Slow Cooker Recipe: Peppered Venison with Gorgonzola Scones

This recipe caught my eye with the alternative to dumplings: the mighty scone!

It was another Christmas holiday experiment which was engineered to use up a packet of diced Venison I had bought, reduced months ago and stored in the freezer. I didn't actually have enough Venison so I made up the quantity of meat with some diced beef. I think this was a wise move as I can't imagine how rich this stew would be if made purely with venison! I also halved the recipe as there were only 2 of us eating it and it still yields a very generous amount of stew and scone.

We ate this for dinner on New Years Eve and it set us up for an evening of sipping champagne and dancing around like fools. The main catch to this recipe, or the hardest part for me to do after a night of too much red wine, was pouring red wine into the slow cooker before I'd even had breakfast. I'm sure the more self restrained amongst you won't have this problem!

Peppered Venison with Gorgonzola Scones
Serves: 4-5
Preparation time: 35 mins
Cooking time: 8-11 hours
Cooking temp: Low

Ingredients
For the stew:
25 g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
750g diced venison shoulder (I used 350g venison and 400g beef)
1 large red onion, sliced
125g cup mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
200ml red wine
250ml lamb or chicken stock
2 tsp tomato puree
2 tbsp redcurrant jelly
1 tsp peppercorns, roughly crushed
salt and pepper
green beans to serve.

For the Scone:
250g self-raising flour
40g butter, diced
125g Gorgonzola cheese, rind removed and diced
3 tbsp chopped parsley or chives
1 egg, beaten
4-5tbsp milk

Method
1) Preheat the slow cooker.
2) Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan, add the diced venison (and other meat if using) a few pieces at a time, until all the meat has been added, fry until it is evenly browned. Transfer to a plate.
3) Add the onion to the frying pan and fry for 5 minutes.
4) Stir in the mushrooms, garlic and flour and cook for 1 minute.
5) Stir in the stock, wine, tomato puree, redcurrant jelly, peppercorns and salt and bring the mixture to the boil.
6) Spoon the venison into the slow cooker, add the hot wine mixture and press the meat below the surface of the juice. Cover and cook on low for 8 - 10 hours.
7) To make the scones: Place the flour in a bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (TOP TIP: If you're not sure if you have reached this stage, give the bowl a shake and any large, un-rubbed-in lumps will rise to the top)
8) Stir in to the flour and butter a little salt and pepper, the cheese and herbs.
9) Reserve 1 tbsp of egg for glazing the scone and add the rest to the flour mix.
10) Gradually stir in enough milk to make a soft dough (TOP TIP: it is best to add the milk a teaspoon at a time to avoid getting a soggy mix)
11) Lightly knead the dough on a floured surface then pat it into a thick oval or round which is a little smaller that the top of your slow cooker. Cut the dough into 8 wedges and arrange them, spaced slightly apart, on top of the stew. Cover and cook on high heat setting for 45 mins - 1 hour.
12) Brush the scones with the reserved egg and brown under the grill. Serve with green beans.

Enjoy!

This recipe was taken from Ultimate Slow Cooker by Sara Lewis.