Cheap Family Meals 8 – Dumplings and Leftovers

Dumplings

Dumplings and Leftovers

The next of my cheap family meals is Dumplings and Leftovers.

Introduction

Dumplings can extend a small amount of meat into another meal. I often use leftover meat, gravy and veg from Sunday lunch. Any type of meat in gravy is suitable. You do need a reasonable amount of gravy though.

Ingredients per person

1oz of fat  (See Tips)

2oz Self Raising flour

Cold water

Salt, Pepper, Herbs (See Tips)

Left over meat, veg and gravy.

Method

The meat is diced or sliced and added to the gravy in a pan, with the vegetables, and heated through gently. Make sure you have plenty of gravy. If not add some stock or, water and a stock cube. While the meat is heating through make your dumplings. Do not make them in advance as they need to be put straight in the pan after the water is added.

If the fat is hard fat, then grate it into the flour, if soft then rub it in with your fingertips. Season with salt, pepper and any herbs you would like and mix well. Now add cold water a little at a time until a sticky dough is made. Use a spoon for this and just stir and mix well. You can now either make the mixture into balls with floured hands or simply push spoonfuls off the spoon into the pan For each 1oz of fat you should make 3 reasonably sized dumplings. You now have a choice of cooking methods. If you like soft dumplings then simply put the lid on the pan and continue to cook for at least 20 minutes. If you like crispy topped dumplings then put the pan in the oven at 200C for 20-30 minutes (if your pan is not oven proof then pour the meat and veg into an oven proof dish before adding the dumplings).

Now serve and enjoy.

Variations

As mentioned they can be crispy topped or soft. You can flavour them with any herb that compliments the meat you are serving. They can be large (allow a longer cooking time ) or small (shorter cooking time).  You can simply add some mini dumplings to a pan of soup to make it more substantial.

Tips

Fat – This can be Shredded Suet, Lard, Margarine, Butter, Beef Dripping or rendered fat.  If you cooked the meat the day before and have any fat that you drained or skimmed off after cooking, you can use this for added flavour. I render any fatty pieces I cut off the meat over a gentle heat, which releases the fat which can then be used for this. Using your own rendered fat makes them even cheaper to make.

Herbs – You can add any appropriate herb at this point. Sage for a pork or chicken dish. Mint for a lamb one. What ever takes your fancy. I like simple plain dumplings.

Thank you for reading this and please come back to  my cheap family meals.