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James Street South Cookery School: Beef and ale stew with dumplings, Coconut rice pudding

Niall McKenna's beef and ale stew with dumplings – it's better to have more dumplings than fewer, in order to make a meal of this dish
Niall McKenna's beef and ale stew with dumplings – it's better to have more dumplings than fewer, in order to make a meal of this dish Niall McKenna's beef and ale stew with dumplings – it's better to have more dumplings than fewer, in order to make a meal of this dish
By Niall McKenna

THIS week’s recipes are two great wholesome dishes – a beef and dumpling stew and a coconut milk rice pudding. Pure comfort in a bowl. The beef stew takes over two hours to cook, but there is very little needed to prepare it – just be patient. The rice pudding is still one of my favourites as it is so versatile you can use lots of different fruits and jams as toppings.

BEEF AND ALE STEW WITH DUMPLINGS

(Serves 4)

Oil to cook

800g stewing steak

2 onions, peeled, halved and diced

2 garlic cloves, peeled, diced

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

150g button mushrooms, cleaned and halved

1 tablespoon plain flour

330ml ale (Belfast Yardsman IPA)

500ml beef stock

3 sprig thyme

sea salt

ground black pepper

For the dumplings:

100g self-raising flour

50g suet

salt

Preheat the oven to 170C. Place a large stew pot on the stove and drizzle with rapeseed or vegetable oil. Once the oil is sizzling, season the beef with salt and pepper and brown off. You may need to do this in batches as there is a lot of steak to seal.

Remove the meat from the pan and add in the onions and garlic; brown off for a couple of minutes and then add in the carrots and the mushrooms and again brown off for a couple of minutes. Next add in the flour and mix well with the vegetables; add in the beef, the ale and the beef stock and bring to the boil. Once bubbling, put a lid on and move to the oven. Cook for two hours, checking for taste. Keep the oven on as you'll need to add the dumplings.

To make the dumplings, mix the flour, fat and salt – a pinch is good. Stir in water to make a soft dough. Once a dough is formed take small balls and make 8-12 dumplings. Place these on top of the stew and place the lid back on. Cook in the oven for a further 30 minutes. Serve with greens.

COCONUT RICE PUDDING

(Serves 4)

80g pudding rice

65g caster sugar

400ml tinned coconut milk

½ vanilla pod, sliced into 2

1 lime juiced

4 Passion fruit removed from skin

1inch of coconut freshly grated for a garnish

Butter to grease the dish

Preheat the oven to 150C – the rice is baked rather than boiled. Grease up an ovenproof dish and add the rice, caster sugar and coconut milk – mix well. Add the equivalent of water from the coconut milk tin; add into the baking dish and mix well. Pop in the vanilla pods and place in the oven. Bake for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes stir again; cover with greaseproof paper and a layer of tinfoil and bake for a further 30 minutes. This will ensure that the rice does not brown.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once cool, place in the fridge. You can serve this dish cold – this is my preference – served with passion fruit seeds and grated fresh coconut or warm straight from the oven with a garnish of your choice.

I have not added any double cream to this dish as I had wanted to keep it light; however, if you would like the rice pudding a bit more substantial, you can add double cream (add 50ml when you are placing into the oven for the second round of cooking, stir well and cover).