Thursday 2 December 2010

Winter grub

Beef ale stew with caramelised onion dumplings












Tanya's thoughts:
I'm determined to find the perfect stew this winter and this one was pretty good actually. Beef, onion, leek, carrot, parsnip, cut up dried prunes (that last one was recommended by my friend Nicki and was a great addition) and thyme cooked in an ale for 3 hours in the oven. The ale was 'Tetley' (no not the tea silly) and  it made the stew smell almost perfume like. It tasted lovely. The dumplings were a nice surprise as seemed quite simple - frying the red onion in groundnut oil until golden and mixing them into the rest of the dumpling ingredients (including mustard powder and chives). The only criticism was Delia (actually this stew was a hybrid between Delia and Jamie recipes) advised after cooking the stew for hours to remove from oven, top with dumplings and then return to oven without the lid - but I found this dried up the stew - big time. Maybe some people like their stews this way? I prefer a nice gravy personally. A lesson for next time.

 
James's thoughts:
"Very sumptuous"

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