So a another sleep deprived Sunday as the other half went off to work for her usual 12 hour sunday shift at 6 am.
Kids in front of telly I stoked the fire tidied up and did the dishes did a couple of loads of washing(I should be wearing a pinney! )
Bout 10 am it was time to think of something for tea, Into the deepfreaze to do a "turnover" and get everything off the bottom onto the top.
YAY! found a bag of Venison shanks, thought we had eaten them all(usually they go into sausages)
Just showing the first signs of freazer burn it was time something was done!
Into a overly large pot of not quite boiling water they went for about 5 mins untill I could break them apart and back in for another 5min.
Nearly defrosted that scummy water was discarded and some more heated while I browned em up good and proper in a "real" heavy cast iron frying pan and "chilli infused rice bran oil"
Back into that overly large pot with enough water to just cover with one beef oxo cube and a generous pinch of salt.
Time for a beer:thumbsup: Iv done a weeks worth of house work and its almost 11.:D
Turn that almost boiling pot off and pile the kids into the landcruiser to run the missus in some lunch and pick up a crate.
Home again and clean the bloody slow cooker that had obviously been put away straight out of the dishwasher that does F all.
While that was soaking I roughly chopped 3 med onions and browned em heavily in the pan with the same oil (browning is essential for flavor in any stew/casserole IMHO )
While they were browning I had the slow cooker cleaned and put the shanks and about one third of the water in, DO NOT DISCARD THE REST OF THE WATER.
3 Chopped carrots in the slow cooker.
Main ingredients in.
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Right lid on on high for a bit, open another 745 Speights and grab a nice large whole "kiakoura red" Garlic grown with pride in my own gardren whip the very tops off and bung in the oven on around 200.
While your waiting for the garlic to just roast a bit to take the edge off its flavor turn the element up full bore under that over sized pot. Now hard boil that untill reduced buy at least 3/4 keeping it moving the whole time.
Turn the pot off and open the oven and another 745 Speights......... If you havent finished the last one it will be warm anyway tip the rest in the slowcooker.
Right Garlic! by now that should be soft enough to just squeese out without getting any of that papery skin shit in your stew/cassorole.
Put the Garlic and your reduced stock and one whole Green habererno chilli roughly chopped seeds and all (would be red but the family has to eat it too) in there and lid on quick.
Open another speights and dont forget to put the rest of the crate in the fridge.
Open a small punnet of button mushrooms chop in half down the stem once and chuck em in the cooker.
Peel some spuds(I usually wont peel anything but spuds at this time of year are shit) and let sit then pat dry with a paper towle. Melt some butter and add a bit of turmeric for color some ground cumin seeds and some Italian herbs. Roll the spuds around in this mix and bung in the preheated oven(you forgot to preheat didnt you, have another speights while it warms up) with some yams(I prefer the red ones but the waxy yellow ones are all good too)
Buy now the shanks should be looking good but the sauce will need thickening.
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After searching high and low for some cornflour that I know is in the cupboard I had to resort to makling a gravy with normal flour in the pan i browned the shanks and onion in.
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I dont care how young or old you are root vegetables have some amusing shapes.
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By now you should have cleaned the benches luxed the floor cleaned out your wagon and done the inside of the windows so you can see next time your invited out for a lamp.
Dish up and remember to take any speights bottles you may have put in the freezer out or there will be hell to pay!
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