Hmm, but what on earth is “Classic Coq au Vin”? Larousse Gastronomic dispatches it in one brief paragraph, Constance Spry doesn’t give it a mention and Hugh FW does it proud, of course. But I, as usual, return to my dog eared French Provincial Cooking held together with an elastic band ( I couldn’t bear a new copy…!). Elisabeth David reiterates fiercely once more that however, apparently, simple this classic is, to get the balance right is a real skill; sauce just the right consistency and chicken perfectly cooked. Maybe this is why it has fallen from grace for too long; just too many nasty stringy chickens in thick pink goo…. But, oh, how delicious it is if you can get the balance right.

Cut a chicken into four pieces. Warm some three quarters of a bottle of red wine in a saucepan together with a crushed garlic clove, a bay leaf and a pinch of dried herbs. Add a little really good chicken stock. In a heavy pan soften some peeled button onions in the fat which gently flows from some chopped streaky bacon. Add the chicken pieces, brown those gently too. Fill a ladle with brandy, set it alight and pour, flaming, over the chicken. Pour the wine and stock over the chicken as the brandy flames die down and simmer gently for about 40 minutes depending on the age of the chicken!. When you are confident the cooking is almost complete add button mushrooms and simmer a further five minutes. Carefully remove chicken, onions, mushrooms onto a large serving dish and keep warm. Thicken the sauce with buerre manie , a tablespoon of flour worked into a desert spoon of flour, then stir gently for a couple of minutes till the sauce is thick and shiny. Serve with salad and fried bread, oh so unfashionable, and oh, so wonderful!

Venison is a very lean meat much in favour again as we become ever more aware of our cholesterol level and fat intake. Now that we can buy the sort of meat that the Goodman’s produce and no longer go into the forest and shoot an animal of uncertain age we can employ modern cooking techniques more in line with our changing taste in food.

But the debate still rages: to marinade or not to marinade? We’ve been eating venison in Europe for hundreds of years. Of course most of the early recipes, by that I mean those of the Middle Ages, deal with salted meats. The old recipes required a bag of oatmeal in the cauldron to absorb the salt or a “frumenty” as an accompaniment. A thick pudding of wheat and almond milk thickened with egg yolks and coloured with saffron is probably not our first choice in the 21st century! Many of us can refrigerate our meat now. What freedom that gives us!

The purpose of the marinade is to moisturise and tenderise the meat, and to a certain extent preserve it for an extra day or two. Some modern chefs cook their venison “like spring lamb, never marinating or slow cooking. This is I believe only possible if you are very sure of the source and the age of the animal. For example it is definitely suitable when cooking Richard and Leslies’ meat.

Elisa Acton, writes in her book of Modern Cookery in1865 that it is as well to cover the meat with flour and water as well as thick paper before cooking. Later books suggest lardons of bacon or pork fat instead. Favourite additions are traditionally juniper berries, redcurrants, rowen berries, rosehips and pears.

“Venison pies look very jolly with red jelly and a sprig of gale ( myrica gale/bog myrtle/sweet gale). Venison takes no longer to cook than other meats but must not be rushed!” So says Dorothy Hartley”
Take a fillet of venison with a boned bird or brace, well floured, some mushrooms and diced bacon. Press all down in a dish and put in the oven dry to cook while a suet crust is prepared. Remove from the oven, cover the meat with stock and the lees of red wine, cover with the paste and bake. “Jolly” little pies!

I leave you to make your own decision about the marinade question. Here are two of my favourite venison recipes.

Marinated Haunch of Venison

Take a haunch of venison weighing about 1.8kg/4lbs. Make up a marinade of oil, white wine vinegar, chopped carrot and onion, a piece of celery. Add a bottle of white wine and a bouquet garni ( Small bunch of herbs which will always include parsley, thyme and bay leaf and any other herbs relevant to the recipe, usually wrapped in a little piece of muslin)

Place the meat in the marinade in the fridge for no more than two days.
Preheat the oven to 230C /450F. Strain off the marinade and set aside. Dry the meat with kitchen paper, lard with 225grams or 8oz of bacon strips, cover with a little oil and roast for one hour. Turn and baste a couple of times during cooking. Reduce the heat to 180C/350F, cook for about 30 more minutes. The time does depend on how rare or well done you like your meat.

Remove the meat from the pan. Deglaze the pan to make the sauce by putting it back on a gentle heat and stirring and scraping as you add the reserved marinade. Simmer the sauce for 8-10 minutes and serve with the sliced meat. Do let the meat rest for at least those 10 minutes while you make the sauce. This will make it much easier to carve. All roasted meat improves with resting. It also gives you time to finish vegetables and enjoy a glass of wine with friends.

