A good beef stew and dumplings recipe for new slow cooker?

Soldato
Joined
24 Oct 2005
Posts
16,479
Location
North East
Anyone know of one?

I have some diced Irish beef a bag of mixed veg from tesco a packet of beef casserole mix a pkt of dumpling mix and got some spring onions and some nice potatoes.

Also I'd like it to be ready for 6pm ish for me tea.
 
I'd just stick to a regular stew recipe tbh. You'll probably want to add the dumplings later on - i.e. when you get in from work, so they're ready in about an hour (or so - I've not cooked dumplings for ages so my timings may be off).
 
You can pretty much throw anything in a slow pot with some root veg, some stock and some seasoning and get a good result. One of the easiest and most rewarding ways of cooking.

Lob it in, let it do its thing and get the crusty bread out.
 
Doesn't take anywhere near that long for dumplings, 20-30mins is enough. Depends on size though. Better in the oven with 15mins with lid of so they crust up a bit. Or change it up and use cobbler instead.

And how many kits, sad panda.

you already have a lot going on so just chuck it together and dumplings when you get back from work.

My fav (still atm) is bone on beef brisket. Mirepoix, beer, stock, fresh horseradish with cheddar dumplings (proper meat suet)
And stir in just a touch of fresh horesraddish at the end, as cooking it removes all the heat. So just a bit of fresh at the end.
 
Last edited:
Ah, good to know /re dumplings. I need to get on with making some pro stew and dumplings before the weather turns too warm :p

I really like the sound of that recipe. What do you mean by proper meat suet?
 
Ahh right. I get you :)

The very few times I've made dumplings I've used dried non-veg suet. As I don't really do that kind of thing very often (I'm normally there with a giant baton of crusty bread slathered in butter whenever I make stew) it hadn't occurred to me to get fresh stuff from the butcher. I'll have to remedy that.
 
I have a good relationship with my local (Littlewoods in Heaton Chapel - endless plugging :p) so hopefully they'd throw some in for free or just randomly discount other stuff as they often do.
 
I wish I had a relationship like that, just don't like the ones around here, was impressed with rugby and white, will have to go back. But they may be to high end and busy for that sort of thing. So jealous of my sister, they have an amazing relationship with their local butcher.

Kind of a shame I stop buying from field and flower had a great relationship with them. Asking for this and that, and they sent me new sausages and other stuff to report back on. They even got me chicken hearts. In the end they were just to expensive to justify it though.
 
Last edited:
Ah, that's a shame. Where is it you live again?

To be honest I spent a couple of years thinking that there were no decent butchers near me. All the ones I tried that were meant to be decent seemed utterly clueless when I went in. This is the first place where they seemed to know what they were doing (and were super friendly)...though on my first visit when the guy misheard me and thought I said "biscuits" rather than "brisket" my heart did drop...
 
Bristol.

There's one with good meat, but when they don't know what beef short ribs are, although that was a fair few years ago before they became popular but still. And even stuff like ribs where frozen other than in summer.'
There's another which would be ideal to build up a relationship with, but they're the cheap end of the market so not keen on their meat.

The local farm shop, not impressed with.

Ruby and white was very god meat, but they're trendy and in the press a lot. And where very busy which usually means less willing to discount and do strange orders.

Tortworth farm shop is amazing but price is eye watering.
 
Sounds annoying :/ The nice thing about my local is that even if they're not familiar with a cut they're more than willing to be told about it and work it out with you. In some ways that can backfire as one time I described something (really badly), they did it, and then I felt compelled to purchase it. To their credit through they noticed I was a bit unhappy and offered to give it another go with a fresh bit of pork shoulder. Pretty awesome really.
 
Made it. Put veg mix in the bottom then some diced potatoes then meat then mixed up beef stew about 1 liter of the stuff with hot water it didn't cover the meat it filled about half the pot. Stuck it on for 5 hours then stirred then another hour then I put the dumplins in for 30 mins.

Meat was dry the big strands of onion wernt soft enough and dumplings didn't rise and wernt cooked fully.

All on low.

What did I do wrong?
 
Last edited:
You should have put it on high for 5 hours. Low settings are for overnight or all day at work...

I would also fry the meat to seal it before putting it in. Then fry off the veg for a for 5 minutes... add a spoon of tomato puree and a tablespoon of plain flour stir well and put that in. makes a thicker richer sauce.

Also dumplings in a slow cooker never really seem to work properly for some reason I cannot put my finger on.
 
Didn't have any flour in the house other than what came in the farmhouse dumpling mix.

Did I put enough liquid in? As I thought I put enough in as utube vids usually say meat and veg releases juices etc during cooking which I thought by the end would rise up enough to cover it all in the end which it kinda did as well as everything shrank a bit too.

On high? I thought to get meat tender u slow cook it on low only for a long time like 6 hrs. Was I wrong?
 
Back
Top Bottom