Stew!

What was I doing last night posting a blog about Salad? Don't I know it's October?

How about a really traditional way to feed an army? Or to eat a really good comforting and tasty meal guaranteed to have plenty left for your freezer. Answer = Stew!

Or Casserole if you are posh. This is all a bit 1960s Good Housekeeping Women's Institute but it's also a really tasty thing which you can easily make on the stove top or in the oven (if you've got a cassorole dish). Preparation is similar to a bolognese in that you start by cooking onions and then the meat but in a stew larger pieces of meat and veg are transformed by a longer slow cook.

You can use a Slow Cooker to do this but it's not essential. They're great to have but there are negatives. For one thing it sounds easy to just prepare your dinner before you go out in the morning but think, do you really want to chop raw onions and cut up meat straight after your Alpen? Not really. And if you haven't got one then you don't have to wash the pesky thing up and keep falling over it in the kitchen. They do make fine stew though and yes it is wonderful to come home to a house that smells like your dinner is ready. Which actually it isn't. Because you still have to cook some potatoes or something to have with it.

So assuming you are going to do this the traditional and easy way you start by deciding what meat to use. As usual beef is top favourite and you can use pretty cheap 'stewing' cuts but generally as with anything else you do get what you pay for and tough old stewing beef will make a very tasty but tough old stew. An exception is if you can get beef brisket. Brisket really is cheap but given three or more hours of slow simmer it will stop being impossibly chewy and be very tasty. Stewing steak is a good choice for an hour and a half of cooking but not that cheap.

Chicken works very well in a casserole and cooks quite quickly. 45 minutes to an hour will give great results using cheap old chicken thighs. You can use chicken breast in a cassorole but it's a bit unintersting and would need help from a lot of fresh herbs and maybe some chunky bacon.

Pork is a good stewing meat. Shoulder is cheap and tasty but takes at least an hour. Or pretty much any loin, steak, boneless chop type thing which will cook a bit faster about 45 minutes.

And Gammon is sensational and cheap but I want to do a separate post about that because it works a bit differently and you get a more delicate result. Delicate in a massively hearty way that is.

So here is our family stew method. I am going to do a dumpling recipe as well because it would be dim not to. But if you can't be bothered then I don't blame you and stew is absolutely ok with or without dumplings so you can choose.

The vegetables you use can be left up to what looks good or what you've got in the fridge but one thing worth mentioning is the supermarket 'Stew Pack'. You will see these containing a carrot, on onion, a turnip and one other thing which is sometimes a potato or sometimes half a swede. I'd recommend bulking it up with some more carrots but the stew pack is so cheap it is the best way to buy the basics. Sometimes they put in a little bunch of fresh thyme and some bayleaves which makes me happy.

350-400g x Beef, chicken or pork cubed but not too small.
2 x Cooking onions roughly chopped
3 x large carrots
1/2 a Swede (you can normally buy just a half)
3 x Medium potatoes
1 x Tablespoon white flour. Any type will do but if you are making dumplings you'll be using self-raising so use that here too.
Salt and Pepper
Stock blobs or cube but blobs fave here
Fresh thyme and bay leaves or dried mixed herbs and black pepper
Oil

First prepare the cubed meat by coating it in plain flour. Don't go mad but try to make sure all the meat is covered in flour. The flour is weird but it will thicken the sauce in an amazingly tasty way. And it will get quite stuck to the pan but don't worry as it all comes off and adds tastiness when the liquid goes in. 

Usual thing. Cook the onion in some oil in your biggest pan until transparent then tip out and brown the meat. The flour will absorb a lot of liquid so you'll probably have to add more oil but that's ok here.

When the meat is all browned then return the onions to the pan and cover the meat with hot water and add the stock blob or cube and the herbs. Stir well agitating the bottom as you  do to release all the browned and tasty flour. Add the swede, half the carrots and the turnip if you're using. These will cook for the whole time and be really soft and lovely but we also add more carrot later so they're not all too much mush together. 

Finally add more hot water to generously cover the whole lot bearing in mind dumplings later too. You can see why a Stew Pot used to be the biggest pan in the kitchen!

Bring to the boil then cover and turn down to a slow simmer for an hour stirring occasionally.

The cooking time will depend on your meat. Somewhere between 1-2 hours is normal but you must get that slow simmer right or it will be obviously overcooked.

Meanwhile make four large dumplings:

100g Self raising flour
50g Atora suet (I use the vegetarian one. Not sure why. Foodist propaganda against beef suet probably)
Salt, pepper and dried herbs if you are being fancy

Mix the flour and Atora together with enough cold water to make a stiff paste. Wet is ok but it should hold its shape when you let it rest. Divide into four, shape into balls and roll in flour.

Dumplings take 25 minutes to cook so they go in at the end.

About 35 minutes from the end of cooking add the rest of your veg and top up with more water to cover generously. Your dumplings will need enough liquid to almost cover them so make sure there is plenty. Stir well and taste. It will almost definitely need more salt and pepper. Bring back to a fast boil before adding the dumplings and push them well in. Cover and simmer again for another 25 minutes.

If you are doing this in the oven then you can leave the lid off which will brown and bake the surface of the dumplings. A lot of people think this is the way to do dumplings. I think the lid should be on so the top steams nicely.

Cooked in the oven crispy top dumplings!

Serve with Mash and Peas!