Robert Carrier

Beef Stew with Parsley Dumplings

Preparation info

  • Serves

    4 to 6

    • Difficulty

      Medium

Appears in

top 1000The Robert Carrier Cookbook

The Robert Carrier Cookbook

By Robert Carrier

Published 1965

  • About

Ingredients

  • 3½ pounds stewing beef
  • flour
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons butter or lard
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 pint hot water, or stock made with 1 beef cube
  • 12 button onions
  • 12 small carrots
  • 1 tablespoon cornflour, dissolved in a little stock

Method

Cut meat into 2-inch cubes. Dredge in flour seasoned to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat fat and oil in a thick-bottomed heatproof casserole, and sauté meat until well browned on all sides. Add hot water or stock; cover casserole tightly and simmer gently for 1½ to 2 hours, or until beef is tender. About 30 minutes before the end of cooking time, add onions and carrots, and more liquid if necessary. Cover and continue to cook for 15 minutes. Drop Parsley Dumplings gently on top of stew; cover casserole and finish cooking.

To serve: arrange meat, vegetables and dumplings on a heated serving dish and keep warm. Thicken gravy with cornflour which you have dissolved in a little stock.

Parsley Dumplings

Combine sifted flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or with 2 knives. Combine beaten egg, parsley and milk, and stir into flour to make a soft dough.

To make dumplings: scoop out dumpling batter with a wet serving spoon, and drop quickly by the spoonful on to meat and vegetables in casserole, leaving a little space at sides for steam to circulate. Cover casserole and steam gently for 15 minutes.