glorious accolades

I even impressed myself with this one - beef and vegetable stew avec dumplings - delicious !!

Uh Huh ! glorious accolades
or Dim Sum Sunday a week late. Last week's challenge was soup, stew or as so-cute-you'd-love-to-smack-her Rachel Ray says - Stoup ! - that would be Beef Stoup & Dumplings

Unlike the conventional stew where everything cooks together until it all kind of tastes the same the ingredients in this beef stew(p) are cooked with three very distinct methods and then combined together just before serving. No extra effort really at all and delicious, delicious results. Begin the beef part of this recipe early in the day and if you have a crock pot or slow cooker now would be the perfect time to bring it out of the cupboard.

Beef stew & dumplings

Roasted vegetables
2 large parsnips peeled & sliced
2 large carrots sliced peeled & thick
4 small potatoes skins on & sliced thick
1 Tbsp olive oil
sea salt
crushed rosemary

Toss vegetables with olive oil, salt, rosemary and roast on a flat pan in a 425 oven turning the vegetables once until golden and beginning to brown. Note : I considered adding a small turnip sliced to this roasted root vegetable melange but upon mentioning this addition to the cowboy he made such a sad face (apparently he still has turnip/rutabaga nightmares from childhood) that I happily declined. However if you are a fan of turnip - please add also.

Steamed vegetables
half a head of broccoli cut into florets (peel and cut up broccoli stalk as well)
1 1/2 cup of frozen peas
pinch of salt

Place broccoli in a small saucepan with 1/2 cup of water. With the lid on, bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Add frozen peas, cover and put aside. It's important that the broccoli remains bright green and still has a crunchy bite and the peas just need to defrost.

Beef stew
1 small round roast (trimmed of all fat)
4 large onions sliced
as many cloves of garlic (sliced thin) as you like - I used 5 large
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
4 cups of sliced mushrooms
2 can concentrated low sodium beef broth
enough flour to dust the roast well
salt/pepper
splash of Lee & Perrins (optional)

Heat the olive oil in large dutch oven. Mix flour with salt and pepper and dust the roast on all sides well with the flour mixture. Brown the roast on all sides in the olive oil, remove from pot and put aside (for now). Add the sliced onions and garlic to the pot and cook over medium high heat stirring often until they are begin to become transparent. Add mushrooms continue cooking, stirring occasionally until mushrooms are wilted and beginning to brown. Add 2 cans of beef broth making sure to scrape up all the good bits on the bottom of the pan. Put the roast back in the pot, cover and when the liquid is bubbling turn heat to a low setting and pretty much ignore it for the rest of the day. Every now and then remove the lid, give a stir (you may have to add some water*) and this beef onion, mushroom mixture should/could cook for a minimum of 4 hours or as long as 6.

* keeping in mind you will need enough liquid to steam/cook the dumplings

Dumplings
I used this recipe & substituted 2Tbsp. low fat plain yogurt for shortening with fantastic results

Assembling
At this point the beef is cooked. Remove the roast from the pot and using two forks pull the meat apart into large shreds and chunks, then place the meat back in with the onions and mushrooms. You need enough liquid to cook the dumplings so if needed add more beef broth and bring the whole mess up to a simmer. Plunk the dumpling dough in small blobs on top, cover, turn heat to low and ignore again for 20 mins. The broccoli and peas should be standing by and the vegetables roasting in the oven should be almost ready. You want to be able to add them when they are still hot and crispy just out of the oven. When the 20 minute dumpling cooking is up remove the cover and scoop out the dumplings to a waiting plate. Dump the steamed broccoli, peas and their cooking water into the stew and then the roasted carrots, potatoes and parsnips straight from the oven. Give a stir or two and place the dumplings back in the pot on top of everything. Serve in shallow bowls and await glorious accolades.