Chicken stew & dumplings

Sadly, dumplings seem to be fading into food history, found seldomly on the good tables of farm kitchens or hidden pubs in faraway dales. It is time to celebrate them again and let their spongy merits soak up the gravy and extend the bulk. Dumplings, or rats’ pillows, as I knew them at school, don’t feature ill my home until winter has frozen the sticks brittle. They are more comforting than potatoes - a belly-sticking antifreeze for the human engine. Here is a tasty stew with no fancy ingr