Thread: Old School Farm House Casserole

Warning - My cooking teachers were Shearers & Hunting Camp cooks from around the world , so my 'style'of cooking is firmly in the Hot,Brown & lots of it & tasty enough to make you want to mop the plate with crusty bread, Keep It Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.) school .

Rough recipe & amounts ,you can add more or less to your taste .Works out to around 8+ hearty meals for me & the missus ( depends on whether l answered quick enough when the missus asks if her new dress makes her ass look big or not & how much she eats that week) ,l normally have another go for lunch the following day & freeze the rest in 2 meal portions & serve those on a bed of noodles,for a quick & easy meals -



How to chuck it together -Remember K.I.S.S.

Cook Time in Slow Cooker 8-10 hrs to taste. I normally put it on at Farm Smoko at 10am for 6pm Tea

- 3 +kg Venison diced,l prefer rump,leg is also good because it is slow cooked can be your lesser cuts just slow cook a bit longer .Usually slow cook 8 hrs after searing meat in hot pan to get juices lowing & add flavor.I used the last bit of a Fallow Stag l had hanging & some Red l was testing new Salami/Sausage & beer stick recipes with


- Around 200-400ml of stock to taste (we make & freeze our own Chicken stock into handy cubes when we do home kills,so use it or most recipes )

- Good Splash of Red Wine to taste (optional)

-2 sticks of celery

- 150g turnip or swede, roughly chopped
- 1 Can of Kidney Beans
-1 can of Diced tomatoes
-3 roughly cut potatoes/ kumara to taste
- 2 roughly cut onions
-1 roughly cut Capsicum
- good handful of roughly cut Mushrooms
- Around a kilo of mixed Frozen/fresh carrot, peas, beans & corn etc to taste
-3 Garlic cloves roughly cut
- Curry powder to taste (l use a good palm full )
-Assorted spices oregano, rosemary, cumin, cayenne etc to your taste


I normally do all the prep while searing the meat ,takes 1/2 hour Max.

Prep -
- Remove All/ as much of any Silver meat casing as possible ,l always do this with any wild game/meat.this makes any meat much more tender .

- Cut Venison into rough K.I.S.S. 20-30mm chunks & pan sear just until juices start flowing & meat is browned for extra flavor.

I like to do it in farm butter for flavor, but any oil will do peanut is good ,remember you are only quick searing until meat is just browned,not cooking .To long will make it tough .



Do it in small batches & just keep adding to slow cooker, use wine to clean pan of all the good crusty brown bits stuck to bottom of pan & add to Slow Cooker .



Warn the Missus this will have you leaping off the wardrobe that night & put hairs on your chest,the only way she will avoid the hairy chest side effect is for you to give her a good chest massage

That looks like it is full of goodness. Much healthier than the frozen pie I cooked in the microwave earlier...

I love a good stew an that sure looks like one!

I did a casserole yesterday too, but I’m lazier than you…

Half a kilo of yearling fallow leg, chunked
One carrot
One parsnip
Half a leek
One can of diced tomatoes
One packet of Maggi lamb casserole mix

All into crockpot on low at 5am, didn’t brown the meat first.
I wasn’t home last night but the missus said it was yummy.

Bunji, your missus is so fortunate to have you...she may not agree, though? Just saying..

It looked so good till you mentioned celery. Thankfully it's easy to leave out.

I am wary of Capsicum in stews as sometimes it gives a sour flavour, have you ever had that @bunji ?. Something I have just started doing is to brown / sear the vege as well as the meat after listening to a chef talking about it on the radio. This stops the vege falling to pieces

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

I am wary of Capsicum in stews as sometimes it gives a sour flavour, have you ever had that @bunji ?. Something I have just started doing is to brown / sear the vege as well as the meat after listening to a chef talking about it on the radio. This stops the vege falling to pieces

@Moa Hunter You may be getting the sour taste from green store brought capsicums ? We grow most of our own vegetables here in the missus veggy patch on the farm & one vegetable that really stands out for me in the difference in taste (probably because l like them so much )is home grown capsicum ,they have a much creamier & sweeter flavor,IMO there is no comparison to the supermarket ones .

Having said that l usually use the sweeter Red & Yellow ones when it is not just for me & the missus, as we like Chilli & would normally have some home grow Goat Chilli's in this as well .The beauty of these styles of recipe is you just add or subtract from the ingredients to your own taste.

Yeh the browning of the meat & use of the pan residue l find mainly really adds to the flavor of the meat & gets its own rich "meaty gravy"taste to the dish.

We actually really made this to take 4 meals of it down to a old couple who live down the road ,to save them cooking a couple of meals & getting groceries during the lock down & give them some warm & hearty meals , so kept it mild .

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

Bunji, your missus is so fortunate to have you...she may not agree, though? Just saying..

My missus calls me Col. William Ludlow ,the character Anthony Hopkins played in Legends Of The Fall & swears she is going to get me a Bear Skin coat to wear around the farm with one day ,as she reckons l spend all day wandering around the farm with a gun in hand ,carrying a dead animal,while grumbling under my breath about corrupt government's , bureaucrats & dumb city slickers & talking about how good it would be to go live in the remote wilderness again.

To which she just seems to shake her head & roll her eyes while mentioning something about her mother being right & she should never had left the city,never a dull moment or lack of a laugh at the farm .

I really like capsicums brushed with oil and sweated on a baking tray till the skins come off, but yes those green store bought ones are the ones that have undone a few stews till realised what was the prob