Beef Stew & Cheesy Dumpling - World Food Day Event!

This is my British traditional dish that I am sharing to the conga line of international dishes to feed the world!!

As you are fully aware by now as you follow my blog, my passion and love is baking, but I do cook traditional English food from scratch for my family each day. My reasons for posting this family traditional dish are that my ‘dear’ blogging friends Val from More Than Burnt Toast and Ivy from Kopiaste are hosting a most important event for “World Food Day Event”. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has celebrated World Food Day each year on October 16 since 1945. As Val states on her blog, “she and Ivy are bringing the world a little closer together with both of them blogging on opposite sides of the world. Ivy in Athens, Greece and Val from British Columbia, Canada. The objectives of this event are to heighten our awareness of the problem of hunger in the world today and to bring our attentions of what WE can do to about it personally!

I have been extremely fortunate in my life thus far and have never felt the pangs of hunger that many unfortunate individuals have and still are experiencing to this day!! This is why I feel extremely passionate about showing my support to this blogging event.

I kindly ask if you are a blogger to please show your support in this event too by clicking on one of the above links to either Val’s or Ivy’s where you’ll find information on how to join in this event as I have.

Beef Stew & Cheesy Dumpling

In autumn and winter in England, my family crave for comfort food such as; good hearty wholesome meat stews with root vegetables to help ward off the bitter cold. I like to add dumplings to my stews and ring the changes of flavours for them on occasions, by adding cheese and mustard or herbs or even grated horseradish and herbs. This stew is in keeping with a recipe I learnt as a child stood at the side of my mum whilst she was cooking. I have made a few little changes to mums recipe such as adding fresh beef stock, Guinness, garlic, tomato puree and changed the mushrooms to chestnut instead of button mushrooms and adding different flavours to the dumplings. There are no set rules of what is added to a stew and that’s the beauty of this dish. Perhaps different spices and herbs, vegetables or meat can be interchange in a stew. Stew is a wonderful dish that doesn’t need much looking after once in the oven but the taste it imparts is well worth the initial preparation.

Beef Stew & Cheesy Dumpling

Serves 6

Ingredients
550g (1lb 5oz) stewing steak, cut into cubes
3 tbsp plain flour, seasoned with salt & pepper
2 tbsp beef dripping or olive oil
50g (2 oz) butter
2 onions, peeled and sliced keeping the slices quite large
3 carrots, peeled & sliced into chunks
2 celery stalks, cleaned, trimmed and chopped
¼ small swede, peeled and cubed
1 medium parsnip, peeled and cubed
250g (9 oz) chestnut mushrooms, cleaned & halved if large
A good handful of frozen peas
Tin of tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
2 tsp mixed herbs
½ tsp onion salt
Good splash of Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp tomato puree
275ml (1/2 pint) beef stock
330ml bottle of Guinness beer
Salt & ground black pepper for seasoning

For The Dumplings
100g (4 oz) self-raising flour
50g (2 oz) suet, beef or vegetable
¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp mustard powder
15g (3 oz) mature grated cheddar cheese
1 handful of chopped fresh parsley
1 egg beaten
A little cold water

You will need a large casserole dish with lid, which will go on the hob and oven.

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°f/Gas mark 4.

Heat the dripping or oil in a large casserole dish on the hob and roll the meat in the seasoned flour until all is coated and batch brown the meat, remove the meat onto plate and put aside. Lower the heat a little and place the butter into the casserole dish and place all the root vegetables, celery, mushrooms and brown off a little for 10 - 15 minutes, adding the chopped garlic for the last two minutes stirring with a large wooden spoon,(they don’t need to be fully cooked through at this stage). Return the meat to the casserole dish and add the frozen peas. Add the chopped tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, onion salt, tomato puree, beef stock, Guinness beer, mixed herbs, bay leaves and seasoning to taste, giving a good stir to amalgamate everything together. Place the lid on the casserole dish and place into the preheated oven to cook for 2 hours or until the meat and vegetables are tender and the gravy has thickened. Stir the beef stew at intervals throughout cooking.

Whilst the beef stew is cooking in the oven prepare the cheesy dumplings. Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and add the egg and enough water to make a sticky dough. Try not to over mix. Take small amounts of the dough mixture the size of walnuts and roll into rounds in the palm of your hands. Place into the beef stew at the end of cooking time, cover with lid and place back into the oven and for 15 minutes or until the cheesy dumplings are fluffy and cooked through. Serve with creamy mash.

Rosie’s Notes, my mum would have added peeled quartered raw potatoes to her casserole dish with all the other root vegetables before placing into the oven. This made for a one pot meal; the potatoes would also help thicken the gravy as it cooked.