Moose Bourguignon

A good friend of mine in Ottawa recommended this recipe. I tweaked it slightly based on another dish I like. The result is a delicious braised moose stew. I served mine over a slice of home made bread toast that I broiled with some butter and a rubbed with a little garlic.

Ingredients:

1 - Small to medium sized moose roast. Cubed any size you like.
1 - 750 ml bottle of wine.
30 - mini bell mushrooms. Left whole or chopped coarsely.
20 - pearl onions or small shallots peeled and left whole. (you could also roughly chop regular yellow onions)
3 - cloves of garlic roughly chopped
2 - sprigs of rosemary
8 - sprigs of fresh thyme
1 - sprig of fresh oregano (optional) I had some in my garden so I used it.
2 - bay leaves
1 - pack of diced pancetta (you can also use thick fatty bacon cut into small strips if you can't get pancetta)
1 - tbsp of tomato paste
1 - tbsp olive oil (optional)

How To:

Fry the pancetta in a dutch oven until most of the fat has rendered out. Remove the pancetta and set aside. Brown the moose meat in the fat from pancetta in batches and set aside. If you need more fat to brown the meat add a little olive oil to the pot.

In the same pot that you browned the meat add the onions and fry for two to three minutes. Add mushrooms and herbs, bay leaves (you can tie the herbs together with a little butchers twine to make it easier to remove when done cooking) and fry for a couple more minutes.

Add tomato paste and continue to fry. When the contents start to stick to the pot add the browned meat, any juice that ran off the meat and the pancetta back to the pot, stir everything together and add a little wine to de-glaze the good bits on the bottom of the pot.

Add the remainder of the wine and top up with a little water or beef stock so that the meat just floats. Cover and place the pot in the oven at 300F for 3 - 3 1/2 hours or until meat is fork tender.

If you need to thicken the stew at the end of the braising, mash a tablespoon of butter and a little flour together and add to the pot.

Serve with new potatoes, garlic mash or some fresh bread. I toasted the bread, laid it on the plate and served the bourguignon on top of it. Your favourite bitters or red wine to wash it down.

I will be making this a lot this winter.

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