

1tb self raising flour
1tb suet
Salt and pepper to taste
Enough water to bring together to a slack dough. 

Firstly cut the leg steaks into large pieces, coat with the flour and fry in the olive oil to brown on all sides.  Remove to a plate as they are browned.

Slice the leek/s lengthways and rinse well under running water, then cut into slices approximately ½ an inch thick.  Finely chop the celery stick, peel the carrots and swede/turnip and cut into coarse dice and then do the same with the potatoes.

Add a little more oil to the pan if needed, and gently sweat the vegetables for 10 minutes.  Return the lamb to the pan and add the lamb stock then add the potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Cover and cook on a very low simmer for two hours, or pop it into the oven to cook at 150^oC for two hours.

At the end of the cooking time make the dumplings by adding the flour, suet and seasoning to a small basin and mix with enough cold water to combine to a slightly wetter dough than bread or pastry.  Scoop tablespoonfuls onto the stew and pop back into the oven.  If you’re cooking ahead of time and you have an electric oven, you can turn the oven off now and the dumplings will cook in the cooling oven.  If you have a gas oven they will need about half an hour cooking before you can turn the oven off.

* I had this delicious Cawl recently on a short holiday to the lovely coastal town of Aberaeron, and they serve it in the 'Brecon Style'.  Instead of a suet dumpling, you get a lump of cheese on the side and a bread roll.  For those of us obsessed with maintaining our cheese intake, this method is highly recommended, and probably better for the cholesterol levels too!

(150^oC = 300^oF = gas mark 2)

Beef and cannellini bean stew

The weather here has been so wet, cold and miserable that we’ve turned to cheering ourselves up with lovely casseroles and stews again!  After a few particularly miserably wet days I thought this delicious stew would be just the ticket to bring some much needed warmth to our bones and put a smile back on our faces! 

This is real hearty fare, and a complete meal in itself.  It takes no time to put together, and will require nothing more from you than an occasional stir while it sits in the oven for four hours.  It’s another one of those lovely frugal meals, the beans bag out the meat to stretch it further and uses one of those cheap cuts of beef that respond so well to long slow cooking. 

You could begin, as you would with other casseroles, by browning the meat and the vegetables; but to be honest there is so much flavour in this with the Guinness and the long slow cooking that if you skip that step, you won’t miss it. 

The quantities I give below will feed four people, generously.  You can either halve it for two people, or make the whole amount and keep half of it back for another day.  It won’t freeze very well because the vegetables will become too soft, but it will sit in the fridge for a day or two without coming to any harm.  

4 oz/1 cup of dried cannellini beans

2 baby or 1 large leek

½ a large swede (rutabaga)

2 medium carrots

1 stick of celery

1 medium turnip

1 medium potato

½ lb shin of beef (or any suitable casserole/stewing beef)

1 440ml can Guinness

1tb Worcestershire sauce

1 tb tomato puree

1 sprig rosemary

2 bayleaves

1 pint beef stock

1tb flour

Salt and pepper to taste 

Starting the night before you want to make your casserole, soak the cannellini beans in plenty of boiling water, with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to soften the skins. 

Prepare the vegetables by washing and peeling and then start dicing the leek, chopping the stick of celery quite small, chopping the carrots, swede and turnip into quite big chunks and adding to a large ovenproof casserole.  Cut the beef into big pieces and add to the vegetables.  Add the tablespoon of flour and mix well with your hands.  Chop the rosemary and add that to the pan, together with the bayleaves and season to taste.  Pour in the Guinness, Worcestershire sauce, stock and then add the tomato puree.  Cut the potato into big pieces and add that, together with the drained cannellini beans and then give everything a good stir.  Put a firm fitting lid on and pop into a low oven to cook for 4 hours.  I cooked mine at 160^oC (300^oF / gas mark 2).  Stir it from time to time, and add some more hot water if it seems to be drying out at all before the cooking time is up. 

Best served on one of those days when the rain is lashing the windows, a gale is howling and with a good helping of freshly baked bread!!   

A brandy sipped quietly by a roaring fire would finish it perfectly; but we can’t have everything can we!

