There was one meal I loved as a kid on a cold winters day, or even better, to come home to on a cold rainy Saturday evening after playing football (soccer) and this is the real deal!
My Mum cooked a beef or lamb stew with dumplings to perfection and I had cooked this myself many times, even with different cuts of beef and came up with the same result, the meat was always on the chewy side! Of course there was no secret, well, maybe. When making any stew or casserole using meat other than poultry, the key is to slowly cook the meat for several hours. Better still use a slow cooker!
I have a slow cooker and use it sometimes, but only if I remember in the morning and have the meat available. If not then about 3 to 4 hours in the oven gives you a lovely tender, melt in the mouth meat.
Here in Germany you can buy what they call soup meat which is beef and is quite cheap because it is fatty. It’s a lot cheaper than using the goulash meat which is either beef or pork or both mixed. I trim most of the fat and as much sinew off the meat as possible, but it doesn’t matter too much because the fat is flavour and after a slow cook it melts away.
I am not strict on some of the veg ingredients, basically use what you have or like and of course adjust to the size of pot.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
For the stew
2 tbsp all purpose/plain flour
600g thick braising steak cut into largish chunks (you can use more beef if you wish)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 sticks celery, chopped into large chunks
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 large carrots, roughly chopped
1/2 medium sized swede(rutabaga), diced
500g potatoes, diced
2 bay leaves or a bouquet garni
1 tbsp tomato purée
750ml beef stock
250ml decent red wine
2 tbsp pearl barley
Salt and Pepper to season
For the dumplings
Depending on how many dumplings you need the amounts can be increased or decreased and I know with my family these amounts will probably increased as they get older.
Traditionally dumplings were made with adding suet instead of the butter, but I cannot get suet here so I use butter.
250 g self-raising flour
125 g unsalted butter, cold
Season with salt and pepper
Preparation method:
For the stew:
Put the chopped beef in a large bowl, season the flour with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the beef and mix well. Don’t throw away the left over flour.
In a large pan heat half the oil and add half the floured pieces of beef and brown it. It’s best to brown the meat in batches as if you over crowd the pan the meat will not brown as well.
Remove and place in the casserole dish. Top up the pan with the remaining oil, heat again then add the rest of the meat and brown. Then add the meat to the casserole. I hope you’ve still got the leftover flour in the bowl as you will need this in a minute. An alternative to oil would be some lard, which is what out Mothers and Grandmothers would probably have used!
Pre heat your oven to about 200°c.
Now add the onion, celery and carrots to the pan and give them a good stir and brown them a bit, then mix in the remaining flour from the bowl and give that a good stir and now add the the red wine, scrape any bits off the pan and give it a good stir, this will deglaze the pan. Then this too can be added to the casserole. Using the flour will help thicken the stew a bit.
Now pour the stock into the casserole making sure that the meat and veg are covered by the stock and season with salt and pepper and the tbsp of tomato purée, cover and put into the oven. Check from time to time to make sure the stock isn’t reducing too much, if it is add a little boiling water. Never add cold water this cools it down again, also the meat and vegetables should always be covered by liquid. After about 2 hours of cooking add the rest of the diced veg and the pearl barley for the remaining hour or so of cooking.
For the dumplings:
In a large bowl mix the flour with the suet, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add 3 tbsp cold water and stir. If the dough is dry add more water until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough.
Divide the dough into balls with floured hands. Leave to one side.
After the stew has cooked for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, remove the lid, check the seasoning and add salt or pepper if needed then add the dumplings, cover with the lid and cook for a further 20 minutes. The dumplings should puff up a bit and what I like to do is take the lid off after 20 minutes and leave for a further 10 minutes to brown the dumplings a bit. This gives you a crunchy coat on the dumpling but also leaves the bottom half all gooey as it sits in the stew! A great combination of textures!
Enjoy!