Mmmmm!

Lard is readily available and might make a great substitute!

Found a page on how to shred suet:

http://www.joepastry.com/2011/shredding-suet/

Thanks markos.

First you cut out all the carbs in your diet, now you turn your nose up at good healthy fat! What's left to eat???

We had six tapas and a jug of sangria at a Portuguese restaurant, for �17 (about $27) with an Amazon voucher.

We had calamari, chicken wings with black pepper seasoning, Portuguese chorizo, sardine pate and seafood pate with bread, a bowl of fries and giant prawns (you have some funny name for these) in a buttery sauce. It was all too delicious.

We are at home now and there is a chocolate tarte waiting for my husband to break into. I will refrain from eating that!

OK its not a 15 min meal that's for sure! A weekend one no doubt.

Get a whole chicken/or 3lb chicken pieces (with bones)
2 whole carrots topped and tailed
2 whole celery stalks
A whole leek
2 onions peeled and quarted
Springs of Parsley, rosemary and bay leaves
Generous seasoning

Put the lot in a big, covered stew pot, bring to boil and simmer on a low heat for three hours. Skim any foam that comes to top.Chicken should be falling apart.
Discard the vegetables and remove the chicken, leaving the stock in the pan. When chicken has cooled, slice into bite size pieces, throw away skin etc but keep some larger bones for the pot bundled up or in muslin for removal later.

Put chicken back in pot and add:
2 chopped carrots
1 chopped turnip/parsip
A potato
A chopped leek
A chopped celery stalk
1/2 cup pearl barley
A teaspoon each of dried oregano and thyme

Bring back to the boil, simmer for at least another hour - the longer the better. (Second day stew is better)

For the dumplings, use 200g self raising flour, 100g shredded suet (NOT vegetable suet), approx 10 tablespoons cold water (enough to make a firm dough) 2-3 tablespoons chopped parsley.

Mix with hands into a dough and divide into 16. Use floured hands to carefully shape into balls. A floured surface helps too. Drop into bubbling stew and ensure lid is on tight so dumplings cook in the steam. Should take half an hour for them to be ready, they should have fluffed up in size and a skewer should come out of a dumpling cleanly when they are ready.

Eat with crusty buttered bread.

Hahahaha. You don't know what you're missing!

It would make a dumpling, but it wouldn't taste the same. My grandmother and her sisters used lard to make everything. But for pastry and dumplings it had to be suet.

We are Americans!! We don't eat foreign foolishness!!

EXCEPT tacos and Chef Boy Ardee canned lasange!

I love FAT!! I just don't eat foolishness!

What we do is get a pot or slow cooker, cook chicken and veggies overnight in Cream of Chicken soup, and then when it's almost time to eat, cut the Pillsbury (or equivalent store brand) biscuit dough in half, and chuck it in there too. That's how we make 'em. Delicious.

yepperoonee!!

You're totally right, I don't think your system could take it.

One taste of suet and you'd be spelling colour and labour with a U, and complaining about Royal Mail's late post deliveries and too much rain!!!!!

I do want a slow cooker. And I can get my hands on the soup....

But British people have zero idea what a 'biscuit' is in this context.

What we call biscuits in the UK are sweet, like cookies and you dunk em in your cup of tea.

I did see a good recipe for pork and beans with biscuits on an American food channel. It looked yummy but its stretching my imagination a bit to think what they may taste like!

Anyone got a good foolproof biscuit recipe for someone who has never eaten them or seen them made?

I will try and find my mom's biscuit recipe......she makes thes best ones ever.

My grandmother had a great one, but she was like many Southern cooks and had no recipe, she played it by ear.

Sometimes I feel so frustrated, so many recipes I could have done! But no one knew the measurements or cared to write them down!

Luckily I just had to call my Auntie Josie on the phone. Nabbed it!

I keep a plain notebook for recipes as I get them from all over. I so rarely get time to cook that I'll never learn to do things by ear.

Except for Scouse. Scouse is the dish of my city, Liverpool and no two houses make it the same way. I don't make mine the same way as my mother. I've never heard of anyone having a written down recipe for it either, you play it by ear.

Oh and Victoria sponge. My mum says just weigh your eggs and the rest of the ingredients should weigh the same. Drop of vanilla essence and whisk lots of air in.

I know the theory by ear but her sponge is so light and incredible I'm intimidated to try it myself!

I'll stick to making the jam for the middle of the cake. I make cracking jam.