College Cuisine: Beef Stew and Dumplings

SERC staff and students are keeping their cookery and baking skills as sharp as their kitchen knives with weekly food recipes designed to tantalise the taste buds.

This week’s recipe shows you how to make your own Beef Stew and Dumplings . The recipe is as follows:

General Ingredients (Serves 4) 

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil  
• 800g trimmed beef shin, cut into 3cm chunks  
• 1 large onion, finely diced  
• 2 celery sticks, cut into 3cm lengths   
• 2cm piece ginger, grated  
• 500ml fresh beef stock  
• 2 bay leaves  
• 2 sprigs of rosemary  
• 200g carrots, cut into 3cm chunks  
• 300g baby turnips, peeled and halved  
• 150g button mushrooms  
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard  
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper  
• Chopped flat-leaf parsley, to finish  

Ingredients for Dumplings

• 100g self-raising flour  
• ½ tsp flaky sea salt   
• 25g butter   
• 3 tbsp flat leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped   
• 50ml cold water 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to fan 150oC/GAS 2.  
2. Place a large non-stick, flameproof casserole over a high heat and add half the oil. When it is very hot, add half the beef with some salt and pepper and brown well on all sides, and then transfer to a plate. Repeat with the rest of the beef. Set aside.  
3. Add the onion to the casserole, lower the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes until softened. If it begins to stick, add a splash of stock. Add the celery and ginger and cook for 2-3 minutes.  
4. Return the meat to the casserole and add the stock, bay leaves, rosemary and some salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and put the lid on. Transfer to the oven and cook for 1 ¾ hours.  
5. Take out the casserole and add the carrots, turnips and whole mushrooms. Stir, replace the lid and return to the oven for a further 45 minutes.  
6. Meanwhile for the dumplings, put the flour and salt into the bowl, rub in the butter with your fingertips and stir through the parsley and water. Gather the mixture together to form a rough dough and divide into 8 pieces. Roll each into a ball and flatten slightly.   
7. Take the casserole out of the oven, stir in the mustard and nestle the dumpling into the stew so they are half submerged in the liquor. Pop the lid back on and return to the oven for 20-30 minutes until the dumplings are cooked through. Serve in warm bowls, scatter with a little extra parsley.   

These recipes would not be possible without the hard work of SERC’s catering staff, who strive to create excellent meals as well as maintaining a Microsoft Teams page for these recipes to be shared between staff and students. If you are interested in cooking at a professional level, please click here to view our full time Hospitality and Catering courses.  

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