LAMB STEW AND DUMPLINGS

Such a simple one pot dinner to make that is heart warming, cheap and really quick and easy to make, I have a romantic passion for these old fashioned comfort childhood memory dishes, they cover all the bases and deliver so much flavour and are very filling and comforting.

(serves 4-6)

Ingredients
4 lamb neck fillets
30ml ooil
1 knob butter
1 onion fine chopped
1 celery fine diced
1 garlic clove fine diced
2 carrot roughly chopped
6 potatoes peeled rough chopped
2 knorr jelly stock cubes
1 ltr+ water
1 tbsp flour
Salt and pepper

FOR THE DUMPLINGS
200g plain flour
100g suet
1 tsp mint
4-6 tbsp water
pinch of salt and pepper
1 tsp fresh parsley to finish optional

Make the dumpling dough first and leave to rest, just mix all the ingredients together.

This is a really quick and easy dinner to prepare and then let all the flavours melt together and make a gorgeous stew.  In a deep pan heat the ooil and butter gently soften the onion, celery, garlic and  carrot for approx 7 minutes, add the lamb neck fillet and sear the meat, once seared sprinkle in 1 tbsp of flour and stir in, now add the water and stock.  Cook on a low heat for 2 hrs until the lamb is tender and wants to fall apart, now add the rough chopped potatoes and the dumplings, place a lid on the pan and simmer for 20 minutes.

SIMPLE IS OFTEN BEST
Dumpling hint, place the dumplings in when the stew is simmering and place a lid on so that the bottom half of the dumplings soak up the gorgeous lamb stock and the top half is steamed and light in texture, a match made in heaven if you are a stodge loving person, hard to find these days!

To serve we like to ladle lots of the stew in a bowl, have a few slices of heavily buttered bread and sit on the sofa watching tv while we loose ourselves in this wonderful winter comforting dish.