Not many people realise you can eat Muntjac. These little Chinese deer came over to the UK with the Duke of Bedford for his deer park at Woburn Abbey. They quickly spread and can now be found almost everywhere. The meat is dense and flavoursome. It can be treated like lamb in lots of ways as it is delicious both pink and slow cooked. We use it in this recipe as it holds its texture very well and makes a wonderful winter feast. Buy fresh dried tagliatelle for this, De Cecco do a good one.
Muntjac Ragu with Fresh Tagliatelle Recipe
By Published: April 11, 2013
- Yield: 4 Servings
Not many people realise you can eat Muntjac. These little Chinese deer came over to the UK with the Duke of Bedford for his deer park …
Ingredients
- 1 Muntjac haunch noned and diced
- 1 onion diced
- 2 carrots diced
- 4 sticks celery diced
- 2 glasses red wine
- 100 ml chicken stock fresh
- 2 tins Chopped Italian tomoatoes
- 10 sprigs thyme
- 1 tbsp red currant jelly
- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- Salt
- pepper
Instructions
- The great thing about this recipe as it cooks overnight and the meat doesn’t need searing first, so it can be thrown together and left alone to make its magic. Gently sauté off the veg until soft then throw in all the rest of the ingredients. Give it a good stir, then put a greaseproof cartouche (circle lid) over the liquid and follow with a tight fitting lid. Put in a low oven 130c for 8 hours.
- In morning, check the seasoning, give a good stir and it can be frozen or re-heated from this point when ready to serve. Mix well with the tagliatelle before serving (please don’t just plonk it on top). Shave lots and lots of good quality parmesan over before serving and a drizzle of Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil.