One Pot Wonder: Beef and Ale with Crispy Dumplings | Easy and Delicious Recipe

We are big fans of winter cooking and one of the best things about the cold weather is the chance to come home to a fab home-cooked meal and one of our family favorites is Beef and ale with crispy dumplings.  It is something that both MadDad and I remember fondly from our childhood and thankfully the boys both love it too.

Even if I make the beef stew/casserole in the slow cooker or instant pot, we much prefer crispy dumpings like my Mum made. My Mum made crispy dumplings in the oven, but you can also make them simply in the air fryer.

How to make Crispy Dumplings in the Air Fryer

I use a silicone container add a ladle of beef casserole into it and add the dumplings (also don’t worry you can do this with frozen dumplings too) and then cook at 180 for 20 minutes.

How to make Beef and ale with crispy Dumplings

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Beef and ale with crispy dumplings

This is fantastic cooked in a cast iron casserole dish as it cooks on low for a long period of time

Course Main

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 10 minutes

Servings 4 /6

Ingredients

• 2 Onions
• Diced beef
• Flour and seasoning
• Carrots
• Can of guinness
• tablespoon Dash of worcestershire sauce or a of marmite
• Stock or water
• Cornflour or gravy granules
• For the Dumplings
• 100 g Vegetable suet
• 200 g Self raising flour
• Water

Instructions

1. Take your flour and season with salt and pepper
2. Coat the diced beef in the flour
3. Fry the beef in the pan in small batches being sure to brown it well
4. Chop the onions and add to the pan with a small amount of oil and cook on low until translucent
5. Add the beef
6. Slice the carrots and add
7. Add the Guinness
8. Add a dash of Worcestershire Sauce or a tablespoon of Marmite (we are Marmite haters, but it is a great addition to this recipe and you can not taste it)
9. Cover the eat and veg with either stock or water by about 2 inches and add to an oven on around 170 degrees c for at least three hours, checking the stock levels regularly.
10. To Prepare your dumplings
11. Mix your dry ingredients together, I often add some dried herbs, chilli or even sesame or poppy seeds at this point too.
12. Add water mixing continuously with a fork until your mix starts to come together. Do not make it to wet.
13. Divide into eight dumplings (do not form in to hard balls, just gently shape them)
14. About 30 minutes before serving your dish, turn the oven up to 210 degrees C and add the dumplings and place the lid back on and cook for a further ten minutes, before removing the lid and cooking for 20 until crisp and golden brown
15. Serve either with fresh bread or lashings of mashed potatoes and something green.

I always make a big pan of this and then use the leftovers for steak pie the following week.   We were sent one of Tesco’s Berndes Cast Iron Casserole dishes and we have been using it for the last three weeks and never having used cast iron before I would not be without it.  It is so easy to clean and also holds the heat really well.

Update – nine years later we are still using this fab dutch oven!