I made this meal a couple of weeks ago using some of venison that we were given by the local hunt.  When I was last in England I brought back a selection of ciders and ales that I had wanted to try cooking with in various meals and venison cooked slowly in ale was one of the things I had wanted to try.

The venison became beautifully tender and the ale gave the dish a slightly sweet taste.  The one mistake I made when I cooked this dish was that I cut the pieces of potato and Jerusalem artichokes too small, so they broke up during cooking process – in future I will leave the artichokes whole and cut the potatoes into much larger pieces.

Venison and Black Sheep Ale

Ingredients:

• 700g venison (cut into bite sized chunks)
• 500ml Black Sheep Ale (or equivalent)
• 3-4 carrots (peeled and cut into chunks)
• 2 medium potatoes (peeled and cut into large chunks)
• 8 small Jerusalem artichokes
• 3-4 baby onions (quartered)
• 4-5 shallots
• 6-7 garlic cloves
• handful of flour
• beef stock cube
• sprig of thyme
• 2oz butter
• 1tbsp sugar
• Seasoning
• 1-2tbsp redcurrant jelly (as needed)

Steps:

1.  Place the sugar, butter, thyme, onions, shallots and garlic in a casserole dish – cook on a low heat for 10-15 minutes.

2.  Flour and season the venison, then add to the casserole dish cook for 3-5 minutes on a high heat.

3. Add all the other ingredients, except the redcurrant jelly to the casserole dish, stir well and add a little water if necessary to ensure that the meat and vegetables are covered.

4.  Place in the oven and cook at 160C fan for 2-2½hours.

5.  Once cooked remove from the oven, taste and add a little redcurrant jelly as needed.  Enjoy with vegetables of your choice!