Bourguignon de cerf (Venison Bourguignon) is a traditional New Caledonian recipe for a classic stew of venison, pearl onions and mushrooms in a red wine base thickened with flour and flavoured with rosemary and bay leaves. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic New Caledonian version of: Venison Bourguignon (Bourguignon de cerf).
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Traditionally, bourguignon is made with beef cuts such as the chuck, neck, or shank. With venison, there are really no equivalent cuts so it's best just to use venison stewing eat. Also note that venison is leaner than beef so you need to be a little more careful that the meat does not dry out. Long, slow cooking is the secret to getting your venison tender.
Ingredients:
1.5kg venison stewing meat
750ml Burgundy red wine
20 small onions (think pickling pearl or baby onions), peeled
20 button mushrooms
60ml olive oil
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp dried rosemary leaves, coarsely chopped
2 Indian bay leaves
1 garlic clove, crushed or minced
Salt and freshly-ground black Pepper, to taste
Method:
The original beef bourguignon was served without carrots... it was made with carrots but these were taken out and discarded before serving. Personally I like to use finely-diced carrots and leave them in, but I know this is heresy to many. For this dish I'm leaving the carrots out and sticking to baby onions and button mushrooms.
Place a large cast iron casserole pot (Dutch oven) over medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil and fry the garlic for 90 seconds. Add the pieces of venison and fry until nicely browned all over. Now add in the bay leaves and rosemary.
Scatter over the flour and stir into the oil to form a roux. Cook this for a couple of minutes so the flour is no longer raw.
Season to taste with salt and black pepper then immediately stir in the red wine.
Coarsely chop the pearl onions and button mushrooms then add to the stew. Bring everything to a simmer, cover the casserole then cook over low heat for about 150 minutes.
Serve straight from the casserole dish and accompany with new potatoes.
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