Welcome once again mi rasa! Further to the Game Pie recipe I posted a lot earlier in this blog, having bought a glut of delicious venison, I think it needed using up in a rather classic combination. Having eaten venison and orange sausages at a food festival many moons ago, I decided to pay homage to the flavours and apply them to a little pot of meaty goodness. I managed to forget to get this blog posted a bit earlier, but never mind... it's here now! As previously stated in the pie blog, venison has come into a period of acclaim due to its relatively lean nature and rich flavour. Check out the earlier blog here: http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/1/post/2012/05/game-pie-recipe-inspiration-from-the-uk-pie-awards.html and note the link to an article in the Guardian online where the praises of venison are covered in more depth. Anyway, a short and sweet blog this time around, onto a lovely recipe for Venison…. What you need (for 4 portions)
½ pound (~450g) Venison 2-3 rashers of back bacon 1 whole medium sized orange (tennis ball sized) 3-4 medium sized Shallots 1 large clove of Garlic Olive Oil Chicken Stock What to do 1. Dice the venison and trim any tough bits of fat away from the meat. Chop the back bacon into ~2cm sized chunks where possible; fry the chopped bacon in 1 tbsp olive oil. Now chop finely and fry the chopped shallots in an additional 1 tblsp of olive oil in the same pan as the crisped bacon until the shallots are translucent. 2. Add the venison to the pan and fry with the bacon and shallots, continually turning over a medium heat for 15 minutes, now add the clove of garlic which should be finely chopped and the zest of half the orange. After 30 minutes of initial venison frying, add the juice from the whole orange, reduce this down for 15 mins and add 200ml of the chicken stock. 3. After 45-50 minutes in the pan, transfer the venison to 4 small casserole dishes (or one large one), place the lid over the dish(es) and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. 4. Allow the venison to cool for 5-10 minutes and then serve with some seasonal vegetables. Enjoy guys!! Pedro. x
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Buenos Dias/Tardes Mis rasa! I hope at least some of you have found some time to have a crack at making the last recipe I put on here. In a similar vein, I am sticking with a hispanic comfort foody theme for this second recipe. I have made this a couple of times now and I have given it my own slight twists in order to bring out some flavours in the dish which I though were the best bits, so before anyone goes shouting at me that it's not truly *authentic* - I know it isn't!! :op That shouldn't put you guys off though, as stated previously, it's all about picking ideas out and even putting your own take into action on any given recipe and tailor it to your, or whoever you're feeding's pallette. First, a bit of background on this dish. As the title suggests, it's a South American, specifically Chilean recipe which is taken from a traditional dish of Chile, if not the national dish of the country. It works based on the sweet and salty balance of the various ingredients and contains some unusual ingredients that may raise a few eyebrows amongst more conservative cooks among us. The Ingredients: 3 medium red or white onions, chopped, 2 cloves chopped garlic, olive oil, 700-800g or 1.5 pounds of beef mince, splash (1 tblspn) of balsamic vinegar, 100ml red wine - preferably chilean, a carmenere maybe! 3 teaspoons cumin, 2 teaspoons salt, 1-2 tsp ground black pepper, 3 cups sweetcorn (fresh or frozen will be fine), 100ml whole milk, 10g butter, 10-15 leaves finely chopped basil, 1 small spring of Thyme, 2-3 heaped tblsp of raisins, 175-200g chopped black olives, 4 hard boiled eggs, chopped, 4 shredded roasted chicken thighs. What to do: 1. First thing to do is to get the chicken thighs nice and crispy and extract some flavour to go with the beef mince, so add some olive oil to a frying pan and get it fairly hot before adding the four chicken thighs. Cook these through until the skins have gone crispy and golden (Picture 1). Place them onto a plate or a wooden chopping board to rest. Do not discard the oil in the pan as the onions and mince will now be cooked in this. 2. Fry the onions until they are translucent and starting to brown, now add the beef mince and cook through, breaking it up and mixing with the onions as thoroughly as possible (Picture 2), add the black pepper, cumin, two chopped cloves of garlic, raisins and olives once the mince has all browned. fry for another 5 minutes and then add the balsamic vinegar first, then the red wine and simmer until these are reduced by half with the juices from the beef mince. 3. Now, allow this to rest in the pan while you boil the four eggs until they are hard all the way through. You can even perhaps do this step first, drain off the water and remove all the shells from the eggs. Roughly chop them into quarters or slices as to your preference. 4. Pour the beef mince, raisins, olives and onions into a casserole dish. On top of the mince, place the chopped hard-boiled eggs. Now you will need to shred the chicken off the bone, the best technique is probably using two forks to pull the chicken off the bone and break it up as much as possible. Place the shredded chicken thighs (without the bones!!) across the beef and eggs and move to one side (Pictures 3 and 4). 5. To make the topping for the Pastel De Choclo, you will need to add the milk, butter, salt, sweetcorn, thyme and basil together in a blender and blitz them until you have a fairly smooth liquor, I usually hold back a small amount of the sweetcorn to add in after this blitzing. Add this topping liquid to a saucepan and simmer until this is reduced by approximately a third of it's original volume. You can then pour this over the top of the rest of the casserole, ensuring even coverage. The topping should be quite thick so as it stays on the top of the other meatier parts of the dish. 6. Transfer the Pastel De Choclo into an oven at gas mark 8 or around 220 degrees celsius. Cook until the crust has gone a golden brown colour, don't be put off by the green tinge given by the basil!! (Picture 5.) There you have it... it is definitely best served hot on a cold day to provide some comfort. I usually just serve it with some crusty bread or a crunchy side salad to provide some contrast. You can play about with this recipe depending on how sweet or salty you like the contrast in the meat and the corn topping. I tend to tone down the sweeter flavours, but you can add some brown sugar or molasses to the topping if you fancy making it a sweeter proposition!
