Sweet & Sour Sauce
Triple C Double G Sweet & Sour Sauce for venison or duck, but it is also great on steak!
The triple C – chilli, cherries, cocoa
Double G – garlic and ginger
Finely chop a clove of garlic (optional), one chilli (or more to taste), and a small cube of fresh ginger (about 2 cm cube), and fry in a little olive oil until the garlic starts to colour. Tip in a can of de-stoned black cherries, with the juice, and mash them down a bit. Simmer and add a heaped teaspoon of sugar, two heaped teaspoons of baking cocoa, and a couple of teaspoons of vinegar – don’t try to make these heaped teaspoons! I used cider vinegar, but I’m sure any sort would do.
Simmer covered for about 20 min, then uncovered to reduce the sauce to a better consistency. I found it needed the cooking time to make the flavours blend. Taste it for seasoning, add salt/pepper if you think it needs it. You could also thicken it with a little cornflour if you want, or splash in some sherry or brandy (or just drink the sherry or brandy to save on cooking time, it’ll all end up in the same place anyway!).
Serve on the side with venison roasts/steaks or with braised Parry Duck breasts.
Wild Stuffing
Whilst away in Pahiatua I had to whip up a stuffing for a game bird in a hurry and came up with this little gem. It can be modified easily to suit a rolled roast or a non game bird. Any type of dried fruit can be used, or left out.
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Depending on size of roast as to how many slices of bread needed the standard for a chicken sized bird is 5 slices of bread. You can stuff the neck cavity as well to create more room for yummy stuffing.
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Ingredients:
4 slices of bread (Molenberg grained bread was used for this recipe)
1 egg
1 onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of dried Thyme
1 teaspoon of black cracked pepper
4 tablespoons brandy
1 tablespoon of cashew nuts slightly chopped
1 tablespoon of raisins
2 tablespoons of dried chopped mango
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Mix all together well and stuff into bird, remember cooking needs adjusting if bird is stuffed.
What To Do With Your Duck Meat
At this time of year the bow sometimes gets popped away in favour of a shot gun, for the game bird season. If you were lucky enough to get out this season, here's a couple of ideas of what you can do with birds.
Breast Meat
We were lucky this year and got our limit of Paradise Geese on opening morning, these birds are hard work to pluck, so we breasted them out. Some of the breasts have been frozen in twin packs as they are for later use. (Duck breast schnitzel is always a favourite in our house). The rest were taken down to our local butcher and had them brined and smoked (as well as whole mallards). Smoked duck is great in sammies, or thrown into a rice dish.
Hydration Recipe
Ingredients:
100grams salt
8grams crushed epsom salts (2tsp)
2grams Cream of Tartar (a small tsp)
Mix together and store in an air and moisture tight container. Mixing ratio is 1/4 tsp to 1 litre