Venison One Pot Special

This is normally something that my wife does with Belly Pork. On the basis that Belly Pork doesn't quite meet the grade from a health perspective venison has been bought into the equation. The Belly Pork does do well with this method as the fat goes soft and delicious - venison is a different beast (quite literally) and gives a different dimension to the dish.

Ingredients

250g diced stewing venison
2 peppers
4 plum tomatoes
12 button mushrooms
500ml beef stock
2 tbs tomato ketchup
2 tbs brown sauce
3 dashes of Worcester Sauce
75g brown rice

Method

Normal convention is to seal the meat first but for this dish everything goes into one pot and does not do anything other than boil to ingredients. As the amount of liquid all gets absorbed no flavour is lost.

Dice all the ingredients (excluding the rice) and put into a large casserole dish with the stock and sauce. Bring to the boil and let simmer for 2 hours. With 20 minutes remaining add the rice.

All the liquid should be absorbed by the rice so nothing is lost flavour wise. Whilst exceptionally simple, and washing up limited this is a great dinner.

Pot Roast Pheasant

Pot Roast Pheasant

Game season is in its full throw so the Farmer's market in Preston City Centre is overflowing with all sorts of Game.

Not being certain as to the age of the bird always makes choosing a Game recipe a bit tricky, only if you get a bird not yet plucked will you be sure of the age and sex.

For pheasant a good way of being sure of not ending up chewing on a tough bird for an evening is to pot roast it. This is my recipe:

Ingredients

1 whole pheasant
8 dried apricots
a large glass of red wine
a double measure of cooking brandy
6 smoked garlic cloves
salt and pepper
3 carrots
a large handful of oyster mushrooms
a bay leaf

In a large casserole dish place the pheasant (make sure all the bits of feather ends are removed).
Add the apricots, garlic cloves, red wine and brandy and bay leaf.
Season and place in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees C for an hour, basting half way through.
Add the carrots, cut into rough batons
cook for a further 15 minutes then add the oyster mushrooms, taking the opportunity to baste the bird again. Leave in the oven, uncovered, for a further 15 minutes.

Let the bird rest before serving, the left over cooking liquor makes a wonderful sauce straight from the pan.

Rabbit Risotto

Rabbit Risotto

Last nights rabbit was stripped of any extra meat (particularly the fore legs) and then added to a litre of water and a couple of bay leaves and boiled to make some stock.

This was used as the stock for a risotto which was warmed to just short of boiling for the risotto making.

Fry a chopped red onion in olive oil until soft and add a crushed clove of garlic.

Fry a cup of arborio risotto rice for 3 minutes or until the rice starts to go see through. Add a glass of white wine and wait for it to be absorbed by the rice.

Add a small ladle of stock at a time replenishing when absorbed by the rice. Continue until the rice has become soft.

Add a chopped red pepper (helps with the colour) and half a dozen chopped mushrooms.

Stir through a tablespoon of grated parmesan and a knob of goats butter. Season to taste.

Springbok and Sundried Tomato Tart

Springbok and Sundried Tomato Tart

Make some short crust pastry and shape into a deep flan case. Blind bake and let cool.

Fill the case with springbok sausage meat (previously sauted in a pan till cooked through), 4 tbs pasata, 6 sundried tomatoes in olive oil, 125g ball of mozarella torn into pieces and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake for 25 mins till cheese is melted through.

serve with salad

Crocodile steaks with sweet potato chips

The initial 6 weeks probation is over so I am switching to only things that we cook now .

Crocodile steaks with sweet potato chips

Cut 2 sweet potatoes into chunky chips coat in about 2 tbs of olive oil, drizzle with 2 tsp clear honey and sprinkle with salt. Scatter a few cloves of garlic (crushed with the heel of the hand) into the roasting tray and roast for 20 mins on a high heat.

Meanwhile season 2 crocodile steaks (from www.alternativemeats.com) and in a hot pan melt an ounce of goats butter until going nut brown - add a chopped red onion, fry until translucent. Fry the crocodile steak for 2 mins each side. Set the croc to one side to rest and add 2 tsp of rosemary and lime jelly and mix into the onion and remaining butter. Pour over the croc steak.

serve with steamed French beans.