Coelho à Portuguesa

This can be done with any part of the rabbit, but I prefer the hind legs as they give equal portions with no faff.



You require

For the marinade

1 Small Chilli (fresh if possible)

1 red pepper

1 Table spoon Mustard seeds

1 clove of garlic

2 Juniper berries

1 shallot

Splash of olive oil

Splash of white wine vinegar

Desert spoon of capers

2 cloves

Squeeze of lemon juice

Blend all together in either a blender or a pestle & mortar, I used both seeds, chillies and onions in the motar and red pepper in the blender.

This is not a Piri piri sauce so do not over do the chilli

Cut slashes to the bone in the meat.

Rub the marinade into the rabbit portions and place into a freezer bag or the like. Pour in all the remaining marinade. Place in the fridge for at least 12 hours, massaging the joints every time you go past the fridge, or set the alarm clock every hour .

For the stewing broth,

1 onion

1 clove of garlic(crushed in paper skin)

100g streaky bacon

2 table spoons of olive oil

1ltr of home made game or chicken stock ( I made a rabbit stock from the head, front legs, rib cage, heart and lungs.

2 stalks of celery

3 Cardamom pods

Small piece of cinnamon bark

1 Bay leaf

4 juniper berries

1 Desert spoon sweet paprika powder.

1 small carton of Greek yoghurt.



Remove rabbit joints from bag scrape off most of the marinade back into the bag (other wise it will burn)

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onions and bacon, do not colour the onions (remove from pan add garlic and rabbit joints raise heat and brown very quickly.

Now add the stock to the bag with the marinade in and transfer all the ingredients except the yoghurt into a Cataplana or slow cooker (I used my slow cooker) cook for about 4-5 hours, on a low heat, about an hour before the end stir in the yoghurt (it is also very nice with sour cream)

Sliced Roebuck liver with apple/onion compote

I was having a think and as I have to pop around to see a mate of mine and he will more than likely have some fresh roe liver (May being the start of the roebuck season)

So here is my way of doing it.


Ingredients

600 g Roe buck liver cleaned of all skin, blood vessels and gristle
Nutmeg
Oil
2 shallots chopped
½ tspn of chopped fresh thyme
½ tspn of chopped fresh rosemary
80 g of butter
1 tbl spn Parsley
chopped fine
100 g Goose fat
200 g onions finely chopped
2 tbl spn sugar
1 tbl spn of honey
100 ml White wine
100 ml Apple juice
200 g diced apples
Salt
Pepper

Methology

Apple compote

Heat the goose fat and fry the onions until they are translucent but not taken on colour add a pinch of salt, the sugar and honey, turn the heat down low and add bit by bit a splash of wine and a splash of apple juice, the onions should turn into a pulp (about 1 hour), now add the apple pieces and cook this until they soften, add S&P to taste. Remove and set aside.

Slice the liver into fine strips, S&P and a dust with the nutmeg. heat the oil (spitting hot) quickly seal the outside and turn the heat down add the shallots, rosemary and thyme, fry for short time in the still hot oil. Tip into a sieve, drain. In the mean time heat the butter until it foams, add the contents of the sieve to the pan, quickly sauté add the chopped parsley; serve on a bed of the apple compote.

A mash or Spätzle go with it very nicely as does red cabbage.

I make the compote ahead and store in jam jars ready to use in a lot of game recipes and sauces.

Roebuck liver with marinated damsons and Jerusalem artichokes and artichoke chips.

500 g damsons.
1.5 L of red wine vinegar
250 g of brown sugar
½ stick cinnamon
15 g piece of root ginger peeled and finely sliced
1 bay leaf
5-6 black pepper corns

About 400 g prepared roe deer liver
Salt
Milk
Rape oil
A small handful of thyme
5 juniper berries
Flour
Butter for frying
Pepper out of the mill
250 ml of a good home made game stock.
A bit of salted butter for the sauce.
For the Jerusalem artichoke puree
400 g Jerusalem artichokes
Salt
40 g butter
3 tsp of crème fraiche

For the chips

2 Jerusalem artichoke tubers, peeled and finely sliced on a mandolin placed in a bowl of cold water
Fat to deep fry
Salt.

For the marinated damsons

Boil the vinegar, brown sugar and all the spices together remove scum, turn off the heat, add damsons and leave over night

Next day boil it up again, until the skins of the damsons start to split. Remove from liquid set aside and boil the liquid until it turns into syrup.
Divide the damsons into kilner jars Strain the warm syrup through a sieve on top of them.
You now have a supply of marinated damsons to use now and for later.

