Deer oh deer

[luckykaa]

So, after 2 weeks working away from home, I finally manage to have a home cooked meal.  And boy was it a doozy.

It's amazing how things build up.  I had offered to help Estelliane get her car started.  Alas, I didn't have the energy to push start it.  Borrowed some jumper cables from my parents and used them.  Got car started and I get man points for doing so.  Also got lunch for doing so which was a fundamentally broken Eggs Benedict.  Doing it on crumpets was a nice idea, but the eggs were overcooked and you're not meant to cook the hollandaise!  Oh well.  It wasn't actually terrible. 

Plus I always like chatting with Estelliane.  Apparently I need to find a nice Swedish lady:)

Did have to turn down an offer of an burns night event this evening.  Then it turned out I probably could have gone which I feel guilty over but wasn't sure what was going to happen and when today.  More to the point though, I needed some me time.  I also wanted to see parents.  Cousins were visiting.  Thought I'd stop by and say hi. 

Most importantly I'd acquired some venison. 

My roast was the best roast I'd ever done.  Really need to learn to make proper gravy though. 

Rules of a roast - meat needs to be moist and tender.  Still not quite sure how you achieve that but covering it, starting at a high temperature and turning it down a bit afterwards seemed to work.  Also added some butter melted was recommended by some people.  Potatoes - boil them first.  Red cabbage - braise it!  Lots of recipes online.  My potatoes were the crispiest spuds ever.  And the meat had plenty of juices to add to the gravy.

Served with a Rioja and was all perfect.

I now have leftover venison.  No idea what to do with that.

Comments

[ingaborg.livejournal.com]

Mmm, the roast dinner sounds awesome!

Leftover roast meat - sandwiches? cut into bits and make into risotto? Cut into bits and use as pie filling? Cut in slices and serve with veg and gravy? n.b. I found that leftover roast meat should not be reheated in the microwave - it doesn't come out well. It's ok just sliced and eaten cold, or can be reheated in the oven if you prefer.

As to gravy, I take the meat out of the roasting dish and pour off excess fat, which should be saved for frying or roasting spuds. Then I add water and stir it round with the pan on the stove, heat on low, to loosen all the flavoursome bits off the pan. You can add some good-quality stock, black pepper, red wine and / or mixed herbs. Thicken with old-fashioned gravy browning. If you've added a stock cube, don't add any extra salt. Don't use too much commercial stock - if there's only a small amount of gravy, I only use 1/2 a stock cube, to avoid it dominating the flavour.

[luckykaa.livejournal.com]

Don't have a microwave so wouldn't reheat. Wouldn't do that anyway... But then I would have very limited use for a microwave which is why I don't have one.

Venison sandwiches would be nice. I think I'd lose something in risotto. Pie could well work though. Any tips there? Do I just cut it up and put it in pastry?

[ingaborg.livejournal.com]

I've not got much experience of pies so probably somebody else could give you better ideas. But I think I'd fry an onion and add some chopped carrot, peas, that sort of thing, and the diced meat, and some stock or gravy and thicken it a little if necessary, to make a nice thick stewish sort of thing that you can spoon onto the base and then put pastry over. Herbs, garlic, mustard, juniper berries all might be good in the filling.

It'd probably be good with redcurrant jelly.

[omylouse.livejournal.com]

This sounds similar to what I'd do!

[solace-aderyn.livejournal.com]

With venison, you might be able to adapt this recipe? http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/venison-chocolate-chilli