Monday 1 February 2010

Recipe - Low and Slow Game Casserole


I'm quite happy to see more and more interesting and unusual cuts of meat in my local Waitrose. It seems that they are adding more game to their shelves as well, something I think is really good.

The other day they had a bit of a discount on Game Casserole packs. These packs contained diced pheasant, pigeon parttridge and mallard. The label stated that I could find cooking instructions on the other side. I guess that is true, they were just not very helpful.

All they basically said was to brown the meat, add some vegetables and stock and then cook it in the oven. The only measurements etc that was given was the temperature for the oven and the time needed to cook.

Needless to say, I wasn't too happy or impressed with those instructions. What I did was to look through some of my recipe books and then I also used some Google-Fu.

Then I took the various recipes I could find that I liked and mixed and matched things to get something to work with. This is what I came up with, you could use it as a good start for your own stew - just freestyle it to suit you and your taste.

Ingredients (serves 4)
2 x 340g Game Casserole packs
Salt
Pepper
Butter
4 slices of streaky bacon, cut into pieces
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
12 - 14 shallots, peeled and halved
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
20g dried porcini mushrooms, re-hydrated as per the instructions 
250 ml red wine
300 ml chicken stock

3 - 4 tbsp chopped curly leaf parsley.

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 160c.

Melt the butter on a medium heat in a oven safe casserole with a lid. Season the game well. Fry the game in batches until well browned on all sides. As it gets done, remove to a plate.

Once all the game has been fried and removed, add in the bacon, shallots and carrots and fry whilst stirring for about 5 minutes. Add in the thyme, porcini mushrooms, wine and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and then remove from the heat.

Put the lid on the casserole and pop it into the oven. Cook in the oven for about 90 minutes or until cooked and well tender.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and stir in the parsley.

Serve with rice, mashed potato or as I did - with polenta fries.


Enjoy!

7 comments:

  1. Sounds wonderful - I picked up a pack of game from Sainsbury's yesterday and the instructions on the pack were just as unhelpful! Thanks for sharing, now I know what to do with it I'm sure we are in for a delicious dinner tonight! :)

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  2. Just found your recipe, bought 2 packs of game from Waitrose recently & was stuck on how to cook it.

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  3. Hi. Almost exactly what I did with some old pheasant breasts from the freezer (3years old) except I cooked it in a slow cooker for 6 hours. Made some great stock for game soup with the carcases.

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  4. Absolutely brilliant! Bought a pack of the Waitrose Game Casserolle on the reduced counter just to experiment. Followed your recipe and will definitely make again. (Added a bit of port)

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    Replies
    1. Hi there,

      I'm so happy to hear that the recipe worked for you and that you enjoyed the end result.

      The addition of port sounds like a very good one.

      I still think it's a bit odd that they don't offer any tips on the packaging, but I guess that gives me more visitors. ;)

      Many thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.

      // Mike

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  5. This recipe is YUMMY! I added a few Juniper Berries and also followed the hint about adding a bit of port.
    I cooked it in a slow cooker for about 6 hours and came home to a wonderful meal.
    My friends enjoyed it too.

    thankyou for the recipe Swedish Mike!

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    Replies
    1. Carol,

      Many thanks for taking the time to post a comment and for the kind words.

      I really like to hear if people try my recipes and how they turn out if they do. I really like the idea of the Juniper berries, I'll probably steal that for next time I cook it myself. :)

      Once again - many thanks for the comment!

      // Mike

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Please leave a comment. Positive or negative - all comments are welcome and useful. I do enjoy hearing what you think of my posts, what is good and what needs improving so please post away.

// Mike