Liver

Place the liver in a shallow dish cover completely with lightly salted milk. Leave for about 5 hours.
Remove, dry and cut into 1 cm thick slices
Heat oil in a frying pan
Add the thyme and juniper berries
Dust the liver with the flour (put the flour in a plastic bag add the liver and shake)
Heat the rape oil, quickly brown the liver on both sides pour off the oil add the butter and sauté a little ( the liver should still be nice and pink or red if you are like me)
S&P, remove and set it aside on a plate
Add a jar of your marinated damsons to deglaze the pan.
Add the game stock bubble up and add the butter in pieces to give it a nice shine.

Jerusalem artichoke puree

Place the tubers on a baking tray covered with salt
And place in a 200 degree oven for 50 mins to 1 hour.
Peel the still warm tubers and crush with a fork add the butter and mix well add the crème fraiche and mix to a puree.

Remove the chips from the water pat dry and deep fry until golden brown, add salt to taste.

To serve place the puree in the middle, top with a couple of slices of liver place the sauce around and top with some chips.

You can also do this with Celeriac puree

Or Champ

Or a potato and turnip (Swede for the southerners) mash

An Indian Evening amongst friends

This was an evening (well an afternoon and evening) soirée, I had been in the kitchen most of the previous day and all morning, but this is a place I love to spend my time.

The table before the meal

The Soup had been made the week before and placed in the freezer, this you will find under the recipes, thanks once again Mamta.

The bread is a one that I have made before and as with most bread, is my variation on a theme. It is spiced saffron bread, the recipe you will find on my baking Fred page.

The mains consisted of:

Clockwise, buttered chicken, Bombay potatoes, tandoori lamb, beef vindaloo, more lamb and centre the Imperial Biryani

Buttered chicken*, this is a one that I tried out on Linda last week only this week I used de-boned chicken thighs (they where on special offer at my local Turkish butchers €4.99 kg). You will find it  under Indian

Beef Vindaloo*

Here is the link to Mamtas web site and my recipe that I posted last year

http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=13424

And a few photos just to give you a clue!

The 2kg piece of rump.

Dicing ready for action

                                                                                                            Chopped onions, garlic and ginger

Softening them

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

Mamtas Carrot and Tomato soup (I did it my way)

I am doing a bit of pre-prep for next weekend and also a few of trials (Butter chicken, saffron rice)!

This soup is a very smooth soup and due to the fact I added coriander at the end gave it that unmistakable Indian flavour.

Ingrediants:

500gr tomatoes (I used ripe small sweet ones from Aldi)
150gr carrots diced
1/2 a large onion, chopped
White of a leek
1 clove of garlic crushed and diced
1/4 of a globe of cerleriac diced
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon (it may have been a little more) Ghee
3 large brown cardamoms (increased from mamtas 2 for no other reason than I like the taste of it)
4 cloves
500 ml vegetable stock (Marigold)
1/2 a grated nutmeg (I think that should equate to a 1/2 a teaspoon)
a few turns of fresh milled pepper
1 bunch of fresh corriander including stalks
1 teaspoon of tomato pureé


Method

Chop onions, carrots, celeriac, leek, half tomatoes, melt Ghee in a large deep frying pan, add the onions, leek and garlic, soften, add the dry spices, add the cerleriac, carrots and tomatos and fry until the tomatoes soften and skin goes wrinkly (bit like mine).

The Ghee

The onions, tomatoes and celeriac

Add the stock, on with the lid and turn the heat down to a simmer and off I went to get some fresh Asparagus for the main course.

After about 1/2 hour, on my return (I also had to have a look how the game in the fields was doing)
I removed bay leaves and cardamom pods, blitzed with my puree stick thingy me bob! I added the bunch of coriander (removed only the roots) and blitzed once again.
Tasted. It didn't need any Salt, just a couple of turns of pepper, it was sweet enough so no sugar.
I am sure it will go down a bomb with my guests, once again a big thank you to Mamta, she always pulls it off, wonderful.

Ready for the freezer after taking 2 portions out.

