A friend of mine comes up regularly to hunt game, including red deer, and he managed to bag a large stag at a recent visit. The meat was plentiful, but not that tender. I also had a lot of peppers, due to a glut (not my own) so I made this. I did look around in my recipe books and on the internet, so this is a combination of a number of ideas.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1kg venison, cubed
- Around 250ml red wine
- Olive oil
- 1 tbsp hot paprika, or 2 tsp paprika and a pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp plain flour, preferably white bread flour
- salt and pepper
- 3 sticks of celery
- 1 large carrot
- 1 white onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp concentrated tomato puree
- two bayleaves
- six juniper berries
- 1 tsp dried thyme, or Italian herbs for meat, or a sprig of fresh thyme
- three large red sweet peppers
- 250ml beef or venison or vegetable stock or water (I used beef stock)
- Chopped parsley to garnish.
METHOD:
- Chop the venison into cubes, and marinade in olive oil and red wine overnight.
- Take the venison from the red wine, and keep the red wine for later. Pat it dry.
- Comine the paprika, flour and 1 tsp salt and then sprinkle over the meat and stir to coat it all well.
- In a large casserole pan, heat some olive oil and fry off the meat until it is browned. Take the meat out of the pan and set aside.
- Cut the onion, carrot, celery and garlic into chunks and then chop finely in a food processer.
- Add the vegetables to the pan over a medium heat. You may need to add a little oil. As the vegetables cook and moisten the brown crust in the pan, scrape it up and keep stirring.
- Once the vegetables are soft, add the tomato paste and keep cooking for another minute or so.
- Add the red wine marinade, and cook until half the wine has evaporated.
- Add the meat and herbs and any juices into the pan and stir to combine. Add enough stock or water to cover the meat. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to a low simmer.
- You could simmer on the top of the stove for around four hours. Check every so often to check that there is enough liquid in the pan, and give it a little stir. An alternative would be to put it in the oven at 140C.
- Once the meat is beginning to get tender, chop the peppers into squares, and saute them until they are soft. Add them to the pan, and simmer for another hour. Then the stew is ready.
You could add the peppers to the vegetables at the beginning, or use red pepper paste, and they will be incorporated into the sauce. I enjoyed the chunks of pepper in the stew.
I served this with mashed potatoes and parsnips one night, and with sprouts and baked potatoes the next night. When I reheated it, I moistened the stew with a little red wine. SO good.