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Venison stew with bacon & parsley dumplings

Hunker down in front of the fire on a grizzly Autumnal evening with our hearty Venison Stew. This is British comfort food at its best- rich and slow cooked venison stew topped with light and fluffy bacon & parsley dumplings.

Time

3 hours 45 mins

Serves

4

Difficulty

Medium

Ingredients

For the venison stew:
• 800g Field & Flower diced venison
• 500ml Field & Flower beef or chicken broth
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 200g pearl onions or small shallots
• 4 medium carrots (chopped to the same size as the shallots)
• 3 celery sticks (cut into bite-sized chunks)
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 500ml Guinness
• 1 large thyme sprig
• 4 star anise
• Seasoning to taste

For the bacon & parsley sumplings:
• 100g Field & Flower smoked bacon (finely chopped)
• ½ tbsp oil
• 1 tsp thyme leaves
• 125g self-raising flour
• 60g beef suet
• 1 egg yolk
• 30g parsley (stalks removed and finely chopped)

Instructions

1. First, make the dumplings. Gently fry the bacon in a large lidded casserole dish until crisp. Stir in the thyme leaves, then tip into a bowl and leave to cool slightly.

2. Add the flour and suet to the bacon and stir everything together. Make a well in the middle, then add the egg yolk, parsley, ½ tsp pepper and 2 tbsp very cold water. Start to mix into a dough, adding water until you a have a firm but pliable dough.

3. Divide the mixture into eight balls and chill until needed.

4. To make the stew, heat the oven to 160C and clean the casserole dish with some kitchen paper. Heat the oil in the dish and brown the meat well in batches, then set aside.

5. To the now empty pan, add the onions or shallots, carrots and celery. Brown well, then stir in the flour. Add the meat and any juices back into the dish and give everything a good stir.

6. Pour in the broth (or stock), Guinness and season. Tuck in the thyme and star anise and bring everything to a simmer.

7. Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for about 2 hours until the meat is tender.

8. Remove the stew from the oven and arrange the dumplings evenly on top. Put the lid back on and return to the oven for 20 minutes.

9. After 20 minutes take the lid off and allow the dumplings to brown in the oven for a final 10 minutes.

10. Bring the dish to the table in all its glory. Spoon into bowls with cabbage and mash to serve.