Proper Beef Stew with Dumplings

Preheat the oven to 160C mark 3. Heat the oil in a medium-large casserole (with. A tight fitting lid) and gently fry the onion for 5 min until softened. Dry the beef pieces with kitchen appear and dust with the plain flour tapping off excess. Add to the onion pan with vegetables, purée, wine,stock,rosemAry and some seasoning. The meat and veg should be just covered with liquid - if not top up with water or stock. Turn up the heat, bring to the boil, cover and put in the oven. Cook until the beef is tender - about 3 hours. Half an hour before beef is ready make dumplings. Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the suet, parsley and lots of seasoning. Add 100ml cold water and stir to make a soft slightly sticky dough. Take the casserole out of the oven remove lid discard rosemary sprigs. Check seasoning. Pinch off walnut sized pieces of the dumpling dough, roll into balls and place on top of stew. Return to the oven without the lid for the final 30 min of cooking time or until the dumplings are lightly golden. Check seasoning and serve with mashed potato.