Jeremy Lee’s venison and prune pie
A bowl of boiled potatoes, buttered with lots of chopped parsley along with cooked cabbage are the sole accompaniments required, except maybe some horseradish and mustard.
The pie feeds 6 trencherman or 8 more modest appetites
rump and shoulder of venison 1kg of each, or buy a whole haunch, make lots and freeze the remainder
a good rich stock made from beef bones and the venison bones too, if possible 500ml
sea salt
pepper mill, fully charged
best unsmoked streaky bacon 6 rashers
carrots 2 medium
onions 2 medium
celery 2 sticks
vegetable oil
white wine a bottle, good enough for quaffing
venison liver whole (250-500g), if it is possible to find
garlic a clove
Agen prunes 15
red wine a small glass (125ml)
red wine vinegar 2 tbsp
redcurrant jelly 2 tbsp
sage, thyme and bay leaves a small bundle, with 4 bay leaves, tied very well
For the suet pastry
plain flour 250g
baking powder ½ tsp
suet 250g, shredded
salt a pinch
ice cold water a spoonful
egg 1
milk 2 tbsp
marrow bones 2 or 3 if possible, or whatever friendly pie sticker upper is to hand
Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Have a heavy bottomed pan sitting nearby.
Remove the meat from the bones should the butcher not already have done so. Pop the bones in the oven and roast on a moderate heat for half an hour or so until thoroughly browned. Put the stock in a pot, add the bones and 200ml more water. Let this simmer gently until required.
Cut the meat into pieces roughly 2cm square. Place in a bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Put aside.
Cut the bacon into small strips.
Peel the carrots and onions. Chop the onions into small pieces, slice the carrot and cut the celery the same as the onion. Place these in another bowl.
Take a heavy bottomed frying pan, place on a moderate heat and let warm. Add enough vegetable oil to just cover the bottom of the pan.
Place one layer of venison evenly in the pan, taking care of any hot oil that spits out after coming into contact with the meat. Let cook undisturbed for a few minutes until brown – should the heat be too vigorous, move the pan, not the meat. Once the meat is brown all over, remove with a slotted spoon to a waiting bowl. Repeat this procedure and cook at a gentle pace until all the meat is done.
After frying the meat, add a glass of white wine to the pan and let boil while adding a little pressure to a wooden spoon to lift up any goodly stuff adhering to the bottom of the pan. Pour over the browned meat in the bowl.
Should fortune have smiled on you, and a venison liver came home with the haunch, now is the time to cut it into small cubes.
Wipe the pan clean and return to a moderate heat. At the same time, place the heavy bottomed pot over a moderate heat. Pour a thin film of oil in each and add the bacon to the frying pan and the chopped vegetables and the garlic clove to the pot. Place a lid on the vegetables and let brown gently. Let the bacon colour lightly and tip into the bowl of meat. Cook the liver in batches in the bacon fat, adding a spoonful more of oil if required. Add the browned liver to the bowl of meat.
While the vegetables colour in the pot, pickle the prunes.
Place the red wine and red wine vinegar in a pot and bring to a boil. Add in the redcurrant jelly then pop in the prunes and simmer altogether for 3 or 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and add in a half teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. Stir this well. Cover and set aside.
Once the vegetables have coloured sufficiently after a half hour or so, add in the meat, the little bundle of herbs, the remaining white wine and the stock, bones removed. Stir this well and let come to a gentle simmer. Spoon away any detritus that rises to the surface. Pop in the prunes and any pickle remaining. It may be necessary to add some water here to ensure the braise is fully covered. Seal the pot well and place in the preheated oven for 2½ hours at 180C/gas mark 4 then a further hour on the lowest heat.
When the meat is cooked and quite tender, cover it and leave to cool. When sufficiently cooled, remove the venison to a pie dish, preferably one that is not too deep and with a lip. This can be done the day before and the pie benefits greatly from the rest. Who would not, eh?
Nearer the time, when company is not far off, have the decks cleared, all the ingredients ready and make the pastry.
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a heap on a board. Make a well and add in the suet and the salt. Rain the water evenly upon the suet. With swift and deft moves, bring the dough together and knead until a goodly whole. Cracks and a rough finish are to be encouraged.
