Old Fashioned Beef Stew with Herbed Dumplings

Now that the temperatures are dipping a bit in Hong Kong , I love to cook what I call my comfort foods and a stew is top on the list.

Serves 4
1/3 cup flour
salt and pepper
900g (2 lbs) stewing beef cut into cubes
4 tablespoons olive oil (add more if needed)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 large onion, sliced
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon allspice (optional)
12 small carrots, trimmed and peeled
1/3 cup of barley
425g (15 oz) beef broth or beef consommé
8 small new potatoes
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped

Method:
Mix flour, salt and pepper in a plastic baggie and add beef. Shake off any excess flour. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat. Add beef in batches so as to not crowd the meat. Brown on all sides and remove from pot. When the last batch of meat has been browned and removed, add chopped onion ( you may need to add more oil). Cook until soft. Then add beef broth plus 1 -2 cups of water and stir to remove some of the brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Add beef, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, bay leaves, chopped rosemary and allspice. Stir to combine, lower heat, cover and simmer for 1.5 – 2 hours or until the meat is tender. Add the carrots, barley and potatoes and cook another 20 – 25 minutes or until the vegetables can be pierced easily with a fork.

Dumplings:
(makes 15 medium sized dumplings)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons butter
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon spring onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary finely chopped

Mix butter into flour, which has been sifted with baking powder and salt. Add milk, spring onion and rosemary. Drop by spoonfuls on top of stew. Cover and steam from 12 – 15 minutes. Don not remove the lid until this time has passed.

The Culinary Chase’s Note: Root vegetables such as turnip or parsnips are a lovely addition to this recipe as is celery. I added the dumplings 15 minutes before the vegetables were cooked. This was my first attempt making dumplings so I decided not to add the potatoes. Good thing I didn’t……………look how big those dumplings puffed up! Cheers!