Traditional venison stew

The whole story of this traditional deer meat stew. In Switzerland, it’s kind of a tradition, every year we are going in a nice restaurant to eat wild meat with some friends of Adrien. Here all restaurants offer wild meat from september to november. But last year was different. I was pregnant. So I could forget wild boar paté, deer entrecote, and all meat that we usually eat rare.

Furthermore I was stuck in bed after 2 months in the hospital to be able to keep my beautiful daughter Julie. Between you and me, I wasn’t planing in returning there. The nice lake view and the meal directly in bed aren’t so convincing :-). So I was taking the life really slow. So a restaurant with 8 persons, starters, main course, dessert, snaps, and 2 hours to choose the wine. Not for me. To scared :-).

My husband upon my return from the hospital became a great chef. He told me we could try to make it at home. I spent one entire week to write the perfect recipe because one of my husband friend called “Lapinou” is quite picky about deer stew… and I wanted the perfect recipe, the one that Swiss people dream to taste. After a lot of internet search in German and French and my first diner out allowed by my doctor at the Vieux Lausanne; to steel their recipe of course (with their blessing) what a great detective I am !

And try to buy wild meat online, because you can’t move from your coach… not so easy. At the end, we found the meat in our butcher in Vevey, close to my husband workplace.

In Switzerland, meat do not come alone, several traditional side dish are mandatory such as : poached pears with red wine, braised red cabbage, …

Traditional deer meat stew

a French girl cuisine

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Prep Time 2 d 2 hrs

Cook Time 3 hrs

Total Time 2 d 5 hrs

Course Meat

Cuisine French

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• 1.6 kg. of deer meat for stew cut into large cube
• 6 dl. of strong red wine a Corbière for example
• 2 dl. of red wine vinegar
• 2 onions one pinned with 1 clove and 1 laurel leaf
• 2 garlic cloves peeled and cut in 2 pieces
• 2 carrots
• 1 celery branch
• 1 leek white part only
• 1 teaspoon of thyme
• 10 juniper berries
• 30-60 gr. of butter to brown meat
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• 7 dl. to 1l. of rind bouillon
• 1 dl. of pork blood
• salt and pepper from mill

Instructions

 

• Prepare marinade at least 2 days in advance.
• Peel, wash and slice vegetables (carrots, celery, leek and garlic). Peel onions. Pin one with laurel leaf and 1 clove.
• Crush juniper berries with thyme.
• Bring to a boil marinade ingredients : red wine, red wine vinegar, onions, garlic, carrots, leek, celery, juniper berries, thyme.
• Pour on top of the meat and leave to rest in your fridge for 48 hours. Use a recipient made of glass or terracotta.
• Remove meat form the marinade and dry using kitchen paper.
• Bring marinade to a boil. Sieve to collect juice only.
• Melt butter in a large cooking pan (cast iron better)
• Brown each meat cube on each face, again and again, until no meat left. This step is very important for the color of the sauce.
• Place all the meat in the casserole. Coat meat with flour. (= pour flour little by little while mixing with a wooden spoon) Leave to brown just a little time and pour marinade little by little while mixing. Add rind bouillon. Remove from heat. Add slowly pork blood. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 to 3 hours. Meat should be melting in your mouth.
• The cooking time will depend on animal age, older the longer, Ask your butcher.
• Do not hesitate to add a bit more rind bouillon if needed. Monitor cooking process every 15 minutes and mix regularly.