Red Deer Fillet Strogonov

Red Deer Stroganov

On one of the cookery boards, of which I am a member, there had been a discussion about the ins and outs of making a Beef Strogonov, I decided that making it with red deer fillet would be another step up in opulence, I thought that as the one served in a lot of top class restaurants bears no resemblance to the original Russian dish, then I was quite at liberty to adjust mine. I tried to keep as near as possible to my dear friend Ian's recipe, but did tweak it a little. 

The original recipe published in Elena Molokhovets Russian cook book back in 1871 contained only cubes of beef sautéed and served in a sauce made from mustard and bullion  finished with a small amount of soured cream, it contained neither mushrooms nor onions.

So here is my version.

Ingredients.
  

First get yourself a deer preferably red as it will have a decent sized fillet, well 2 actually. This one was a good 750g after preparation. I removed the silver skin and cut off the fillet head (the thick part that sits at the top side of the long fillet).

As I said above I used my friend’s recipe and he had borrowed it from an original recipe. I did make a few changes, as the original used beef fillet (well what else would you expect in a beef stroganov?).

The making of the stroganov is actually very quick, the longest part is preparing the fillet and sautéing the onions and mushrooms.

750g of trimmed red deer fillet (from the thin end) sliced into rounds approx. 6-10mm thick then cut into lengths. 

1½ tsp. of mustard powder

1½ tsp. caster sugar

1 pinch of Marigold stock powder

200g of brown cap mushrooms

150g of ceps

150 g of chanterelles

4 medium onions (peeled)

450ml of crème fraiche

Salt and pepper to taste

200ml of vegetable oil

Make the mustard powder, sugar and Marigold powder to a paste with a little warm water and allow it to stand for about 15 minutes prior to use.

Slice the onions very thinly, clean the mushrooms, these were fresh so still had some soil, leaves and grass, so use a stiff small brush, then cut out any soft and wormy parts. Slice them to thinnish pieces. Pour half of the oil into a hot heavy bottomed frying pan add the onions and the mushrooms, reduce the heat and sauté (cover and reduce the heat to very low) for 20 minutes about ½ way through add the crème fraiche to the onions and mushrooms, add the mustard paste and stir in, cover for a further 10 minutes.

In a second frying pan heat the remainder of the of the oil, smoking hot, add half the fillets strips, quickly  brown all around, remove and place in the onion, mushroom melange, repeat with the rest of the fillet strips again adding to the sauce. Stir in and adjust seasoning, this needed just a couple of turns of cracked black pepper. 

Serve at once in a pre-heated terrine; we ate it with savoy cabbage and gnocchi.

Very, very tasty and well worth the small amount of effort, a perfect dinner party dish.

Marinated Baby Octopus

Marinated Small Octopods

The rub is you must first be able to get small octopods, it isn’t easy so when they are on the market grab them with eight arms.

Having got them, if not cleaned, you will have to do it, not hard but fiddly, Slit the head and remove all of the gung then snip out the beak (a pair of those small curved scissors that you missus has in her pedicure sachet, CLEAN them FIRST).

Put them in a pan of water with a heaped teaspoon of Marigold vegetable stock , bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes, they should be just done, anymore and they toughen up, if this does happen all is not lost. Pour out most of the liquid and slowly braise until tender.

When they are cooking make the marinade.

2 table spoons of EVO

1 tsp. of raspberry vinegar

2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp. white wine vinegar

½ tsp. each of thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjoram

½ tsp. sea salt

½ tsp. ground black pepper

Place this all in a container and mix well, when the octopods are cooked, remove them with a slotted spoon

 and put in to the marinade, mix well and cover.

 

 Put in the fridge, allow to marinade for 24-36 hours.

 

Mixed game puds and pies

Well it is Euro footy time and I have so far not missed a match, though with them having two together now it makes for a bit of juggling with the remote, but with a netbook, I am able to keep tabs on the secondary match.

But that has nothing to do with cooking game puds and pies. I was clearing out my game freezer and had quite a bit that needed using up, what better way than making individual puds for the freezer. So you will require:

Mixed game:
2 hare legs
3 rabbit legs
Breasts of 2 pigeons
500 g diced leg of wild boar
500 g diced red deer haunch

Remove meat and dice adding:

1 desert spoon of my ground game spices
slug each of gin, port and cassis, teaspoon of herb spices.

