Beef Stew and Mustard Dumplings

This is one of my favourites. Great for a cold winter evening, to warm you up and fill your belly.

Ingredients:

For the Stew:
- 2 Onions, cut into thin strips
- 3 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
- A little thyme for seasoning
- 400g Stewing steak, cut into thick chunks
- 100g Button mushrooms
- 100g Carrots, cut into 1 cm pieces
- 2 Large leeks, cut into 1 cm pieces
- 1/2 Bottle of full bodied red wine
- 400ml Beef stock

For the Dumplings:
- 150g Self raising flour
- 100g Sewit
- 1 tbsp Finely chopped parsley
- 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- Water

- Pre-heat the oven to 150C.

- Put a little olive oil in a saucepan and add the leaks and carrots. Stir fry for 7-8 minutes.

- Add the onion to another saucepan and fry for five minutes, then add the garlic and fry for a further three minutes.

- Place the onions, garlic, carrots and leeks to a large ovenproof pot along with the mushrooms. Then add the beef to the saucepan you used to fry the carrots and leeks with a little oil, and brown the meat on all sides. Add the meat to the ovenproof pot.

- Add the red wine and stock to the pot and season with salt, pepper and thyme.

- Place in the oven with the lid on and leave for 2-3 hours.

- Half an hour before you take the stew out of the oven, make the dumplings. Add the self-raising flour, sewit, a pinch of salt, parsley and mustard to a bowl and add water, a little at a time until the ingredients combine to form a ball that is slightly sticky. Roll into balls (remember that they will grow to about twice the size when cooked). Add to the stew and cook for half an hour.

Tips: If you want your dumplings slightly crispy on top, take the lid off the pot for the last 15 minutes.

Enjoy!