Beef Stew

This is the ultimate comfort food. It is often said to serve it with mashed potato but I think a bowl of this on its own is plenty enough. It is definitely my go to recipe in the winter.

Ingredients:

Stew -

400g Diced beef

2 Celery sticks

2 Carrots

1 Onion

2 garlic cloves

1 leek

3 potatoes

1 tbsp Oil

Herbs

1 tbsp Butter

2 tbsp plain flour

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 beef stock cubes

Dumplings –

125g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

60g suet

Water, to bring together the dough

Method:

Put the kettle on, put the celery, carrots, onion and herbs in the pot with the oil and butter. Soften for 10 minutes, then stir in the flour until it doesn’t look dusty anymore. Then stir in the tomato puree and stock cubes.

Gradually stir in 600ml of hot water, then add the beef and bring to a gentle simmer. Let it simmer for 2 hours.

Make the dumplings by sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add the suet and water to make a thick dough. Roll spoonfuls of dough into balls and coat in flour.

After two hours, add the dumplings and cook for a further 20 minutes.

I'm asking for a slow cooker for Christmas, lame I know! But I definitely think some of my recipes will improve if I cook them in the slow cooker!