My name is Jo and last Thursday I ate meat! Yes, in meat free January, I ate the most meaty of meats – venison! Now as confessions go I realise it’s not exactly up there with “I shot JFK” (or JR for that matter!) but i felt it best to get it out in the open before I proceed. The reason for my transgression? I was hosting the book club meeting and had to produce a meal in the theme of the Red Queen by Philippa Gregory, so a Medieval banquet fit for royalty. I’ve watched enough Horrible History programs to know that vegetables were not a hugely popular choice amongst the ruling class and as I only get to host once a year I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to do things properly (that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it!).
First I had to set the scene and fortunately we have a lovely oak dining table; so I loaded this with every candle stick I own and borrowed a pewter platter which I piled high with fruit that would have been available then: oranges, apples, pears, grapes & figs. I then popped over the road to the pub and borrowed 10 pewter tankards (for props only!) and bought a dozen red roses (The red Queen was the Lancastrian heir and mother of Henry VII). I wasn’t willing to go completely authentic so we did have plates, but each one was topped with a slice of sour dough bread to act as a trencher.
And so, on to the food:
Venison Casserole with dumplings
Braised Red Cabbage
Leeks in Cheese Sauce
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Mincemeat Pies
Custard
As people arrived, I served them a glass of small ale or small beer (basically low alcohol lager). This was mentioned a lot in the book as for obvious reasons, they didn’t drink a lot of water in those days.
The casserole was a John Tovey recipe and resulted in the most wonderful melt in the mouth meat. It also came with dumplings which overcame the problem that potatoes were not around in that period.
To serve 10 ladies: Using an oven proof casserole, sauté 2 finely chopped onions and 3 crushed garlic cloves in 2 tbls olive oil. When golden brown, remove to a bowl. Take 1.5kg of cubed venison haunch and seal in small batches over a high heat. When all meat is sealed put it all back in the pan along with the onions & garlic. Add 600ml port, (and some carrot batons if you fancy them) season and put a lid on the pan then put in the oven at 130c for 2 hours. If possible, do this stage well ahead, even the day before, as it will allow the flavours to develop.
To serve, add 4 dessert spoons of redcurrant jelly and 200ml beef stock and return to the oven at 130c for another hour. Make the dumplings by mixing 200g suet with 200g self raising flour, some freshly chopped sage and just enough cold water to bind it together. Roll into balls (1 per person) and at the end of the hour, increase the oven temp to 160c , drop the dumplings on top of the casserole and cook without the lid for 20 minutes
The home grown red cabbage was shredded and with a few beautiful red sprouts, slowly cooked on the hob with some chopped shallots, 75ml red wine, 125ml balsamic, 75ml white wine vinegar, 500g sliced cooking apple, 6 cloves, a cinnamon stick and 4 heaped tbls of soft brown sugar. The leeks (also home grown) were sliced into 3cm lengths, cooked in boiling, salted water for 10 mins then covered in cheese sauce and baked in the oven for the last 30 minutes of the casserole’s cooking.
The mince pies were my old favourite recipe, previously blogged Christmas 2009 served with custard
The book went down well with us all and judging by the small amount of leftovers, I hope the food did too!
