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