Braised Venison

Make up a similar marinade as for Roast Haunch of Venison adding 6-8 crushed juniper berries and a sprig of rosemary, a clove of garlic and some crushed peppercorns. Cut up a kilo/2lbs 4oz of braising venison, place in the marinade in the fridge for no more than two days. When ready to cook strain off the marinade and brown the meat in hot oil in a heavy pan. It’s best to do this in small batches to give the oil time to reheat thus ensuring the meat seals rather than sweats. Remove the meat to a heavy casserole dish with a lid. Fry some sliced onions in the remaining oil. When they are softened and beginning to brown slightly sprinkle with a little flour to take up any remaining oil and stir in some stock and the marinade. Bring to the boil stirring all the time then pour over the meat. Place in a preheated moderate oven and cook for one and a half to two hours. Test the meat with a skewer to make sure it is tender. If the gravy is too thin for your taste thicken with a little beurre manie ( a spoonful of softened butter mixed with a spoonful of flour stirred bit by bit into the hot liquid). You can add vegetables during cooking: carrots, celery mushrooms etc. Add them according to their cooking time so they are not over done when the meat is ready.

Here is a classic Italian dish which is very popular around here!

Melt a little butter in sme oil In a large flat pan or frying pan ( the oil stops the butter burning) and saute a couple of chopped shallots or a small chopped onion, with the chopped giblets from a large free range chicken. Cook for a few minutes until the shallots are soft but not brown. Add a clove of crushed garlic and 400grms of diced potato. and a bulb of fennel, also chopped fine.Saute all together until nearly cooked giving the occasional stir. Allow to cool , add the juice of a lemon and salt and freshly ground black pepper to your taste.

Use the mixture to stuff the chicken in the usual way. securing closed with a skewer .

Pour some olive oil over the bird and strew it with plenty of coarse sea salt to make the skin crispy. Place it in a roasting tin in a hot oven and cook for 40 minutes. Meanwhile break up some cloves of garlic until you have about 30 little cloves. *Yes, 30!! Run into your garden or your neighbours and pick a sprig of roemary about 15cm long. Take the bird from the oven, baste well and scatter around the garlic cloves, the rosemary leaves together with a jar of black olives. put the bird back in the oven and finish cooking. You will know when it’s cooked by sticking a scewer into the thigh and seeing the juice run clesr. If it’’s still pink cook a little longer.
When you’re happy the it’s cooked take it from the roasting tin onto a large plate, cover with a piece of foil, keep warm and *rest while you make the gravy.Tip the roasting pan and spoon out most of the fat leaving the meat juices behind. Deglaze the pan with a glass of white wineand a glass of water. Stir and scrape the tin til boiling then strain this simple sauce into a jug.

Cut the chicken into six pieces, eight if the legs are very big. Pile the stuffing , garlic cloves and olives onto the dish and pass it round with the gravy for everyont to help themselves. All you need to go with this is a beautifully dressed crisp green salad.

* Garlic changes it’s flvour according to it’s treatment. Crushed with salt it has that strong pungent smell and flvour, chopped it is milder and roasted whole the cloves are sweet and soft…really yummy!

* Always rest roated meat for at least ten minutes or more after it comes aout of the oven. This allows the juices to settle back into the meat, makes it easier to carve.

Clean and finely slice the chicken livers discarding sinews. Chop shallot and crush a clove of garlic.

Melt a knob of butter in a heavy pan with a splash of olive oil. This will stop the butter burning. Soften the shallot, don’t let it colour, add the garlic and livers and turn quickly in the hot pan for two or three minutes. The livers should be sealed but still pink. Add a good pinch of fresh dried herbs, not the packet that has been sitting on the shelf for years and turned to grey dust! Stir again and flame with brandy or stir in a little red wine.

Take off the heat and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Whiz everything up briefly in a food processor and scrape with a spatula into a small terrine.

Melt plenty of butter in a clean pan and, strictly speaking clarify it, once melted, through muslin. Pour it over the pate making sure there is enough to make a perfect seal. Refrigerate.

Leave for at least three days to mature. It will keep for several weeks. Once the butter seal is broken eat within a couple of days. Serve it with crisp plain biscuits or toast and a glass of red wine.

