Venison Shank recipe

Slow cooked fallow shank. Mash potato, root vegetables

Serves 2

For the braise

2 Fallow deer shanks from Deer Box

2 carrots sliced thinly

2 onions sliced thinly

2 sticks celery sliced thinly

1 head of garlic split in half

2tbsp tomato paste

Bouquet garni of rosemary, thyme and bay leaf

250ml red wine

30ml sherry vinegar

15 black peppercorns crushed

10 juniper berries crushed

1.5ltr of hot beef stock

2tbsp flour

Vegetables for the finished dish

2 carrots cut into largish cylinders

1 swede cut into a large dice

2 turnips cut into wedges

¼ bunch flat parsley finely chopped

Mash potato

4 large or 6 small potatoes, Desiree red or Maris piper

150g melted butter

Splash of cold milk

Salt

Turn the oven on to between 150c

1.    Heat a frying pan with a little oil. Season the shanks well with salt and pepper, colour on all sides. Place into a saucepan that has a lid and that is oven proof.

2.    In the same frying pan colour the vegetables for the braise, fry well till golden brown, add the tomato paste, flour, juniper and peppercorns cook out for a minute.  Add this to the saucepan with the shanks in.

3.    Deglaze the frying pan with the red wine and sherry vinegar and reduce by about ½. Add this to the shank saucepan.  Pour over the hot stock, put the lid on a place in the oven for 2 to 3 hours approximately.   There needs to be some give in the meat and the meat has started to recede from the bone 

4.    Remove the pan from the oven and carefully take out the shanks from the saucepan, pass the sauce through a sieve to remove all the vegetables and herbs.

5.    Bake the potatoes on a tray of salt in the oven at 170C

6.    Put the swede, turnip and carrot into the sauce as well as the shanks and place back in the oven with the lid on.

7.    Cook both for 45 minutes, ensure the potatoes are fully cooked through.

8.    Cut the potatoes and pass through a fine sieve over the melted butter.  Season with salt and add a little milk to emulsify the potato and butter together.

9.    Finish the shanks with the parsley and check for salt and pepper and a touch of sherry vinegar