Quarantine Cuisine
Food can be a great source of comfort and during lockdown we made sure that we were making good use of all the foods that were available to us – including checking out what we had in our kitchen cupboards and fridges. Ellie Stanton, one of the many talented home cooks at Blue Stream Academy, created these delicious recipes. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
Beef Stew and Dumplings
An easy-to-prepare family meal using ingredients you might have at home. If you don’t have the root vegetables listed in the recipe, you can swap out those you don’t have for those you do – and add any other suitable ingredients you have into the stew. You can also use chicken instead of beef. Prep: 30min Cook: 3hrs Serves: 4-6
1. Preheat your oven to 170°C (fan)/190°C. Coat 430g
stewing beef well in 2 large tbsp cornflour (alternatively use plain flour) and leave to one side. Peel and chop 4 carrots, 3 parsnips, 3 leeks, and 3 potatoes into medium sized chunks.
2. In a casserole dish, melt a large knob of butter
(alternatively use 1 tbsp oil). Then add the beef and 200g chopped bacon, stirring until they turn a dark golden brown. Add the vegetables and stir. Crumble in a beef stock cube and add boiling water to cover the vegetables.
3. Add a large glass red wine, 2 peeled and crushed
garlic cloves, 1 tsp tomato sauce, a generous glug of Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, and 1 tsp mixed herbs. Season with a pinch of salt and plenty of pepper. Add 2 bay leaves and bring to the boil.
4. Cover the stew with the casserole dish lid (or with tinfoil, tightly) and put the stew into the oven for 3 hours, stirring well every 45 minutes to 1 hour.
5. Whilst the stew is in the oven, make the dumplings. Rub
250g self-raising flour and 140g butter together until they resemble breadcrumbs, season well with salt and pepper, then add 2 tsp mixed herbs.
6. Slowly add 150ml water, mixing well until it forms a dry dough (it should be dry – but not crumbly – and needs to just hold together without falling apart).
7. Separate out into 8 big dumplings or 16 small dumplings
and put to one side. 30 minutes before the stew is done, take out of the oven. If it’s looking dry add some boiling water. Place the dumplings on top of the stew, cover, and return to the oven for the remaining 30 minutes. If you have any leftovers, you can turn them into a pie and make a second meal! See the recipe on the next page.
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