Recipes, Venison Recipes

Venison bunny chow

Here is something a little different! A spicy, jungle-style curry served up in a loaf of bread and so typical to South Africa.

Venison bunny chow

Recipe by Valentine Warner

Serves 4

Ingredients

Shop the ingredients

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  2. Before you start, make sure your ginger and garlic, onions and coriander are chopped and waiting in two separate piles to be instantly at hand when needed.
  3. In a large balti or wok heat 4 tbsp of ground nut oil over a medium heat. Get it very hot, on the verge of beginning to smoke.
  4. Throw in the ground fennel seeds, nigella seeds, cumin seeds, cinnamon stick, whole cloves, cardamom pods and black pepper corns. Stir constantly while they brown and a lovely deep toasted smell comes to the nose. Be very careful not to burn them too dark.
  5. Add the ½ hot red dried chilli and curry leaves and when the leaves have popped and coloured add in the garlic and ginger.
  6. Stir these around constantly for a minute or so.
  7. Add the turmeric and chilli powder and stir in.
  8. Now add the ghee and when melted follow with the chopped onions and coriander stalks and continue to cook until the onions are a golden brown. Be patient and concentrated here. Do not rush, while again taking great care not to burn the ingredients.
  9. Stir in the tomato purée and cook until it begins to catch.
  10. Glug in the 500ml of the coconut water followed by the lime juice and start to reduce the curry sauce to just under half. It should look obviously thicker and gravy like.
  11. Warm the loaf in the oven.
  12. Take a frying pan and get it very hot. Do not cook in it until you’re absolutely sure it is hot. Test with one piece of meat. It should sizzle violently on hitting the metal.
  13. Massage a little oil into the venison and then brown it very, very quickly. Do this in two batches if needs be so as you can achieve browning. If you overcrowd the pan this will not happen and the point is the meat should be in for seconds not minutes.
  14. Put the venison into the curry and cook until only just done. Minutes in all. It is essential that the loin, which has no fat, doesn’t become tough. Taste a piece, it should be tender and giving.
  15. Add the salt and lime juice and stir in well.
  16. Take the curry off the heat.
  17. Cut the lid off the loaf and scoop out the majority of the inside. Put the loaf on a large enough plate. Note: Keep this for breadcrumbs.
  18. Spoon the curry into the loaf and top with the crispy breadcrumbs.
  19. Demolish with an ice cold pale ale.

Valentine Warner is a chef, food writer, business owner and broadcaster, with a deep interest in nature, travel and provincial food. He describes his cooking style as ‘International Grandmother’ and combines his strong sense of storytelling with his infectious love of cookery. Val has a deep respect and understanding of ingredients, both wild and cultivated, and has the instinctive ability to rustle up hearty and wholesome meals from whatever’s available. Val is an avid proponent of native food sources, and finds common ground with Swaledale in their work to deliver top-notch meat, within a truthful, ethical and high welfare framework. Originally a trained portrait painter, Val has also authored 5 cookbooks, managed his own catering company and is a co-owner of Taqueria, a West London Mexican cafe. Val is also a partner in the Hepple Distillery in Northumberland and Holmen Lofoten hotel on arctic Norway’s Lofoten island.