As a wine recommendation (for those waiting for one), something Chilean would be spot on, at the moment, Asda are doing a very very affordable Cabernet Sauvignon-Carmenere called Gran Tierra, it hits the spot and goes pretty well with this dish. The beauty of the Asda stuff is that it's only £4 a bottle at the moment whereas I have seen it in other supermarkets pushing £9. Bargain (at the time of writing the blog that is!!). For me, any decent Carmenere would go well with this dish as it is robust enough to handle the red meat, saltiness and the sweetness of the crust. Have fun and enjoy guys!! Pedro. Hi Everyone!! I think my first effort for some of you to try (those who have already salivated at the photos I have shown on my phone at least may have already guesssed.....) will be a nice and warming casserole dish using some hearty ingredients with a bit of hispanic influence. As with many of my recipes, there are many tweaks and adjustments to be had if you're confident of what you're doing (it's not rocket science anyway! I have faith in you all!!), feel free to play about with the recipe and see where it takes you. Any improvements you think you have made, please feel to throw them at the comments below or in the feedback section of my blog. Anyway, on with the protocol for this little gem - first off, here's what you'll need to put this one together: The Roasty bit - 8 Plain Pork Sausages (that is - not herby ones!), 110g Chorizo, chopped into chunks or discs to your preference, 420g cooked Red Kidney Beans, 1 Whole Red Onion, 1 Whole Red (Bell) Pepper, 2 Chillies - 1 Red and 1 Green - preferably sweet larger ones for this recipe and deseeded, 3-4 finely chopped tomatoes, 1 tbsp Tomato Puree, 150ml Chicken or Vegetable Stock, 100ml Red Wine, 2 Cloves of Garlic, 1 tsp dry-roasted and crushed/ground fennel seeds, 1 large piece/square of dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids or greater). The Topping - Sliced White Potatoes (enough to cover the casserole - depends on dish size!), Flaked Red Chillies, Salt and Pepper, Olive Oil, 1 tsp Paprika (either sweet or smoked is fine). What to do: 1. Heat the oven to 230 degrees. Chop the red onion into strips, scatter half of these across the bottom of the casserole dish with a sprinkling of olive oil. Now cut all of the pork sausages in half and place these on top of the onion, place in the over for 10-15 mins. Add slices of red pepper over the top, scattered equally - see Picture 1. 2. While the pork sausage and onions are roasting, slice the chillies, garlic, rest of the onion and the chorizo up into small chunks or discs and place in a frying pan, fry until the edges of the chorizo start to blacken and the onion slightly caramelises. Now add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, stock and red wine and the cooked kidney beans, simmer until reduced by a third and add the dark chocolate, stir through and if still not thick enough for your tastes, add a little roux at a time (1/2 tsp cornflour in milk will do the trick - be sure to stir through properly to avoid lumps). 3. In a separate frying pan, dry roast the teaspoon of fennel seeds until the pan is lightly smoking, transfer to a mortar and pestle and grind to a fine powder, add this to the reduced and slightly thickened, chorizo-stock-wine and bean mixture. Stir through and then pour this over the top of the pork sausages, peppers and onions. Over the top of the casserole, place slices (around 0.5cm thick) of the white potatoes, which should cover the sauce and sausages underneath. Season the potato topping with salt and pepper, flaked red chillies, paprika and a generous drizzle of olive oil. 4. Place the casserole back in the oven at 250 degrees for around 35-40 minutes, the potatoes should be crisping up and golden brown with some of the sauce bubbling up at the sides... it'll then be ready to serve as shown in picture 4! 5. The serving suggestion below (picture 5) shows the casserole with some wilted spinach (with a tiny bit of butter and olive oil) and some fresh sourdough bread for mopping up any leftover sauces. You can of course use flour tortillas or some rice if you so choose.... Hope this tickles people's fancy anyway, it certainly did the trick on a gloomy sunday evening where only something comforting and filling would do the trick. Enjoy! Pedro. |
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