Beef Stew With Dumplings Recipe
Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users
Servings
4
Prep Time
3 hours
Cook Time
3 hours
Beef stew is reassuringly traditional. No need to modernise it, put a cheffy twist on it or otherwise tamper with its simplicity. Just give it good-quality ingredients and a bit of time and you’ll be rewarded with a hearty and satisfying dish. Made all the better by some rib-sticking dumplings.
Ingredients
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800g organic diced stewing steak
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600ml organic beef bone broth
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200g shallots, peeled and halved
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4 stalks of celery, roughly chopped
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2-3 carrots (optional)
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1 clove of garlic
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1 tbsp plain flour
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1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
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2 bay leaves
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4 sprigs of thyme
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splash of vegetable oil
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salt and pepper
FOR THE DUMPLINGS
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100g plain flour
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1 tsp baking powder
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50 g beef suet
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1 spring onion, finely chopped
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1 tsp hot horseradish sauce
Directions
Preheat the oven to 160° /Gas 3. In a bowl toss the organic diced beef in the flour and a good dash of seasoning, making sure the chunks are totally covered. In a heavy-based casserole dish or oven proof saucepan, heat a good splash of oil over a medium heat, add the organic diced beef meat and cook for 5 minutes or until browned all over. You don’t want to crowd the pan, so do this in stages if necessary. Once browned, remove the organic diced beef from the pan and set aside
While the organic diced organic beef cooks, finely chop the garlic, roughly chop the celery, peel and cut the carrots, then peel the shallots and halve them or leave whole. Add more oil to the casserole dish/pan if needed, add the shallots and cook them until they start to soften and brown. Throw in the garlic, carrots and celery and cook briefly, making sure it does not catch
Return the organic diced beef to the pan, add the herbs, organic beef bone broth and Worcestershire sauce and a sprinkling more salt and pepper if you fancy and stir through. Bring to a gentle simmer
Continue to cook the beef stew over a very gentle heat on the hob or in a low oven for at least 2-3 hours, until the organic diced beef is tender and pulls apart easily with forks. Keep an eye on the liquid, topping it up with water if the beef stew starts to get a bit dry
For the dumplings, sift the flour into a bowl, stir through the baking powder, spring onion and hot horseradish sauce. Gradually add 3tbsp of cold water, and bring the flour together into a sticky dough, adding more water until the dough is firm but pliable
Divide the mixture into 8 equal pieces and roll in a little more flour into balls. Chill the dumplings until needed
When the beef stew has about 30 minutes to go, arrange the dumplings on top of the stew, pushing them into the gravy slightly, cover with the lid. Cook the beef stew and dumplings for 20 minutes, then remove the lid for the last 10 minutes, until the dumplings are brown and puffed up
Serve with vibrant seasonal greens and creamy mashed potato