This entire recipe should be called lovely. Not just the dumplings. It was easy to put together and besides some chopping, pouring and shaping my stove did all the cooking.  I only changed the herb they suggested from rosemary to thyme. Because well I hate rosemary. I much prefer thyme. I find it a milder herb.

Lamb stew with lovely dumplings

Lamb stew

adapted from Jamie's Home Cooking

serves 6

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of celery
• 2 medium onions
• 2 carrots
• 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• olive oil
• 500g diced stewing lamb, approximately 2cm cubes
• 1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
• 500ml lamb stock or vegetable stock, preferably organic or red wine*
• 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

This is a good recipe for a basic stew. You’re going to love it because it's so simple and gives consistently good results. It’s delicious as a simple stew served with mash and greens, or you could go on to add a topping to it – check out the accompanying recipes.

To prepare your stew

• If using the oven to cook your stew, preheat it to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4
• Trim the ends off your celery and roughly chop the sticks
• Peel and roughly chop the onions
• Peel the carrots, slice lengthways and roughly chop
• Pick and roughly chop the rosemary leaves, discard the stalks 

To cook your stew

• Put a casserole pan on a medium heat
• Put all the vegetables and rosemary leaves into the pan with 2 lugs of olive oil and fry for 10 minutes

• Add your meat and flour
• Pour in the stock or red wine and tinned tomatoes 
• Give it a good stir, then season with a teaspoon of sea salt (less if using table salt) and a few grinds of pepper
• Bring to the boil, put the lid on and either simmer slowly on your hob or cook in an oven for 2½ hours  
• Remove the lid for the final half hour of simmering or cooking and add a splash of water if it looks a bit dry
• When done, your meat should be tender and delicious
• Remember to taste it before serving to see if it needs a bit more salt and pepper

If you’re cooking at home then you might want to try using red wine instead of stock – this will give your stew a much richer colour, just like in the pictures

Dumplings

serves 6

Ingredients

• For your stew recipe see Lamb stew.
• 200g self-raising flour
• 100g really cold butter
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Once you’ve made your basic lamb stew, you can take it in a different direction by adding a simple topping. Dumplings are one of those things that should be on everyone’s radar come winter time. They’re so comforting and really easy to make – give them a try.

To make and cook your dumplings

• Preheat your oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5
• Put your flour into a mixing bowl
• Using a coarse grater, grate your cold butter into the flour
• Add a pinch of salt and pepper
• Using your fingers, gently rub the butter into the flour until it begins to resemble  breadcrumbs
• Add a splash of cold water to help bind it into a dough

• Divide the dough into 12 pieces and gently roll each into a round dumpling
• The dumplings will suck up quite a bit of moisture so if your stew looks dry – add a cup    of boiling water and give it a good stir
• Place the dumplings on top of your fully cooked stew and press down lightly so that they’re half submerged
• Cook in the oven or on the hob over a medium heat with the lid on for 30 minutes