Cooking for a Crowd Preperation Time
Thirty minutes preparation and Three hours cooking.

Ingredients

For the stew
Two tablespoons of vegetable oil
Three oz diced shin of beef (cut into large pieces from the bone)
Two sticks of celery
Two carrots
Two large onions
Three garlic cloves
One teaspoon of tomato puree
One tablespoon of plain flour
Freshly ground salt and pepper.
A half litre of real ale.
Two hundred ml of dark beef stock
Two bay leaves
One sprig of fresh thyme

For the dumplings
150g of beef suet
150g of self-raising flour
Freshly ground salt and pepper.
One tablespoon of horseradish (optional)
Water to bind

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160C/Gas2/320F. Warm up a large pan on the hob. Add some vegetable oil and when hot enough add a third of the beef, cook on high until browned. Once browned remove the beef and put into a bowl. Do this again to the other two thirds of beef, cooking it separately so you don’t overcrowd the pan. Once cooked you should have all of the beef in one bowl.
2. Add more oil to the pan before chopping the celery, onions and carrots.
3. Finely slice the garlic before adding it to the casserole. Stir the vegetables until browned.
4. Once browned add the tomato puree to the casserole and stir. Then add the flour, salt and pepper until it is all incorporated.
5. Add the beef stock and ale to the Casserole.
6. Let the casserole simmer before adding the browned off pieces of beef. Cover the dish with a lid and carry on allowing to simmer.
7. Time to make the dumplings! Put the flour and suet together in a clean dish. Mix the two together with your hands and then add salt and pepper. ( If you wish to use horseradish, here is the time to add it)
8. Make a hole in the middle of the mixture and add some water. Mix again until it becomes firm that comes off of the side of the dish easily.
9. Remove the dough from the dish and put onto a clean board before adding some flour over the top. Roll the dough into a rough sausage shape. Cut the dough into table tennis size balls and carefully place them into the casserole.
10. Put the lid back onto the casserole and put into the preheated oven for 150-180 minutes, checking every 30-60 minutes.
11. After a couple of hours move around the dumplings, add some thyme and bay leaves & leave to cook for another 30 minutes at least. Once the beef is cooked it should fall apart when touched and the dumplings should be fluffy & light.
12. Once cooked serve the beef stew and dumplings in large bowls, Once this is done you have finished cooking for a crowd and are now ready to feed one!

Tags: Beef and Ale Stew with Dumplings, Cooking for a Crowd

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