Recipe of the Month – October

Beef Stew and Dumplings

Ingredients:
The Stew
One heaped dstspn of plain flour
Generous pinch of salt and a pinch of ground black pepper
150g braising steak, cut into bite-size pieces (we recommend
The Norfolk Beef Company)
1 tsp Hillfarm Extra Virgin Cold-Pressed Rapeseed Oil
1 heaped tsp butter
¼ tsp chopped garlic
35g leek, peeled and sliced
20g celery, sliced
40g white onion or one shallot, peeled and roughly sliced
40g swede, peeled and roughly chopped
40g carrot, peeled and sliced
1 sprig thyme, chopped (the thyme is optional; add fresh or dried
herbs of your choice such as parsley, marjoram, rosemary or sage)
1 bay leaf
300ml beef stock (I used a whole Oxo cube to make this, as it gives
a nice rich flavour)
1 tsp Aspall Organic Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

The Dumplings
50g self-raising flour
25g suet
Pinch salt
2½ tbsp (approx.) cold water

Method

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt and pepper, and then add the steak and mix well ensuring the steak is completely coated. Don’t worry if there is some seasoned flour left in the bowl, this can be added later.
2. Heat the oil and butter in a non-stick frying pan and fry the floured steak for 3–4 minutes until browned on all sides.
3. Stir in the garlic and continue cooking for a further 2 minutes, then add all the other vegetables and any herbs. Cook this for a further 8 mins, stirring almost continuously to prevent anything ‘catching’.
4. Transfer contents of the frying pan into a heavy-bottomed pan and add the beef stock, balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce and any left-over flour from the previous step. Put on a low heat, cover and simmer.
5. While the stew is simmering you can make the dumplings. Mix the flour, suet and salt in a bowl. Slowly add the water, a little at a time, mixing it in as you go to form a sticky dough. The easiest way to form the dumplings is to flour your clean, dry hands and knead the dough a little, adding extra flour if they are too sticky, forming it into four similar-sized balls.
6. After the stew has simmered for 35 mins, put the dumplings on top and carefully spoon the liquid over them so they are fully coated but still floating on top. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and continue to simmer for a further 20 mins. Take the pan from the heat, remove the bay leaf and allow the stew to cool slightly before serving. The dish might seem quite ‘wet’ but you need this amount of liquid for the dumplings to bubble away in. I particularly enjoy soaking up the extra gravy with a slice of bread, or you can store it in the fridge for another day. The stew is a balanced meal by itself, but if you prefer, you can serve it with green vegetables of your choice.
   

Cooking for One – a collection of recipes and stories written by the bereaved offering wisdom, insight, love and hope.

Cooking for One contains no platitudes about what a great healer time can be, it is a candid account of the raw pain and utter loneliness that grief can bring about. Those who have opened up about their grief have told it as it really is, not what they think people want to hear. They tell you what has helped and the lessons that they have learned along the way.

So, as well as containing delicious recipes, Cooking for One aims to serve as a personal handbook designed to help the bereaved navigate their personal pathway of grief. Despite people telling them that they ‘really ought to be getting over the worst of it by now’ – and however much they appear to be outwardly coping – perhaps the pain will never fully fade and nor would they wish it to.

Annette’s Story

My husband John died, aged 70, after a short illness. John came into my life after my first marriage broke down, and we had around 28 years together. Those years were wonderful, and we had a daughter together. When we met, I also had two daughters, aged nine and ten, from my previous marriage. Although John was disabled for most of our time together, he did like to cook when he was able to. He was a former chef and liked to cook for me.
In 2015, John was diagnosed with lung cancer in the left lung. He had the bottom lobe taken out and recovered well. In 2016, he again got lung cancer in the right lung. After another operation, he recovered from that too. Unfortunately, the cancer spread to his brain in mid-2018 and this was inoperable. John sadly passed away on 31 October 2018 after a short illness with brain cancer.
I expect my grief journey is much the same as that of anyone else who has lost a loved one. People tell you to get the first year of anniversaries over, then you’ll feel much better. For me, that is not the case; there is no button that you can switch off. Not a day goes by when I don’t cry, wondering why this wonderful, kind and generous man had to die. The anger issue is a hard thing for me to deal with at the moment, although I shouldn’t feel that way. I feel anger at John for leaving me, anger at the terrible disease, seeing couples shopping together, taking a stroll, and so on. That should be John and me. Also, guilt is another thing I feel, especially on the odd time that I have a good day and can laugh and smile.

Although I was the main cook during John’s later years, he did like to cook for us and with me when his disability allowed him to. Since his death, my love for cooking has diminished. Although I cook daily for my daughter (who still lives at home) and her boyfriend, I quite often find I do not want to eat the same as them. I often make a homemade vegetable soup and have that for a couple of days. Although I know I should eat well, there are many days when I just can’t be bothered and will just pick at things.

One of John’s all-time favourite meals was stew and dumplings. Any meat or even sausages can be used, and when made in bulk, it can be frozen in single portions. This is one meal that I do eat at least once a week and it seems to give me closeness to John, so I tend to enjoy it. Although for some, eating something that a loved one liked to eat might be upsetting, I find it comforting.

I think cooking in bulk and freezing single portions will always give you something to eat when you don’t feel like cooking.

My advice is don’t rush bereavement. Personally, although it has been nearly 16 months since I lost John, nothing has changed from that first day. My grief is still as raw today as it was when he died. I’m not even sure I will ever get over it right now. Although John and I had been together for 28 years, we had never married. When he was diagnosed in July 2018, he asked me to marry him the following September, I said yes and we married on 27 October 2018. Within two hours, he was in hospital where he died four days later.

For information on Rosedale’s bereavement support group, please click here.