Beef stew is a quintessential comfort food, and this one is taken up a notch by tasty dumplings packed with cheese and flavourful parsley. It’s got everything you want in a rich, warming meal: meaty flavour from the tender beef and bacon, the perfect mix of veggies and a depth of flavour from stock and red wine. It’s sure to be a family favourite.
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to moderate, 180°C. Heat half the oil in a flameproof casserole dish on high.
Dust beef in flour, shaking off excess. Brown beef, in 2 batches, 2-3 minutes each batch. Transfer to a plate.
Heat remaining oil in same pan on medium. Saute bacon, onion and garlic 4-5 minutes, until bacon is golden.
Return beef to pan with stock, wine, carrots, celery, swede and herbs. Bring to the boil on high. Bake, covered, 1 hour.
Meanwhile, to make dumplings, sift flour into a bowl; season. Rub in butter using fingertips until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in centre. Stir in combined egg, milk, parsley and horseradish cream. Drop tablespoons of mixture, about 2cm apart, on top of stew. Sprinkle with parmesan.
Bake, uncovered, 20-25 minutes, until dumplings are golden and cooked through.
The butter should be cold when you start making the dumplings for this stew so that it doesn’t melt as you’re rubbing it with the flour.
Test Kitchen tip:
What are dumplings made of in stew?
Traditional dumplings for stew can simply be made from self raising flour, butter and milk or water with many recipes also adding egg to bind the mixture together. Some dumplings also use suet, which is a type of very hard fat that melts more slowly than butter.
You can also mix up the basic recipe by adding different ingredients, such as the parsley, horseradish and parmesan-coated dumplings in this beef stew recipe, or the onion and rosemary mixture used in our lamb stew and dumplings recipe.
Should dumplings be dense or fluffy?
Classic dumplings for stew should be light and fluffy on the inside, with a golden and crisp outside. If you find that your dumplings are too dense, you might be overworking the mixture. Ideally, you should handle the dumpling dough as little as possible to keep the texture light and fluffy.
