On Chrismas Eve I visited my mother, for her friend was with his family and mummy wanted to spend some time with sonny;-). She had some deer meat handy and wanted to prepare it and wasn´t quite sure what to do with it:-). So I wrestled her for dominion over the dishes. After a fight of approximately half an hour (no worries, she will recover from her injuries soon:-)), I claimed dominion over the meat and prepared it my way... had some ideas, coincidentally*g. She had already soaked it in a concoction of red wine, juniper berries, laurel leaves, black pepper and honey. I then wrapped it with twine net and added some onion slices, some bacon slices, wild apple and spruce hips (harvested when young).
Heated the oven at 200 degrees Celsius. In a pot I gave it a turn in sizzling onion / apple lard until roasted sharply on the outside, hot but shortly. Then I turned down the heat on the oven to 50 degrees and put the meat on a bed of bacon, apple and onion slices into the oven. The lard I filled up with the wine marinade until sizzling no more and turned down the heat immediately. After half an hour I turned the heat up to 75 degrees and poured some marinade over it. Did that every half hour. It was some 3,5 hours in the oven, with the last 15 minutes at 120 degrees. In the last half hour, we prepared some potato dumpling and some red cabbage to go along with the meat. The cabbage was enriched with a shot of marinade and some
nutmeg and cinnamon. We then sweated some meal in lard until brown and deglazed the sauce with the leftover marinade. Added some black pepper, crushed coarsely, nutmeg powder (a knifetip full), spruce hips, some fresh (dry) red wine, some bouillon and water. In the meantime the meat was done. We served with the bacon, onions, apples, red cabbage and dumplings, and did we have a feast? BOY DID we!! I do not want to brag, but I really, really enjoyed it. I was right grateful for the experience. I spared a thought for the deer which has given its life, and the other things provided for so richly, and I came to a strange notion again:-).
In everyday situation so often we eat without pausing to think about what we eat, let alone being grateful for the meal. It was a very laborious ;-) process making this meal, and it payed off. So often I tend to eat some fast - food. As a forager, I know that I have to respect what I harvest, but even that wears off sometimes. This meal, however, was an experience I will relish in for a long time. And this was an aspect of Chrismas that taught me something again. So much to learn. So many great things in this life;-)...I will try to cook something more than just carbohydrates more frequently, or so I hope.
