Venison shanks with baby beets and chestnuts recipe
The shank of any animal has lots of flavour since it is a muscle that works hard and contains a lot of sinew which always gives good flavour and substance to any sauce you are cooking. Slow cooked, shank meat will nearly fall off the bone and be a delicious winter warmer.
Ingredients
- 150 g carrots
- 150 g celery
- 100 g leeks
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 fallow shanks
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 l dark chicken or venison stock
- 1 tsp chopped fresh sage
- 2 tsp grain mustard
- 12 baby beetroot
- 150 g cooked chestnuts
- 25 g butter
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Main
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 20 mins
- Cooking Time: 200 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- Cut the carrots, celery and leeks into 1cm dice and roughly chop the garlic.
- Season the shanks with salt and pepper and fry in a frying pan to give them even colour all over.
- Place the shanks in an oven-proof dish that has a lid, fry all the diced vegetables in the pan you have used for the venison until coloured, then add the tomato purée and cook for another 5-8 mins then add the stock and sage.
- Cover the shanks with the stock and diced vegetables. Bring to the boil then cook in the oven at 160°C for 1½-2 hours or until meat is tender. Larger shanks could take slightly longer.
- Remove the shanks from the cooking liquid and keep warm and covered so they do not dry out.
- Decant the stock into saucepan, passing it through a fine strainer to remove diced vegetables – keep them warm with the shanks. Bring the stock to the boil, stir in the mustard and reduce by half.
- Drop the baby beetroots into cold water and bring to the boil until cooked then refresh and peel.
- Sauté the chestnuts in 15g of butter to warm through. Reheat the baby beetroots by plunging into boiling water then drain and toss in 10g melted butter.
- Place the shanks in a serving dish and cover with hot sauce, then garnish with vegetables, baby beetroots and chestnuts.
Recipe taken from Venison: the Game Larder. Photography by Steve Lee
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