Turkey Stew Sweet Leek and Smoky Bacon Biscuit Dumplings
Love your leftovers with Jamie Oliver's classic turkey stew. Topped with bacon dumplings and served in a sweet leek gravy, this is a delicious way to use up any Christmas leftovers and is a real winter warmer.
From the book
Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook
Jamie Oliver's classic recipes for Christmas
All the recipes you'll need, from basics and starters to party food and edible gifts
Indulgent crowd-pleasers with Jamie's signature twists
Introduction
This is a super-easy, old-school dish that uses leftover turkey or chicken in a brilliant way. As a kid I made it with dumplings, but when I was in the USA they would top stews with these lovely biscuits, so this is my hybrid of the two.
Ingredients
| Dumplings: | |
| 2 | rashers of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon |
| 2 | small leeks |
| olive oil | |
| 125g | plain flour |
| 25g | maize flour or polenta |
| 1 1/2 tsp | baking powder |
| 1/2 tsp | bicarbonate of soda |
| 30g | unsalted butter (cold) |
| 125ml | buttermilk |
| 1 | large free-range egg |
| Stew: | |
| 3 | onions |
| 3 | sticks of celery |
| 2 | sprigs of fresh rosemary |
| 3 | sprigs of fresh thyme |
| 3 | fresh bay leaves |
| 2 tsp | English mustard |
| 2 tbsp | plain flour |
| 1.5l | organic veg stock |
| 150g | leftover stuffing |
| 500g | leftover cooked higher-welfare turkey or chicken meat |
Method
To start the dumplings, roughly chop the bacon and place in a large frying pan on a medium-low heat to crisp up while you wash, trim and finely slice the leeks. Stir them into the pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, then cook for 15 minutes, or until soft and sweet, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Meanwhile, for the stew, peel the onions, trim the celery, then roughly chop both and place in a large, wide casserole pan on a medium heat with 2 tablespoons of oil (or even better, use turkey dripping to intensify the flavours). Add the herb sprigs and bay, and cook for 15 minutes, or until soft but not coloured, stirring regularly. Stir in the mustard and flour for 2 minutes, then gradually stir in the stock to make a nice thick sauce. Crumble in the leftover stuffing and turn the heat off. Scoop out and discard the herb sprigs and bay leaves, then shred the turkey or chicken meat, stir it into your stew, taste, and season to perfection.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Place the flours, baking powder and bicarb in a large bowl. Dice and add the butter, then use your thumbs and forefingers to rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Make a well in the middle, pour in the buttermilk, then gradually mix into the crumbs, bringing them in from the outside. Stir in the cooled leeks and bacon until just combined, but don’t overwork it – we want the dough as light as possible. Gently roll it out on a clean flour-dusted surface until 2cm thick, then use a 5cm fluted cutter to stamp out as many round dumplings as you can, re-rolling and using up any offcuts – you should get at least 12 from this amount.
Brush the dumplings with beaten egg, then sit them on top of the stew. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the dumplings are risen and golden and the stew is blipping and bubbling away nicely. Delicious with simple steamed greens.
Total time: 1 hour, plus cooling
Calories 490kcal | Fat 19.7g | Sat Fat 6.2g | Protein 38.1g | Carbs 42g | Sugars 10.7g | Salt 1.9g | Fibre 4g
Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook by Jamie Oliver is published by Penguin Random House ⓒ Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited (2016 Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook). Photographer: David Loftus.
