SC - CAWL CENNIN CYMRAEG - WELSH LAMB STEW WITH LEEKS

[Elysant at aol.com]

In a message dated 08/30/2000 11:10:19 AM EST, Seton1355 at aol.com writes:

> Subj:  SC - CAWL CENNIN CYMRAEG - WELSH LAMB STEW WITH LEEKS  
  
> Can someone please enlighten me:  What is a swede other than a  Swedish 
> person?  Potatoes are refered to in the recipe.. can it be sweet potatoes?
> Phillipa

This is my posted recipe from quite a while ago....  :-)

It is a traditional but modern recipe from Wales, hence the potatoes (regular 
not sweet potatoes) and swedes in it (I believe what swedes are has been 
established here).

I made this Cawl at Caer Frig for everyone last year.  

We believe Cawl to be quite an ancient dish.  It is traditionally eaten on 
March 1st each year in Wales as a Saint David's day supper meal, and also is 
eaten then in remembrance of when the Welsh fighters wore leeks to identify 
themselves to each other as they fought the English centuries ago and won.

Modern varieties traditionally have the root vegetables that we see in the 
recipe that Phillipa posted.  I believe it is not too much of a stretch of 
the imagination to think that older versions of Cawl might have had lamb, 
leeks, and perhaps whichever root vegetables were available at the time in it 
(which if true, might make it one of the earliest stews with meat and 
vegetables together in it in Europe).   Unfortunately there are no Welsh 
period recipe manuscripts yet discovered (that I know of anyway), so I sadly 
can't verify any of this - so Cawl has to stay as traditional vs period right 
now. :-(

It's  really nice stew to eat on a cold blustery day :-)

Elysant