Mum's Beef Stew

B walked in the other night with this 8.0 litre beast. It was on sale, same price as the smaller one he said. I'd been rattling on about one for a while. Saw them on the TV in those infomercials and heard people talking about them. Never had one before, but with the cold weather setting in we had been having stews and casseroles and the like. When I do those, I try and bake as well, so the oven isn't just cooking one thing. I heard slow cookers are cheaper to run than ovens.

Read the pamphlet and tried it out tonight. Made a beef stew with dumplings like Mum used to make, although she didn't have a slow cooker either.

Mum's Beef Stew

• 1 kg diced beef tossed in a bag of 1/4 cup flour, salt and pepper to coat

Brown in pan with oil or dripping to seal the meat.

• 1 large onion
• 6 potatos
• 2 carrots
• 2 parsnips
• 1/2 head brocolli
• About 250g frozen green peas
• Water to nearly cover food
• 1 teaspoon Beef Stock powder

I figured four hours on high should do it, but later thought about Dumplings and ended putting them in at around about the third hour. Left the lid off at this point.

Dumplings

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Beef Stock powder
• 2 ounces butter rubbed in
• couple of sprigs of chopped parsley
• milk to mix

Knead in the bowl. Roll into balls and place on top of stew.

Thickening 
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons cold water

Mix to a paste, stir into stew. Let stew thicken for a couple of minutes.  

Well, it was gorgeous, the boys thought it was Christmas and I felt I was on holiday because I'm usually fluffing around the kitchen late afternoon and I didn't need to today. I also don't need to cook tomorrow. What a bonus!