Slow-Roasted Goat Leg

Random fact, we had the Crusaders stay here at the Forest Camp a few weeks ago. And while there was plenty of eye-candy during their visit, there was also some other big burly beasts lurking around that weren't as attractive. See, the Crusaders had gone on a hunting trip and had proudly brought back their kill. I saw some trophy heads, wild pigs I think, attached to the front of cars and other assorted beasts were strewn around. I heard they cooked some of it later at one of the local restaurants. But sources tell me that one poor animal got neglected, the humble goat.

I think hunting is all well and good if you intend to eat your kill, but why shoot a goat if you're not going to chow down on it. I'm looking at you Dan Carter. Seems rather wasteful to me.

Goat is a delicious and totally underrated meat, it should not be wasted! I guess it's most commonly used in curries, but it makes a mean roast too. If you cook it right, it wont be dry or unpalatable, in fact it's the complete opposite. So here's my recipe for a jerk-style slow roast, dedicated to the boys in red and black.

Ingredients:

1 leg of goat with bone in
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons of oil
1 large onion
6 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon chilli powder
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tablespoon dried)
Freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt

Method:

Puree the onions, garlic, soy sauce and spices so that they form a paste.

Slash the leg of goat a wee bit and rub the paste over the meat.

Wrap it in foil and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 160 Celsius/325 Fahrenheit.

Fry the leg in a large fry pan (use cast iron if you have it) to sear the meat on all sides.

Place the leg in a roasting dish and cover loosely with foil.

Cook for 3 hours, but remove the foil for the last 20 minutes of cooking.

Wild Hare Braised In Beer

My life has kind of changed recently. My boyfriend finished his studies and got his first job in Outdoor Education. We had decided we'd move to wherever he found a suitable job. So now here we are living in a new town, Hanmer Springs. It's not too far from where we used to live in the South Island, four hours away, but our lifestyles have changed a lot. We're no longer living in the city, we're living amongst a forest camp nestled in an exotic forest. 

Even though I've been here a month, I still find it a novelty to have a forest on my doorstep. After work I can go out and pick wild blackberries and cherries,  go hunting, attempt one of the many mountain bike tracks, go mushroom spotting (not confident enough to pick them yet), or just generally commune with nature and say hi to my buddies the fantails. It's also been great getting to mix with all the travellers that move through the place. I've made crepes with a French woman and apple strudel with a German, I guess food is a universal language. It's also a universal currency too; I let a customer borrow my salt and pepper, and he paid me back in whitebait fritters. They were delicious.

Speaking of delicious, I guess I should get back to today's recipe. It features hare. Now I'd never eaten hare before, but I'd had rabbit and enjoyed it and expected it to taste the same. I was wrong. The hare had a more subtle taste, less gamey, and was much more tender. I'd now pick it over rabbit any day. I guess it's probably not something you'd come across very often (unless you hunt or know people who do), but it's great option if you're into eating bunnies. They are a pest after all!

Ingredients:

A few rashers of fatty bacon
1 hare, cleaned and jointed
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons flour
2 onions cut into wedges
Sprigs of fresh herbs
1 cup of beer
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
1 teaspoon brown sugar

Method:

Cut bacon into pieces, lay them in a roasting pan. Put it into an oven preheated to 200 Celsius. Cook until done, remove the bacon and set it aside. Leave the bacon fat in the roasting tray.

Season the hare with salt and pepper then toss in flour until coated. Place the hare in the roasting pan, coat the pieces in bacon fat. Add the onions and fresh herbs.

Place tray in oven and cook for 15 minutes, turning once or twice.

Mix beer, mustard and brown sugar and pour into the pan.

Lower heat to 180 Celsius, cook for another 30 minutes, baste frequently.

Serve as is, or you can make a gravy using the pan juices. To make gravy I just heat the pan juices in a saucepan. Then I mix a tablespoon of flour with a tablespoon of butter to form a paste, and drop in blobs of the paste to the saucepan, making sure to whisk thoroughly.

Serves 4

Hasenpfeffer - Rabbit Stew

I've been a little slack with blogging lately, partly out of laziness but also partly because I've been away in Quebec, Canada. It was just a short trip, but due to the millions of hours (well it felt like it!) spent travelling it feels like I've been away for ages. It also feels like I've also been hit by a bus, gotta love jet-lag. Anyway, I had a fantastic time, especially discovering new foods.

Site-seeing is all well and good, but one of my favourite things to do when travelling is to eat the local cuisine or try the foods I can't find back home. Some of the food highlights of my trip were eating escargot and horse meat. But other things I tried included things like elk meat, bison,  sugar pie, smoked meat sandwiches and of course...poutine. This love of trying new foods is something I also love to do in my home country of New Zealand, so when I spotted rabbit meat at my local supermarket (something I have never cooked with) I thought I'd give it a whirl. I love the taste of rabbit, it's like chicken but actually tasty. I used this recipe as it was similar to how my grandad would cook it; marinated in wine and vinegar for a few days to keep the meat nice and tender. It's really yummy served with egg noodles and rye bread. Btw rabbits are a huge pest in NZ, especially in the South Island, so I feel less guilty about eating these wee little dudes.

Ingredients:

2 rabbits, skinned and gutted and chopped (if in doubt, Google how to do this, it's not so scary)

Marinade:
2 cups red wine
1 cup water
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
10 whole black peppercorns

1/2 cup plain flour
6 slices bacon, cut up
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, quartered
1 onion, chopped
1-3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream

Method:
Combine the marinade ingredients, add rabbit, refrigerate for 2-3 days, turning the rabbit pieces daily.
Remove rabbit pieces from marinade, pat dry and set aside.
Strain the marinade and reserve 1 and a half cups of it, discard the herbs and excess marinade.
Toss the rabbit pieces in the flour.
In a dutch oven/casserole dish, cook the bacon until it starts to crisp. Add mushrooms and onion. Cook until onion softens. Remove vegetables, set aside.
Add a tablespoon of butter to pan. Add rabbit, brown on all sides, adding more butter if needed.
Return vegetables to pan. Add salt and reserved marinade. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until meat is tender (just over an hour)
Mix in sour cream, cook until heated through (do not boil).

Serves 4 - 6

Recipe adapted from 'The Complete Hunter' - Dressing And Cooking Wild Game

Vension Meatballs

These meatballs were a random creation using a few of my favourite spices and the only herb I that I had handy (some mint from my wee garden). Luckily it turned out to be the perfect combo, and I’ll definitely be making these again…and I can...now that I’ve started writing my recipes down!

For the meatballs:

• 500g venison mince

• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds

• 1 heaped teaspoon paprika

• 1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

• 2 sprigs fresh mint

• 1/2 cup rolled oats (this is optional, but I like adding oats as it makes the mince go further)

• salt & pepper

For the sauce:

• 1/2 an onion chopped finely

• 3 cloves garlic chopped or crushed (I use marinated garlic)

• 400g tin peeled Roma tomatoes in juice

• extra water, approx 1/4 cup

• salt & pepper

Combine all the meatball ingredients together, and with wet hands form the mixture into small balls. I like making the balls small as they take less time to cook, but do what you prefer.

Fry the meatballs until golden and remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, fry the onion and garlic. Add the tomatoes and a bit of extra water. Crush the tomatoes a little bit and bring the mixture to the boil. Let the sauce simmer and reduce slightly before returning the meatballs back to the pan. Simmer until the meatballs are cooked through.

Season to taste.

Makes approx 24 small balls.