British and Irish Cuisine
Savoury dumplings made from balls of dough are part of traditional British and Irish cuisine. The simplest dumplings are made from twice the weight of self raising flour to suet, bound together by cold water to form a dough. Balls of this dough are dropped into a bubbling pot of stew or soup, or into a casserole. They sit, partly submerged in the stew, and expand as they are half-boiled half-steamed for ten minutes or so. The cooked dumplings are airy on the inside and moist on the outside.You just can’t beat a deeply rich, dark, warming stew on cold winter evenings.

And you can’t have stew without dumplings can you? So I dug out a trusted recipe for the dumplings and rummaged around the cupboard for the basic ingredients. Then I came across a pack of that trendy ingredient without which no meal was complete in the 1990’s - sun-dried tomatoes. Now I know they’re a bit passé these days, but I thought, why not? This was the result - dumplings with sun dried tomatoes -  can you believe it? Try serving with a good helping of pickled red cabbage on the side. That’s what I call real comfort food.

•  750g stewing steak, cut into chunks
•  2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
•  5-6 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
•  300g mushrooms, quartered
•  300ml red wine
•  300ml beef stock
•  2 tbls plain flour
•  1tsp dried mixed herbs
•  Black pepper
•  A dash of Worcestershire sauce
• For the dumplings
•  150g self-raising flour
•  75g suet
•  5-6 sun-dried tomatoes,chopped
•  7-8 tbls cold water

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180° C.

2. Sear the beef in a large frying pan with a little oil over high heat until evenly brown (you may need to do this in batches). Place the beef in a large ovenproof casserole and stir in the flour. Next, fry the onions until soft and just beginning to brown at the edges, then add to the casserole with the carrots, mixed herbs and Worcestershire sauce. Add the wine to the frying pan and heat until bubbling, add the stock and bring to the boil, then pour into the casserole. Season with pepper then cover the casserole and place in the oven for 1½ hours.

3. Meanwhile, make the dumplings. In a large bowl, mix the flour and suet then add the sun-dried tomatoes. Add the water and bring the mixture together to form a soft dough. Form the dough into 10 - 12 small dumplings.

4. Remove the casserole from the oven and stir in the mushrooms. Place the dumplings on top of the bubbling liquid, then cover the casserole and return to the oven. After 20 minutes remove the lid and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes until the dumplings are just beginning to brown. Serve immediately.

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2½ hours