Sunday 13 February 2011

Stew and dumplings



4 tablespoons vegetable (or light olive) oil
1 large onion
1 stick celery
2 large carrots
1kg stewing beef (shin or chuck, sliced into 2cm wide strips, not chunks)
50g plain flour
Salt and pepper (a good twist of each)
1 glass red wine
50g black pudding
500g new potatoes
200g mushrooms
1 tablespoon fresh or dried herbs (mixed is fine, thyme is better)
200g self raising flour
100g suet
Salt and pepper (again)
1 teaspoon English mustard (or ½ teaspoon dry mustard powder)

Pre-heat the oven to 140C. Put a large casserole dish on the hob, over a medium heat.
Finely chop the onion, celery and carrots. Fry gently in the casserole dish, in 1 tablespoon of the oil, until glossy but not brown. Put aside in a bowl. Add the remainder of the oil to the casserole and turn up the heat a bit.
Put the plain flour, salt and pepper into a plastic bag. Add the strips of beef to the bag, and shake the bag to coat the meat in flour. Remove the beef from the bag, and pat off any excess flour. Keep the flour in the bag for later.
Add the beef to the casserole dish, and fry until brown. Add the red wine and boil for 2 minutes to reduce. Add the rest of the flour from the bag, and stir. Add the onion, celery and carrot back to the casserole dish. Add enough water to cover the stew by about 1cm. Crumble in the black pudding (or chop it finely and add it). Cover with a tight-fitting lid (or a layer of foil and a looser lid) and place the casserole dish in the oven for 2 hours.
Slice the potatoes and mushrooms, and add them to the stew with the herbs. Check that the gravy still covers the stew, adding more water if necessary. Cover, and return to the oven for another 40 minutes.
Put the SR flour, suet, mustard, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add just enough water, stirring with a fork, so the mixture forms a damp dough. Drop golfball-sized dumplings on to the top of the stew, leaving a gap between them as they swell up. Cover, and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes.

If you want to be really traditional, substitute a can of bitter or stout for the red wine. Another nice variation is to use 2 teaspoons of horseradish sauce in the dumplings, instead of the mustard.

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