3½ lb – 1.72 kg Chicken, jointed into 8 pieces.
2 Large red peppers or 1 red pepper and 1 yellow pepper.
1 Very large onion or 2 medium onions.
2 oz – 50g Sundried tomatoes in oil.
2 – 3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
2 Large cloves garlic, chopped.
5 oz – 150g Chorizo sausage, skinned and cut into ½” – 1cm slices.
Brown basmati rice, measured to the 8 fl oz – 225 ml level in a glass-measuring jug.
10 fl oz – 275 ml Chicken stock (made from the giblets).
6 fl oz – 170 ml Dry white wine.
1 Level tablespoon tomato puree.
½ Teaspoon hot paprika.
1 Teaspoon chopped fresh herbs.
2 oz – 50 g Pitted black olives, halved.
½ Large orange, peeled and cut into wedges.
Salt and freshly milled black pepper.

Season the chicken joints with salt and pepper. Next slice the red peppers in half and remove the seeds and pith, then slice each half into six strips. Peel the onion and slice. Drain the dried tomatoes and cut into ½ inch – 1 cm pieces.

Now heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in the casserole and, when it is fairly hot, add the chicken pieces – two or three at a time – and brown them to a nutty golden colour on both sides. As they brown remove them to a plate lined with kitchen paper using a draining spoon. Next add a little more oil to the casserole, with the heat slightly higher than medium. As soon as the oil is hot, add the onion and peppers and allow them to brown a little at the edges, moving them around from time to time, for about 5 minutes.

After that add the garlic, chorizo and dried tomatoes and toss these around for a minute or two until the garlic is pale golden and the chorizo has taken on some colour. Next stir in the rice and, when the grains have a good coating of oil, add the stock, wine, tomato puree and paprika. As soon as everything has reached simmering point, turn down the heat to a gentle simmer. Add a little more seasoning, then place the chicken gently on top of everything (it’s important to keep the rice down in the liquid). Finally sprinkle the herbs over the chicken pieces and scatter the olives and wedges of orange in among them.

Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook over the gentlest possible heat for about 50 minutes – 1 hour or until the rice is cooked but still retains a little bite or cook in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 4, 350ºF (180ºC) for 1 hour.

At Brambletorre we have a small pedigree flock of White Faced Dartmoor Sheep and a few Jacob, White-faced cross breds!

Traditionally most cookery books say roast a leg, loin or shoulder of lamb for twenty minutes to the pound plus a little longer if you like it well done, but I prefer to sprinkle the joint with a little olive oil, coarse salt , crushed garlic and rosemary and start it in a very hot oven 230C (450F), Gas Mark 8 for the first twenty minutes. Then I reduce the heat to 190C (375F, Gas 5), and finish the cooking at approximately 30 minutes to the pound. If you have a Aga or similar Range simply move it to the lower oven. This way the meat cooks more gently and stays succulent and slightly pink in the centre.
When it is cooked I put it on a serving dish in a warm place and let it rest for 15 minutes, this makes it much easier to carve.

A shoulder of lamb is very good browned in oil then cooked in a slow oven for about two hours in a covered pot on a bed of peeled potatoes, a little stock, crushed garlic, chopped onion , salt and pepper………..
……….or leave out the potatoes and half way through cooking add chopped tomatoes, onion, aubergine, green olives, garlic, salt and pepper.

Lamb Hamburgers are not a new idea: ” take the fleshy part of a Leg of Mutton, stript from the fat and sinews, beat that well in a Morter, with Pepper and Salt, and a little Onyon or Garlick, Water by itselfe, or with Herbs according to your taste, then make it up in flat cakes and let them be kept twelve houres betweene two Dishes before you use them, then fry them with butter in a frying Pan and serve them with the same butter, and you will find it a dish of savoury meat”. A Persian dish from The Complete Cook 1658,

Irish Stew and its’ English cousin Lancashire Hotpot should not to be underrated either. Allow a pound of scrag or middle neck of lamb to two pounds of potatoes, half a pound of onions and just enough water to cover, some salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Pack layers into a heavy oven proof pot which has a tightly fitting lid. Various other ingredients can be added to the layers according to tradition and your preference eg. mixed herbs, pearl barley, stuffed prunes, mushrooms, kidneys, oysters (!) to name but a few. But the real secret of these two old traditional dishes is to cook them long and slowly for at least two hours ( or you may have a pressure cooker…) the day before you want to eat them, let them cool and then place in the fridge or larder over night. Next day remove the fat from the surface before reheating slowly. That way all memories of school stew will vanish in a trice!

Devonshire Squab Pie.

Up until the C19th lamb or mutton was often cooked with a lot of dried fruit, and meat pies resembled our Christmas mince pies. Here is a modernised version of a very traditional local pie originally served with clotted cream!

Cut lamb off the bone into slices. Core, peel and slice some apples. Stone a few prunes. Grease a pie dish and fill with layers of the meat, apple and prunes, spicing each layer with a little brown sugar, cinnamon, mace, salt and pepper. Pour in a little stock or water and cover with a short crust pastry lid. Bake for about an hour, protecting the pastry with brown paper if necessary at 180C ( 375 F, Gas 5 )

Vicarage Mutton.

