We are actually very blessed that we are still so close with our extended family and that everyone will make an effort to be there on Sunday.
Our hosts, Somien and her newly wed husband Pieter are preparing a Warthog roast and I’m taking a leg of Springbok.
For venison meat to be tender and juicy it needs to be well prepared and marinated. So I started with my preparation last night.
A while ago I got my hands on my grandfather’s venison recipe book - a file that he compiled over the years with everything from rabbit to biltong.
They lived in very remote places at times and going out to hunt for antelope was a regular thing for my dad and his brother. Back then there was still vast stretches of open land where antelope roamed freely.
My grandfather’s job entailed a lot of travelling and back then there wasn’t a B&B every few kilometers. So when they were on the road and the sun started to set, they would start looking for a spot next to put up camp for the night. He had an “agterryer” who would then start to prepare the food and collect wood in the field for the evening’s fire and spent the night under the stars. The next morning they would pack up and hit the road again on the way to the next stop. He worked for the government and they issued them a permit to hunt. Nowadays employees get travel allowances with which they can buy McDonalds or some other fast food for lunch while on business travel but back in the day, depending on the duration of their journey, they would have a quota of 1 or 2 bucks that they were allowed to hunt to provide them with food for the duration of their journey.
So no wonder he has a whole file of venison recipes!
But back to the preparation of this baby…
I took a photo of the recipe. I must admit I had to google Vegamine!
The first step was preparing the spice rub with which I smeared the bacon strips.
Second thing I did was to poke the leg full of holes and to push a raison into each hole. I’ve seen other venison recipes where you stuff these holes with garlic, bacon and cloves.
Next step was to wrap the leg with these spiced strips of bacon. I used toothpicks to keep the bacon from falling off since the leg will be turned around a couple of times while marinating.
I couldn’t fit it into even my biggest casserole so my last resort was to cut the meat from the end of the bone, fold it back and to saw off a few centimeters to make it fit.
Lastly the marinade. I must admit this red wine & mustard mixture doesn’t look very appetising but I’m sure it’s going to taste brilliant. I’m a bit low on red wines at home (must be the cold…) and ended up using quite a good bottle of wine for the marinade so it has to be good!
Then the leg goes into a casserole, the marinade is poured over it and it is left in the freezer for anything up to 2 days (turning it a couple of times).
I’ll be back after the weekend to tell you how it all went down and to post some photos of our Sunday lunch.
Have a great weekend!
Cheers
- Posted from my iPad
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