Cheap Eats: Beef Stew and Dumplings Recipe
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| If we're not meant to feast on leftovers at midnight, why is there a light in the fridge? |
There's nothing better than a warming plate of beef stew & dumplings on a Winter's day.
I've cooked this many times times over the years and all my family love it. I find the important thing is to coat the beef in flour to seal in the flavoursome juices while thickening the stew, and to cook in a low and slow oven, not on the hob, about 4 hours is fine, it's the perfect thing to cook in a slow cooker too.
This recipe will easily feed four adults.
Here's what you'll need:
500g diced stewing beef
1 onion and carrot chopped small
1 Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pot
Squeeze of tomato puree
Glug of Worcestershire Sauce
200g mushrooms, cut in half
100g frozen peas
For the dumplings:
100g of self raising flour
50g Atora suet
Here's what to do:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees, 160 degrees fan or gas mark 3 and place beef in a bowl and coat with the flour, then season with salt and pepper.
2. Gently fly the beef in batches for a few minutes until brown and spoon in to a casserole dish.
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| Little nuggets of tastiness about to plop in to a cornucopia of loveliness |
3. In the same frying pan, fry onion until soft, add the carrot and fry for a couple of minutes more then add to the casserole dish.
4. Squeeze in a generous amount of tomato puree, a good glug of Worcestershire sauce.
5. Dissolve the stock pot in a pint of hot water and pour over the mixture, stir thoroughly.
6. Cook in the preheated oven for two hours stirring and checking the seasoning occasionally.
7. Add the peas and mushrooms and cook for further hour.
And for the dumplings:
8. Mix the flour and suet in a bowl.
8. Add enough water to make a dough and roll in to balls, I find it makes 4 decent sized balls.
9. Place on top of the stew for the last half an hour of cooking and cook uncovered to brown the dumplings for the final five minutes.
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| All gnarly round the edges, just like this blogger |
10. Serve with buttered mashed potatoes and cabbage.
The recipe is very versatile and a good way of hiding extra vegetables from the kids, leave out the mushrooms if they don't like them and add extra veg like celery, swede, parsnip, pumpkin or butternut squash. I recommend giving these a quick fry in the same pan after the beef and onions and you may need to add more water and seasoning.
I would love to hear about your perfect stew & dumplings, and any other cheap eats that you make for your family. All ideas welcome!
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