Venison Shanks with Baby Beets
This is a recipe Jose Soute and Steve Lee love for those cold winter days after a day out in the countryside.
Ingredients
- 2 Fallow shanks
- 150 g Carrots
- 150 g Celery
- 100 g Leeks
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 12 Baby beetroot
- 150 g Cooked chestnuts
- 15 g Butter
- 1 tsp Sage
- 2 tsp Grain mustard
- 1 tbsp Tomato purée
- 2 ltr Venison or dark chicken stock
Instructions
- Dice all the large vegetables into 1/2cm dice.
- Season the shanks and fry in a frying pan to give them even colour all over and then place into an oven dish that has a lid.
- Fry all the vegetables in the pan you have used for the venison until coloured then add tomato purée and cook for 5-8 min. Add the stock and sage.
- Cover the shanks with the stock and vegetables then cook in oven for 1½ hours or until meat is tender. Larger shanks could take slightly longer.
- Remove shanks from cooking liquid and keep warm and covered so they do not dry out.
- Decant the liquid into a saucepan, passing through a fine strainer to remove vegetables – keep them warm with the shanks.
- Bring liquid to the boil, add mustard and reduce by half.
- Drop baby beetroots into cold water and bring to boil until cooked then place in cold water, and peel.
- Sauté the chestnuts in a 15g of butter to warm through.
- Reheat the baby beetroots by plunging in boiling water, then drain and toss in 10g melted butter.
- Place the shanks in a serving dish and cover with hot sauce, then garnish with vegetables, baby beetroots and chestnuts.
Notes
The shank of any animal has bags of flavour since it is a muscle that works hard and contains a lot of sinew. That will in turn give good flavour and substance to the sauce you are cooking with. Once cooked they will nearly fall off the bone and be a delicious winter warmer.
Photo courtesy of Steve Lee.
