Pac-Cymru Cawl and bread with parsley garlic butter for St. David's Day, serves 8

I'm working on inventing some recipes that I hope will be edible blends of Welsh and other cuisines, so this year for St. David's Day I wanted to do a seafood cawl.

Outside the Pacific NW, salmon is considered our "national" cuisine and if you tell people on the east coast that you're a Portlander but you don't like it, they seem disappointed. I never did like it until I moved to the east coast for a while and couldn't get it and that lead me to appreciate what a really fantastic thing good, fresh, wild salmon is, so I wanted to create a "cawl" with salmon. Ceri demanded mussels (ala Mussels Meirionnydd), so that's what he got and it's not Pacific Rim without sourdough bread, in my opinion.

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After I made this, I was fortunate enough to find Welsh Shellfish Cawl on the Visit Wales site, and that looks really fantastic so I want to try making that next. If you try this recipe, let me know what you think!

Ingredients

Image via Wikipedia

• 1 lb fresh salmon filet, wild coho or king if you can get it
• 1 lb mussels
• 1 C cooked crabmeat
• 2 quarts water or vegetable stock
• 2 C cabernet
• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 1 large sliced carrot
• 1 small rutabaga, sliced
• 6 medium potatoes, quartered
• 2 leeks, sliced
• 1 small head of cabbage, chopped
• 1 C oyster mushrooms
• 4 chopped cloves garlic
• 2 T chopped fresh parsley
• 1 t crushed rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 
  

   

  
  Sourdough bread with parsley garlic butter
  
  • stick of butter or 8T butter, softened
  • 3 T fresh chopped parsley
  • three cloves garlic, cooked soft and crushed
  • 1 t parmesan cheese
  • baguette or boule of sourdough bread

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Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Bring water or vegetable stock to a boil. Add onions, carrot, rutabaga and salt and pepper and reduce heat to simmer one hour.

In separate saucepan, saute chopped garlic and three whole cloves for bread with mushrooms until garlic has begun to brown.

Reserve whole cloves for bread, add chopped garlic and mushrooms to pot.

Add wine and potatoes and simmer another 15-20 minutes until tender.

Add herbs, leeks, cabbage, crab meat and salmon until cabbage is tender.

Add mussels and cover for about 15 minutes or until shells have fully opened.

While mussels are steaming, cream softened butter for bread with chopped parsley, parmesan and whole cloves garlic.

Score bread through to bottom crust in 2' slices, taking care to leave bottom crust attached.

Wrap bread in tinfoil, leaving top open, and place on cookie sheet.

Spread butter liberally in between slices and bake in 350F oven about 15 minutes or until mussels are done.

Serve hot.

photo by Jon Sullivan, public domain courtesy of http://pdphoto.org/

An Interview with Beryl Richards

Beryl (Bee) Richards earned degrees in art, human resources and career guidance and retired from a career in human resources and education to pursue interests in writing and historical research. She is the author of Nantybar - A Vanished Village in the Afan Valley and is currently working on a novel on the South Sea Bubble. Bee was born in Port Talbot, on the South Welsh coast, and came back to live there after traveling extensively. She quotes a familiar saying, "You can take the girl out of Port Talbot, but not Port Talbot out of the girl. Bee will be appearing at the Left Coast Eisteddfod to give a presentation on Prince Madoc.

AmeriCymru: You will be giving a talk on the Madoc Legend at this years' Left Coast Eisteddfod. Care to tell us a little about that? How did you first become interested in the Madoc Legend?
 

Bee: Madoc is one of the fascinating stories, which is surrounded by circumstantial and anecdotal evidence. I think it ranks in mystery with stories such as the Turin Shroud, the ‘Mari Celeste’ and it has a parallel in the Scottish legend of Summerled. Such mysteries and legends circulate all over the world. Always unproveable, always fascinating. Sometimes I wonder do we really want to solve these enigmatic tales. A lot of the fascination is taken out of such romanticism when proven a reality by science....

I am constantly fascinated by riddles, mysteries and ‘enigmas’ such as Madoc. The further I delve into the story the deeper the mystery becomes. All sorts of phantoms are released. What were the political aspirations of the first voyage? How in the light of the Welsh Civil war was Madoc able to sail from Rhos with ships fully equipped for a journey to who knows where? Were there any Imperialist designs from the royal house of Gwynedd? My interest in the ‘enigma’ started with a friend of mine a historian by the name of Bill Isaac lending me a book by Richard Deacon entitled (of course) ‘Madoc and the Discovery of America’ I became hooked!

AmeriCymru: What do you think it will take to prove that the Welsh discovered America? What direction would you like to see further research take?

Bee: One of the possibilities would be to pursue the DNA trail. Another would be in finding definite proof that the saga ever took place. Any reported remains have mysteriously disappeared or have been burned. There is a huge body of anecdotal evidence and written evidence by many famous individuals but nothing left of the material remains of the said Welsh. It is unfortunate that academia dismisses the hypothesis. No one institution has – to my knowledge – ever conducted a multi disciplinary approach to the problem, either in Wales or in the US where I suspect more archaeological evidence could be found to support the Madoc claim.

