Austrian Braised Venison Shanks With Sauerkraut Food

SUCCULENT BRAISED VENISON

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Fry the vegetables in a little oil and butter in a heavy-based casserole for 4-5 mins until golden. Tip in the garlic and fry for a further min, then set aside.
• Put the venison into a plastic bag with seasoned flour and shake to coat. Add a little more oil and butter to the pan, then fry the venison over a high heat, stirring now and then, until well browned. Don't crowd the pan - cook in batches if necessary. Set aside with the vegetables.
• Add the redcurrant jelly and wine to the pan, and bring to the boil, scraping up all the bits that have stuck to the bottom. Pour in the stock, then add the thyme, bay leaf, meat and vegetables. Season if you like and bring to the boil. Cover and transfer to the oven for about 1½ hrs or until tender. Remove from the oven and check the seasoning.

VENISON SAUSAGE BRAISED IN SAUERKRAUT

Steps:

• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage, and cook until it is browned on all sides. If the sausage is already fully cooked, just brown it a little. If it's raw, you should cook it almost until it's cooked through, which will mean it will be quite brown on the outside. Remove the sausage from the pan, turn the heat down to medium-low, and add the butter. When the butter has melted, add the onion, caraway, and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the onions have wilted and are beginning to brown, 6-8 minutes. Add the sauerkraut, cider, stout or porter, and sugar. Lay the sausages on top of the mixture. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Put the lid on ajar so some of the steam can escape, and cook about 20 minutes

MOTHER'S AUSTRIAN-STYLE WINE SAUERKRAUT

Steps:

• Chop peeled apple into roughly bite sized cubes; set aside.
• Chop onion; set aside.
• Measure out butter or margarine, sugar, caraway seed and wine and have ready in separate containers to add at appropriate time.
• In large, deep skillet, melt butter over medium heat. When heated add caraway seed and onion. Sauté three to four minutes until onion starts to get translucent.
• Add apple cubes in with onion and butter and caraway. Cover frying pan and with heat between medium and high, let the apple and onion caramelize for about five minutes or however long it takes to see the onion and apple start to brown. The heat will also bring out the flavor of the caraway seed.
• When onion and apple have become soft and starting to brown, add sugar and mix onion and apple and sugar until they are evenly
• mixed. Let sauté another minute to get the sugar into the other ingredients.
• Add the sauerkraut and with cooking tongs and a spoon, gently toss sauerkraut in the butter, fruit and onions and caraway seed mixture until it is evenly distributed and coated.
• Deglaze with white wine and again stir around until it is all mixed.
• Cover the skillet, reduce to simmer and let the sauerkraut steam for another 10-15 minutes on simmer, letting the flavors thoroughly blend.
• Adjust for balance between sweet and sour. If too sweet, add a bit of sauerkraut juice and stir it inches If too sour, add a bit more sugar to a ½ cup of hot water and dissolve, mixing that into kraut.
• Cover and let sauerkraut simmer a few minutes more to let it blend.
• **Note: if you want you can fry bacon in small strips until crisp. Retain 3;8 cup of bacon fat and use instead of margarine (as per recipe above). You can then cook the sauerkraut, onion, apples and caraway seed in bacon fat then follow the other steps of the recipe same as above.
• Crumble the bacon into the sauerkraut at the last minute before serving and toss.