Last Monday was the evening of our AGM. The AGM itself was a mellow and laid back affair, probably caused by us being fully sated by the splendid feast beforehand, hosted by Pam Rodwell. Paul Trueman with helpers (Maria and Pam) cooked a wonderful venison casserole for us all; the deer having been donated to us by a neighbour of Ian’s. If that wasn’t fantastic enough we finished off the meal with various tempting puddings, including Paul James’ rhubarb crumble and Pam’s bread and butter pudding. More than one helping was had by most! I think I will have to wait for the minutes of the meeting to find out what was agreed at the AGM itself! Anyway, Paul wanted to share his recipe for the venison casserole so here it is. Thanks Paul.
“Take 2 forequarters i.e. the front half of a medium sized deer plus a bit of lower back leg and carefully remove all meat from bones and chop into casserole sized pieces also removing the more obvious sinewy bits. Ask your assistant to chop up 4 large onions and fry until golden. Then place cooked onions, a chopped up bulb of garlic, plus a chilli or two with the meat and put into 2 large casserole dishes. Then add a good squeeze of tomato puree plus, olive oil, some Soy sauce and some seasoning to each pot plus a bottle of southern hemisphere cheap red wine (the type of wine handed out as prizes at parish quizzes that you never know what to do with) and optionally a bit of flour to thicken it with. Then cover the top with half rashers of streaky bacon. Cook in a medium hot oven for c1hr whilst your cooking team drink a glass or two of wine, then turn down and cook at a low casseroling temperature for a further 3 – 4 hours. Serve with mashed celeriac and sweet potato, redcurrant jelly and roast parsnips and roast spuds. Whilst eating this, accompanied with a better quality glass of red wine, discuss how and when to cook the other half of the deer!!”
