Thursday, July 23, 2009

I am back :-)

Its been ages but I am back. It has been such a busy few weeks but now things are slowly getting back to normal. Thank Heavens :-)

Hi Olive, Good to see you comment and I am sorry that I haven't replied earlier. We have been most fortunate that since the Wood fire oven was built we have not had a complete fire ban here at the farm. It takes a while to fire up so we generally plan lunch and dinner to be cooked in there to make it worth while. The Gorgeous boy is planning to make a wooden door to fit on the front so that we can bake our bread in there. Just another job on the long list of things to do...LOL...Good job we are going to live forever! I hope that you got around to trying the roasted vegetable tart. I used eggplant, capsicum, onion and zucchini with fetta cheese, a beaten egg and a few olives to give it colour.

Hi Mariana, Its good to see you safely back from your trip. I have read part one and two so far and will catch up on the last few days of blogs shortly. It looked like a fantastic experience...these things are not always comfortable ;-) but that's what memories are made of :-) Yes the fudge was truly decadent but so delicious. If it caused you to raid the cupboards for chockies...well what can I say, after all the drooling that I do with your blog :-)

Here is the recipe for the Roasted Venison from a few weeks ago. I must explain that while I do follow recipes it is not unknown for me to add or delete ingredients that I either especially love or don't have in the pantry. So I will write the recipe as it appears in "The Great Australian Venison Cookery Book" with a few added comments.

ROASTED VENISON - MARINATED

MARINADE
2 1/2 cups red wine (eg Shiraz Cabernet)
1/2 cup oil ( I try to go a little lighter on the oil than normally recommended but in this case I used the full amount)
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf ( I probably substituted curry leaves as I love the flavour)
1 clove of garlic, crushed ( I would definitely have used at least 3 or 4 cloves...no vampires here!)
3 juniper berries ( I used more.....more like 6 or 7)
1 onion sliced

Mix all ingredients together and pour over the meat.. I then marinated a leg of venison for 24 hours. Remove from marinade and pat dry.

The recipe suggested that you rub over 1 dessert spoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of ginger....I missed out this part of the recipe!

Criss-cross 4 streaky bacon rashers over the top of the meat. I also laid a sheet of pork skin over the top of that....the latter was not included in the recipe but I think it made all the difference.

Pour over the marinade and cover with foil.

The venison was then roasted in a preheated 180 degree oven. They recommend 30 mins per 500g plus 30 mins extra. I followed their recommendation but uncovered it for the last 30 mins.

When the meat is cooked it is removed from the pan and allowed to stand, covered.

Mix together I Tb sp of butter with I Tb sp of flour and add to the gravy in the pan. I had to firstly remove the excess fat that came from the pork skin as it was very "greasy". After the gravy was thickened I stirred in the redcurrent jelly. They suggested I Tb sp of this. I probably used a very generous spoonful.

I hope this helps. The verdict is still out as to whether Venison should be cooked a little on the rare side or well done. I had a whole side of Venison to experiment with and am experimenting with different cuts. This roast was very good. I have some steaks to use another time and I think I will try these less well cooked. I will post the results when we use them.

That's all for tonight...I am going to indulge myself and catch up on all my favourite blogs that I have not had time to read in the past few weeks. I'll be back tomorrow if I don't have square eyes from staring at the computer screen all evening :-)

3 comments:

  1. Oh, how I miss my wood stove back in Canada. It seems funny that here you are in the middle of winter and we are in the middle of summer. Great recipe for the venison. I sometimes have to cook venison up at the big house I cook for and this will come in handy, as I am not really that experienced with cooking venison!

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  2. Welcome back lovely lady. I'm so pleased to hear that you are going to live forever. Wonderful. My envy continues with your wood fired oven; yes a door would be a fabulous addition - especially for bread and long stews perhaps.
    Your recipe sounds really interesting Linda. I love the personal twists you add with your own tastes. Isn't that what cooking is all about? Not just following a recipe. I really like your adding curry leaves instead of bay leaves. Haven't heard of that one. Also adding the pork skin sounds heavenly. You are a genius! I'll bet that really made it.

    Redcurrant jelly as well. Wow. If I may make a suggestion; try the lilly pilly jelly also. I have been basting my lamb chops with it just before serving and everyone has loved the unique sweet, tangy taste of the lilly pilly. Im surprised how well it works with meat. Thanks for sharing this fascinating dish Linda.

    PS; I am thrilled that I returned some of the "drooling". Hehehehe.

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  3. Hi Marie...welcome to Bellavista :-) Winter is beautiful here in sunny Queensland. Very much like a really good english spring day. I too am not very experienced with cooking venison and since we have so many wild deer on the property it is something that I am going to keep working on until I get it right! Its all trial and error.

    Mariana, Thank you once again for your lovely comments. I am sure the Lilly Pilly jam would work a treat, unfortunately....I was so proud of it....I gave it all away! A neighbour gave me a huge bag full of lemons and I went to my pantry to give her a few jars of jam and oh no....the LP jam is all gone. I know that next year I will make double the quantity.

    I first used curry leaves while living in Malaysia. I found some corned beef in the local supermarket (a rare find) and when I went to cook it, I realised that I didn't have any bayleaves. I just popped in some curry leaves and ever since that is what I use whenever I cook corned beef. It really gives it an interesting flavour. I planted a curry leaf tree here when we came back....its a lovely looking tree and comes in very handy. I am off now to read part four of your trip....catch you there :-)

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