Recipes from Wales

[Jaxom]

As I mentioned Cawl in another thread I thought I would start writing a few Welsh recipes for everyone on the vine.
To start here is one of my all time favorites Welsh Cakes.

Makes 12 small Welsh cakes

8 oz Self-raising flour
4 oz Butter
3 oz Sugar
2 oz Currants or sultanas
Salt
Good pinch of mixed spice
1 Egg
Milk, a dash if needed
Sugar to dust cooling cakes

Method

Sift together the flour and salt and rub in the butter until it forms breadcrumb consistency. Add the sugar and the fruit. Whisk up the egg and add to bind it all together. Then using your fingers knead it to dough, If too crumbly use milk until it feels like firmer and forms a ball.

Roll out to 1/4-inch thickness and cut in circles using a teacup. Put to one side until all the dough has been made into rounds. Using a thick-bottomed frying pan or traditional Welsh bakestone (griddle) cook the cakes on each side until golden brown.

Sprinkle cooked Welsh cakes with sugar and watch them disappear. Can be eaten warm or cold. Kept in a tin they will last for up to a week.
Jax

[nick the grief]

We used to do something like these whe I was a scout leader - alwayss went down well with them, I think the bonfire ash adds to the flavour!

And Cawl with a cheese sarnie is heaven !! I sometimes do this for our lot.

[Jaxom]

Cawl

Everyone makes Cawl in Wales. No one has the recipe but we still all make it.
you learn to make it at your mothers knee and therefore no two household's Cawl ever tastes the same.
you can make Cawl from most things in winter, it really is a case of what ever is to hand and how much you wish to pay to buy the makings.
This is my typical Cawl
1 lb of meat either scrag end of Lamb or braising Beef. sometimes all I use for meat is the chicken carcass after Sunday lunch.
1 Large onion
2 large carrots
1 large leek
1 lb of potatoes
half a swede
2 sticks of celery
tsp mixed herbs and 1 bay leaf
pepper
1 level tsp salt or 3 Stock-cubes

Chop up all the ingredients and place in a very large pot. cover with water till near the top and place on a low light. Bring to the boil and then turn down to simmer. Add stock cubes and other seasoning and skim the surface after an hour or two. turn off the heat and leave on stove over night.
Next morning skim surface again if needed and bring quickly back to the boil. reduce heat and allow Cawl to reduce. Correct seasoning at end and serve with thick slabs of bread and butter.
Some people eat the liquor first and have the meat and vegetables as the next course.
Every pot will taste slightly different due to the add hock nature of ingredients.
Jax

[andrewo]

This is very close to scouse and lancashire hotpot. Funny how recipes spread but have local varieties.

[nick the grief]

We hae Scouse as well, My wifes family hail (or should that be hale) from Southport (posh scousers). My lot come from the other side of the pennines.

The first time I had this was at a farm nr Rosebush, they'd done Pot roasted Brisket for Sunday and this was the juices from the pan with veg thrown in & some slices of the afore mentioned brisket. Fresh Homemade doorstep Sarnie with Caerphilly on (about 3" think!) and a steaming mug of tea ! Mind you we were thnking of buying the place !

[Lesley Jay]

In our house Jaxom your cawl is called a pan of stew.

[sewer rat]

Jax
I love Welsh Cakes - still warm is best. Developed a taste for them when I was a shepherd nr Brecon - served by farmers wife who was a pinnie-
wearing barrel with the original turned down wellies, but boy could she bake !
Rat

[Jaxom]

In our house Jaxom your cawl is called a pan of stew.

I make stew as well but differently to Cawl.
For stew I fry all the onions and coat the meat in seasoned flour and then brown it to seal in the juices. Next in goes the Swede followed by carrots 15 minutes later. After half an hour of simmering in goes the celery and leeks with the potatoes followed 30 minutes before the end by suet dumplings. Stew takes about 2 hours, Cawl take 2 days.
Jax

[andrewo]

I really loathe swede, it makes me gag, yuck, forced fed it as a child.

[Lesley Jay]

Jaxom it all depends where in the UK you live. Cawl, scouse, stew, hot pot they really are one and the same. My stew is always a two day job. Sometimes I make it with a shoulder of lamb and by the end of day two the meat just melts in your mouth.

[Kea]

Jax - thanks - my nieces are from South Wales and i wanted to bake something traditional with them last time they visited but the little ones didn't know any recipes and their mum (my sis) is English. Now i have a recipe which looks simple and sounds yummy - cheers!

K :-)

[Kea]

....but Andrew, did your parents ever try to disguise it.....?! Actually i hated it too, but mum had this fab way of cooking carrots, swede and then mashing it all together with spuds, which i still crave as comfort food to this day. Like fresh, garden grown runner beans, i could eat a whole plate of veg mash with gravy and nothing else. I've come to love swede - you can leave out the spuds and just mash with carrots, add butter, fresh black pepper, 1/2 tsp ginger (dried, not fresh) ...........ah go on!

[andrewo]

Oh yes, they tried to disguise it and still I could taste it - horrid stuff, I am the same with sprouts - used to feed them to the dog, the dog died of cancer, I think I went organic then - fearing the link between spraying of crops and the effects on people's health. Parents tried, bless them, they still try now and get nowhere but then again, all the veg I like, they hate, courgettes, celeriac...I've only just got them onto french beans after ten years!

[Lozzie]

Mmm! My mother always makes cawl in the autumn and winter. Really comforting stuff. She usually makes two big pots full- one for the family and one for her friends at work! My father used to love Welsh cakes. He'd eat loads of them with tea.

[Squirrel]

I think one of the worst tasting veg is brussel sprouts! Don't know whether it is because we could only get frozen ones overseas, but I hate them with a passion that is reserved for few other things in my life!