Venison Recipes from Liz’s Larder

Liz from Liz’s Larder has kindly given me a couple of her delicious recipes for Venison to put up here so that you can all try and enjoy.

Norwegian Venison
Serves 6 people

225ml (8fl oz) wine vinegar
225ml (8fl oz) water

1kg (2.2lb) Venison cut into 5cm (2inch) cubes
Seasoned flour
2 medium carrots sliced
1/2 head of celery sliced
2 medium onions sliced
40g (1.5oz) butter
600ml (1 pint) strong ale
225ml (8fl oz) sour cream
1 tbs dill chopped

Marinade the meat for at least 2 hours in the vinegar and water. Drain, dry and dust with the seasoned flour.
Melt the butter in a large casserole pan and toss in the sliced vegetables and coat with the butter.
Preheat the oven to 180c or gas 4.
Put the floured meat into the casserole with the vegetables and add the ale.
Cook covered for about 1 hour. Strain the juices into a clean pan and reduce if necessary. Mix in the soured cream, pour over the meat and cover for a further hour.
Sprinkle with dill and serve.

Venison Tagine with Dates
Serves 6 people

1kg (2lb 4oz) Venison haunch or shoulder boned or cubed
30g (1oz) butter
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
55g (2oz) chopped dried dates
Good pinch of saffron threads
2 tbs honey
2 tbs lemon juice
200g (7oz) fresh or dessert dates pitted
15g (0.5oz) butter extra
40g (1.5oz) slivered almonds

In a large pan melt the butter and gently cook the onion until softened. Add the ginger, cinnamon and black pepper, stir for 1 minute.
Increase the heat to high, add the venison and stir until the colour of the meat changes. Reduce the heat; add 375ml (13fl oz) water, the chopped dates & saffron.
Add 1 tsp of salt. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent the sauce sticking as the dates cook down to a puree.
Stir in the honey and lemon juice and adjust the seasoning. Put the pitted dates on top, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the dates are plump.

Melt the extra butter in a small frying pan and add the almonds and brown slightly, stirring often. Tip onto a plate to prevent over browning.

Remove the whole dates from the top of the venison, set them aside with the almonds. Ladle the meat onto serving dishes and scatter with the dates and almonds to serve.

We hope you try and enjoy these recipes and please feel free to let us know your thoughts.

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Tanar Tigers & Bear

“While Glen Tanar is a lovely place to relax and enjoy the countryside its also a working estate and one of the things we are always keen to do is to educate people on how the estate’s ecology and economy work together.  To do this end we recently held an event for children from Aboyne Primary School which was all about deer management.  This event was designed to show why deer are managed, what value they bring and what impacts they can have as well as enjoying deer for the fabulous animals they are.  Kids played games to simulate stalking and to find out about the resources deer need to thrive.  In the spirit of Jamie Oliver we looked at deer as food, what they look like inside and how we butcher a carcase.  Most children are very open to this once you have got past a few understandable “ughs!”  One wee lad came up to me later and confided gleefully “I just touched some lungs!”  “Good on ya” I said.

However when you dress up 72 children as Environmental  Health Inspectors and get them to examine carcases you can hardly expect to sell the same carcases afterwards.  It’s a shame to throw away good food so we decided to be more creative.  The Polar Bear, Mercedes at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig is the only one in the UK and she is one of Scotland’s treasures.  She also has a liking for venison.  I had visions of a blog entry featuring a photo of Mercedes eating Glen Tanar venison under the headline “I know I have had a hard winter but this is ridiculous”.  However when the meat arrived she left her huge open enclosure and retired behind bars to enjoy her meal.  It didn’t make for a good photo at all but as you can see the Amur Tigers were much more obliging.”

Colin McClean, Wildlife Manager

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