Phil Vickery welcomes us into the New Year with a winter warming stew which will help to clear out those Christmas cobwebs.

Serves: 4-6
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
4 chicken thighs, chopped, no skin or bone
2 sweet potatoes peeled and chopped roughly, but fairly small
2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped the same size as the sweet potatoes
1 small carrot roughly chopped
1 leek roughly chopped
3 sticks celery, roughly chopped
2 vegetable stock cubes
2 litres cold water, roughly

Dumplings

125g self raising flour
60g suet
½ egg white
pinch salt
dash water
2 tbsp spicy horseradish sauce

Method

  1. Heat the oil then add the onions, garlic and chicken thigh meat.
  2. Cook for 5 minutes to take a little colour.
  3. Next add the potatoes, veg, stock cubes and water, and bring to the boil.
  4. Season well with salt and pepper, then turn down the heat and simmer for 35-40 minutes.
  5. Bring a pan of water to the boil and add a little salt.
  6. Mix the flour, suet, egg white, salt together, then add the horseradish, egg white and a little water and mix to a softish dough.
  7. Roll into very small balls the size of a large marble.
  8. Drop into the simmering salted water and cook for 20 minutes until cooked and puffed up.
  9. Once the potatoes are cooked and very soft, mash VERY roughly, want to keep a very rough broth consistency with big chunks.
  10. Add the cooked dumplings to the broth and add the chopped parsley, stir well, season and serve.