Venison casserole with tarragon juniper dumplings
The classic combinations of tarragon, juniper and venison and there is nothing like a casserole with dumplings on a winters night.
Ingredients
- 450 grams diced venison
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large carrot roughly chopped
- 1 turnip peeled and chopped
- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 1 clove garlic finely chopped
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 1 measure port or madeira
- 300 ml real ale
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1 tbsp redcurrant jelly
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 300 ml beef stock
- 1/4 stick cinnamon
- 175 grams self-raising flour
- 75 grams shredded suet
- 1 tsp juniper berries
- 1 tsp tarragon
- 1 tsp English mustard
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150C / 300F / Gas mark 2.Add olive oil to a large frying pan heat and seal off meat briskly and in batches. Remove from frying pan and place in a casserole pan and dust the meat with flour.
- Place frying pan back on the heat, add all the alcohol, bring to the boil and reduce by half. Add the liquid to the casserole pan with the meat.
- Wipe out frying pan with kitchen towel, add a tablespoon of olive oil, toss in prepared vegetables, garlic and roast off until golden brown (about 10 minutes).
- Place roasted vegetables in casserole pan with meat and add rest of ingredients to casserole. Cover and place casserole in oven for three hours or until meat is nice and tender. Season to taste and serve.
- Dumplings Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add English mustard, tarragon and sufficient cold water to make a fairly stiff dough and shape into 12 dumplings.
- Thirty minutes before serving casserole, remove the lid, place the dumplings on the surface of the stew and continue to cook.
