Many readers who have never visited Wales maybe asking what is cawl and this might be why you reached this blog?
Cawl is simply Welsh for broth or stew. This dish is now becoming quite trendy in Wales in up market pubs. Usually, it will be served with lamb and cheese. The cheese is stirred into the stew to melt. You will also be served a lump of bread and welsh salted butter to soak up the broth.
Cawl was originally a peasant dish as the blog below admirably describes. In former times root vegetables and cabbage and leeks were the only plant ingredients available to make a stew in winter. In Wales right up into the 1960's my mother never made a stew, in winter, with tomatoes as they were not in the shops. Other vegetables such as courgettes and were never even heard of, let alone sold at the green grocer.
My Mum made cawl from swedes, potatoes, carrots, leeks, cabbage and sometimes turnips and parsnips. We ate bread with it but rarely stirred in grated cheese. She added lamb or beef to the stew. Cawl, is the best way to eat swedes and turnips. I can't stand either the flavour, sight or feel of a dollop of boiled swede added to the meat and two vegetables for Sunday lunch.
Cawl is not limited to having lamb as the main source of meat. You can just as well use pork, ham, mutton or even chicken. In areas near the sea you can use fish. The very poor might even have used a wild rabbit, caught with a terrier, but skinned and gutted of course.
When meat was in short supply or you could not afford to eat it every day of the week then you could just add the stock from the previous day's boiled ham for flavour. Cawl was originally a peasant or country dish there was no desire or money to add fancy ingredients - it was every day eating and not trendy.
My mother was from London and never used the word cawl for her stew, my Welsh father rarely corrected her; he preferred to eat his stew rather than have it poured over his head. Whatever the dish was called, it was always delicious and it always tasted better when added to the next day and reheated.
Some people eat or drink the broth first and then consume the meat and vegetables afterwards. My family never did this; we ate the broth together with the meat and veg. We then mopped up the remaining broth from the bowl with bread. Nothing was wasted and there was less washing up. If everything was well diced up there was no need for a knife and fork: just a spoon would do.
http://www.bodnant-welshfood.co.uk/welsh-cawl-3668/.html
But what do you drink with your cawl? Before the 1970's the Welsh would have had no pretensions to drink wine with their stew: a cup of tea went down very well at home or, in a pub, a pint of bitter.
I made a cawl the other night using diced bacon. My wife fancied some wine so we drank half a bottle of Stepp - Pinot Noir from the Pfalz in Germany. We finished off the rest of the bottle with another bowl of my cawl the following evening. This medium-body wine went really well with bacon. You could also try an Alsace Pinot Noir and if you want to spoil yourself a bottle of red Burgundy.
http://www.marksandspencer.com/stepp-pinot-noir-case-of-6/p/p60092266
We also make cawl from lamb and the last time we did this we drank a standard red Bordeaux from a French supermarket.
https://enchateauhautrian.com/
If you make your cawl with wild rabbit or hare why not try Cahors from south west France. The strong taste of the wine conferred by the strong tannin and flavour of the Malbec black grapes goes well with game. It is best to let your Cahors mature for a few years before drinking.
https://www.frenchentree.com/living-in-france/wine/the-black-wine-of-cahors/
If you are making a sea-food cawl why not try a white Bordeaux or an Albariño from northern Spain or an Alvarinho from Portugal.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/dining/wine-review-white-bordeaux.html
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/albari%C3%B1o
http://www.marksandspencer.com/tercius-alvarinho-case-of-6/p/p60042772
Here is my recipe for cawl made with bacon. I have got no time for quoting weights.
Chop up enough smoked bacon, or use ready chopped lardons, with more than sufficient for the numbers dining.
Likewise, chop up some potatoes.
Chop up some carrots.
Chop up a couple of leeks.
Slice up some greens or cabbage.
Chop up some swede and /or turnips
Slice some parsnips to taste ( I don't usually use parsnips).
Use a cast iron pot with a lid.
Grease the bottom of the poth and lightly fry the bacon.
When the bacon is cooked add a glass of water.
Add the vegetables to the meat add more water to fill up the pot and bring the cawl to the boil.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Stir the pot.
I also add lemon juice and honey to taste. In the olden days they would not have used lemon juice but cider vinegar would have been available and could be used today.
Use a meat stock - chicken or beef or bacon to taste.
I add juniper berries, cloves and cinnamon to taste. These were probably not used in the good old days.
After the cawl has been brought to the boil, simmer it for two hours or so. I pour some water into the depression of our "Le Creuset " lid to help reduce the temperature to stop all the fluid in the pot boiling away too quickly. I stir the pot again before refilling the lid.
Be careful if you make cawl with fish. It is probably best to add any fish towards the end of cooking because over cooked fish will end up looking and feeling rubbery and tough.
Serve the cawl piping hot into a large soup bowl. Add some Welsh cheese to taste or some English cheddar and eat the stew with some buttered brown bread.
Add to the leftovers the following day to enjoy your delicious soup once or twice again. I never get fed up of eating cawl as it is full of taste and goodness.
Enjoy.
