Venison with pimenton

Another weekend, another venison recipe.  I can't pass it by when it's the same price as beef and looking so lovely on the butcher's slab.  This time, I bought stewing venison - now this is a cut that benefits from a little marinading to ensure it is lovely and tender when cooked.

This recipe is inspired by a book I recently reviewed: The Food of Spain and Portugal - it's a lovely fragrant dish where the bay and paprika work together with the red wine to make quite a really well flavoured dish.  The one reservation I have is that this sort of cooking doesn't make the most of venison's unique flavour.  Unless the meat is particularly gamey (and most venison that's easily obtainable isn't), it does end-up tasting quite like beef when cooked for a long time.

The bay leaves I'm using come from my parents' garden - they brought me a massive branch at Christmas and it's dried quite well in the garage but the leaves have a very pungent flavour.  One of these bay leaves goes a long way.

On a similar note, the oregano that I'm now using is my own dried herb.  I have an oregano plant and a marjoram plant and I can never remember which is which.  I've dried stalks of both together in the conservatory over the summer - flowers and all.  It's now stored in a zip-lock bag and whenever I want some it's just crumbled to order.  The taste is much more powerful and fresh than the stuff in jars.

Venison with pimenton
(serves 2)

3/4 lb diced stewing venison
3 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 pint red wine
1-2 bay leaves

olive oil for frying

1 red onion, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
1 leek, sliced
3 tsp good quality Spanish smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano

Begin by marinading the venison in the red wine, vinegar and bay leaf in a non-reactive container for a few hours.

Drain the meat, reserving the marinade.  Dry the meat on kitchen paper.
Heat the oil in a heavy caserole and brown the meat all over in batches.  Remove the meat.  Lower the heat and soften the vegetables together.  Put the venison back in the pot along with 2 tsp paprika, the oregano and the reserved marinade.  Top-up with water until the meat and vegetables are just covered.

Simmer with a lid very gently (using a heat diffuser if necessary) for about an hour and a half.  Stir periodically - if it's drying out, add more water.

Stir in the last teaspoon of paprika just before serving. 

Serve with mashed potato or perhaps rice and something green. 

tags: venison  game  

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