Rosie's Chicken Stew and Dumplings.

Real poor man's fare, I'm sure you all know why the "upper crust" are called that, for those who don't most bread was made in a cottage loaf style, after baking the upper crust was pulled out including the soft middle, leaving a bowl shaped lower crust, possibly very thin, maybe a little burnt.


As part of my winter food recipes I wanted to do a typical peasant dish, Paul killed two old chickens and removed the breast and the legs, these went in my slow cooker with onions, potatoes, leeks and carrots, I added half a bottle of wine (but this is optional) then topped up with stock till everything was covered, then cooked for 12 hours, After cooking I pulled the legs out and the meat fell off the bone, I then transferred everything into a large saucepan, made my dumplings from flour, baking powder, dried mustard powder and enough water to bind it together and put them in the stew, I also added some tinned peas I had left over in the fridge, some thyme, garlic and seasoning, I simmered it all till the dumplings looked cooked.
I had just been to the bread shop to pick up a sack of stale bread from the bakers, as usual it wasn't stale but would be no use to the shop the following day, amongst all the usual breads was 2 cottage style loaves, I hollowed these out and used them as serving bowls.