John Cesters Poultry & Game Meat

Venison & Game Meat Melbourne

Yoghurt-Marinated Roast Chicken

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  • One whole chicken
  • 2 cups plain full-fat or low-fat yogurt
  • 3 medium cloves garlic, chopped051108023-01-yogurt-roasted-chicken-recipe_xlg
  • 1 large shallot, chopped
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
  • 1 Tbs. cracked black peppercorns
  • 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the chicken on a cutting board breast side down. Use poultry shears to cut along both sides of the backbone; remove and discard the backbone. Flip the chicken over and press down gently to break the breastbone and flatten the breast slightly.

In a gallon-size resealable plastic bag, combine the yogurt, garlic, shallot, parsley, dill, cracked peppercorns, lemon zest, and 2 tsp. salt. Add the chicken to the bag and turn to coat well. Set in a bowl and refrigerate overnight.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 450°F. Remove the chicken from the marinade and put it skin side up on a broiler pan or on a rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. Season both sides well with salt and pepper. Roast the chicken, uncovered, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thigh reads 170°F, 45 to 50 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a carving board and loosely tent it with foil; let rest for 10 minutes before carving.

(Fine Cooking, 2012)

Roast Duck with Cherry Sauce

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Ingredients

  • 2 kg duck, whole
  • 450 g fresh cherries, pitted, halved
  • sea salt
  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup (125ml) tawny (port)roast-duck
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tbspsugar
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup (125ml) water

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan-forced).
  2. Remove duck from refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. Rinse duck inside and out, pat dry. Tie legs together with kitchen string. Using a skewer, prick skin of the breast, just into the fat, but not as deep as the meat. Make about 10 holes in each side. This will allow the fat to render out during cooking and will make the skin lovely and crisp.
  3. Place the duck on a wire rack in a baking dish, rub skin with sea salt flakes. Roast, about 2 1/2 hours, or until duck is browned and tender.
  4. Meanwhile, place cherries, soy sauce, tawny, pepper, sugar, balsamic vinegar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, about 20 minutes, until it becomes syrupy. It will thicken a little more on cooling.
  5. Serve duck accompanied with cherry sauce.

(Food To Love, 2011)

Awesome foursome: duck, fig, walnut and pinot

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We have a recipe from our two favourite customers, Rick and Maggie – who doesn’t love wine and Pinot?

Ingredients (for two to share by candlelight)

2 duck breasts
10 walnut kernels, lightly toasted and rubbed with a dry cloth
3 ripe figs, quartered
mixed salad leavesduck-salad-3

For the marinade
3cm fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil

For the dressing (these days, for convenience, we use our vinaigrette dressing instead and it works equally well)
1 small brown shallot, finely chopped duck-salad-2
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
60ml olive oil
¼ tsp caster sugar
1 tbsp finely chopped walnut kernel
2 tsp finely chopped parsley
2 tsp snipped chives
salt and pepper

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 125C (fan-forced). Using a metal skewer, prick and pierce the skin of the duck, with no more than ½ cm between each prick mark. Place breasts skin-side DOWN on a grill-rack sitting in a pan with 1cm of water in the bottom. Bake for 1 hour and remove from oven.duck-salad-41
  2. Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. Brush all surfaces of the duck with the marinade, put breasts and any leftover marinade in a suitable container, cover and refrigerate overnight or for at least four hours. Remove from fridge at least 30 minutes before step 3 and brush off any excess marinade (see the first photo below).
  3. Preheat oven to 175C. Place breasts skin-side UP on a grill placed on the top shelf and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until skin has turned a deep golden brown. Rest breasts while you prepare the other salad ingredients. (This time, we roasted the breasts in our Weber Q – purchased since we last made the dish – and cooked the duck skin-side down for 6 minutes once the skin was golden brown, which added some appealing char to the flavour mix.)
  4. To make the dressing, put shallot, vinegar, mustard, oil and sugar in a jar, put lid on jar and shake vigorously for about 10 seconds. Add chopped walnut, parsley and chives and briefly shake to combine. Adjust seasoning. duck-salad-4
  5. Combine leaves, fig and walnut kernels in a large salad bowl. Slice duck breast, place over salad and spoon over about half the dressing. Toss gently to combine and serve immediately.

