Sunday Kitchen: Slow-cooked wild venison roe deer shank, mustardy celeriac mash with kale and crispy bacon.

EVERY SUNDAY deserves a great dinner and for the next few weeks, i'll be sharing my recipes from the previous week's visit to Stockbridge Market.

Last Sunday, I picked up some wild venison shanks from Ridley's Fish and Game, and it was recommended I pick up a beer from the Eden Brewery to use as a braising liquor.

I thought it'd be rude only to buy a bottle of the 8% barley wine beer for cooking, so treated myself to one for drinking too.

I had had a craving for celeriac soup earlier, but thought i'd make some comforting mash to go with the venison instead.  I visited the Oxenfoord Organics stall and bought some wonderful kale to complete the dish.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2x Wild venison shanks
1   Small celeriac (or a bigger one to make soup as well)
1   Bag of kale
2x Bottles Eden Brewery barley wine beer (one for cooking, one for drinking!)
2   Rashers of streaky bacon, chopped
1   Tbsp Wholegrain mustard
1   Onion, roughly chopped
1   Carrot, roughly chopped
Splash of lemon juice
Chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Method

First, get the shanks on - they'll need a bit of cooking. 

In a hot pan, brown them all over and set them aside. In the same pan, brown the onion and carrots.

Deglaze the pan with the beer and bring it to the boil.

Season the shanks and place them in a slow cooker, then pour over the beer mix and top up with chicken stock until covered. Cook for 2 1/2 - 3 hours until tender.

Next, top and tail the celeriac, and remove the knobbly skin with a knife.  Place it immediately in a pan of cold water and add the lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 15 mins or until tender.

Using a collander, drain the celeriac and leave until cool, then mash with a ricer or potato masher.

When the shanks are ready, set them aside to rest for 15 mins.  Strain the cooking liquid into a pot and get it on a high heat to reduce for the sauce.

Meanwhile, fry the bacon until crisp and boil the kettle.  Place the kale in a pan and add the boiling water and salt, put a lid on the pan and cook for 5-6 mins.

Reheat the celeriac mash, adding a drop of milk if needed and the mustard. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Drain the water from the kale and pat dry with kitchen paper.

Serve.


Hopefully see a few of you readers down the market.  Happy cooking!