It's time for stew. November is grey and chilly if not really cold. It's also time for spice, and for a kind of rich sharpness. Not really lemon or lime season, but oranges? Yes. And also pickles, with that spice. And finally, it's time for game, if it ever is time for game in your world.
All of which means it was time to try to hash together a venison version of a half-remembered stew from one of my mum's recipe books. Yep, life on the edge.
The recipe mum has is for a beef stew called Gertrude Goslin's Brown Stew or something similar. I imagine it comes from a personal recipe book somewhere, or perhaps a newspaper column. The book it's now in is another of mum's 1970s household staples - Good Food on a Budget, or something like that. I did once copy it out, but I've lost that long since. All I have is the memory, my own vague note equivalents: red meat, spices, breadcrumbs, and the most important ingredient: pickled walnuts. It's the only recipe I know that cooks with the walnuts (as well as their gloriously useful liquor) and it's that which makes the recipe special, really. But you need to balance. I remember once making it with only the liquor as stewing liquid, and that was too much intensity. I went very easy this time - a few tablespoons at the start. By half an hour before the end, I sloshed in an extra quarter jar or so. You really do want plenty, it adds sharp-dark savour. It's a forgiving recipe - will cook in an hour but is better in four. I did about three hours (including Confined Cocktails), and I'm looking forward to the leftovers which have steeped longer.
So, stew. Start with onions, fairly finely chopped, fried until soft. With beef I'd probably skip this but for lean venison I also used some chunks of fat bacon which have been cluttering the freezer for months. It seems to have worked okay. I added a bit of garlic too, because garlic. Then brown the meat lightly - it needn't be much, as the walnuts will stain the meat nice and dark so you don't need to worry about pallid chunks. Pleuk.
Then spices:
This is a bit hit and miss from my memory, but a few cloves, some peppercorns, a big shake of powdered ginger and a couple of bay leaves seems to have worked well. Definitely no cinnamon or allspice, you don't want sweet spices. Stir them around in the beef mix for a minute or two. Add at least two, preferably more, chopped pickled walnuts. They will mostly disintegrate into the stew and add richness.
Then liquid - beef stock and walnut liquor. About enough to cover the meat, but not too much. We'll add some thickening later on, but mostly this is going to cook covered. Bring it to the boil, turn it down to a very low simmer with the lid on, and go and do something else for several hours. (It will also go in a low oven if you like stewing that way.)
Among the things I did were making some very plain mash, and some carrots parboiled and then braised with butter, tarragon and cobnuts (more Ed Smith sides, sort of). This is very much gilding the lily - all you really need is something carby to soak up the stew juices. I do think carrots are a good side, it's not a good match for most green veg - but a sharp salad wouldn't be a bad foil.
A while before you want to eat, add a handful or two of breadcrumbs to the stew - half an hour is plenty, and probably 15 minutes would be fine. Taste and fix the seasoning if you want - I wanted more intensity so I bunged in that extra walnut liquor, but also a teaspoon of brown sugar to balance it out. I think this is pretty hard to mess up, though be cautious about salt.
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