Meat mains
Vietnamese venison stew
Deeply fragrant with the sweet spice of ginger, star anise and cinnamon, this warming stew makes a lovely dinner on a cold evening with steamed rice to soak up the juices and braised greens on the side. It also works well with diced beef in place of venison.
Ingredients
- 450g diced venison
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 12 shallots, peeled
- 3cm fresh ginger, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tsp Chinese five spice
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 star anise
- 2 stems lemongrass, bashed
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- ¼ tsp unsmoked sweet paprika
- 2 tsp sugar
- 500ml strong beef stock
- 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut in 2cm slices
- 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
Method
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Step 1
Quickly brown the venison in the oil and set aside.
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Step 2
Fry the onion and whole shallots until the onion begins to brown, then add the ginger, garlic, five spice, cinnamon, star anise and lemongrass and stir.
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Step 3
Stir in the fish sauce, soy sauce, paprika, sugar, stock, carrots, sweet potato and venison.
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Step 4
Cover and simmer very gently for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally, until everything is cooked.
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Step 5
Discard the lemongrass, star anise and cinnamon and serve with rice and steamed greens.
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Step 6
You'll probably want some bread for mopping up the juices.
