[Artemisia] Re: Artemisia Digest, Vol 1, Issue 51

[Godwin fitzGilbert de Striguil]

> From: "Kay Moore" <arrowyn at msn.com>
> Subject: [Artemisia] Lamb recipe???
> 
> Just gifted with a haunch of lamb.   Anyone out there have any good lamb 
> recipes?  Roast (if that's do-able), stew, whatever - period or not, just 
> good - I have lots of Middle Eastern spices on hand, just not not familiar 
> with cooking with lamb at all - any help would be appreciated!
> 
> Arrowyn

I'm definitely not an authority on cooking lamb, but here's a Welsh recipe.

Godwin
============================
Cawl Ffa

Makes 5 generous servings (serving a crowd?)
3 lbs lamb, cut into medium-sized chunks
2 rashers of bacon
¼ cup flour for dredging
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 bayleaf
1 teaspoon summer savory
2 quarts of water
3 medium carrots unpeeled carrots, diced (½ lb)
2 large leeks, chopped (about 1 lb)
3 small parsnips (6 oz), cut into ½ inch chunks
1 medium (12 oz.) rutabaga, peeled and diced
1 lb unpeeled potatoes, quartered as needed
1 lb broad beans
2 Tablespoon pearl barley
flour for thickening (about ¼ cup)
1 teaspoon salt
lots of freshly chopped parsley
crusty bread on the side

Special equipment
     A large heavy saucepot or cauldron

Method
     Fry the bacon in the base of your kettle till crisp while you trim 
the fat from the lamb and debone as necessary. Dredge the lamb pieces in 
the flour, salt and pepper. Remove the bacon and set aside, and brown 
the lamb well in the bacon fat over moderately high heat. Add ample 
water, the bay leaf, sage, and bacon, now crushed, bring to a boil,
cover, and simmer gently for half an hour. Add all of the remaining 
ingredients except for the top of one leek and the parsley. Bring the 
broth back to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes. Just prior to serving, 
cut the remaining leek tops into fine rings and toss them into the pot 
along with the parsley. Serve with a crusty bread.

     Cawl ffa is literally a `summer stew', a basic staple of Welsh 
cooking. Cawl is usually translated as `soup', but a cawl is hearty, a 
full meal in a bowl. In olden days the meat was eaten at one meal, and 
the leftover broth at the next.

The parsnips help make this stew surprisingly sweet, and the greens 
added at the finish make it, well, vernal. Mild, yet satisfying, it 
makes a clever, almost deceptive, dish.

Notes
     Lamb, of course, is the preferred meat of the Welsh, whether 
Cheviot, Welsh Mountain, Blue-Horn Leicester, or some lowland cross. 
Just remember the pilsey wafter's ditty:
     Mountain lamb is sweet,
     Valley lamb is fatter.
     I therefore deemed it meet
     To carry off the latter.

     Thomas Love Peacock, `The War-song of Dinas Vawr'
Suggestions
     You may use any form of lamb: neck bones, shoulder slices, chunks 
cut from a leg, or even mutton if you're willing to simmer it ahead for 
an extra hour or two. Tradition requires marigold petals sprinkled 
liberally across the top.

This is the summer version of a cawl; a winter version would lack the 
beans and include more root vegetables and probably some salt pork or 
ham; a harvest cawl would have new potatoes and lots of fresh herbs. If 
you can't find broad beans (also called fava beans, as they're known in 
the Middle East) where you live, substitute butter beans, the closest
New World equivalent.