I love soups but for years had all bar stopped making any… the kids won’t eat them and the wife isn’t much interested whether I make them or not… so I don’t. However, the oldies are here and as I’ve slowly lost weight so I’ve felt more like doing ‘stuff’ so I’ve started to get back into it.
As I’ve said a few times I’ve been making the chicken and veg soup for myself… but it’s a little bland for most tastes despite livening it up a bit with a liberal dose of assorted herbs, black pepper and garlic etc.
Today tho I managed to organise myself to knock up a simple ‘Potage Parmentier’… i.e. ‘leek and potato soup’… not exactly hard I know, but it’s a start 🙂 Actually it seems quite nice… though it’s hard to judge from minimal tasting and I can’t take even a liberal mouthful in case I get hooked. Sad I call it.
Thing is, while I was making it my old man decided to tell me about a small restaurant opposite the Castle in Caerffili (their – and my – home town) called Glanmor’s where they (coincidentally) *buy* ‘leek and potato soup”… grrr… typical.
He *also* told me they occasionally have Cawl. Well ok… very nice for them… if they’ve found a soup they like. Thinking I would make some of that as well I pressed him about what sort it is. Unfortunately he got a bit defensive and said it’s just cawl… made with vegetables and small square bits of meat in it.
My problem is that cawl… is just welsh for soup… for example, ‘leek and potato soup ‘translates to ‘cawl cennin a thatws’… or usually just ‘Cawl Cennin’and so I’ve come to a bit of a dead stop.
I suppose it *might* be Cawl Cynhaeaf… Harvest Soup… which is basically Cawl Cennin with turnips, carrots and lamb added… still who really knows… except Glanmor’s? 🙂
If anyone from Caerffili reads this… how do you fancy driving past Glanmor’s and asking *them* what cawl they make so I can reproduce it here to give the oldies a taste of home! 😀
The Eclectic Interweb 
I went to The Court House restaurant many many moon ago and ordered cawl and it was just lamb stew but it was a bit too greasy for my liking although I love lamb so probably Glanmor’s just use diced lamb rather than the fattier neck of lamb.
Here is a link for you on cawl
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/ilovewales/sections/food/cawl.shtml
Don’t know exactly how the Welsh are supposed to make cawl, but I make it like the good old English Broth. Meat,veg(all kinds) and stock. My lot seem to like it.
Just got round to clicking on your diet soup link at the top. I suspect even a large amount of soup wouldn’t need “1 satchel of Continental vegetable dry soup powder”!!!
Don’t you love spell checkers?
Heh 🙂 I copied it straight from the letter I was sent by the TV company! That explains a lot.
I’ve just come back from the house I’m going to rent and the previous owners left a couple of recipes for Cawl as well as some strange ones as well. They start with Cawl Cennin (Leek Broth) Cawl Haslet (which includes a pids liver) Cawl Mamgu (Grannys Broth) and Cawl Mamgu Tregarron (Tregarron Granny’s Broth) I can assume the original reicpe was a family one from someone Granny who livbed in Tregarron. It has various welsh recipes from Lava bread to Welsh Cakes, but the strangest one in the book is Pastai Brain Bach (Rook Pie) Which as the recipe says farmes used to have rook shoots during may and the breast of the young rook was used as the meat. Maybe I should apply for my shotgun licence now to avoid disappointment in a couple days time. The only rooks I’m aware of are at the Tower of London and I don’t thing they’d be too happy with me paying a visit. So it looks like I may have to settle for crows instead 😉
By gthe way if you fancy some of the more traditional recipes and there are a few just ask and I’ll send them along
I think the birds in the Tower of London and Ravens… and shooting them is still a hanging offence! 🙂
As for the recipes… yes please send them on over! I’d love to knock a few up if just to remind myself of home made welsh cooking… esp the cawl cennin and welsh cakes!
Cawl Cennin
A lump of salt bacon
Potatoes
Carrots
Leeks
Parsley
Cabbage
Oatmeal and water
Place the bacon in boiling water and with it the root vegetables, cut up small. Boil for 11/2 hours.
Remove the bacon and add the leeks, together with some finely shredded white cabbage. When these two vegetables are cooked, add a tablespoon of chopped parsley and serve. The cawl can be thickened by adding two tablespoons of oatmealmixed into a paste with cold water. This could be added at the same time as the leeks.
In the old days this made a two-course meal, the cawl itself was the first and the meat and vegetables the second course. Any cawl lwft over was reheated and drunk for breakfast the next day and was known as “cawl ail-dwym”
Welsh Cakes
Recipe 1
8oz flour
1/2 teaspoonful of baking powder
2 oz margarine
2 oz lard
3 oz sugar
2 oz currants
1/4 teaspoonful mixed spice
pinch of salt
1 egg
a little milk
Rub fat into flour. Add dry ingredients, then egg and milk. Mix into a stiff paste – as stiff as for short pastry. Roll out, cut into rounds and bake on a gridle
Recipe 2
1 lb plain flour
1 teaspoonful baking-powder
3/4 lb butter or margarine mixed with lard
1/4 lb currants
Mix with sweet milk, roll out, cut into roundsand bake on a griddle. Sprinkle with sugar