I had two lovely friends over for lunch yesterday. It was freezing outside and I mean proper cold! What better way to warm yourself up than with a lush beef stew!
The night before we went out for our wedding anniversary meal which was amazing. But on return with a tummy full of food I prepped the dinner and switched on the slow cooker full of food and off she went for the next 12 hours! This stew literally takes 5 mins to chop and stick into the slow cooker.
Serves 8
650g diced lean beef
1 bag of carrot batons
1 tub of chestnut mushrooms, halved.
4 sticks of celery
1 red onion finely chopped
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped thyme
2 beef stock cubes
1 bottle red wine
Pinch of Pepper
1 tablespoon flour for thickening
Chop the celery into chunks add to the slow cooker bowl
Then bung the carrots, mushrooms, garlic, onions and herbs in.
Sprinkle the flour over
Then add the beef, thyme, stock cubes
Pour the bottle of wine over
Grind in the pepper
Cook on high for 12 hours
For the dumplings
250g self raising flour
125g butter
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
In a bowl tip in the flour, then with a grater, grate in the butter, add the salt and herbs.
You can either mix by hand or use a stand nixer, which I do.
When it’s a thick breadcrumb texture, remove from mixer
Form into balls and place on the top of the stew, they will absorb lots of liquid.
Cook for around an hour