Mamtas Butter chicken a bit different

Well after last nights over indulgent (and the remainder for lunch today) I decided on a light evening meal tonight, I was at my regular monthly skittle evening and Linda went shopping to Bielefeld so it was a slow cooker meal. I decide on Butter Chicken almost as Mamta makes it. Here is my version:

For the marinade,
2 large cloves of garlic diced
2" piece of ginger diced
2 large shallots diced
2 Fresno chilies, deseeded and diced
1 red long paprika (these are a bit hotter than the normal round bell peppers)
2 tomatoes 1/4rd

Blitz in a moulinette

Method

Cube 550gr of chicken breasts (that was what 4 came to)
Now make your spices for the marinade
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of white mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of fenchel seeds
1 crushed black cardamom pod
1 crushed green cardamom pod
1 teaspoon of methi seeds
1 tea spoon of cumin seeds
1 inch of cinnamon crushed

Dry roast the above and grind either in a pestle and mortar with a teaspoon of coarse salt (or if you’re rich you may have an electric mill). Add this to the blitzed wet ingredients, add a about 100ml of milk, a teaspoon of turmeric and a desert spoonful of sugar (I used sugar replacement)

Add the diced chicken breast to the marinade and make sure it is all covered with the marinade, leave for about 1/2 hour

Melt 50gr (or a bit more) of clarified butter (ghee) and 3 table spoons of corn oil in a heavy bottomed pan.

Add 1 large onion halved and sliced, and soften, now add the chicken and marinade, cook for about 5 minutes, transfer all to the slow cooker, add a small handful of crushed cashew nuts and a small handful of curry leaves.

This went on low for 4 hours, when I came in, I made some popperdoms, added some fresh chopped coriander leaves, stirred in a carton (200g) of crème Fraise. That was it cooked some saffron rice opened a couple of jars of Chutneys (one bought, one home made).

This was a trial for my Birthday bash next weekend and it was a great success (well, I would say that wouldn't I!!!)

Crushing the toasted methi seeds

Bread baking on Ascension day

Well as part of the general day (weather not nice no where open and I don't have a bike). It was a cooking baking day (it actually started last night but ran into today)

First I had a go at ciabatta.

Turned out  very nice, we had a little for breakfast.

Next was  a Rye, whole meal, sour dough.  bread that turned out beyond all expectations.

First disolved the sour dough and yeast starter in 500ml of warm water with 50ml of orange juice and 2 teaspoons of runny honey ;-).

Then mixed 375gr of rye flour, 275gr strong wheat flour and 100gr whole meal flour. to this added 2 table spoons of dried, roasted onions (the ones that you add to the top of hotdogs in Ikea) added the starter to the dry mixture and mixed for about 3 minutes and then added  2 teaspoons of salt and mixed for a further 2 minutes.

Covered and left to rise for 1 hour.(until it had doubled in size).

Then I divided the dough into 2 and formed these (very gently) into two loaves on a floured baking tray, gave them the Sweeny Todd effect (it does look nice). Covered and left to do their thing for another hour.

Into oven at 250°C for 10 minutes then reduce to 200°C for another 50 minutes. I placed a dish of water in the bottom of the oven to give it a bit of steam. Turned out and left to cool on a rack (well we did give it a try with a bit of butter. mmmmmmmmmmm, it was rather nice.

And the bread for the coming few days.

Notice the hole at the bottom, ahem! that is what happens when you try to cut bread when it's still warm, BUT, it does taste nice with butter melting into it.

Spiced Rabbit, blackpudding and chorrizo stew

This is a one that you can set on low go out and forget about, or turn it up a bit higher and its done in less than an hour.

Ingredients

I saddle of rabbit (or 4 legs if you wish) chopped into 3 pieces

1 ring of Bury black pudding

1 cooking chorrizo

A slice of  juniper cooked smoked belly

1 chilli

6 shallots chopped

3 cloves of garlic chopped

1 yellow or red  pepper

6 small ripe tomatoes

A sprig of  sage

A couple of twigs of rosemary

250 ml of vegetable stock

Glass of dry white wine.

Olive oil for frying

Small sliced and diced root vegetables (carrot, leek, onion, celariac)

Cut the rabbit into 3 or 4 pieces and S&P, slice the  black pudding and chorrizo into bite size pieces, cut the belly into large dice. Crush and finely chop the garlic, dice the shallots, cut the tomatoes into quarters, slice the pepper into slices.

Fry the root veg and place on the base of the roasting tin, place the tivot on top.

Brown the rabbit in a little olive oil in a large frying pan. Remove and transfer to a tivet in a roasting tin.



Fry the belly pork next, then add the shallots, fry until translucent, then add the garlic, chilli, chorrizo and herbs.

Next if you have the rabbit offel (heart, liver, lungs and kidney's) add this along with the black pudding pieces, fry quickly and add to the roasting tin.

Deglaze the pan with the stock and wine, put the sliced peppers and quartered tomatoes into the tin and pour over the liquor.

Cover with foil and put into a slow oven  180°C if your going out or into a one of about 200°-210°C if your staying in and need a quick meal. The food is ready when the meat is falling off the bones (this will depend on how old the rabbit is) This is also a perfect meal for a slow cooker.

Serve with new poatoes and young glazed carrots