project 156 cooking venison

My sister came to visit me this passed week.  Without her new hubby as he has stuff to do on the farm.  She brought me a leg of spring buck, and I had to cook it the one evening.

It was divine!  I'm going to share with the ones who are so fortunate to sometimes get some venison as a gift.....

I stuff the meat with rosemary, lots of whole garlic cloves and bacon. I just poke some holes with a knife.  Don,t be stingy on stuffing as it can never be too much!  Too little yes!  You can buy the fatty bit from your local butcher.  I buy a decent piece and keep it in the freezer until I need it, and then just cube it.

I then rub the whole piece of meat with olive oil, rub it with coarse salt and coarse freshly grounded black pepper.  I then take a packet of breakfast bacon and pin it all around the meat with toothpicks. 

Place it in your roasting pan, add some coriander seeds in your pan, two cloves and some red wine. I like to add a hand of the bacon blocks to the wine as well, as I make my sauce/gravy with it afterwards.  Place the lid on top and start to cook it at about 100*C in the oven for a few hours.  You can increase the heat to 140*C after some time, but the idea is to cook it slowly.  I prefer doing it overnight at 100*C as I get tempted during the day to increase the heat when I start getting the great smell!  It really makes you hungry!

You can add some extra wine if the wine evaporates, but if you cook it slowly, it won't be a problem.

When finished cooking, I pour the liquid in a normal pan and add a hand full of peppercorns. Then mix a little flour with a little bit of fresh red wine, add it to the liquid and thicken it.  Add a little fresh cream to make a lovely creamy wine pepper sauce.  Yum yum yum!

The photo was taken when I took it out of the oven before I made the gravy and removed the toothpicks!