Suffolk Red Poll Beef Stew & Dumplings
Serves 4
Ingredients
Stew:
- 1 KG red poll braising steak – diced
- I bottle of good red wine (Don’t use one you would not be prepared to drink)
- ¼ bunch of fresh thyme
- Diced vegetables:
- ( ½ head of swede; 4 carrots; 1 onion; I head of celery; 2 large Maris Piper potatoes)
- 1 L of good beef stock
- 1 L tomato juice or tomato passata
- 2 Tablespoons of tomato purée
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
Dumplings:
- 100g beef suet
- 200g self raising flour
- ½ lemon zested
- ½ bunch curly parsley
Method
- Marinade the beef in the red wine and thyme for at least 24hours
- Drain off the beef and pat dry. Retain the marinade
- Sauté beef in a little vegetable oil until brown and remove from pan
- In the same pan, add the tomato juice, purée, flour, red wine marinade and beef stock. Heat to simmering
- Return the browned beef to the pan and simmer on a low heat on the hob or oven for approximately one hour until the meat is tender
- Add the diced onion, carrots and celery and simmer for 10 minutes
- Add the remaining vegetable – the diced potato and swede - and simmer for a further 10 minutes until tender.
- In the meantime prepare the dumplings by mixing the suet, flour and lemon zest and half the parsley, finely chopped
- Mix the mixture with approximately 6 tablespoons of cold water to form a dough
- Divide into small balls of approximately 10g
- Sit on top of the simmering stew for 5 minutes and serve garnished with the remaining chopped parsley.
