This obsession has caused me to continually struggle to improve my cawl. I started with Bobby Freeman’s Fishguard Cawl from First Catch your Peacock but hers uses beef and I prefer lamb. Presumably cawl can be soup with any ingredient. I determined that mine should contain lamb, leeks and potatoes. I used a home cured bacon chop made according to the recipe in River Cottage Everyday by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (aka my friend Shuggie in our house since he sends me nettle beer and decent cider every so often) which had been soaked in water to remove the excess salt. I browned this and the outside of half a shoulder of lamb in a hot pan with a little fat and deglazed the pan with half a bottle of beer. Unfortunately I had no Brains, and still haven’t so it is said, and I had drunk all the nettle beer so I used Ascot Alligator Ale. I softened and mildly caramelised coarsely-chopped onions, swede, carrots and parsnips in rapeseed oil in a casserole then added some shredded cabbage, the meats and beer to the pot with some water and cooked this in a very low oven for several hours with black pepper but no salt at this stage because of the bacon. The meats were then removed and cut into strips. The vegetables were removed (and liquidised to make a soup with some dried cannellini beans). The bones and most of the fat were put back into the stock and boiled to extract every last bit of flavour and then discarded, some to the dish of the sous chef cat who was rubbing herself against my legs. The stock was then refrigerated to remove most of the fat. Not all, as cawl needs stars on its face according to Bobby. For the potatoes I cooked Teisen Nionod which is a gratin made with finely sliced potatoes, chopped onions and butter lumps layered with salt and pepper and baked in a hot oven for about an hour. The dish was finished with some leeks fried in butter. The stock was really tasty and didn’t need salt or reducing. The in-house editor was fairly impressed and the sous chef cat asked for seconds. Anyway I liked it and may stop obsessing but I must get some Brains laid in for next time. Perhaps I will try a seasonal version with spring lamb, nettle leaves and wild garlic.