Swiftly roll the dough out to just larger than the pie dish. Place in the marrow bones, they should be arranged in a row, not unlike the great chimneys of a steam ship. Lay the pastry over and pat around the edges. Make a glaze from the egg and milk then brush evenly over the whole crust.
Place the pie in the heated oven at 180C/gas mark 4 for half an hour, before reducing it to 140C/gas mark 1 for a further 20 minutes. The crust should be a lovely golden brown.
To table.
Jeremy Lee, head chef at Quo Vadis, London W1D; quovadissoho.co.uk
Lindsey Bareham’s duck, pancetta and haricot beans with gremolata
Serves 4
onions 400g
garlic 5 cloves
pancetta or thin rashers of rindless smoked streaky bacon 140g, diced
olive oil ½ tbsp
Gressingham duck legs 4
salt and freshly ground black pepper
chopped tomatoes 400g tin
white wine 300ml
chicken stock 500ml
bay leaf 1
thyme 3 sprigs
rosemary 1 sprig
carrots 3 large
haricot beans 400g tin
lemon 1
flat-leaf parsley 25g
Peel, halve and finely chop the onions and 4 cloves of the garlic. If using, slice the bacon into lardons. Heat the oil in a spacious, heavy-bottomed, lidded pan and cook the pancetta or bacon until it is crisp and the fat has melted. Scoop it out of the pan and stir in the onions and garlic, adjusting the heat so that they soften and begin to colour.
Trim the excess skin from the duck legs. Season, then move the onion to the side of the pan and brown the duck. Return the pancetta or bacon to the pan, add the tomatoes, white wine and stock, with the herbs tied into a bundle, and simmer for 5 minutes while you peel and thickly slice the carrots. Put them into the pan, then turn the heat very low – a heat diffuser is a good idea here – and drape a sheet of baking parchment over the top, letting it touch the food and holding it in place with the lid. Cook for 2 to 2½ hours, or until the duck is so tender it slides off the bone.
Rinse and drain the beans. Make the gremolata. Remove the zest from half the lemon. Finely chop the parsley and the remaining garlic, then chop together the lemon zest, parsley and garlic. Mix it with the beans, then stir them into the pan. Let them heat through, and serve.
From One Pot Wonders by Lindsay Bareham (Michael Joseph, RRP £18.99). Click here to buy it for £16.14 from the Guardian Bookshop
Claudia Roden’s Roast belly of pork with baked apples
Make sure that the butcher has removed the ribs and that he has scored the skin (or rind) with deep cuts that go right down to the fat. In Asturias, they serve pork with apple purée or whole roasted apples.
Serves 6–8
pork with skin ½ a belly (about 2kg), scored
olive oil 2 tbsp
salt
Golden Delicious apples 8
dry cider 250ml
For the optional chestnut purée
chestnuts 500g, fresh peeled, frozen and defrosted or vacuum-packed
whole milk about 300ml, or more (enough to cover the chestnuts)
salt
butter 35g
Put the belly of pork in a roasting pan brushed with 1 tablespoon of the oil or, better still, put it on a rack in the pan. Sprinkle generously with salt, rubbing it into the cuts in the skin. Then wipe the excess salt off the skin with kitchen paper and rub the skin and the flesh side with the remaining tablespoon of the oil. Turn the pork belly skin side up.
Put the pan in an oven preheated to 220C/gas mark 7 for 30 minutes until the pork skin has started to puff up, then reduce the heat to 190C/gas mark 5 and cook for about 1¾ hours to 2 hours, until the crackling is crisp and brown. Cover with foil and let the meat rest for 15 minutes before cutting it into thick slices.
Meanwhile, put the apples in a baking dish or pan that holds them snugly. Pour in the cider and place the dish in the oven below the roast, after you have lowered the heat. Take the apples out when they are tender when pierced with a knife (the time depends on their size and degree of ripeness). Watch them after about 40 minutes of cooking so that they do not fall apart. Put them back in the oven at the end to heat through.
For the optional chestnut purée, boil the chestnuts over a low heat in enough milk to cover them, in a pan with the lid on, until they are soft. Drain them, reserving the milk, and add salt and butter. Mash the chestnuts with a potato masher or, for a smoother purée, blend them in the food processor, adding as much of the reserved milk as you need to have a soft consistency.
