Winter and beef ale stew

So winter is on its way, or at least Down Under it is. Now I am a lover of all seasons, I love the change in the earth of spring, the heat and bright blue skies of summer, the vibrant colours of autumn and the chill of winter. Now I am a huge romantic and I have to say that winter is one of my favourite seasons (aside from the other 3 of course) simply because of the romantic nature. Being curled up in blankets, before a fire (or heater in my case), reading a book. All of the hot beverages and the lovely warm clothes. I also love the cute boots, especially the heeled ones. Now some women would be inclined to say that winter clothes are completely unflattering however I think with that with the right cut and of course the right look, winter clothes can become attractive. And they are comfortable which is a plus!

Typically during winter weekends is when I spend the entire day, in bed with my lovely kitty cat and a good book. But one of my favourite parts of winter is the food. There may no snow here in Melbourne however winter is the one time you can eat comfort foods and have the excuse of it being cold. I am a huge fan of stews, not soups but stews. Of course I do love soups but stews happen to be a particular favourite of mine. My biggest love is a beef stew recipe from Jamie Oliver. An amazing cook and a master of recipe invention. I highly recommend this one, the dumplings are amazing. It is typically made with ale but I substitute beef stock and usually use about 1.5L instead of 1.3L. It does say that the recipe serves 6-8 but I belong to a family of five, two males who are large eaters, and I only used half of the entire thing. I have not been able to find this recipe on his website so I will type it out for you all at the end of this.

Two of the books I will endeavour to read this winter (and of course I will) are 'the princess bride' and 'the perks of being a wall flower'. I loved the princess bride movie and have always meant to read the book. It was brought to my attention once again during my reading of Inkheart. Cornelia Funke uses epigraphs at the beginning of her chapter and about three of them were paragraphs from 'the princess bride'. I have never read or watched 'the perks of being a wallflower' however I have heard great reviews of both and the fact that Emma Watson was in it was kind of a closing point.

What books are you planning to read during the miserable winter days? Or the bright sunny ones depending on where you are? And what are your favourite winter dishes? All the best, and happy reading!

Beef Stew with Newcastle Brown Ale and Dumplings.
N.b I use a 5L pot and this just fits, make sure this is a minimum size when making this recipe. It does need a lot but a I promise it is well worth it. With a smaller family it provides lunch for days and is very filling. I also cook this in one pot, the recipe does say to use a frying pan for the meat but I think it's a bit of a waste really. This recipe cooks for about 2 hours so I start it about 3 hours before dinner is served. Maybe 2 1/2 for everyone else as I do like to prepare everything first.

Stew
1kg of beef chopped into chunks
3 tablespoons of flour
Olive oil
3 red onions, peeled, halved and roughly chopped
50g of pancetta chopped
3 sticks of celery chopped
2 springs rosemary
1.5L of beef stock or 1.3l of Newcastle Brown ale plus 285ml water
2 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
4 potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
Salt and pepper

Dumplings
225g self-raising flour
115g butter
Salt and pepper
2 springs of rosemary
Water


Method
Stew
Season the beef, sprinkle with flour and toss around until well coated. Heat up your pot until hot, add a little olive oil and fry up the beef in 2 batches until nice and brown. Add the onions and pancetta and cook until the onions are translucent and the pancetta has a bit of colour. Add your celery and rosemary. Now pour in your beef stock or ale and water and add your parsnips, carrot and potatoes. Out the lid on and bring to the boil then turn down the heat and leave to simmer while you make the dumplings.
Dumplings
Chop up your butter into cubes and add everything into a bowl. Rub butter into flour, you will have to add more flour, not enough is listed and I never measured my flour additions (sorry!). Do this until you get a bread crumb consistency. Now begin adding small amount of water and mixing until you have a gathered dough, not too sticky! Roll into golf ball sized balls and add to stew. Dunk dumplings under stew, put lid back on a leave to simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve. You can serve with greens or bread but I just leave it. It's a wonderful meal and a very filling one at that!