“Hot on Sunday
Cold on Monday
Hashed on Tuesday
Minced on Wednesday
Curried Thursday
Broth on Friday
Cottage pie Saturday”

Sally & Paul Vincent
Bramble Torre

Let’s start with a traditional Sunday roast! A fillet of beef, a piece of sirloin or a
rib caramelised on the outside and pink in the middle served with good gravy, Yorkshire pudding, fresh horseradish (grated into clotted cream!) and seasonal vegetables must surely be one of our best national dishes.

Rub the meat all over with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Place in a robust roasting tin and place in a very hot (preheated!) oven 220C/Gas 7 for 20 minutes to seal the meat and give you that dark rich coating to the meat. Reduce the heat to 180C for remaining cooking time. This will depend on how well cooked you like your meat.
Here is a rough guide to cooking times, but remember all cookers vary and you are the best judge of yours.
10 minutes per 500gm Rare (very pink)
15 minutes per 500gm Medium (just pink)
20 minutes per 500gm Well done ( no pink)

When you are satisfied the beef is cooked to your liking remove it from the oven, take it out of the roasting tin and leave it in a warm place to rest for at least 30 minutes before carving. All roast meat benefits hugely by being rested after cooking. Resting allows the juices to settle evenly through the meat. It also gives you time to cook the Yorkshire pudding, finish off the vegetables and make the gravy.

To make the gravy first pour off excess fat from the roasting tin then deglaze it with a little stock or vegetable water and , if you like, a dash of red wine. Mix a couple of generous teaspoons of corn flour with a little water and stir into the gravy over the heat. Keep stirring till it thickens and clears, add salt and pepper to taste. If necessary strain it through a sieve into a gravy jug.

Topside and silverside make very respectable roasting joints too provided that the meat is well hung and the cooking is slower and gentler. Give the meat a quicker hot blast as above then lower the heat to 195C and cook the meat for 20 minutes per 500gm. Slow roasting will become braising if you add some vegetables and liquid and cover the pot.

Old Fashioned Beef Stew and Dumplings

Cut 500gms of braising beef eg. chuck steak or shin of beef, into large squares and dust with flour. Heat olive oil in a heavy frying pan and soften two large sliced onions, when just beginning to brown transfer to a casserole dish. Fry the meat quickly in batches giving the pan time to heat up between each batch. Place the meat in the casserole, add 500gms carrots cut into sticks, *a bouquet garni and salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sprinkle over a spoonful of flour

Deglaze the frying pan with 750ml of stock or 300ml water and 450ml stout. Bring to the boil and pour over the meat making sure it is covered. Cover and cook for 2 hours in the preheated oven 170C/gas3 or until the meat is tender.

* traditionally bouquet garni is made up of a bay leaf, and two or three sprigs of parsley and thyme.

To make the dumplings sift 100gms of self raising flour and mix with ½ teaspoon backing powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 50gms shredded suet and 2 tablespoons chopped parsley. Add enough water to make a sticky dough. On a floured board, roll the dough into small balls. When the meat is nearly cooked put the dumplings on top of the stew and cook a further ½ hour until they are double the size and cooked right through. It helps to baste them a couple of times during cooking. Serve the stew with a crisp green salad.

This is the basic principle for all stews and ragouts. Ring the changes with your choice of vegetables, herbs and liquid. Red wine, garlic, bacon, tomatoes and orange rind will take you to a French Daube. Kidney, mushrooms and oysters will bring you back to Britain with Steak and Kidney and Oyster Pie or Pudding. Juniper berries, peppercorns, Parma Ham and white wine will give you Italian Stracotto.

Talking of Italy, Tagliatelle Bolognese is another classic often lacking some traditional ingredients. In Italy minced prosciutto fat or panaccetta is added but a little minced streaky bacon will also give a satisfactory depth of flavour. To feed four people heat 50gms of butter in a heavy pan, add the panacetta, bacon or prosciutto fat with finely chopped carrot, celery and onion and cook gently without browning for about 10 minutes. Next, stir in 200gms lean minced beef or 100gms beef and 100gms minced pork. Cook for a further 15 minutes. Pour in a glass of red wine letting it bubble for a minute or two to evaporate the alcohol. Next add a tin of tomatoes or a little beef stock and tomato puree to loosen the mixture. Stir then simmer for I ½ hours adding more stock if necessary. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve with 500gms tagliatelle boiled al dente, strained, rinsed and, reheated with a little olive oil. Serve with Parmesan cheese and salad.