Sunday 4 March 2012

Busy cooking on Saturday.

I have been busy nearly all day yesterday, as I had a friend for lunch and another for supper.
I want to share the recipe for venison which I cooked in the evening

VENISON AGRIDOLCE

800 grms of leg steak
2 onions and 3 cloves of garlic chopped
2 carrots ,2 sticks of celery and half a bulb of fennel roughly chopped, bay leaves, thyme, sage leaves,a aprig of rosemary ,plus some parsley and finally  3 extra cloves of garlic , some choped parsley and basil to be added later.
Red wine and olive oil for the marinade,
Half a pint of game stock or beef stock ,plus pepper and salt.
A handful of sultanas, some pine nuts and some choped candied orange peel , 4 squares of dark chocolate and 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar.  3 Amarreti biscuits crumbled. This is added for the final 10 minutes of cooking .

Cut the steaks into 3 cms pieces and put them plus the vegetables and herbs into a bowl ,and pour  over the marinade so that the meat is covered. Leave for up to 12 hours
 Drain the meat from the marinade and vegetables ,but keep everything , as you will use it to all..

Brown the meat in hot oil,and make sure all pieces are browned all over, then add the onions and garlic. Cook until  they become translucent, and then add all the vegetables,pour over the marinade and bring to a simmer.Add the extra garlic and the chopped herbs and seasoning..
Cover and cook for 1 and a half hours.

In a separate pan , To 8 tablespoons of water add the currants, the pine nuts and the peel, the chocolate ,
 and finally the vinegar.Allow the chocolate to melt, then pour it  into the venison , crumble over the biscuits. Cook for another 10 minutes to allow the flavours to mingle.

I served this with Polenta,to which I added some tomato and basil.

Really good if cooked one day, and served the next.