The complicated art of French cooking...
...made more complicated by using venison, the tenderizing of which is an art in and of itself.
I decided to make Venison Bourguignon, and save recipe that calls for the ignition of 6oz of Armagnac for some future event. Since I'm using venison chuck roast, I put a twist on this recipe and decided to do an acidic marinade first. So, yesterday morning, I chopped up the venison and started it soaking in 1 bottle of Pinot Noir (I needed an entire bottle for the braising liquid anyway. I used one from New Zealand, as cold climate Pinot has the acidity that I'm looking for) and 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Probably more for show than anything else, I also threw in 2 bay leaves.
Today, shortly after I got home, I got started on the real work. The recipe is impossibly long but not quite as complicated as it looks, especially if you're familiar with the steps and techniques.
For the braise:
6 ounces of bacon, cut into 1" lardons and blanched
10 sprigs fresh parsley, torn in quarters
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 medium onions, chopped coarse
2 medium carrots, chopped coarse
1 medium garlic head, cloves separated and crushed but unpeeled
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
Salt and ground black pepper
4-4-1/4 pound venison chuck roast meat
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1-3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bottle (750 ml.) red Burgundy or pinot noir wine
1 teaspoon tomato paste
Step 1. Cut the bacon into lardons, blanch, cook until crisp, remove, reserve the fat.
Step 2. Assemble the world's biggest bouquet garni, comprised in this case of the parsley, thyme, both onions, both carrots, an entire head of crushed garlic, 2 bay leaves, the peppercorns, and dried porcinis. It looks kind of absurd, and required my entire remaining supply of cheesecloth to hold together.
Step 3. Put the bouquet garni/vegetable packet into a large dutch oven. Preheat oven to 300F.
Step 4. Brown all the meat in enough bacon fat to coat the bottom of the skillet (cast-iron in this case, I find it gives better brown bits to deglaze later). I did this is 6 batches, deglazing with white wine after each 2 batches, and re-larding the pan with the fat after each deglazing. Of course I added the browned meat to the dutch oven as I went, as well as the liquid from the deglazing. It smelled great, but was smoky as usual, requiring me to open both kitchen windows and put a box fan blowing out of one of them. It got cold in the kitchen!
Step 5. Make a roux, then whisk in 1 3/4 cup each of chicken broth and water. Hey, what did you expect, this is French! It has to contain butter.
Step 6. Once the roux has thickened, pour it into the dutch oven. Then, add an entire bottle of Pinot Noir (I just dumped in the marinade, since that's what it was), and 1 teaspoon of tomato paste. Stir it around as best you can, though there wasn't a lot of room at this point.
Step 7. Set the dutch oven over a burner and bring to a boil. Stir it a little more, and then put it in the oven. Bake for 3 hours at 300F, or more (this is venison after all) until the meat is tender.
Step 8. When meat is done, remove from oven, and remove the huge bouquet garni with tongs, and set in a strainer over the pot until the liquid runs out. Press more liquid out, then once it's yielded all it will, discard it.
Step 9. Refregerate. Tomorrow, I'll skim off the layer of congealed fat that forms and then put it back in the oven to simmer again, the move on too the garniture:
For the garniture:
36 frozen pearl onions (about 7 ounces)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
10 ounces white mushrooms, whole if small, halved if medium, quartered if large
2 tablespoons brandy
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
Step 10. With a slotted spoon, remove venison from the dutch oven and set aside.
Step 11. Bring liquid to a boil, stirring to prevent the bottom from burning, until the sauce has the consistency of heavy cream.
Step 12. While sauce is reducing, glaze the pearl onions in some butter, sugar, and water. Simmer until all liquid has evaporated, and then add the 10oz of chopped button mushrooms until they have released all of their liquid and it has evaporated. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Step 13. Deglaze the pan that the onions and mushrooms were glazed in. Add this liquid to the sauce.
Step 14. Re-introduce the venison to the dutch oven (where the reduced sauce is), re-heat to medium heat, add onions and mushrooms, and 2 tablespoons of brandy. Cover the dutch oven and cook until heated through. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve!
I still haven't decided what side to serve this with yet, egg noodles or potatoes.
For dessert, I've made 6 ramekins of Riesling gelatin (Riesling, lime juice, water, sugar, gelatin) with fresh blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries in suspension.
