A fall foodie moment

Since I discovered the term oxymoron I have been pretty sure the original one was "British cuisine." Correspondents in the UK assure me that things have got better in recent years, but I remain unconvinced.

Nevertheless, curiosity compelled me to attempt a traditional Welsh cawl.

That is, I'm still attempting it, because many, many hours later it's still cooking.
When I decided to try this, I also went shopping for a recipe that I could stand and for which I could find ingredients. Most traditional cawls call for mutton or kid, but I found one that uses beef. They also call for "swedes," rutabagas in the US, but it's a week or three early for them here, and I settled for ordinary turnips.

Anyway, this is what I did, with a few of my own modifications:

2 medium diced onions
2-3 sliced parsnips
5 sliced carrots
1 lb turnip (preferably rutabaga), diced
5 small or 2 large leeks, chopped and well washed
1 1/2 pounds beef brisket or stew beef, cut to about 1 in squares
1 pound Canadian bacon, cubed
4 large cloves minced garlic
10 peppercorns whole, or ground pepper to taste
water or stock

Crock pot method. Combine meat, onion and garlic in crock pot on high while preparing remaining vegetables. Add chopped vegetables (remember to thoroughly wash the leeks), peppercorns and water or stock. Do something else for a really really long time. This reaches the proper consistency after about 24 hours of slow cooking. The Canadian bacon makes this a leaner recipe than the traditional ones. Those call for cooling the soup after a few hours so you can skim the thick layer of fat from the surface.

I think this would take a similar amount of time on the stovetop, if you prefer. One might also go the beef stew route and saute the meat, onions and garlic together before adding the other vegetables, sauteing some more, then cooking for three or four hours in a 325 oven. However, like Continental soups, I think time is the critical ingredient.

Late news. It did cook. It does taste very good and it smells just like yr gegin mam-gi (Grandma's kitchen). I offer no opinions on the kid or mutton variants. Traditionally, cawl is served with bread and cheese, which was my cue to make toasted cheese sandwiches on fresh multi-grain bread. Note: it may not be Welsh, but I like making my grilled cheese sandwiches spread with Dijon mustard.