Red Wine Braised Beef and Herbed Dumplings

The grocery store had a sale on beef chuck stew meat, so I took advantage and bought a 1 1/2 package of it. I had originally thought of making beef and barley stew, but for some reason, I wasn't settling on that in my mind. I waited until tonight to make the stew meat, because I knew whatever I did with it, I'd be cooking it low and slow, so I'd need at least an hour and a half.

Remembering the robust flavor of the Cabernet Pot Roast I made a while back, I decided I'd recreate that but with the chuck in cubes rather that a big hunk. I wanted to have something to accompany it, but I wasn't in the mood for potatoes, or barley for that matter. Of the dishes I wanted to make this week, one didn't make the cut, and that was chicken and dumplings. And I have been craving dumplings all week. After some pondering, I decided to incorporate the dumplings in this dish.

The only thing I would do differently is use my cast iron stock pot rather than the large cast iron skillet I used. I just feel like the dumplings needed to cook longer, and after I added them, the sauce/gravy became a little too thick. After adding some water it was fixed so no biggie, but next time I'll use the stock pot. You can use any good red wine you like, here I used a Pinot Noir.

Red Wine Braised Beef and Herb Dumplings

1 1/2 lbs. stew meat in cubes

1/2 cup flour for dusting

Salt and pepper to season the meat

1 1/2 Tbs. canola oil

1 medium onion chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms

3 garlic cloves minced

1 Tbs. fresh parsley chopped

2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

1 1/2 cup red wine

4 cups (or more if you want more of a soup/stew) beef stock or broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Season meat with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. (I like to put the flour in a plastic grocery bag then add the meat and shake the heck out of it)

Shake off excess flour and set aside. Preheat a large skillet (or oven safe stock pot) over medium heat and add oil. Sear meat on all sides until dark brown and set aside. Add onion, celery, mushrooms, parsley and thyme to skillet. Saute until brown and caramel-y. Add garlic and saute a minute longer. Add beef back to pot and deglaze the pan with the wine. Let wine reduce by 1/2 and add stock. Cover and put in oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Herbed Dumplings

(modified ATK recipe)

2 Cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 Tbs. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 cup milk (I used 2%)

3 Tbs unsalted butter cut into cubes

1 Tbs. chopped parsley

1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl.

Heat Milk and butter in microwave for one minute. Take out and stir about a minute or so until all the butter has melted. Add to flour mixture and fold until incorporated, don't over mix.

Putting it all together:

Take skillet out of oven and put it over low heat on the stove top. Add spoonfuls of the dumpling batter into skillet and cook for 15 minutes, or until the are cooked through. Serve in shallow bowls.