Mix all together, cover and allow to marinate overnight

This made more than enough filling for the six individual pud and a small pie. The rest is frozen so I have a quick pie or pud filling all ready for the off.

I also had about 1.5 ltr of beef stock that I had frozen about a month ago, perfect to make the game stock.

After stripping the meat from the bones and carcasses (also a good time to look for any shot), I added a roughly diced onion , leek, carrot and a chunk of celeriac, a teaspoon of  pepper corns, a piece of ginger, 2 crushed garlic cloves, a bouquette garni, add to the pressure cooker, some oil and sautéed with the bones and carcasses, pour in the beef stock (this was jellified), top up with water so all is covered, lid on up to heat and cook for 1 hour. Strain through funnel sieve,  Boy do you have a game stock!

For the filling:

Remove the meats with a slotted spoon from the marinade and allow to drain.
Small dice of leek, onion, carrot, cerleriac, a large garlic clove pressed (pulped). I added some frozen cepes and chanterelles that I had in the freezer (Lidel or Aldi can't remember which, but cheap)
Heat a little olive oil in the base of the Pressure Cooker add all of the vegetables and soften, add the meats and colour (I don't bother about browning as it has enough of it's own flavour), now add a litre of the stock and marinade mixed, lid on and cook for an hour. Remove the filling and take a good 1/2 ltre of stock, reduce and taste (oh boy does that taste fantastic)

Now make the herb suet pastry:

200g suet (1 pkt atora)
450 g SR flour
good pinch of salt
2 tsp of mixed dried herbs
enough  cold water to bring it all together to a firm dough

I cut it all together with a metal spoon (some say with a round knife, but "Wor Mam" always used a spoon so there you go) and then when it starts to come together give it a knead with your hands, form into a ball, cover and allow to rest.

Measure the dariol moulds to gauge the diameter of pastry needed, this turned out to be the exact size of one of my saucers (alas no more, it is now broken, never mind I broke a cup a while back so now have a 5 matching set again).

I just gauge the size of the ball of pastry, that I shall need and roll it out to about 2-3mm thick,put the saucer on top and cut round it. Cut out 1/4 of the circle this will be your lid.

The dariol moulds should have been buttered and then put into the fridge. Remove one at a time and ease the pastry into each in turn, sealing the cuts with thumb and fingers, it will have a good bit of overhang, make sure there is no air trapped between mould and pastry. Spoon in the filling (allow it to be proud of the top, spoon in 2 desert spoons of sauce.
Now place the disc on top to form a lid and folding the over hang together with your forefinger and thumb form a rope crimp. (it looks very pretty).

Place a piece of foil with a pleat in the middle and secure with string or if you can get it, that elasticated string that butchers use to tie their joints into shape. Tie this into rings and it will hold it into place and you don't have to fiddle with knots (I just don't have enough fingers)

Place them into a Slow Cooker (if you don't have a one don't get upset and feel left out, just use a pan with steamer insert, it just means you will have to keep an eye on the water I won't) and pour boiling water half way up the moulds, top on and switch on high for 5 hours. You can now watch the footy in peace!

Oh! yes almost forgot! The pie, well I made that in between, that was just some filling in a pie dish with a short crust pastry top. I shall be eating that at half time with some asparagus and rosemary potatoes.

Tournedos Rossini

Tournedos Rossini


Linda had bought a couple of filet steaks already dressed (had the bacon skirt held in place with those elastic garters). So we decided to have these for Sunday lunch (late as we had , had a full English earlier)

Ingredients

2 ready prepared filet steaks

Salt flakes,

Fresh ground pepper

Olive oil

Fois Gras (in this case as we had no fresh we used the preserved semi-cru)

Duxelle (mushroom, shallot and grain mustard)

Crouton (2 rounds of rye sour dough bread fried in duck or goose fat)

Oil, salt and pepper the steaks (I oil the steak and not the pan)

Method

Fry the duxelle until quite dry in a heavy based pan (cast iron in this case), in the same pan, heat a little duck or goose fat, add the croutons and fry until golden brown

Switch on the oven and allow to heat to about 180°C

Heat the frying pan until it smokes,

Place the steaks in the pan and do not move until they come away of their own free will, flip them over and repeat. Now brown the outside holding the tournedos with tongs.  Spread the croutons with the duxelle,

place a steak on each and sprinkle with salt flakes and fresh ground black pepper a plate, put the fois gras on top and place in the oven to finish cooking.

