My mum's yummy stew! (Stews & Sauces)

Member Name: Claribella

Product:	Stews & Sauces
Date:	26/01/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: So cheap and goes so far.

Disadvantages: Dumplings are high in fat.

When I was little I'd coe home from school and the first question Id ask was 'Whats for tea mum?'. If the answer was 'Stew' then I didn't need to ask that question again until two or three days later. My mum used to make so much that we'd be eating it for breakfast, lunch and tea for the majority of the week! As you can imagine I got pretty sick of the stuff and once I moved out I never touched the stuff for years.

Every now and again my mum would cut ut a meal for my son and bring it down for him. A little while ago when he was still having his food mushed up she bought down a little pot of something. I fed it to him and on tasting each mouth ful to make sure it wasn't too hot I realised it was a stew and I absolutely fell in love with it. I asked for the recipe and have been making it ever since. It's really simple so I thought I'd share it wit you guys (that sounds like I'm saying you guys are simple doesn't it?).

You will need:
3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2-3 parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 turnip, peeled and chopped
1 leek, chopped
4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
Gravy mix
oxtail or tomato soup
3 stock cubes
2 tins of stewed steak (I buy this because it's the cheapest thing to use). If you don't want to use tinned steak then you can swap it with braising steak,stewing steak or mince.
Salt and pepper.
Suet.
Self-raising flour

How to cook.
1. Cut up all veg, put in a pan and boil excluding potatoes.
2. Add a bit of salt and pepper.
3. Add a few spoonfuls of gravy mix, stock cubes and boil for 20 mins-1/2hr until veg is nearly cooked.
4. Add potatoes and tinned steak and continue boiling for another 20 mins until potatoes are soft
5. Add soup and bring to the boil.

Dumplings.
1. Add 8ozs of self-raising flour to 4ozs of suet. Add a pinch of salt then approx 6 tablespoons of water.
The dough should be firm but pliable.
2. Divide the dough into small balls and add to the stew.


Put a lid over the stew and leave the dumplings to cook for twenty minutes whilst stirring occasionally.

Serve with a nice wedge of crusty bread.

This will make a great big pot of stew which you can either freeze or scar your kids for life and eat over a few nights. It does work out quite cheap if you make alot of it and you get lots of vegetables too. It's low in fat if you don't have the dumplings but lets face it a stew is nothing without dumplings!

This is such a nice winter warmer and really hits the spot on those cold nights. Enjoy!

Summary: A lovely winter warmer.