Success in making a great meal like home made chicken and dumplings is wonderful, but sooner or later you can't help but wonder how that success might be expanded to include other foods. In particular, I never heard of a dish named Beef and Dumplings. Sure, beef stew is well known and good versions of that are quite yummy, and I've seen beef and sauce recipes with biscuits ... But where is the beef counterpart to chicken and dumplings made in the style used by Cracker Barrel® in making their chicken and dumplings? Specifically, where do you find a recipe for a rich gravy with soft dumplings swimming in it along with rich beefy tasting shredded roasted beef?

It turns out I couldn't find any recipe for beef and dumplings on the Internet similar to a rich gravy type of chicken and dumplings. Okay, so be it. I will create a great one, for I have plenty of experience with beef and with dishes like chicken and dumplings.

Well, I made it today and my sweetheart Peggy and I are really pleased, so now it becomes a very worthy Food Nirvana entry. In this case an original by me. Yes, I love doing this when it works exceptionally well. You likely won't hear about my failures, for why should you care about them? One small bit of advice ... Don't overdo the salt with this dish as people can adjust seasoning to suit themselves at serving time. You can even reduce the stated amounts of salt somewhat if you have diet or health limitations.

Okay, enough of patting myself on the back. Now let's look at some similarities and differences between what I made with beef and what I normally make with chicken. Here are some obvious considerations: 1) In one case I simmer a whole chicken in broth and break it down to get the meat. In the beef case I make skillet seared roast beef because it has a very rich beefy flavor due to the Maillard reaction (formation of savory flavors due to high temperature cooking and resultant complex chemical reactions between proteins and carbohydrates) ... Not like some weakly flavored boiled version of a beef dish, and 2) The seasonings appropriate for use with chicken aren't quite right with beef, so one could make changes there, and I did, and 3) I use beef broth, not chicken broth, and I amp it up with a great beef base that is far better than bullion, and 4) I shred the roasted beef so it is totally tender as well as tasty and it mixes in really well with the broth/gravy after I have made the dumplings.

Oh, Yeah! This dish is designed to make you moan with pleasure. It is the beef version of fantastic chicken and dumplings, and from now on I'll have trouble figuring out which one I want to make! Oh, you will see in the recipe that you can choose to use all milk when making the dumplings or a mixture of whisked eggs and milk instead. The latter version produces a somewhat more noodle type of dumplings, which I prefer.

Note that no one has to be a genius to figure out how to create new and excellent foods. This experimental first attempt success, like a few other new ideas, turns out to be pure serendipity. That wouldn't happen were I a complete dolt in the kitchen. Based on some bonehead errors I've made with other dishes in the past I'm merely a minor but trainable dolt! Well, experience and curiosity and patience can all come together to allow most anyone to make something new and nice. This time you get the benefit of my efforts for free. You might think about carrying on this labor of love as a tradition with ever new and better recipes created by you and others and shared widely.

Let's get to it ... Have fun making and eating this dish. It is particularly nice to make and enjoy hot comfort food dishes like beef and dumplings during cool or cold weather. And it is now mid-September ...

Oops, did you decide what side dishes to make and what beverages to serve with the meal? You probably want to wait until the beef and dumplings are done cooking to make any other items to be served. The preparation and waiting times for making beef and dumplings is a combined full four hours due to the roasting time for the beef and the delay periods for dough processing. But it is far more than worth the wait!

Now that I think about it, this dish lends itself to preparation by three cooks at the same time in one kitchen, making the whole process relatively quick and easy on everyone. Or three cooks could make the three different food items in their own kitchens and just bring it all together at the end to make the final pot of beef and dumplings.

Ingredients: (makes six to eight generous adult servings)

Beef:

3 lb. Eye Roast of beef, with most of the fat removed

2 tsp. of Kosher or sea salt

1 tsp. of ground black pepper

2 tbsp. of canola oil

1 cup of water for moisture control while searing and roasting the beef

Broth/Gravy Mixture:

2 quarts of beef broth

1 tbsp. of Better Than Bullion® roasted beef base

1 quart of water

1 large onion, peeled and cut into thick slices

3 carrots cut into slices

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

3 stalks of celery, cut into pieces about one inch long

1/4 tsp. of turmeric

1/4 cup of fresh compacted parsley, chopped

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 tsp. of sea salt

1/2 tsp. of black pepper

4 tbsp. of cornstarch mixed with 1/2 cup of water (hold until the last step for thickening the gravy)

Dumplings:

3 cups of all purpose flour

1 tsp. of baking powder

3/4 tsp. of sea salt

3/8 cup of Crisco® shortening, chilled

3/8 cup of butter, chilled

3/4 to 1 cup of cold milk, or, 2 extra large or jumbo eggs, whisked, and 1/4 cup of milk

Directions:

First let's roast the beef:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut the beef into five or six similar size sections about 1" thick. Be sure to cut across the grain, not along the grain of the meat. If you cut along the grain you will wind up with long strings of tough beef.

Put the canola oil into a large (12" wide), deep, oven proof skillet, then put in the beef sections, moving them around to spread the oil over the bottom interior surface of the skillet.

Season the beef sections on both sides with the salt and the pepper.

Sear the beef heavily on high heat. Use a lid to cover the skillet, and perhaps use an exhaust fan, once the skillet starts to emit smoke, but not before it starts to emit smoke! We don't want boiled beef. After four to five minutes total time, turn the beef sections over with a meat fork and sear the second side with the skillet covered. That will take roughly four minutes.

