This is the recipe I've developed for slow-cooked roe haunch – it makes very tender meat, and a really good sauce. I usually do this in preference to roasting, as I found it hard to stop the meat drying out, even when wrapped in bacon:
Ingredients:
- Haunch of venison
- Onions, celery, carrots
- Red wine
- Beef stock
- Bay leaves
- Tomato paste
- Juniper berries
- Anchovies
- Pomegranate molasses
- Blue cheese
- Cranberry sauce/ rowan berry jelly
1. Pre-heat oven to 120º.
2. Get a large, heavy casserole pot, put some oil in and heat. Pot needs to be big enough to hold the haunch, plus liquid, submerged.
3. Seal the meat all over, then remove, and turn down heat.
4. Gently fry a mix of finely chopped onions, celery and carrots till soft.
5. Put haunch back in.
6. Pour in red wine and beef stock (approx half/ half, not important), until meat is more or less covered. (I actually transfer everything into a large ceramic pot, rather than continue using a cast iron one, but it doesn’t really matter.)
7. The more stuff you now bung in, the better. I put in most/ all of the following: tomato paste; a little pomegranate molasses; couple of anchovies, or anchovy paste; some bay leaves; juniper berries; mixed herbs; peppercorns. And anything else flavourful, e.g. Worcs sauce.
8. Cover top with foil to completely seal, then put lid on, and put in oven for at least 4-5 hours. Overnight is better.
9. Remove meat from pot, and cover with lots of foil. Keep somewhere warm.
10. Pour all the liquid through a sieve into another pot, and boil hard to reduce it by around three-quarters at least. The wider the bottom of the pot, the quicker it will boil. Skim any scum off.
11. Aim is to produce a thick, very tasty, sauce. If it needs pepping up, i might add more anchovies, and/or small piece of blue cheese, cranberry sauce or rowan berry jelly, and whisk in.
12. If the sauce isn’t glossy, add butter and whisk in.
13. Serve - meat should fall off bone. Pour sauce on top. Enjoy!
