Festive Beef and Dumplings

I always do lots of prep and cooking on Christmas Eve but also felt like this year I needed to start a bit of a dinner "tradition". I wanted to make and effort and cook something warm and filling and this beef stew hit the spot. It sounded really easy, it was relatively quick to prepare and didn't need to be cooked for a long period of time like some stews and casseroles. I would definitely recommend it, Mr M liked it - he's a big fan of dumplings however I thought they could do with a little extra oomph. In fact, I always seem to think that about dumplings, I tend to find them quite bland. I served this with peas and my dauphinoise potatoes.

The recipe (originally found on the C4 website but from Delicious magazine) apparently serves 4, I'd say it serves 3 but perhaps I am just a pig.

Festive Beef and Dumplings

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cornflour

1 tsp ground cinnamon
600g beef rump or sirloin, trimmed of excess fat and cut into large cubes
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 celery stick, thinly sliced 
2 fresh rosemary sprigs, roughly torn 
100ml red wine 
500ml beef stock, hot 
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange 

For the dumplings:
150g self-raising flour
75g light vegetable suet
1/2 tsp salthandful chopped fresh parsley

Method

Heat half the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Mix the cornflour, cinnamon and some seasoning on a plate and dust the beef in the seasoned flour. Cook for 2-3 minutes, in batches, until browned all over. Transfer to a plate.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan, add the onion, carrot, celery and rosemary and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the wine, bubble until reduced by half, then add the stock and bring to the boil. Lower the heat until the stew is simmering, then add the orange zest and juice and the browned meat.

For the dumplings, mix the flour, suet, salt, parsley and enough water in a large mixing bowl to make a soft dough. Roughly shape into 8 balls, dropping them into the stew as you go. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, until they’ve puffed up.

love & kisses
Mrs M x