Succulent braised venison
By Nick Nairn
Cooking time
Prep: 15 mins Cook: 1 hr, 50 minsSkill level
EasyServings
Serves 8Venison benefits from long, slow cooking, and this Scottish dish develops a beautifully earthy sweetness - try it as an alternative to turkey, or for Hogmanay
Nutrition and extra info
Additional info
- Freezable
- Easily doubled
- Healthy
Nutrition
- kcalories
- 277
- protein
- 30g
- carbs
- 18g
- fat
- 10g
- saturates
- 2g
- fibre
- 2g
- sugar
- 2g
- salt
- 0.7g
Ingredients
- 2 carrots, roughly chopped
- 140g turnips or swede, roughly chopped
- 2 onions, roughly chopped
- 3 celery sticks, roughly chopped
- olive oil and butter, for frying
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1kg boned leg or shoulder of venison, cut into large chunks (or buy ready-cubed venison for stewing)
- 5 tbsp plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp redcurrant jelly (or rowan or hawthorn jelly)
- 450ml dry red wine (Rioja is good)
- 450ml beef stock
- 2 thyme sprigs
- 1 bay leaf
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Method
- Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Fry the vegetables in a little oil and butter in a heavy-based casserole for 4-5 mins until golden. Tip in the garlic and fry for a further min, then set aside.
- Put the venison into a plastic bag with seasoned flour and shake to coat. Add a little more oil and butter to the pan, then fry the venison over a high heat, stirring now and then, until well browned. Don’t crowd the pan – cook in batches if necessary. Set aside with the vegetables.
- Add the redcurrant jelly and wine to the pan, and bring to the boil, scraping up all the bits that have stuck to the bottom. Pour in the stock, then add the thyme, bay leaf, meat and vegetables. Season if you like and bring to the boil. Cover and transfer to the oven for about 1½ hrs or until tender. Remove from the oven and check the seasoning.
Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2006
Comments, questions and tips
Comments
I followed the recipe exactly apart from the celery, as I am trying not to buy extra vegetables in addition to the veg box. The dish was tasty but not amazing. The meat was wonderfully tender and it was rich, but seemed to be lacking some depth of flavour. I will try making it again because it was nice, but will mess around with the recipe a bit. I think frying some pancetta beforehand and using the fat from that to cook the vegetables would be good. I would use an extra sprig of thyme, another clove of garlic and would cook the red wine off for longer. I served this with mashed potatoes, and cabbage cooked with a little nutmeg.
My wife made this last evening and it is certainly a very tasty dish.
I agree with the comments about it not serving 8, my wife did half quantity and it just served the two of us, although we had no additional vegetables.
One ingredient I would also query - the Garlic.
For half quantity she should have used half a clove. She actually put one whole one in, crushed. When she wasn't looking I added two more, grated.
Even then, in the dish as served it was difficult to notice any Garlic influence.