New Foods

I am trying to make a little effort to make new foods this year.  After last weeks very successful attempt at profiteroles (wish I had had a working camera at the time to take a photo!) I wanted to have a go at dumplings this week.
I started off with a very simple chicken stew made from chicken thighs, onion, garlic, mushrooms, stock and a huge pile of herbs.  After frying off it went in the oven with plenty of water, then I made the dumplings with a very basic ratio of 2:1 flour to butter, with a dash of water to bind, before putting these on top of the stew for about half an hour.
Here is the result:

I found them very tasty, although my fiancee didn't quite get the idea of balls of pastry in the middle of a stew.  By the way, she made the roast potatoes, not me.  Despite not being a native, she's taken to roasties like a lass to Yorkshire.

In other news we now have a date for the wedding...I'm starting to get nervous now...