Defrosting, courtesy of a favourite recipe

It hasn't snowed in a couple of days, and the thin white blanket covering London Fields is turning to a rather unbecoming gray. Boo. But what isn't going away is my need for comfort food.

It's kinda the only thing to talk about at the moment in food (unless you want to do some horrid "Best of 2009!" or "Things to watch in 2010!" post, neither of which I'm in the mood for). Word of Mouth mentioned those comfort buzzwords cheese and carbs; Nigel Slater uttered my personal favourite, dumplings.

I have to admit - I haven't been particularly experimental. But my favourite for this time of year has to be root vegetable stew with cheesy dumplings. I mentioned it in passing back in November 2007:

"My friend Sarah makes an excellent root vegetable stew with dumplings. In go parsnips, carrots, potatoes, swede and celeriac, simmered with a touch of cider, and, if it’s a special occasion, dumplings made of flour, cheese, spring onion, and a bit of butter. Perfect for a dark chilly evening."

Well, over two years later I'm still loving it, and since I've tweaked it enough to make it my own, I'll give you the recipe. The bulk of the work is in the chopping at the beginning. It's actually quite easy.

Root vegetable stew with cheesy dumplings

(Serves 4; so if you're just making for 2, freeze half, or eat two nights in a row)

350 g parsnip, peeled and cut into sticks

100 g carrots, peeled and cut into discs

300 g swede, peeled and cubed

250 g celeriac

50 g flour

2 large onions, quartered (or 3 large leeks, chopped)

3 stalks of celery, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp bouillon powder or a stock cube, mixed in 1 l boiling water

fresh herbs - sage, rosemary, bay leaf whatever you fancy.

1/2 pint of Newcastle Brown Ale

1 tbsp gravy granules

salt and pepper

for the dumplings:

2 tbsp of a butter-based spread like Lurpak or Anchor Lighter

100 g reduced-fat cheese, grated

100 g flour

3 spring onions, finely chopped

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and celery and saute over medium heat until translucent. Season with salt and pepper, then add the 50 g flour and saute for a few minutes more until the mixture is very dry. Turn up the heat to medium-high, then add the ale (like you would wine in a risotto), and stir vigorously to distribute the flour throughout.

Add the freshly-prepared stock, the herbs, and the root vegetables, and bring to a boil, before reducing to simmer for 45 min-1 hour.

While it's simmering, prepare the dumplings by combining the remaining flour, grated cheese, spring onions, and butter in a bowl and running through with your fingers to produce a crumbly mixture. You should be able to form small balls, but if it's too dry, an extra dash of Newcastle (or even water) will help. You should be able to get about 15 out of this mixture (I prefer to make them small so that there's more of them - though if you like bigger dumplings, they'll just need to cook longer). Refrigerate until you're ready to cook them.

After 45 minutes of the stew simmering. drop the dumplings in. Be sure they're submerged, but you don't want them to get squished. They need at least 15 minutes to simmer in the mixture.

Before serving, add the gravy granules if the consistency needs a bit more "gloop". It's always nice to serve with a little bit of green veg if you have it - cabbage or broccoli both work well.

Calories: 455 per serving.  Very very reasonable for a filling winter warmer I'd say.

And while my husband always grumbles (at first) on the absence of lamb or beef, the dumplings are more than enough to make him happy in the end.