Irish Stew (my version)

As I was away on holiday on St David’s Day I thought I’d share a recipe with you to celebrate my Celtic cousins’ Patron Saint’s day instead – St Patrick’s Day. 

Traditionally Irish Stew contains pearl barley, but I prefer it without so this is my own particular version.  Actually, the purists in Ireland don’t use barley either and the version I had when we were in Ireland (County Mayo) contained only lamb, onion and potato.  I like to add carrot to my version and I’ve given it a little Welsh twist by using leek instead of onion but you could use onion if leek isn’t easily obtainable. 

For two to three people : 

2 lamb leg steaks

1 large or two small leeks

2 medium carrots

2 medium potatoes

1 small sprig of rosemary

1 bayleaf

1tb flour

2 pints of lamb stock

1tb olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste 

Firstly cut the leg steaks into large pieces and fry in the olive oil to brown on all sides.  Remove to a plate as they are browned. 

Slice the leek/s lengthways and rinse well under running water, then cut into slices approximately ½ an inch thick.  Peel the carrots and cut into fairly big pieces and do the same with the potatoes. 

Add a little more oil to the pan if needed, and gently sweat the leek and carrot for 10 minutes.  Return the lamb to the pan and add the tablespoon of flour, stirring well to absorb any juices in the pan.  Slowly add the lamb stock, stirring well to eliminate the risk of lumps forming.  Add the potatoes then season with salt and pepper and add the chopped rosemary and the bayleaf.  Cover and cook on a very low simmer for two hours, or pop it into the oven to cook at 150^oC for two hours. 

(150^oC = 300^oF = gas mark 2)

Just like Grandma used to make!

We’ve been away in London for most of this week, Hubby was seeing a client for a few days’ training and I went along to keep him company.  Ahh, the blessings of being a full-time housewife!

I don’t know if it was because we’ve been away, or because it’s been quite cold over the last few days, but I woke up this morning with a real fancying for proper Welsh cawl.  When I was a child this was my favourite dinner; my grandparents lived in the same street as us and my grandmother, with whom I was incredibly close, used to make it quite often.  Hers was the best!  My mother used to make it from time to time as well, but hers was never quite as nice as my grandmother’s.

Well, today I cracked it!  I’ve been making it for 20+ years, but today’s batch was the closest I’ve ever gotten to my grandmother’s. 

After shopping for all the bits and pieces I needed, I worked out that it had cost no more than £3.62 for the meat and the veg.  Add on a couple of coppers for the stock cube and the flour and suet for the dumplings and you can see it really is a cheap meal!

It doesn’t take a lot of preparation, but it does need a good 2 or 3 hours in a very low oven.  I left mine for 3 so that it got good and thick.

Quantities will vary, depending on your pot size and how many people you want to feed – and are never fixed in stone anyway (!), but this was what I used : 

3 nice big carrots, peeled and cut into rough biggish chunks, rustic style

2 small and one biggish parsnip, peeled and cut into rough biggish chunks

about the same quantity of swede, again peeled and cut into biggish pieces

1 medium sized potato, again peeled and cut into biggish pieces

1 large leek, cut into big rings

Appx 1½ lb of diced casserole beef (skirt, shin, clod – whatever)

1 stock cube

Pour about 1tb of olive oil into a casserole and add the diced beef, stirring around to brown.  Remove to a dish and add the prepared carrot, parsnip and swede, turn the heat down as low as it will go and toss the veg around the pan for a few minutes to lightly brown them.  Return the meat and any drippings in the dish to the pan, add 1tb of flour and stir well into the contents of the pan.  Add as much hot water as is needed to cover all the vegetables and meat and then season to taste, add a stock cube and the leek and potato.  Cover and pop in a low oven for 3 hours.  I cooked mine at 130^o.  Towards the end of the cooking time you can make the dumpling mix – I used 2tb flour, same of suet and a pinch of salt, adding enough water to make a very thick mixture.  Spoon tablespoonfuls into the pan and pop back in the oven for half an hour. 

Best served to a cold and hungry husband on a cold, wet and windy day!.