AmeriCymru: Are there any books on the subject that you would particularly recommend?

Bee: There is quite a body of literature on the subject, one of my favourites is the book which a lady called Zella Armstrong wrote and published herself entitled “Who Discovered America; the Amazing Story of Madoc. Richard Deacon ‘Madoc and the discovery of America’ another highly recommended volume is entitled Madoc, the Making of a Myth, by Gwyn A Williams. One of the most entertaining fictional accounts encompasses three volumes written by a novelist called Pat Winter. William A. Traxel also wrote an account which takes the saga further called “In the footsteps of the Welsh Indians.’ There are many more.

AmeriCymru: What inspired your interest in history? Would you agree with R.S. Thomas that it is not possible to ".... live in the present, at least not in Wales?"

Bee: Inheritence and curiosity also have a bearing on my interest. My father was one of the great instigators of my interest in history. Politically he was one of the best informed individuals I have met; discussions with him through my teens led me to want to find out the motivation behind his convictions. I started to read and found I had a great interest in how the past has influenced the present and how it will influence the future. It is my belief that we can only start to know our humanity by recognising the humanity and the struggles and triumphs of the past. Wales is a place full of crazy contradictions from the Mabinogion, to the religion of Rugby to the huge contribution we have made to the world of culture and industry. We are a multi cultural society and yet manage to draw in and to meld many communities into what is a vibrant modern country. I certainly think we live in a modern society, melded out of the people who have gone before us.

AmeriCymru: What inspired you to write "Nantybar...A Vanished Village in the Afan Valley"?

Bee: The wish to find out in more detail about the history of the little known Welsh valley of Afan was the motivation in writing ‘Nantybar’. The Rhondda Valleys are the usual topic of the Welsh Industrial Revolution, but what happened in the Upper Afan Valley during the 1800’s was repeated all over the country when the rural population made a mass migration to industrial sites in all parts of the country. The North, Scotland, Wales. All these places played a huge part in the support of the ‘British Empire’ with little or no recognition.

AmeriCymru: Any other message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Bee: Congratulations to AmeriCymru in accomplishing what will be a unique occasion. I hope this year will be the first of many.

A plea to all you Welsh at heart. I need your help! - CLOSE RUN THING!

We have a chance to make a Welsh coal mining song, the “Song Of The Year” at this year’s prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

This is one of the world’s biggest contests.

My song “Take Us Down” is a Grand Prize Winner, and as such moves into a head to head on line vote out between two folk songs. To hear the song, please go to - http://www.myspace.com/davidllewellynmusic – the song will fire up automatically.

We will need a lot of votes. Everyone can vote once a day – everyday – until the 27th of April. Here is a link to a news page on my website. It explain how easy it is to vote. http://davidllewellyn.com/news.html After the first time, it just takes three clicks.

I wrote the song after visiting “Big Pit” in Blaenavon which has been left a museum and epitaph to the Welsh coalmining industry as it was 100 years ago. http://www.world-heritage-blaenavon.org.uk/visit/places-of-interest/bigpit.htm The song follows a small boy’s first day “underground”, and his father’s heartbreaking thoughts.

Chances like this don’t come up very often. Please vote. Please spread the word to all your friends/lists/myspace/facebook etc. and ask them to vote too.

Thank you
David Llewellyn

Here is the direct link - http://www.jlsc.com/vote.php

VOTE HERE FOR "TAKE US DOWN" - HEAR THE SONG BELOW

Find more music like this on Americymru

Crafting the Spoon

I have been working on the spoon bowls and have roughed them out to almost their final look. The first pic shows the front view and the second shows the back.

I am a firm believer that a good lovespoon must have a really well carved bowl. My research through the museums of Wales has shown me that in the olden days, a great deal of effort was put into the bowls, no matter how adept or crude the carver. When you stop to consider the rather meager tools that many of these young men would have had access to, some of their work borders on miraculous.

Many of the spoons I see for sale on the 'gift shop' type lovespoon sites suffer from extremely poorly designed and carved bowls. In many it appears the bowl was just an afterthought which was only grudgingly included so that the piece of wood is recognizable as a spoon. I think this is a great shame as the bowl lends a quiet dignity to the proceedings. Lovespoons are busy and vibrant things with the handles often being a veritable riot of activity. An elegant bowl acts as a real visual anchor and can have a quieting effect on the overall design. It also is a real measure of a carver's skill to get it even and fair with the right 'look'. I spend a good deal of time fussing with the bowl and I honestly believe that the effort I put in on an easily overlooked detail pays big dividends at the end of the job.

But that is enough sermonizing (is that a word?...it is now) for one day. I just hope that you'll agree with me that so far this double bowl has a very romantic feel to it and that it is doing a good job symbolizing 'union'.

