Friday 21 October 2016

Grandy's Stew


400g stewing beef, cut into small cubes
400g carrot
150g - 200g parnsnip
400g swede
500g potato
2 onions
100g yellow split peas
100g red lentils
300g tin of baked beans
a good squirt of HP sauce
a good squirt of Heinz tomato ketchup
salt and pepper to taste (or you can use a beef stock cube instead of the salt)
A bay leaf 

Cut up all the veg into chunks, or slice it using a food processor.
Put everything into a pressure cooker with enough water to come about half way up the veg - you don't want it to burn and stick to the bottom, but you also don't want it too soupy.
Put on the lid and bring the pressure cooker up to pressure. Cook for about 15 mins, but be careful it doesn't burn - I sometimes bring it down from pressure after about 10 minutes and give it a stir, checking it's not sticking and adding a bit more boiling water if necessary. You want it to cook long enough for the veg to be tender and the lentils and split peas to be soft - they are not pleasant if they are crunchy!

You can eat it as is, with some nice fresh bread, but we like it with dumplings, which is a bit of a pain, because you need to heat up the oven, tip the stew into an ovenproof casserole dish and cook it for half an hour or so in the oven. We think it's worth it though.
For the dumplings:


  • 8oz self raising flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
  • 4oz suet
  • 1 - 2 tbsp water to mix
Preheat the oven to 190 C. Tip the stew into a casserole dish and put the dumplings on top. Bake with a lid on for about 15 mins, then remove the lid and bake for another 15 mins until the dumplings are risen and golden on top.

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