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.

A Roe Buck was invited to dinner

It is that time of the year again; autumn and game is on the menu.

The Autumn Table

The venue was out in Rural Kiel and our dear friend Carolyn was hosting and also cooking the main, it was to be saddle of young Roe Buck.

But first a few glasses of sparkling Sekt, then Kalle went into the kitchen to make his starters, it was a poached pear, blue cheese, hazelnut salad, wonderful and light, very tasty a very nice start to the evening.

Kalle preparing the starter

The tasty starter on the table

The wine was a Chardonnay Steinacker

Next was my smoked fish soup.

Ingredients:

Fish stock (I had some already made and frozen, but a jar or a cube will do)

200g of undyed smoked cod

200g of undyed smoked haddock

100g piece of smoked eel

100g smoked trout

100g of Stemmellachs (Hot smoked salmon originally recipe from Pommerania)

15 smoked king prawns

2 carrots

1 wedge of celeriac

1 leek white and light green only (cut in two)

2 cloves

2 pimento berries (all spice)

1 tsp of marigold powder (veg stock)

400ml fish stock (own, jar or made from stock cube)

2ltr of water

1 egg white beaten

While in the UK earlier in the week I had been to the fish counter and bought some smoked (not dyed) haddock and smoked cod (I had planned ahead), on Friday I visited Gosch (an excellent fish purveyor in CITTI) of Sylt and had bought some smoked eel, smoked trout and a piece of Stremmel lachs (hot smoked Baltic salmon).

I first skinned and boned the fish, this went into a pot with some fish stock that I had in the freezer, a diced onion, a grated carrot, a piece of celeriac finely diced, white of a leek also finely diced, 2 cloves, 2 all spice berries, a bouquet garni sachet, a teaspoon of marigold stock powder, a pinch of kukurma (for colour) poured in 2 liters of cold water brought to the boil, skimmed and lowered the heat for 20 minutes.

Add the haddock and cod and poach for a few minutes until the fish is still translucent but just starting to flake. Remove from the liquid and set aside.

I then strained the liquid and clarified with an egg white filter. (Whip the white of an egg until quite fluffy (but not too firm) and put this into the liquid, bring to the boil and skim the resulting scum from the top with a slotted spoon.

The broth should be a clear golden yellow, tasting smoky and defiantly fishy.

This was the base of the smoked fish soup.

I next diced very, very fine (Brunoised) a carrot, a small piece of celeriac (a slice about 1 cm thick) a 3 cm piece of leek (white only) and a shallot. poached this in the stock.

To serve break up the fish into mouth sized pieces (the eel will be soft and may break up into even smaller pieces, it matters not), place in the middle of a soup plate, place 3 of the smoked prawns on each plate, add a teaspoon of tomato petals.  

Bring the broth almost to the boil and ladle over the fish in the plates, snip some chives over and serve immediately.

I served olive rolls along with salty Breton butter and home made herb butter.

Wine was a dry Rotling from the Nahr.

Next along trotted the Roebuck Baden-Baden with cranberry filled poached pears, cepes, Brussel sprouts, red cabbage and spätzle.

As hostess this was Carolyn’s shout, she had bought a whole saddle of young Roebuck, this had been prepared by her local game purveyor.

Preheat the oven up to its maximum (250°-300°)

Melt 40-50g of butter in a small pan.

The saddle is washed and dried, and rubbed with a dry game spice marinade consisting of:

½ tsp Juniper berries

½ tsp allspice berries (pimento)

½ tsp black pepper corns

1 tsp of course salt

Crush all together in a mortar (or grind in an electric grinder).

Place the saddle on a rack in a large roasting pan add a good 2-3mm of red wine to the pan and pour over the saddle the melted butter and put into the hot oven. 

Roast at the high heat for 15-18 minutes (depending on the degree of redness of the meat required), now switch off the oven and allow the saddle to continue cooking for a further 30 minutes.

A perfectly roasted saddle of Roebuck (medium rare)

Vegetables were Martins Job, so in the meantime he washed and cook the Brussels sprouts, heated through the spiced red cabbage and set the salted water for the spätzle to boil, added the spätzle to the water and cook at a rolling boil for 8 minutes (or as directed on the packet) You can of course make your own, if you have the inclination.

Martin adding the nutmeg to his vegetables

Rear spiced cabbage, right spätzle, front game sauce, left Brussels sprouts

Remove the saddle from the oven, remove the filets (top and bottom) from the bones. 

Cut into nice size thick pieces (not fiddly slices).

In between make the sauce, pour the contents of the roasting pan into a sauce pan, add 400 ml of game stock, bring to the boil and add the puréed cranberries and add the cold Beurre Manié ( mixture of 50% butter mixed with 50% flour) in knobs whisking all the time until the sauce thickens.

Pour some over the meat and serve the rest in a sauce boat

Roe, filled pears and sprouts

We also had the cepes roasted alongside the meat and added to the sauce.  

An excellent main course, the meat was succulent and everything passed well together.

Caroline served a very nice 1999 –Bairadda wine as an accompaniment an excellent choice.

To finish the meal Linda had made a Raymond Blanc’s recipe “Poached Autumn Fruits in a spiced wine”

This consisted of:

4 quinces (peeled, cored and quartered)

4 Holstein Cox apples (peeled, cored and quartered)

4 ripe Conference pears (peeled, cored and quartered)

10 plump prunes

A couple of handfuls of blackberries (I had picked these a couple of weeks ago and frozen)

First make your poaching liquor.

Ingredients

800ml of red wine (cabinet Sauvignon in this case)

2 vanilla pods split

2 cinnamon sticks (each about 5cm long)

2 cloves

2 Bay leaves

100g of castor sugar

½ tsp of fresh ground black pepper

2 thick slices of lemon

2 thick slices of oranges.

Method:

Pour the wine into a large pan, bring to the boil and add the rest of the poaching ingredients

Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and add the quince quarters, poach for 25 minutes, add the apple after 10 minutes and after a further 5 minutes the pears. Remove from the heat add the blackberries  and allow to cool then add the prunes. Allow to stand overnight so that the fruit can absorb the poaching liquor.

Linda had made some caramel croutons  and almonds to decorate and add a bit of a crunch to the finished dish.

Dice into cubes about 1cm sq. some stale bread and sprinkle with icing sugar allowing to caramelise in a frying pan, remove and allow to cool, add the almonds and sprinkle with icing sugar and also caramelise.

 When ready to serve arrange on to deep soup dishes, a piece of quince, apple and pear on each and spoon over the blackberries and prunes with plenty of jus. Sprinkle over the crunchy croutons and almonds.

A very pleasant relaxing evening, with good food, fantastic wines and wonderful company.