We had this saddle of venison that has been sitting in the freezer for awhile and decided it was about time we cooked it up to make some space in there. This was a really hearty, yummy stew. Here's a few tips:
1) When a recipe asks for 'mixed dried fruit' don't just grab any bag, make sure it goes with the rest of the ingredients. For instance, I (without paying attention) grabbed the 'Mixed Tropical Fruits'. The finished stew had a flavor reminiscent of all of those heavy venison stews I've eaten in the Caribbean. Just kidding. They don't eat that down there! This is a GERMAN recipe. As far as that goes, the Germans aren't known for their application of tropical fruits, either; about as much as the Caribbean is known for cooking up venison stews. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone for dried CHERRIES.
2) Pick a FULL-BODIED, fruity red wine. I chose a Petit Verdot, but you could have just as easily gone with a spicy Shiraz, to accentuate the peppery gamey-ness and the spices in the stew.
3) The dumplings were made at the last minute (literally with 15 minutes to go). Hey, if you think you can have proper goulash without dumplings, you're fooling yourself.
Here's the recipe...it serves 6.
250 g dried fruit
200 g slab bacon, cut into strips
1 kg venison, cut into strips
4 onion, finely diced
4 carrots, chopped
2 leek, chopped
4 celery, chopped
1 sprig parsley
500 milliliters beef stock
250 milliliters red wine
125 milliliters red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon juniper berries
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 cloves
salt and black pepper
2 tablespoons redcurrant jelly
1 tablespoon tomato paste
sugar
½ cup cream
1 teaspoon cornflour
FOR THE DUMPLINGS
1 ⅓ cup flour
¾ cup cornmeal
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 ⅓ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk or cream, plus more, if needed to bind mixture
Soak the dried fruit in a little cold water. Cut the bacon into thin strips and dry fry them in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the strips of venison to the skillet and fry just to seal. Add the vegetables all together and saute for 3 minutes. Deglaze the pot with the wine, vinegar and stock, then add all of the spices and some salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
Add the dried fruit to the skillet and cover again and simmer for another 30 minutes. Remove the cover and add the red currant jelly and tomato paste and stir it into the sauce. Season to taste with salt, pepper and sugar. Wisk the cream and cornstarch together and stir it into the mixture. Bring to a boil again and reduce to a simmer
Make the dough for the dumplings. Combine, the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and thyme together. Add the cream and/or milk, just enough to hold it together. Once you have the dough together, tear off little pieces and roll them into balls, pushing them down into the stew as you complete them.
Let the dumplings cook for 5-7 minutes or so. Serve hot.
1 comment:
Made this dish which is a lovely sweet-sour kind of stew. Given the German origin, I used mixed dried fruit consisting of apples, pears, apricots, and plums (what Germans probably would use). 100 ml of red wine vinegar is plenty. Next time I would use even less vinegar. I would also add more wine because in the end there was not enough liquid in which to cook dumplings. Made polenta instead which worked like a dream. Add salt, pepper, some broth granules, and 1 teaspoon of thyme to the water for the polenta. When the palenta is done, stir in 2 tablespoons of butter. Enjoy.
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