Beef Stew & Dumplings

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TheTardisKid

Assistant Cook
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
3
Does anyone have a good recipe for my slowcooker for a stew & dumplings. Im using £10 worth of stewing beef, but don't know what else to use, or when to do the dumplings, and most importantly how long as I want it to just melt in the mouth. I would be most grateful
Cheers,
TheTardisKid:ermm:
 
Welcome to DC! I'm not a dumpling kind of girl, but someone should be along shortly to help you! And don't let anyone talk you out of using a slow cooker!
 
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Thanks for your reply. I do use my slowcooker usually every other month as my niece and I have a world food day once a month. We pick a country from a bag of written countries and one cooks the 3 course meal of that country while the other one gets the beers from that country, then the next month its the other way round. The only rule we stipulate is one of the course must be done in the slowcooker, which is nearly always the main course. If I do say so myself I've made a few lovely red hot curries from recipes I've found online, and theyve come out just scrumptious, but stews & dumplings is one recipe I've not come across for the crockpot. Personally I can't stand dumplings but my niece and her partner just love them, plus my wife also. As long as I've got plenty of stew with some of my home made roasters I always par boil them then put in roasting tin spray with low fat spray, and cover with garlic granules and black pepper and boy they are nice and hot and spicy also. I must be doing it right as they always come back for more lol:ermm:
Cheers,
TheTardisKid
 
It sounds like you already know how to make a mean slow cooker beef stew, Tardis! Have you googled dumplings? Maybe make them outside of the slow cooker and add them later, during the last few minutes?
 
I don't think I could make a stew without onions , celery , carrots and potato's.
Dumplings , the last 10 minutes.
 
I love dumplings made from baking mix. Drop by large spoons full on top of the bubbling stew - 10 minutes covered, 10 minutes uncovered. It must be boiling gently or they won't get done. It adds thickness to the gravy too.

It's also just as easy to make them separately as drop biscuits. Same recipe, just baked instead. This way has a crunchier outside. Drop biscuits are EASY!
 
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh dumplings. I love bacon dumplings with beef stew.
I the same method as Z.
2oz suet
4oz self raising flour
crisp bacon bits
1 tsp grainy mustard
water to mix using a fork gently but quickly.
I sub the bacon and mustard with a blob of horse radish, I sub the blob for chopped dill and parsley for fish stews.
For those non dumpling lovers, make your stew, slice stale french bread into 11/2" thick discs smear the bottom of each disc with either grainy mustard or horse radish cream and place on top of the stew till you fill the top. Brush with bacon grease or duck/goose fat or garlic butter, bake till golden. The crust will be crispy and the bread touching the stew will be gooeeliscious.:yum:
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. One thing I'm not sure of is would it be ok to do my stew for about 7 hours on low or would it need longer, as Ive not done one from scratch before I've always had the recipes pre done lol:yum:
Cheers,
ThetardisKid (John)
 
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh dumplings. I love bacon dumplings with beef stew.
I the same method as Z.
2oz suet
4oz self raising flour
crisp bacon bits
1 tsp grainy mustard
water to mix using a fork gently but quickly.
I sub the bacon and mustard with a blob of horse radish, I sub the blob for chopped dill and parsley for fish stews.
For those non dumpling lovers, make your stew, slice stale french bread into 11/2" thick discs smear the bottom of each disc with either grainy mustard or horse radish cream and place on top of the stew till you fill the top. Brush with bacon grease or duck/goose fat or garlic butter, bake till golden. The crust will be crispy and the bread touching the stew will be gooeeliscious.:yum:


Why, Bolas. You've given me the perfect use for all the cracklings that resulted from a big bacon fat rendering. I put them in a baggie and froze them and was looking for a good use. I can even make more if necessary as I have a bunch of fatty bacon from a recent purchase. (What you see isn't always what you get.)

I'll just mix it into my drop biscuit batter and bake some drop biscuits. This would work with dumplings as it's the same batter as dumplings, just different cooking methods. Thanks for the inspiration.

Hmmm. Or, I could add the cracklings to cornbread batter to make a cornbread to go with the 15 bean stew I made yesterday. Decisions, decisions.

I think I'll go with the cornbread this time. It would be better for dunking into the bean juice, buttered, of course.
 
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My husband and I made crock pot beef stew yesterday, and it turned out to be soooo tasty! He started it off by cutting a chuck roast into bite sized pieces, seasoning it with S&P (a little garlic powder would have been good, too), and searing it in a skillet in a small amount of olive oil. After a few minutes, he dumped in a bunch of sliced mushrooms, and let them cook a little. Onions and fresh garlic could have been added then to. When the meat was browned, he dumped in a can of beef broth (could have used red wine, but we don't like it) and let it cook a minute to deglaze the pan. Then he dumped all into the crock pot, added another can of broth, and let it cook on high for about 4 hours. When I got up from my nap (retired), I added a small can of tomato sauce and 2 bags Kroger brand frozen soup vegetables, which contained potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, corn, peas, green beans, lima beans and okra. I picked out most of the okra, because my husband doesn't like it, but I left some for it's thickening qualities. After that, I turned the heat down on low and let it cook a couple more hours.
After the vegetables were cooked through is when the dumpling dough could have been added.
Have you ever tried cutting canned biscuits into pieces and dropping them into the broth? I've heard it works pretty well. I prefer to cook the biscuits separately, and then a biscuit up into my soup bowl. IMHO, it's not so pasty that way.

We have about $20 in the dish, which will feed us several meals. The frozen vegies actually end up being cheaper (spent about $2) than using fresh ones, and had very good flavor. Since DH and I are both disabled, the ease of prep was a big factor.
 
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