Chefs Daniel Airo-Farulla and Riccardo Momesso are very familiar to readers and at the Wild Deer, Hunting, Guiding and Fishing Expo they took over the game kitchen, entertaining audiences with their flair for simple, delicious dishes.
Daniel opted for a venison ragout as a way for hunters to use tougher cuts of meat.
“I used some back leg and a shoulder which is just diced into cubes. First put the classic trio of finely chopped celery, onion and carrot into the pot and fry it off to start the base, then add star anise, juniper berry, cinnamon, cloves and extract the flavour.
“Then add the venison cubes to brown before adding tomato paste, red wine (something you would drink) and chicken stock and just let it cook for two hours.
“It is a really hearty rich-style ragout, which we served with chunky Paccheri pasta.”
Nobody in the crowd put their hand up when Riccardo Momesso asked if anyone had attempted venison carpaccio. He then proceeded to demonstrate how simple it is to make.
“There’s only one way to eat those primal cuts, you cut the back strap out, let is sit in the cool room to dry out a bit and then slice it as thin as possible,” he said.
“Salt, pepper, olive oil and a wild mushroom dressing made from rehydrated mushrooms is enough to cook it slightly and then you eat it on some toasted crostini, it is fantastic.”
The second dish from Australia’s game guru was a simple venison schnitzel.
Again using the back strap, you simply cut through between each two bones. Remove one of the bones from each piece and then use a meat tenderiser to gently flatten the schnitzel to 1 cm thick. It doesn’t need a hard whack, a soft touch is enough to break it down.
“To coat the schnitzel we use a mixture of bread crumb, parmesan cheese and wild herbs. Just pass it through the breadcrumbs, then an egg wash and back into the bread crumbs and pat it all down to get a good covering,” Riccardo said.
“Then just fry in the pan until golden then finish it in the oven to medium rare, season with salt and you have a beautiful meal that really respects the venison flavours.”
