Dumplings..cook them first or not. Quite Urgent

[wiltshire]

I have just made a couple of gallons of beef casserole. I am doing the stocking up on frozen stuff for after the birth etc.
I love dumplings and make them beautifully thank you very much. However, I have never frozen them before. Do I make them and just pop them into the stew and then when I heat it up at later date they will cook or do I cook them first and then dump (pardon the pun) them in.

This all stems from the Birds Eye packs of Beef Stew & dumplings which I love and desperately wish I had bought instead of making my own. Hoping someone out there can help me on this extremely important subject.

If I were you, I'd freeze the dumplings uncooked separately.

However that would mean having to boil up the stew when you defrost it - if having to wait half an hour will be an issue then cook them now and again freeze them separately.

I say freeze them separately as I suspect they will go soggy if you freeze them in the stew, but to be honest you can't go far wrong freezing things like stews - you will beglad you made your own, I promise!

Cook them and then wrap em in greaseproof paper and freeze them.

BTW - I made some amazing dumpling from Gary Rhodes receipe that used horseradish and grated seville oranges - OMG - they were out of this world. Even people who didn't like dumplings before tried them and were converts.

PS - I did what you're doing and cooked shepherds pies and chillis and stews and all sorts of sloppy casserole type things for after birth - fab idea - kept me entertained and made me feel I was doing something useful rather than watching Trisha and Jerry Springer all day and we ate like kings for months!!

wilts - why not cook them for about 10 mins less than you normally would, freeze them and then when you heat up the stew, they can get that last bit of cooking and get the flavour of the stew too, without you having to wait too long.

What I found brill when I had dd was beforehand I fried up loads of mince and froze it in individual bags. Then after dd I could just get a bag out a few hours before I needed it, let it defrost, then do some pasta or rice in the microwave (or use some ready-made mashed potato), warm the mince in the microwave and have an instant home-cooked meal with no work! But then my supply ran out and I lived on ready meals!!!!!