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Anjou pear cake

venison casserole

use this for my veg the little veg company

use this for my meat Farm Shop

venison casserole

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 25g/1oz butter
• 2 onions, diced
• 4 fresh garlic cloves
• 4 rashers smoked bacon
• 500g/1Ib 2oz mushrooms
• 2.5kg/5½lb haunch or shoulder of venison, diced
• ½ bottle red wine
• 400ml/14fl oz water
• 2 beef stock cubes, crumbled
• 3 tbsp redcurrant jelly
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 50g/2oz cornflour
• punnet redcurrants, to decorate
• 6 sprigs rosemary or thyme, to decorate

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
2. On the hob, heat the olive oil and butter in a large lidded casserole dish. Add the onions and cook until softened, but not browned.
3. Add the garlic, bacon and mushrooms and cook for a further minute.
4. In a frying pan, brown the venison a handful at a time and add to the casserole. When all the meat is browned, add the red wine, water, stock cubes, redcurrant jelly and salt and pepper.
5. Bring to the boil and stir well. Put the lid on the casserole and place in the middle of the oven - cook for 90 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven. Make a paste with the cornflour and two tablespoons of water. Add as much of the paste to the casserole as is needed to thicken the sauce - add a little at a time if you are not sure how much you will need.
7. Transfer the casserole to the hob, and, on a low heat, cook until the gravy has thickened - this will take about five minutes.
8. Serve with new potatoes and wilted spinach. Decorate each plate with a sprig of rosemary or thyme and a bunch of fresh redcurrants.

Anjou pear cake

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin with baking parchment and brush with butter.
2. Put the prepared pears in a bowl with the lemon juice and Poire William, if using, to prevent them discolouring. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl, adding a pinch of salt and the caster sugar. Next beat in the eggs and melted butter. Finally, fold in the pears with their juices. Pour the cake mixture into the tin. Bake for about 50 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Place on a wire rack and allow to cool slightly before removing from the tin, gently peeling away the parchment.
3. To make the glaze, melt the apricot jam with 1 tbsp water and pass through a sieve to remove any lumps. Brush the cake with the glaze, dust with icing sugar and serve warm with crème fraîche.

Ingredients

• 50g butter , melted, plus extra for the tin
• 500g ripe buttery pears , peeled, cored and roughly chopped
• juice 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp poire William liqueur (optional)
• 75g plain flour
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder
• 75g caster sugar
• 2 eggs , beaten
• 2 tbsp apricot jam , for the glaze
• icing sugar , for dusting
• crème fraîche , to serve