Now make the redwine sauce

¼ bottle redwine

250ml of stock (beef if you have it or better still a thick beef consommé)

2 teaspoons of olive oil

Very fine chopped mixed vegetables (carrots, shallot, leek)

50g of finely diced smoked ham (or speck)

½ teaspoon of sugar

Beurre marnier

Salt and pepper.

In the same pan add the oil and soften the veg (if finely diced it won’t take long) add the wine and reduce,

add the stock and sugar, reduce until it starts to thicken. Now whisk in the beurre marnier, a little at a time, until the sauce is rich and glossy.

Take the steaks out of the oven and allow to rest

Place a table spoonful of the red wine sauce on a plate, on top of this place your Tournedos Rossini.

We had this with spinach and creamed potatoes.

Pity we didn't have any truffles that would have just rounded it off!

Roast Wild Duck Christmas Supper

Christmas Dinner (Supper)

Due to complications beyond my control (Al didn’t arrive until 21:30) the original menu was changed just a little, it was now to be:

Starter:  Lobster cocktail.

No Soup

Main: Slow roasted Wild Duck with a forced meat stuffing, sour black cherry sauce, confit potatoes, steamed Brussels and spiced red cabbage.

Dessert:  Dickies Christmas pudding and Devon brandy clotted cream

Starter: Lobster cocktail

Buy yourself a fresh lobster and cook it,(I bought mine already cooked, as the lady at the Gosch  fish counter said they had just been cooked fresh that morning).

Break off the claws, crack and remove the meat.

Remove the head and set aside (I was to be using this tomorrow for a lobster fish sauce)

Turn the Lobster body belly side up and cut along the inside where the swim legs are with a pair of kitchen scissors (both sides) turn back the resulting flap and remove the meat.

Cut the body meat into bite size pieces, remove the membrane from the claw meat and half each  piece but leave it recognisable as it looks nice and proves your using real lobster, I mean if your spending this amount of time and effort (not to mention the money)on a starter you want it to be noticed. Cover and set aside.

Make yourself a nice pink cocktail sauce “Marie Rose type”

130g pot of crème fraiche

½ teaspoon of tomato puree

Pinch of smoked paprika

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Tomato seasoning salt

Juice of half a lime

Splash of fish sauce

Mix all the above together and test for seasoning, adjust as you wish.

Buy a bag of small leaf mixed salad leaves, wash and pick over (there are always a few that are not so fresh).  Cut 3 cocktail (well it is a lobster cocktail) tomatoes in to ¼’s and de-seed. Peel a mandarin (or any other seasonal soft skinned orange) and break into segments, a small handful of walnut kernals.

Make a salad dressing (I just made a simple French one as the cocktail sauce was to dominate) chop the walnuts add to the leaves and mix.

Just before serving,  add the dressing and mix well, place in a champagne glass, place the tomato and mandarin segments around the outside pile up the lobster meat on top and cover with the cocktail sauce.

Main: Two roast wild ducks stuffed with sage, onion, forced meat mixture.

Game birds can be a bit iffy, because unless you know how to select young ones, they are likely to be tough (for swimming waterfowl the colour of the skin tells you if it is young). Because of this I had decided to slow roast them when planning the menu.

Make your stuffing:

1 packet of sage and onion stuffing (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!)

