Pot-roast Red Deer

Friday on the way back shopping we popped into the local abattoir shop (they always have good special offers and it doesn't get fresher than this).

On the fresh meat refigeration was some new season red deer, well as I hadn't had a chance to get any my self yet this was the next best thing.

So I bought a piece of haunch about 1.5kg.

This I decided would go nice with a bit of freshly picked asparagus.

Ingredients for poached boned haunch of Red deer a la Spotteddick.

1.5kg of boneless Red deer (or Roe, fallow or Muncjaque)

Fresh herbs, sprig of thyme, rosemary, origano, about 3 fresh bay leaves, 5 large sage leaves.

Course ground salt

10 pepper corns

5 juniper berries

1 medium sized onion (I used 1/2 a large one)

1 shallot

1 clove of garlic

1 piece of celeriac 

Game spices ground (as much or as little as you want) 

Jellified stock (you can use a beef stock cube, but it will not have the same debth of flavour)

300 ml of red wine and a similar amount of finished stock

Method

First thing was to remove all the silver skin and tendons, this left the piece in a large muscle and a few smaller ones.

I put the bits and pieces removed into a pan with a small handful of freeze dried root vegetables, a jar of jellified game stock (home made from my last boil down of game bones and carcasses etc.)

Put the dried ceps in water to reconstitute (add a bit of sherry for extra flvour)

I had picked fresh herbs from my balcony and stripped the leaves from the stems of rosemary, origano and thyme. The stems also went into the stock pot.

Next I made a herb butter with the leaves of the above and also some fresh sage and bay leaves, chopped the herbs in the blender, added some butter (about 100g), added salt and pepper.

Liberally ground some of my game spices onto the meat and then spread the herb butter onto one side of the larger piece of meat then placed the other pieces on top and rolled, tied this into a parcel using cooking twine. Ground some game spices onto a flat surface and rolled the parcel in this coating the outside.

Put this into a container just big enough and poured in a glass of  dry red wine, covered and into the fridge for a few hours (over night if possible).

When ready to cook remove from the container, gently pat dry with kitchen roll (don't rub it as you will remove the game spices)

Heat some oil in a heavy casserole, brown the meat parcel all over, including the ends, this does not seal any thing in, but the myth still lingers that one is sealing the meat!! what it does do is gives it colour and adds flavour to the stock. Remove and set aside.

Sweat the onions, shallot, celeriac and garlic in the oil until translucent. Add a squeeze of tomato puree, next add the mushrooms and drained ceps, and sauté with the rest in the casserole, add the juniper berries (crush them a bit between your finger and thumb) and pepper corns.

put the meat parcel on top and pour in the stock through a sieve, add the red wine and water that the ceps had been soaked in (Strain through a very fine sieve). heat this up until it bubbles put top on and place into a pre-heated oven at about 180°C for 2 hours.

When cooked, remove and set aside, loosly covered, strain the cooking liquor through a sieve into a sauce pan, add a dollop of either red current jelly or as I did sloe and black berry. Reduce until it coats the back of a spoon and adjust seasoning (though it should be just right, mine was lol)

Served with sauteed potaoes, speck and onion and fresh white asparagus