Venison Stew

I was given a leg of venison by my dad. He knows a guy whose son hunts. None of them seem too keen on it, but I am. Have had venison a few times and it is always delicious. Bit pricey and tricky to get, so was very happy with this.

Venison Stew

Ingredients

1.5 kg of venison leg - chopped into chunks
2 Rashers of smoked bacon, roughly chopped
1 Parsnip
5 Carrots
3 Tbsp of redcurrant jelly
1 Onion
3 Sticks of Celery
1 Beef stock cube

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
Peel and roughly chop the vegetables. Fry them in a little olive oil in a large pot suitable for the oven.
When they have softened remove them from the pot and put aside.
In the same pot fry the bacon until some of the fat starts to come out. Brown the chunks of venison in with the bacon. Return the vegetable mixture to the pot and cover the whole lot with boiling water from the kettle. Add the beef stock cube and make sure it is dissolved.
Bring to the boil and place it in the oven with the lid on.
It will be ready in about 90 minutes. Check the meat is tender before serving.
I serve this with steamed potatoes and turnip.

Sort of Baked Ziti

I was a fan of the Sopranos and they always seemed to be eating stuff called Ziti. I looked it up and there are as many recipes as there are Italians it would appear, so here is my take on it.

Ingredients

Meat

• 600g Minced beef
• 2 Smoked bacon rashers chopped

Sauce

• 1 Onion chopped
• 1 Red pepper chopped small
• 3 Carrots chopped small
• 3 Sticks of celery chopped small
• 3 Cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 Tins of plum tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp of tomato puree
• Splash of balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil (olive is good, but not extra virgin)

Everything else

• 200g Cheddar cheese, or enough to cover the dish generously
• Pasta - I used penne, but anything smallish will do
• Parmesan to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
Fry the beef and bacon until fully coloured. Remove from the pot to make the rest of the sauce.

Make a standard tomato sauce. Usually called Marinara. Mine is like this one, but without added sugar. Cook all of the sauce ingredients except the vinegar, tomatoes and tomato purée on a medium heat until the onion is softened - about 20 minutes. Then add the tomatoes and vinegar and stir. Continue to cook until the carrots are soft.

Cook the pasta in plenty boiling water.
Mix the sauce, meat and pasta and pour into a buttered baking dish.
Cover with lots of cheddar cheese and bake in a 200 degree C oven for about 10 minutes. Until the cheese on top is beginning to brown and is nice and chewey.

I serve this with a rocket salad with toasted pine nuts.

Michael Pollan's 'Cooked'

Like everything that I have read by Michael Pollan, Cooked is excellent and thought provoking. It goes through some of the history of cooking and importantly why we still do and don't cook. Some sad trends - watching cooking up, doing cooking down, but some very positive stuff too.

The best thing was when I had finished I felt inspired to make up some recipes of my own. There are 4 recipes in the back, one from each of the main sections of the book, but this book gave me the confidence to try my own stuff out. It's working well so far - well except for the sauerkraut. I don't know if I have the guts to roast a whole pig overnight. Well I do, but my wife might have words with me over that. But a big chunk of meat is getting slowly bbq'ed this summer.

If you like to cook this book is a great addition to your library and it is not just another cook book.