Chicken in ale stew with thyme dumplings

This was one of those stew/casserole hybrids necessary to get rid of some of the odder ends of the vegbox (kale and swede). We spent the afternoon making Christmas cake, while this bubbled away on the stove.

You'll need:

a couple of chicken thighs per person
1 medium swede, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, sliced
a couple of carrots, chopped
three or four handfuls of kale, shredded
half a bottle of slightly flat ale, that your Dad didn't really like much
a good pinch of thyme
lots of black pepper
a good slug of olive oil

Drizzle a decent slosh of olive oil into the bottom of a casserole dish, and brown the chicken thighs. Decant to a plate for 4 or 5 minutes while you fry the onion until it turns translucent. Tip the chicken thighs back in the dish, and add the swede, carrots, ale, thyme and lots of black pepper. You'll probably have to add a mug or two of hot water (or even better chicken stock) as well, depending on how much ale is left.

Bring all this to the boil, and then simmer for an hour or so, until the swede is tender and the chicken is cooked. Add the kale, turn the oven on (to about 200 degrees C) and then get started on the dumplings.

You'll need:

vegetable suet
self-raising flour
a teaspoon of dried thyme
a little cold water

As it says on the side of the Atora suet packet, your basic dumpling involves a ratio of 2:1 flour: suet (so if you have 100g flour you'll need 50g suet). Chuck the suet, flour and thyme into a bowl and mix. Add a little cold water until you have a slightly sticky dough. Roll into small balls, flatten slightly, and place on top of your stew.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or so, until the tops of the dumplings have turned golden brown. Eat at once, fighting over the last dumpling.

Chicken and root vegetable stew

I tried doing this in the slow cooker that Gran and Grandpa gave us for Christmas...it's dead easy to use, but it turned out a little like soup. So beware - reduce the liquid if you're going down that route.

You'll need:

leftover cooked chicken (say hello, Christmas capon)
an onion, sliced
a couple of potatoes, peeled and chopped into small cubes
a couple of carrots (ditto)
half a small swede/turnip (ditto)
a parsnip (ditto)
some leftover white wine (about half a glass)
vegetable stock (I made mine from some stock powder and hot water)
dried thyme, black pepper and a little salt

Fry the onion in a little olive oil until it softens. Chuck into a stew pot, or slow cooker, and add all the other vegetables and chicken. Season with the herbs, pepper and salt. Add whatever leftover white wine you have in the house/freezer, and top up the liquid with some vegetable stock, until the mixture is covered.

Stick a lid on, and put in the slow cooker for 4-6 hours on high (but leave off the lid for the last half hour or so, or you'll have soup), or in the oven (at about 160) for a couple of hours until the vegetables are soft.

If you don't have many potatoes, and you like a slightly thicker stew, you could add some pearl barley or spelt as well.