- Serves 4 - Ready in 3 hours -
Gather together…
6 medium 'floury' potatoes e.g. Maris Piper or King Edward varieties, peeled and VERY thinly sliced in rounds.
6 medium carrots, scrubbed clean and very thinly sliced in rounds.
1 tbsp olive oil / rapeseed oil.
1.5 cups (180g on the scales) cooked, lamb-off-the-bone cut in cubes / torn up.
4 tbsp (tablespoons) leftover lamb gravy-jelly / 4 tsp (teaspoons) stock bouillon powder, sieved.
3 onions, finely chopped (to save time day-to-day, I keep a big box of onions I've chopped ahead-of-time, in the freezer, so I throw those in and cook them for a bit longer).
Pinches of ground black pepper.
Tiny pinches of salt.
For the 12 dumplings...
140g butter (fridge-cold and diced).
250g SR flour (gluten-free flour can be successfully used if needed).
1/4 tsp of salt.
1 tsp dried Rosemary (I usually use fresh herbs, but I find fresh Rosemary is too fiddly to chop finely).
75ml cold water.
Get cooking…
1. Very thinly slice the 6 peeled potatoes and 6 carrots. Use two separate bowls to place the slices in cold water (so the raw veg doesn't discolour) and set aside.
2. Put the 1 tbsp of oil, the 180g of cooked lamb pieces, the 4 tbsp of lamb gravy-jelly (or equivalent) and the three finely chopped onions in a big, oven-proof, lidded pan (I use a 5 litre cast iron lidded casserole dish).
3. Fry the lamb, onions and gravy on a LOW heat for 10 min, stirring often (or the lamb will stick to the base).
4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160 C (140 C fan) or Gas 3.
5. Boil a half-full kettle of water.
6. Turn off the heat under the pan (once the ten minutes has passed).
7. Carefully remove 2/3 of the lamb, onions and gravy mixture from the big pan and set it aside on a plate. This leaves 1/3 of the mixture still in the big pan.
8. Drain the potato slices and carrot slices.
9. Layer 1/3 of the thinly sliced potatoes and 1/3 of the thinly sliced carrots over the meat and onions in the big pan, add a pinch of pepper and a tiny sprinkle of salt.
10. Repeat this layering twice more, with layers of meat /onions then potatoes and then carrots, plus the ground black pepper and salt. The aim isn't perfect layering, it is just to ensure a good distribution of meat.
11. Add boiling water to the hot pot until it reaches about ½ way up the side of the pan (you will need to excavate down the side of the layers to see where the water reaches up to).
12. Heat the pan on the hob, on medium-low, with the lid OFF, until the liquid is bubbling - this will take 5 to 10 minutes - you don't need to stir.
13. Bake the hot pot in the oven, with the Lid ON, for 60 minutes. It won't be fully cooked in this time - you'll add the dumplings and finish off the oven cooking time then.
14. Meanwhile make the dumplings by mixing the 140g of cold CUBED butter, the 250g of SR flour and the 1/4 tsp of salt into breadcrumbs, first with your fingertips (to break up any large chunks of butter) and then with a handheld food chopper, for about 30 seconds.
15. Then to the dumpling mixture, add the 1 tsp of dried Rosemary and mix in the 75ml of cold water.
16. Dust your hands with flour and form twelve ping-pong sized balls from the dumpling dough. Put them on a plate and keep them in the fridge until they are needed (see image below).
17. After the hot pot has been cooking for the 60 minutes, add an extra cup (250 ml) of boiling water and stir gently but well (so that any veg that has been above the waterline so far, ends up below the waterline).
18. Then place the dumplings, in an evenly-spaced manner, on top of the hotpot (they will swell up and end up touching each other, so don't worry about gaps).
19. TURN UP THE OVEN to cook at 190 C (170 C fan) or Gas 5, with the LID ON, for an extra 40 min.
20. Once the cooking time has finished, remove the lid and GRILL the hotpot for 5 minutes on HIGH to brown the dumplings. You may have to turn the dish around halfway through grilling, to ensure even browning.
21. Serve up the hotpot stew in bowls with three dumplings each.