Beef Stew and Dumplings

My mum used to make stew and dumplings for us all when I was a kid. It is one of the enduring memories of my childhood, with the beefy, oniony smell wafting through the house. Back then I was a picky eater and certainly didn’t have much time for dumplings (or carrots and greens), but I grew out of it. Nowadays, I love all the things mum used to cook for us.

Obviously, I picked up a lot of tips along the way. Mum will often say ‘I don’t know where you get it from’ when I cook for her, but I most certainly do know where I get it from. I’m no expert, but I’ve learned a lot from her, and making stew is one such example.

The secret to a good stew is long and slow cooking. That’s why it is called ‘stew’. You can speed things up by cooking it in a pressure cooker, of course, but in my experience the gravy doesn’t reduce and so tends to be thinner, and simmering it to reduce it after can affect the other ingredients. I’m sure you could modify any recipe with less stock to compensate for pressure cooking, but this recipe just uses the hob and oven in the old fashioned way.

For the stew:

Chop the celery, onion, carrots, and peppers into chunks. In a large ovenproof pan or casserole dish on the hob, heat the oil, then sauté the vegetables along with the Bay Leaves, Thyme, and Rosemary for about 10-15 minutes to soften them. Add the flour and stir it in, then cook it out for another few minutes until it isn’t powdery anymore. Add the tomato puree and Worcestershire sauce, and cook out for a few minutes more. Then add the red wine, stock, and the diced beef (you can brown the beef first if you want, but it isn’t absolutely necessary). Bring it to a simmer, cover, then transfer to the oven preheated to Gas Mark 3/4 (160°/180°C) and cook (stew) it for at least 2½ hours.

After about an hour, taste it and add salt and pepper to taste. I usually find it needs about a teaspoon of salt depending on the stock used. This is especially true if you use stock cubes or stock pots. But it depends on what you prefer.

After about 1½ hours, add the potatoes. Leave the smaller ones whole, but cut the larger ones into two or three pieces so they’re all of a similar size (they’ll cook at the same rate like this). Give it a stir, cover, and continue to cook.

For the dumplings:

While the stew is cooking, make the dumplings. Put the flour, suet, Cheddar, salt, and about a handful of chopped Parsley in a large bowl and mix well. Then, mixing using a spoon or spatula, add enough milk so that when stirred together you get a firm and sticky dough. You’ll only need a few tablespoons of milk, so go easy. Don’t make it runny – you want it thick so you can shape it into balls.

Portion the dough into 8-10 pieces and roll each into a ball between your hands so they are holding together. Coat them in a little more self-raising flour on a plate, and put them in the fridge until you need them. They become stickier and more doughy as they stand.

Once the stew has been cooking for at least two hours, give each dumpling a gentle roll in your hands and drop them into the stew. They will sink at first, but don’t worry – it’s normal. Cover again, return to the oven, and cook for a further 20 minutes.

By this time, the dumplings will have risen to the surface and increased to full size. Remove the lid and cook for a further 15 minutes uncovered. You can increase the oven to Gas Mark 6 (200°C) to toast them a little if you like at this stage.

Serve the stew and dumplings immediately in bowls – remove as many of the Thyme and Rosemary twigs and any Bay Leaves as you can. It goes well served with pieces of warm crusty bread.

Variations

Obviously, you can change the ingredient quantities a little to suit your own tastes. I often add more carrots, since my mum prefers those to the meat (I save that for me). Just remember that the nutritional data I have given below is based on the recipe precisely as I have written it, and then divided into either four or six serving portions.

You can add Turnips, Leeks, or other harder vegetables right at the start, and ones which require less cooking part way through. Just don’t overfill your pot.

A tablespoon or two of Caraway Seeds added to the stew at the start gives it a new taste dimension. Paprika or Chilli give it a bit of a kick.

The recipe given here uses the normal diced lean stewing steak you can buy in any supermarket or butcher shop. However, you can use beef shin or Osso Bucco, Oxtail, or even various Mutton cuts. With these, long and slow cooking is even more important, because they will be tough and chewy otherwise.

By all means, add more or less salt to suit your own taste. Leave the potatoes out if you want, or use less of them. It’s up to you. Any recipe is just a base – but make the recipe as written before trying to add a bunch of weird stuff and then complaining about the result, which is how most online recipes seem to go these days.

Feel free to make more or less dumplings (and use Red Leicester or any other strong, sharp cheese if you like). Or don’t make any at all if you don’t like them. Just make sure they’ll fit in your pot or casserole dish once they expand if you want more. The quantity given in the recipe fills the entire width of my large stainless steel stock pot.

Storing and Freezing

The recipe as written here makes four quite large portions, or six reasonable ones.

You can store any leftovers in the fridge for a maximum of a couple of days. However, it freezes very well. I use those foil takeaway cartons with cardboard lids, which will take two dumplings and a portion of the stew. Freeze them and they will be good for 3 months, though mine never last more than a week before being eaten.

Reheating

To reheat a defrosted/unfrozen portion in a lidded takeaway carton, place it on a tray in the oven at Gas Mark 3/4 (160°/180°C) for about 20-30 minutes. Remove the lid, and if it is bubbling it is ready.

To reheat from frozen, put a carton on a tray in the oven at Gas Mark 3/4 (160°/180°C) for about 45-60 minutes. Remove the lid and check it is bubbling. If not, heat for another 10 minutes and check again.

If you used plastic containers, you can defrost and reheat in a microwave. I haven’t tried it, so you’d have to work that out yourself.

Calories and Nutrition

These figures are for the recipe exactly as written above. Adding, removing, or changing ingredients and quantities will change the numbers. Adding side dishes will increase the numbers.

Stew only, as ONE of FOUR portions:

723 kcals, 19g fat (of which 5g saturated fat), 0.2g Cholesterol (66% recommended limit), 1.4g Sodium (56% maximum recommended intake), 3.2g Potassium (91% RDA), 65g Carbohydrate (50% RDA), 62g Protein (about half your daily need), 9.3mg Iron (116% daily need), 61mg Calcium (6% daily need).

Stew only, as ONE of SIX portions:

480 kcals, 13g fat (of which 3g saturated fat), 0.1g Cholesterol (33% recommended limit), 1g Sodium (40% maximum recommended intake), 2.1g Potassium (60% RDA), 43g Carbohydrate (33% RDA), 42g Protein (about a third of your daily need), 6.2mg Iron (80% daily need), 41mg Calcium (4% daily need).

Per dumpling, as ONE of EIGHT:

152 kcals, 12g fat (of which 6g saturated fat), unknown/low Cholesterol (trace from the cheese, Atora apparently has none), 0.25g Sodium (0.01% maximum recommended intake), 0.05g Potassium (1.3% RDA), 14g Carbohydrate (11% RDA), 5.2g Protein (4% daily need).