I decided to make Venison Bourguignon, and save recipe that calls for the ignition of 6oz of Armagnac for some future event. Since I'm using venison chuck roast, I put a twist on this recipe and decided to do an acidic marinade first. So, yesterday morning, I chopped up the venison and started it soaking in 1 bottle of Pinot Noir (I needed an entire bottle for the braising liquid anyway. I used one from New Zealand, as cold climate Pinot has the acidity that I'm looking for) and 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Probably more for show than anything else, I also threw in 2 bay leaves.
Today, shortly after I got home, I got started on the real work. The recipe is impossibly long but not quite as complicated as it looks, especially if you're familiar with the steps and techniques.
For the braise:
6 ounces of bacon, cut into 1" lardons and blanched
10 sprigs fresh parsley, torn in quarters
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 medium onions, chopped coarse
2 medium carrots, chopped coarse
1 medium garlic head, cloves separated and crushed but unpeeled
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
Salt and ground black pepper
4-4-1/4 pound venison chuck roast meat
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1-3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bottle (750 ml.) red Burgundy or pinot noir wine
1 teaspoon tomato paste
Step 1. Cut the bacon into lardons, blanch, cook until crisp, remove, reserve the fat.
Step 2. Assemble the world's biggest bouquet garni, comprised in this case of the parsley, thyme, both onions, both carrots, an entire head of crushed garlic, 2 bay leaves, the peppercorns, and dried porcinis. It looks kind of absurd, and required my entire remaining supply of cheesecloth to hold together.
Step 3. Put the bouquet garni/vegetable packet into a large dutch oven. Preheat oven to 300F.
Step 4. Brown all the meat in enough bacon fat to coat the bottom of the skillet (cast-iron in this case, I find it gives better brown bits to deglaze later). I did this is 6 batches, deglazing with white wine after each 2 batches, and re-larding the pan with the fat after each deglazing. Of course I added the browned meat to the dutch oven as I went, as well as the liquid from the deglazing. It smelled great, but was smoky as usual, requiring me to open both kitchen windows and put a box fan blowing out of one of them. It got cold in the kitchen!
Step 5. Make a roux, then whisk in 1 3/4 cup each of chicken broth and water. Hey, what did you expect, this is French! It has to contain butter.
Step 6. Once the roux has thickened, pour it into the dutch oven. Then, add an entire bottle of Pinot Noir (I just dumped in the marinade, since that's what it was), and 1 teaspoon of tomato paste. Stir it around as best you can, though there wasn't a lot of room at this point.
Step 7. Set the dutch oven over a burner and bring to a boil. Stir it a little more, and then put it in the oven. Bake for 3 hours at 300F, or more (this is venison after all) until the meat is tender.
Step 8. When meat is done, remove from oven, and remove the huge bouquet garni with tongs, and set in a strainer over the pot until the liquid runs out. Press more liquid out, then once it's yielded all it will, discard it.
Step 9. Refregerate. Tomorrow, I'll skim off the layer of congealed fat that forms and then put it back in the oven to simmer again, the move on too the garniture:
For the garniture:
36 frozen pearl onions (about 7 ounces)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
10 ounces white mushrooms, whole if small, halved if medium, quartered if large
2 tablespoons brandy
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
Step 10. With a slotted spoon, remove venison from the dutch oven and set aside.
Step 11. Bring liquid to a boil, stirring to prevent the bottom from burning, until the sauce has the consistency of heavy cream.
Step 12. While sauce is reducing, glaze the pearl onions in some butter, sugar, and water. Simmer until all liquid has evaporated, and then add the 10oz of chopped button mushrooms until they have released all of their liquid and it has evaporated. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Step 13. Deglaze the pan that the onions and mushrooms were glazed in. Add this liquid to the sauce.
Step 14. Re-introduce the venison to the dutch oven (where the reduced sauce is), re-heat to medium heat, add onions and mushrooms, and 2 tablespoons of brandy. Cover the dutch oven and cook until heated through. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve!
I still haven't decided what side to serve this with yet, egg noodles or potatoes.
For dessert, I've made 6 ramekins of Riesling gelatin (Riesling, lime juice, water, sugar, gelatin) with fresh blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries in suspension.