Turn off the heat. Add about 1/2 cup of water to the skillet, cover it, and put it into the preheated oven.

Note: You can start working on the vegetables and broth preparation while the beef is roasting, as described below.

Roast for one hour, then partially remove the lid just a bit (a 1/2" wide gap on one side is fine) and roast for another 30 minutes.

Add the other 1/2 cup of water to the skillet, reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F, and roast for a final 30 minutes with the skillet covered.

Remove the covered skillet from the oven and set it aside on a heatproof surface (like a granite counter top) to allow contents to cool.

Remove and shred the beef sections after they have cooled enough to be handled (about 15 minutes) and keep the shredded beef in a large bowl. I do the shredding using a large wooden cutting board, a sharp knife and a meat fork.

Reserve the skillet contents. Set the skillet aside. Later the strong beefy flavor coating in the skillet will be extracted by mixing some of the broth with it. That mixture will then be poured back into the broth pot to help flavor the final gravy for the beef and dumplings.

Now let's cook the vegetables in the broth:

While the beef is roasting you can do all of the preparation work for the vegetables. Then proceed as described next.

Place the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, parsley, thyme, turmeric, salt and pepper (but not the cornstarch) in a large, 1 1/2 to 2 gallon pot and cover the mixture with the beef broth and the quart of water. Add the Better Than Bullion® beef base and mix the ingredients with a long wooden spoon.

Bring the pot contents to a boil, covered with a lid, on high heat, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, and keep the pot covered. Cook the vegetables and broth and seasonings for an hour at a simmer or very low boil.

Use a spider or other utility scoop with holes to remove the vegetables from the broth. Set the pot of broth aside. Discard the vegetables or use them for some other purpose. At this point it will be time (or past time) to continue the steps for roasting the beef, so return to those directions. Note that during the final half hour to hour of roasting the beef you can make the dough for the dumplings as described below.

Now let's make the dough for the dumplings:

Put the flour, baking powder and salt together in an electric mixer bowl. Run the mixer on medium speed. Cut the chilled Crisco® and butter into the flour mixture gradually in one teaspoon amounts and continue mixing until the contents resemble small peas. This may take up to five minutes of mixing after all the shortening has been added, and in any event at that point, whether it looks like small peas or not, proceed to the next step.

Decide whether you want to use only milk or eggs and milk when making the dumplings. If you are using only milk, then add the cold milk, only 1/4 cup at a time while mixing for a minute or two between milk additions. You may not need a full cup. Make the milk additions and mix until a ball of dough begins to form. The formation of the mixture into dough will be obvious so it is easy to know when to stop adding milk. At that point continue mixing for a minute or two to knead the dough, then stop mixing. If you are using the eggs and milk combination, whisk the eggs, then whisk the milk with the eggs, then add all of it to the mixing bowl and mix on medium speed until the dough forms and gets kneaded for a minute or two.

I form the completed dough into two round, flat patties, and wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for 30 minutes. That aids in gluten formation which makes processing the dough into dumplings much easier.

Roll out the dough onto a floured surface. I put plastic wrap sufficient for rolling out both patties of dough, side by side on a granite countertop, and I dust it with flour. Then I partially knead and flatten each piece of chilled dough to a 1" thickness by hand to make rolling it out easier. Then I dust the dough pieces with flour, center them on each area of the plastic wrap, and put a second piece of plastic wrap on top of each piece of dough. Then I roll out the dough with an ordinary rolling pin to about 3/16" thick. This works perfectly for rolling dough without having it stick to any surface, and the rolling pin stays clean.

Remove the top pieces of plastic wrap, then use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife and cut the dough areas roughly into rectangles about 1 inch wide by 2 inches long. Allow the dough pieces to harden/dry for around 30 minutes or up to an hour, then remove the pieces to a plate, being careful not to include any plastic wrap. Note that you can then fold up the floury plastic wrap and discard it and not have any work surface to clean. Nice, huh?

Now let's cook the dough pieces in the vegetable and beef broth to make the dumplings:

First dispense a pint of the broth from the pot into the skillet used to roast the beef. Stir well to capture all of the roasted beef flavors from the skillet. Pour the skillet contents back into the pot.

Bring the broth to a simmer on high heat, then drop in the dough pieces a few at a time so they don't clump together. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot and allow them to cook for 10 minutes. Do not stir them while they are cooking. You now have dumplings of the style served at Cracker Barrel®.

If you have not already shredded the roasted beef, now is the time to do it.

Add the shredded beef pieces to the pot a little at a time with gentle mixing. Allow the mixture to cook, covered, at a simmer, to partially thicken it and to blend the flavors, about 20 minutes.

Mix the cornstarch with the 1/2 cup of water and pour it into the simmering beef and dumplings mixture slowly, while mixing gently. Then increase the heat to medium and let the gravy come to a low boil while mixing gently and it will be thickened in a minute or two at a low boil.

Turn off the heat and keep the completed beef and dumplings covered to keep it warm while you prepare any other items for the meal.

Serve the beef and dumplings in wide shallow bowls that have been pre-warmed in a 180 degrees F warming oven.

If you want you can sprinkle some freshly chopped parsley on top of each serving to add color and good complementary taste.

Let each guest season their serving with salt and pepper, to taste.

I leave it to your imagination to figure out what dessert to serve with this meal. I suggest you keep it light.

Enjoy!