To celebrate our competition with Country Food Trust and celebrity chef Tim Maddams, we bring you Herby Dumplings - one of Tim’s special serving suggestions for The Country Casserole.

Tim says, “This is a great way to dress up your purchase of the Country Casserole – and making these dumplings takes no time at all. Plus, once the job is done the whole show can be slung in the over to cook.  A word of advice: make an even number of dumplings or you’ll find yourself in an argument over who gets the last one!”

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1x pouch of The Country Food Trust Country Casserole (can be bought from The Really Wild Meat Company here)
• 125g self-raising wholemeal or white flour
• 75g butter
• Salt and pepper
• A good pinch of dried mixed herbs
• A drop of milk

Recipe 

• Place the contents of the casserole pouch into a small, ovenproof dish and add about 2 tablespoons of water
• Separately, rub the flour, herbs, seasoning and butter together to make a light bread crumb texture. Add a few drops of cold milk to the mix to make a light pastry dough.
• Quickly divide this into even spooonfuls and drop them into the casserole.
• Place the dish (complete with dumplings) into the oven. Bake at 180 degrees - until the casserole is bubbling and the dumplings become golden and puff up nicely.
• Serve with freshly steamed vegetables. If you’re feeling adventurous, add a little blue cheese to the dumpling mix..

Find out more about Country Food Trust here and Tim Maddams here