(Maggie & Rick Grounds – RMG Travels and Food, 2015)

Chicken, leek and mushroom pie by Karen Martini

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Karen Martini takes us on a tastebud journey with family favourite, but still delicious and mouthwatering.

 

INGREDIENTSScreen shot 2015-10-12 at 5.27.33 PM

6 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in

Salt flakes

Freshly ground pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

1 litre chicken stock, hot

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 leeks, finely sliced

65g butter

450g large pine or field mushrooms, carefully cleaned, finely diced

3 sprigs thyme, leaves only

40g plain flour

2 tbsp double cream

2 tsp heaped dijon mustard

1 handful flatleaf parsley, chopped

2 handfuls frozen peas

1 thick piece (about 375g) puff pastry

1 egg, whisked

1 small onion

METHOD:

1. Season the chicken thighs and brown, skin-side down, in a little oil in a large pan over medium heat – about 8 minutes. Flip over and add the hot stock. Simmer gently for 25 minutes or until the thighs are cooked.

2. Remove the cooked chicken and strain the stock. Skim off most of the fat from the stock (you can cool it first, if you like, making it easier to lift the fat from the top). Return the stock to the stove and reduce to about 400 millilitres.

3. For the filling, add about 50 millilitres of oil to a frying pan and cook the onion, garlic and leeks for about 10 minutes over a slow heat to caramelise and soften.

4. Add 25 grams of the butter, the mushrooms and the thyme and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees fan-forced or 210 degrees conventional.

6. In a medium pot, melt 40 grams of butter over a medium heat until starting to sizzle, add the flour and stir to make a roux. Cook for 1 minute, stirring all the time, then add the strained stock. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes at a simmer, whisking constantly – it should be smooth and thick.

7. Take the sauce off the heat and leave to cool a little. Whisk in the cream and mustard, and add the mushroom mix, parsley and peas. Tear or chop the chicken and add to the mix. Combine thoroughly, and check and adjust the seasoning – the mix will be quite thick but luscious.

8. Cut the pastry sheet three centimetres larger than your pie dish to make a pastry pie lid. Brush the edge of the dish with the egg, tip the filling in and drop the lid on, crimping to seal. Decorate with the pastry scraps. Make an incision in the top to release steam and brush with egg. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden and puffed.

Serves 4

(Karen Martini, 2013)

Wild Boar Ragu

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It’s time to share an Italian inspired Game Meat recipe from one of our customers Charles from Cha’s Kitchen!

INGREDIENTS

500g Wild Boar (Diced)
100g diced pancetta (rind removed)
1 brown onion finely chopped
2 large carrots finely chopped
2 celery sticks finely choppedimg_1621
1L Vegetable stock
1 bottle dry white wine
800g cherry tomatoes
Parpadelle
Parmesan

METHOD

1. In a heavy based pan sweat off the onion, carrots and celery in olive oil over a low heat until they become translucent(very soft), don’t allow them to get any colour. Remove from the heat and set aside.
2. In the same pan brown the boar and season with salt. Once browned well set aside.
3. add the pancetta and cook until the fat begins to render, set aside.
4. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and reduce.
5. Add the sofritto(celery, onion, carrot), boar and pancetta. Add the stock and simmer gently on a low heat for 3-4 hours.
6. In a separate pan, heat some olive oil and add the cherry tomatoes until they begin to break down. Add to the other pan and fold in. Continue to simmer for another hour.
7. That’s it! Serve with parpadelle and some good Parmesan cheese.

(Chas’s Kitchen, 2015)