Thank you for dropping by to see how things are progressing! I hope that you will be inspired to join our efforts to initiate an Eisteddfod in Portland and I look forward to reading your comments.

Welsh Pirate Look-Alike Contest for Portland, Oregon Left Coast Eisteddfod on Americymru - Show Us Your Inner Black Bart!

We're announcing a pirate look-alike contest as part of the Left Coast Eisteddfod online activities.

The group url for the contest is here:

http://americymru.ning.com/group/leftcoasteisteddfodpirates

Here is the direction and announcement in the group:

"PIRATE IMPERSONATORS CONTEST - Show off your inner Pirate! Win $50 and acclaim! We're looking for Pirate Impersonators to send us photos in all their glory! Show us your John Callis, Howell Davis, Robert Edwards, John Evans, privateer Henry Morgan and last but by no means least, the Dread Pirate Bartholomew Roberts. As equal opportunity pirate lovers, we are, of course, also looking for Black Bartinas and Henrietta Morgans!

"Members and non-members may submit, you don't have to be a member of this network to participate, but if you're of Welsh ancestry or just like Wales, please do join us. First prize is $50.00 plus international renown/infamy and free admission to the Left Coast Eisteddfod in Portland, Oregon. Runners up prizes to be announced.

"Please submit jpegs no larger than 50kb - if you're unable to edit your photo, send it to us and we'll be happy to do it for you. Americymru members may submit directly, by starting a new discussion and posting their photo in it.

"Non-members, please send your photos to defnydd@gmail.com and include "Pirate Competition" in the subject line so we don't miss them!"Please include your name and contact information with your photo, and a contestant/user name you'd like us to identify your photo with, as well as a brief bio you'd like submitted on our site with your photo. All images must be the property of the person submitting them and remain the property of the person submitting them but by submitting your image(s), you give us permission to post your image(s) on this site for purposes of this contest."The Left Coast Eisteddfod will be held in Portland, Oregon, and as a native I can say that Portlanders love pirates. Many of us celebrate September 19th, International Talk Like a Pirate Day, we have lots of pirate groups in the area and every year we have the Portland Pirate Festival:

Latest from David Western's Lovespoon Blog

David Western's Lovespoon Blog

Well, the fun stuff has finally started. I've been busy scroll sawing out the shape of the spoon and am very pleased with how the wood has responded. There is lots of lovely grain patterns which should make the bowl and the leaf look really vibrant and the wood has been cutting evenly with no splitting or shattering. Wood this old and dry can sometimes be a bit brittle, but this walnut seems very good. The dowel that I came across last week shows up pretty well in this photo, but won't be quite so visible when the spoon is complete. I'm very pleased with the proportions and am even more confident that this will be a very smart spoon when complete.

In the second picture I have begun carving out the spoon bowl using a hand-made bent knife. These are specially made for me by Mike Komick at Preferred Edge Tools who specializes in crafting razor sharp, beautifully made blades. In the old days, the Welsh carvers used a ferocious looking bent bladed knife called a 'twca cam' which was often fashioned from whatever metal was at hand. Thankfully for me, I can rely on Mike to use the very best steel so that I can reap the benefits of a good, keen edge. Many carvers use gouges, electric grinding tools and curved scrapers to achieve the same ends, but I personally prefer the bent knife.

Carving the spoon bowl is one of my favourite parts of the process and is one I am happy to spend a good deal of time on. I tend to think that a lot of spoon carvers consider their bowls an afterthought with the lack of attention they give them showing up as a clunky and unsightly end to their hard carving efforts on the handle. But I'm starting to get preachy, so I'll get back to the tools and see how things shape up.

Before I go though, I hope that you are enjoying the blog so far and that you will feel inclined to donate a dollar or two to the Left Coast Eisteddfod! Every dollar you gift will equal a chance to win this spoon when it is completed. I hope you'll join in and I wish you good luck!

Latest From David Western's Lovespoon Blog

David Western's Portland Eisteddfod Lovespoon

After a rather frustrating 'down time' due to a computer virus, I've got my photo file back and can resume spoon blog entries!

I've now glued a photocopy of the spoon design to the wood and have roughed out the overall shape of the spoon with a scroll saw. Unfortunately, you can't see much yet as all the good stuff is hidden under a layer of paper. But for me, I can see the wood left behind and I have a good idea of what awaits me when I start carving! When I flip the piece over, the proportions seem right and I am confident that the various vagaries of the wood grain will line up where I want them.

The second picture is a close-up showing an old dowel which must have linked the panel this spoon was cut from to another in bygone days. The dowel won't be seen when viewing the final product from straight-on but it will be visible on the side view. I have decided not to bother trying to remove it and repatching it with a walnut plug though. This old dowel's inclusion in the spoon won't do any harm structurally or visually, but it will lend some quirky charm and will be a good talking point! After all, how many people have a dowel which is potentially a hundred and fifty years old in their lovespoon!!