Food Riot

Venison Sausage Casserole

Because the Indian summer is now over, replaced by a south Saskatchewan autumn, I think it is only right that there be a fine venison sausage caserole to keep the cold at bay and to give you an excellent excuse for your well padded bottom/hips/belly/aorta/ventricle.

I like venison and to finally give my life purpose, I aim to eat some at least once a week. I am now into week two of this regime, having served bunny to my lovely lady Anna and my equally lovely daughter, Dani. I liked it, I think Dani liked it. Anna was very polite about it.

This recipe is dead simple and not expensive.  Use the best ingredients you can afford. If you can buy venison sausages made from beautifully brought up, polite deer, do so. If you can’t, don’t sweat it – buy some of the nice supermarket sausages that are available at this time of year. Mine are from Sainsbury’s “Taste The Difference” range and do actually have some venison in them.

Ingredients

• 6-8 Venison sausages
• Some chopped smoked bacon – slices or lardons, you choose
• Some mushrooms - rough-chop them (or see if you can get your hands on some of those sexy “forest mix” or whatever packs of mushrooms – all different sorts
• A large red onion - rough chopped
• An apple - fine chopped
• Some chopped garlic - a clove should do it, more if you want to be repulsive tomorrow
• Some wine – red or white – I’m using rosé because that’s all I have – purists would no doubt say red, but lets rebel!
• 2 Bay Leaves - I have a friend who swears there is no point to bay leaves. Fresh are best, especially if you scrunch them a bit
• A cube of vegetable or beef stock
• Some fresh Thyme
• A tablespoon of plain flour a lump of butter
• A dollop of redcurrant jelly

Method

• Brown the sausages in a pan/steel casserole using a little olive oil
• Once brown put the sausages aside and keep them warm – cover them with foil or a sleeping cat
• Add your chopped onion, the garlic, the chopped apple and the bacon and let them sizzle for 10 minutes
• Toss the flour in and mix it so it absorbs the juices and makes a sort of paste type thing
• Chuck the sausages back in along with your wine
• Add the thyme, the bay leaf and some seasoning
• Cover the pan with a lid
• Let this all simmer for about 20-30 minutes – LOW heat – you don’t want to boil the ingredients. You want the occasional languid bubble to wriggle to the surface, to break wind gently and collapse.
• Add the chopped mushrooms
• Remove the lid and let the whole lot simmer very gently for a further 15 – 20 minutes, till the sauce is no longer runny. (If the sauce is too runny, whip out the sausages for 5 minutes and whack the heat up high – this will cause the sauce to boil, which will make steam. Steam leaving your sauce = water leaving your sauce = no more runny, Here endeth the science lesson.
• Just before serving, bung in a lump of butter to give the sauce a nice silky look. Yes, your cardio-vascular surgeon will advise against this. Such a killjoy.
• Bung in jelly, stir gently until it melts.

I will be serving the above with mashed potato.  The mashed potato will have some white pepper and mustard in it.  There will be “seasonal vegetables”, AKA whatever i can find in the fridge – probably carrots and green beans, maybe some leeks too.