From The Food of Spain By Claudia Roden (Michael Joseph, RRP £25). Click here to buy it for £21.25 from the Guardian Bookshop
Anissa Helou’s vegetarian stuffed peppers
Make sure you choose peppers all more or less the same size, and as wide as possible with a flattish bottom as you are going to stand them in a baking dish.
Serves 2
red sweet peppers 3
yellow sweet peppers 3
For the stuffing
white short grain rice (bomba, calasparra or Egyptian) 200g
firm red tomatoes 400g, diced into 5mm square cubes
spring onions 75g, trimmed and finely chopped
flat-leaf parsley 125g on the stalk, most of the stalks discarded, chopped medium-fine
mint on the stalk 75g, leaves only, chopped medium-fine
sumac 3 tbsp
ground cinnamon ½ tsp
ground allspice ¾ tsp (or 7-spice mixture)
finely ground black pepper ¼ tsp
sea salt
lemon juice of 1 large, or to taste
extra virgin olive oil 200ml, plus extra to drizzle inside the baking dish
To line the baking dish
tomatoes 2 large, sliced across thinly
potatoes 2 large, sliced across thinly
To prepare the peppers: cut off the top neatly about 1cm down the base of the stalk and gently loosen the core out. Tap the seeds from inside the peppers and cut the seed core from the tops. Rinse and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6 and drizzle a baking dish inside which the peppers will fit snuggly with a little olive oil then line the bottom with the tomato slices then the potatoes.
To prepare the stuffing: rinse the rice under cold water. Drain and put in a mixing bowl. Add the diced tomatoes, chopped onion, parsley and mint. Season with the sumac, cinnamon, allspice (or 7-spice mixture), pepper and salt to taste. Add the lemon juice and olive oil and mix well – the stuffing should look like a salad. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
To stuff the peppers: Fill each pepper with sixth of the stuffing until they are about ¾ full. You need to leave space for the rice to expand. Stand them on the potatoes and pour about 60ml water inside each pepper. Cover with the top and pour about 240ml water into the baking dish. Add a little salt and place inside the preheated oven and bake for 1½ hours. Check on the peppers halfway through to make sure they are not getting too dry in which case add a little more water to the bottom of the dish and loosely cover with aluminium foil if they are colouring too much. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Anissa Helou, food writer and chef; anissas.com
Itamar Srulovich & Sarit Packer’s ox cheeks with quince and bay leaf
Quince is the most fragrant, flavourful of fruit. We are so mad for it that when the season starts, you can have a three-course meal at Honey & Co with quince in every course.
Serves 4
cleaned ox cheeks 2–3 (about 1 kg) – get your butcher to prep them for you
For the salt rub
sea salt 3 tsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
black pepper a pinch
bay leaves 2
For cooking
vegetable oil 2 tbsp (or beef dripping,
if you have it)
water 1 litre
carrot 1, peeled and slit in half lengthways
celery sticks 3
quinces 2 large, cored (but not peeled) and cut in 6–8 wedges
cinnamon stick 1
garlic 1 head, cut in half across the bulb to expose all cloves
bay leaves 4
cumin seeds 1 tsp
Grind the salt rub ingredients together roughly using a pestle and mortar, or just crush them together with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle generously all over the ox cheeks, place in a bowl, cover and set in the fridge for 2–3 hours to let the salt draw out the impurities. You cannot skip this stage.
Lift the cheeks out of the liquid that will have been produced and pat them dry with kitchen paper.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over a high heat and place the cheeks in it. Allow them about 2 minutes on each side to colour and sear, then remove to a braising tray (basically any ovenproof pan or tray with a lid). Pour a litre of water into the frying pan and scrape up all the goodness with a flat wooden spoon. Bring to the boil, then pour over the ox cheeks.
Add all the other ingredients to the braising tray and, if need be, top up the water so that it covers the contents entirely. Place in the oven at 180C/gas mark 4 and braise for 2 hours (or you could cook it on the stove on a very slow simmer for the same length of time). Check that the meat is really soft, then allow to cool in the liquid.
Serve with bulgar wheat or couscous (or a lovely alternative is to add 90g of freekeh to the pot for the last hour of cooking, so that it absorbs all the delicious juices).
From Honey & Co: Food From the Middle East by Itamar Srulovich & Sarit Packer (Saltyard Books, RRP £25). Click here to buy it for £21.25 from the Guardian Bookshop