50g of Zwiebel mett (buy it ready prepared or in the UK use 2 good quality sausages)

1 dessert spoon of chopped fresh sage

1 shallot

A knob of butter

150g of pork collar

150g of cured belly (bauch speck)

50g of pork fat (cut straight from the back speck diced fine)

First make up the packet of stuffing as per the instructions, now heat the butter in a frying pan and soften the diced shallot and garlic, add this to the mixture. Cut the pork collar into cubes and along with the diced bauch speck  add to the blender and wizz or buzz or blitz, or  whatever one of these things do (at home I would normally use a hand mincer, but being at Linda’s I was forced down the automation route).  Add to the stuffing along with the met, now the fun part, hands are required, get  them in amongst it and give it a good squidging ,there is no other term for this, squeeze it between your fingers so that you get a homogenous mass (you could use your wiz, buzz, blitzer, thingy-me-bob, but that is no fun at all). Taste, you could fry a small paté and adjust the seasoning if required, you shouldn’t need any salt, as the speck and Mett will contain sufficient, but a couple of twists of  pepper or any other additional spices (nutmeg, ground mixed spices or even dried fruit). Now cover and set aside to allow to mature a bit (I made quite a bit as some was to be used in a hot water crust game pie that I was making (see the following episode).

Now the ducks, I find pintails have the finer tasting flesh, but mallard and pochard are not to be sniffed at.

2 wild ducks.

Stuffing from above

2 carrots roughly diced

1 piece of celeriac diced (or a couple of stalks of celery)

White of 1 small leek

1 diced onion

1ltr of good game stock (I had made this from the carcasses etc. from the game for the pies (see it from another episode).

The ducks are best  shot about a week ago and hung in their feathers, pluck (or get some other daft ‘B’ to do it for you) and draw (remove the innards but keep the heart and liver). Wash inside and out, dry, pick all over to remove the last of the downy feathers and stubble (and any obvious shot) salt and pepper inside, stuff with the forced meat, add a sprig of rosemary at the vent end  (Rear)and close it up using tooth picks and kitchen string or thread.

Now rub the outside with game spices, salt and pepper and cover with bacon or pig back fat.

Giblet gravy

Chop the necks, hearts and liver and place in a sauce pan with some game stock, pepper corns, a bay leaf pinned to a small onion with a couple of cloves, a table spoon of dried soup vegetables (Suppengrün), allow to simmer until ready to make, top up with stock if needed.

Place the vegetables in a roasting tray, cover with stock and place the ducks on the top and cover with foil and place in a moderate oven 180 degrees C, let this braise away, spooning  over the stock now and again, if the stock is beginning to get a little low replenish. Remove the foil and increase the temperature to 190 for the last 30 minutes, test by picking the breasts, the juices should run just a little pink.  20 minutes before ready to serve, take the ducks out of the oven and place on a dish, cover and allow to rest.

 Skim off the fat (this is from the pork fat not the duck) and pour the remains of the pan juices etc. through a sieve squeezing the veg to get the last bit of taste out of them  into the giblet gravy stock, now boil up to reduce add a couple of knobs of maître butter to gloss and thicken, adjust seasoning,  pour into a heated sauce boat .  

When ready to serve cut in half and place on either a serving platter or as we did straight onto a warmed dinner plate. 

Sour black cherry sauce.

This time of the year you will have to use either jars or frozen (or pay €16,- per kg for either Chilean or Aussi ones, needless to say mine where frozen, a sprig of rosemary, the  peel of the non-waxed bio mandarin that you used for the lobster cocktail (waste not, want not). 5 large sage leaves, a piece of cinnamon, 5 cardamom pods, 2 cloves, place in a sauce pan and cover with cherry juice.  Place on a very low heat and allow to infuse, add a couple of spoons of cherry jam to add a bit of sweetness  (this can be made well in advance and reheated). Pour this also into a heated sauce boat or suitable serving dish.

Confit Potatoes

6 Large floury potatoes, peel, cut a disc out of the center of each, the thickness is what matters. Heat  of butter in a frying pan and fry until golden brown, turn and repeat,  transfer to roasting dish, add more butter and place a bay leaf between each and put in the oven at 180 degrees (notice the same as the ducks), the whole recipe is from the BBC webbsite

Spiced Red Cabbage.

The recipe for the red cabbage is from the Hairy Bikers and is one of the best I have tasted, this is Linda’s domain, as are the Brussels  (I will not bother you with how to cook these).

Dessert: The Christmas pud

I had made this in November and it was reheated over a boiling water, place a chefs ring in the base of a large pot, Christmas pud into a tupperware  type bowl with a lid on, place on top of the ring, pour boiling water into the pot until it comes halfway up the bowl  steam for 3 hours. Serve with Devon clotted Brandy cream.