Winter is coming!

It's the first day of October and there's a definite chill in the air. So what better time to start thinking about big hearty food to keep your belly warm and happy! Therefore I have decided to share some of my winter recipes for you to try out.

To celebrate my first ever post I thought I would share a brand new recipe cooked up in the kitchen tonight - Shoulder of Venison with a Mushroom and Spinach Sauce.

Ingredients: Serves 2

2 portions of Vension Shoulder
100g Smoked Bacon Lardons
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
200g of Mushrooms
2 Balls of Frozen Spinach
1 Medium Onion finely chopped
2 Cloves of Garlic
Flour (quantity unknown)
Generous Pinch of Salt
A Couple of Pinches of Roughly Ground Pepper
1/2 Pint of Vegetable Stock
A Generous Splash of Worcester Sauce
1 Tbsp Tomato Puree
2 tsp Dried Rosemary

1. Rub the Vension with some of the salt and pepper and put to one side.
2. In a large oven proof pan fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil just until the onions softened but not browned.
3. Add the salt, pepper and rosemary to the hot oil and mix in but don't put it back onto the heat.
4. Add the Vension and the lardons to the pan and cover with the vegetable stock.
5. Put the pan in the oven, with a lid on, at approximately 180 degrees for about 45mins. Check every now and again there is still enough stock to cover the meat.
6. After approximately 45 minutes remove the pan from the oven and using a fine sieve to drain out the oil, stock and lovely meat juices into another pan. This will now be used for the sauce.
7. Add the mushrooms and spinach (defrost spinach first) to the oven pan along with the meat and onions etc.
8. Put the stock pan over a very low heat and add the flour a tiny bit at a time until the stock begins to thicken into a sauce. While the mixture is still quite watery add a good couple of squirts of tomato puree, probably equal to about a table spoon. Also add the Worcester Sauce at this stage, the amount is up to personal taste but less is usually more. Keep adding the flour a little bit at a time until the desired consistency is reached. If you go too far and the sauce becomes very thick remove from the heat completely and add a little bit of water at a time and stir well.
9. Pour the sauce over the meat, onions, spinach and mushrooms and stir in well.
10. Put back into the oven for another 15 mins at 180 degrees.
11. Remove from oven and serve up. Serve with potatoes (mashed, roasted, boiled any way you prefer) and a selection of vegetables.

Enjoy!