[Springlands]

New Shoots thread about winter warders made me wonder about favourite winter stews - one of mine is beef in Guinness.

Two pounds of stewing beef cut into pieces
Two onions sliced
Can Guinness
Table spoon sugar
Little plain flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Lightly flour the beef and gently brown in frying pan. Remove from pan and lightly fry the onions. Add the Guinness and heat gently to remove all the sticky residue in the pan. Tip the beef and the gravy mixture into a casserole dish, add the sugar (the Guinness can be slightly bitter) and salt and pepper to taste. Cook at about 160 for two hours - three would be better. Serve with greens and mash.

[Kleftiwallah]

In a stew with a quandary.  If the stew is too hot it sticks to the bottom of the pan, if too 'cool' the bumplings (what my Dad called doughboys)  don't swell.

Cheers,   Tony.

[Springlands]

Tis a problem Kleftiwallagh. The only suggestion that I have is one that I am sure that you have tried - cooking the stew on a low heat then turning the heat up for a short while to cook the 'bumplings'.

Another thought - could you take off a little of the gravy and use that to cook the dumplings in a separate pot then add them back to the stew which is still gently cooking.

The last time I tried to make dumplings they were more like cannonballs. 

[devonbarmygardener]

In a stew with a quandary.  If the stew is too hot it sticks to the bottom of the pan, if too 'cool' the bumplings (what my Dad called doughboys)  don't swell.

Cheers,   Tony.

And that's why a slow cooker is genius

[tosca100]

I used to do what Springlands suggested when I was a cook in a nursing home.

Generally though, if the gravy is not slicing thick and there is enough of it, the dumplings are not in that long so shouldn't be a problem. I make two stews in small pots as I am veggie, nice chunky veg, but if using shin I would cook the meat first as we are not fans of mushy veg. And I like my dumplings soft on the bottom and crunchy and golden brown on top, so it has to be an oven. I like them on soup too.

[Nobbie]

I've just come up with a nice stew that makes the most of my produce.

400g pack of mince
50g chorizo sausage thinly sliced
2 onions
3-4 stalks of celery (couple of handfulls from freezer)
couple of cloves of garlic
1 small butternut squash
bunch of Kale (mixture of Carvalo Nero and Dwarf Curled is nice)
couple of leeks
1 red chilli
2 beef stock cubes
2 tablespoons of Worcester sauce
1/2 pint water

Fry the mince and chorizo then add onion, garlic, leek, chilli and celery and cook until soft. Add the squash and the rest of the ingredients except the Kale and slow cook for a few hours. An hour before serving add the kale.

The texture of the kale is really nice

[Springlands]

Sounds lovely and warming Nobbie - a good winter warmer.