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Venison Madras - Hot & Fiery

If you like a hot curry, this one is for you! Our madras is made using the diced shoulder and shin meat, so long and slow is the way to go with this, 3 hours minimum in the oven, and of course you can use a slow cooker. Venison has a lovely rich flavour that can handle all the spices this dish requires. It's absolutely delicious



Ingredients - makes 6-8 portions

1kg diced leg/shoulder

3 tbs olive oil

8 medium brown onions or 5 large

3 star anise

2 cloves

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

5 cardamon pods

2 tbs turmeric

2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

3 Knorr rich beef stock pots

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 cinnamon stick

2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tube Gia garlic paste or 6 garlic cloves crushed

6 serrano chillis, red or green, sliced down the middle but leaving the head attached

1 fresh ginger thumb size grated or cut finely

2 tsp tamarind paste (or 1 tsp muscavado or dark brown sugar)

2 tins chopped tomatoes

1tbsp tomato purée

1 tin of water or enough so all the mixture is covered

1 bag of spinach (optional)

3 Birdsey red chillis for decoration at the end, sliced

1 handful of fresh coriander




Method


In a dry hot pot add the hard spices (mustard seeds, star anise, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cardamon pods (bash these first to release the flavour, and a cinnamon stick) and heat through for a few minutes to release their flavours. Then add the oil, garlic paste, ginger and your finely diced onions. It looks like a lot of onions and I know most recipes use just 1, but it's the onions that give you a thicker rich sauce as they melt away to nothing, so have faith...add all the onions! Stir the contents and after a minute turn the heat down and add all the other dried spices and sweat the onions down, stiring regularly so it doesn't stick and you want your onions to be translucent, soft, dark and sticky looking. Then add the venison, no need to sear first and don't be tempted to cut the meat into little pieces as it will just fall apart into wee bits and disintegrate, you want nice big chunks so they stay whole. Add all the other ingredients, keeping aside the red birdseye chilli and corriander, and bring to a simmer. Put a lid on the pot and put in a preheated oven at 150 degrees and cook for 3 hours. Stir half way through and when 3 hours has passed take the curry out of the oven and you will find that the whole spices (cardamon, cinnamon and star anise) have floated to the tope so best to pick them out, then serve with rice and sprinkle the sliced red chilli and chopped corrianderon on the top.


If you wanted to add the spinach just add it when you take the madras out of the oven, stir in the spinach and keep stirring for a minute or so until the spinach has wilted down.


When using the slow cooker it is best to to do everthing in the method and stop just before adding the venison. You can do this the night before then when you get up in the morning just add your mixture to the slow cooker and continue on from there in the method. Of course you don't have to heat all the spices through and sweat the onions down, you can just chuck everythting in the slow cooker and it will be really nice, but the little bit of effort at the start makes a massive difference, takes the curry from good to blooming marvellous!


ENJOY!

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