From the Murray Mail archive: first published in the club's newsletter, issue 39 (June 2020), and dated here to when it first appeared.
What happens to the ducks Missy and Cobber retrieve: Leon Wright's slow-cooked casserole, made with duck instead of venison.
Yesterday, I was asked what we did with the ducks that Missy and Cobber retrieve, here are a couple of photos of meals of roast duck we have enjoyed . Leon. [clipping:] This is a delicious casserole that makes good use of the lesser cuts of venison like the shoulder and neck. The prunes dissolve into the sauce over the long cooking time and give a lovely sweetness to the dish.
Ingredients
- 1kg diced venison shoulder
- 1 large or 2 small onions, chopped into large pieces.
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.
- 250g pitted prunes
- 1 stick of celery, finely diced
- 1 small carrot, finely diced
- A few sprigs of fresh tarragon, roughly chopped.
- 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
- 50g butter
- Olive oil for frying
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- 3 cups of beef or venison stock
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ tsp fresh cracked black pepper
Method
- In a very hot frypan, brown the meat with a splash of olive oil. Do this in small batches to keep the heat level in the pan up. Remove the meat and keep aside.
- Reduce the heat and in the same pan, add the butter and gently sauté the onions, carrot, celery and garlic until the onions are softened.
- Add the flour and stir to combine. Brown the flour slightly and then add the vinegar and stock. Stir to make a gravy, making sure that you scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Place the meat, onions and gravy etc into a slow cooker. Add the prunes, tarragon and salt and pepper.
- Cook on very low heat for around six to eight hours, or until tender.
- Serve with boiled baby potatoes and green beans. A nice bottle of Shiraz or Cab/Sav would also go very well.
We use two recipes usually, the first photo is a converted Venison recipe where we use duck instead of Venison. It appeared in the Victorian Deer Hunter magazine a number of years ago. It would actually be delicious with any cut of meat.
From the Murray Mail, issue 39 (June 2020). From Leon Wright's column. The recipe first appeared in Victorian Deer Hunter magazine. Members can read the original issue.
