For the love of Bambi

"Are you with the church group?’’ I’m asked by a member of the almost serene congregant, as we wait for the cinema to clear after the Sunday morning gathering.

‘‘Oh god no, we’re here for the Wolf of Wall Str...’’

Which is suddenly uncomfortable, considering this movie, as it unfolded, at 18+ (plus your parents’ permission, at any age), would be the polar opposite of a new-age church gathering, except, maybe, for the redemption bit at the end. So with not a small amount of Catholic guilt I wait till they clear the cinema and get the movie going, avoiding their surely disapproving eyes on their way out.

Let’s see if I can make you a little uncomfortable with this week’s tale.

There’s probably been some concern about the recent focus on good health, exercise and oat bran. So to get firmly back on my paddock to plate track of nose to tail eating, I present you with this pearler.

There is a one-up-manship when it comes to hunting and gathering, the weirder the better. Scouring the landscape for wild mushrooms is trumped by scraping lichen off seashore rocks, and finding truffles with just your nose and a teaspoon by bringing down an elk with a knife and loin cloth.

So when a couple of friends turn up, independently, each with a deer, I know it’s going to be a good week.

One of these local characters arrived with a glint in his eye and an esky, and blew me away with what was in it.

A bit of background. Years back chef extraordinaire Cheong Liew was preparing dinner for a group of winemakers in South Australia. We winemakers are an adventurous lot and generally won’t back down from a challenge. Well Liew laid down his hand this night and among the courses was soup, quite gamey and brothy with little diamond shaped pieces of something floating in it. These were revealed to be, I kid you not, a deer’s penis.

It has gone quiet. Hello? Anyone out there?

Moving forward, this appendage is not uncommon in Chinese cuisine and medicine. Like cordycepes and ground-up stag horn, eating weird, rare and phallic things is considered restorative, an aphrodisiac and good for the joints. In fact, it would not have been out of place in Scorcese’s epic movie on the excesses of the late ’80s.

So out of the esky, along with some nice looking venison sausages, is this deer’s penis. Being ever so practical, this friend also brought a recipe – basically, cook it in a vinegary solution (obviously, it would be full of cartilage so need an acidic stock to tenderise it, just saying) for hours, then slice it thinly and serve in a light soup. It all sounds like something from the Silence of the Lambs.

I need time to think, so I put it in the freezer, carefully labelled of course. That’s not a conversation you want to have when you’ve been away. ‘‘Honey, umm, did you see what happened to the deer’s penis?’’

From the other deer, remembering that two came to my world at the same time, there were thankfully no strange bits. It was a young male, quite large with an impressive set of antlers. I’m aware this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I can assure you it was slaughtered quickly with a bullet from 500 metres after a free-ranging life. This is as opposed to the cow that for last night’s steak would have been kept in paddocks and feedlots waiting in line for its turn. So either don’t eat meat at all, or get over it. Deer is an introduced species for the purpose of hunting; they are culled to decrease numbers and often find their way into pet food at best.

This deer fed a small community and was pretty good.

The best is the neck, about the size of a small pig’s neck. I cut out the two meaty sections and make a stock from the neck bones. Then cook the neck meat in this stock at a low temperature, until it just falls apart. Now grab two big forks and pull all the muscle fibre apart. Reduce the stock down to a thickened sauce and recombine the two to a beautiful ragu. You can serve this with pasta – thick parpardelle works, but the best option is gnocchi, then all the dish needs is a sprinkle of parsley and a grate of reggiano parmigiana.
It is a meal fit for a king, a queen or indeed a wolf (see recipe below).

Deer neck is hard to find but you can use veal, beef or lamb shank for the same result. Just ask the butcher to leave the muscle in large sections and keep the bones. If you can find a pair of big hares, use them; they would be equally spectacular.

Bryan Martin’s deer ragu with gnocchi

1-2kg deer neck (or substitute)
6 rosemary stalks
handful parsley leaves, chopped roughly, to serve
good quality parmesan cheese, grated, to serve

Stock
venison bones, rubbed with salt and oil, roasted until caramelised
2 onions, sliced
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 star anise
½ bottle rich red wine
2 pork trotters
6 sprigs thyme
10 peppercorns
6 juniper berries

For the stock, saute the onion, carrot, garlic and star anise until just starting to colour. Add the roasted venison bones and deglaze with red wine, then reduce by half. Add the trotters, thyme, peppercorns and juniper berries, plus enough water to cover. Simmer gently for four to five hours, strain.

Season the meat and brown all over in hot oil, then drain.

In a deep roasting pan that holds the meat comfortably with enough height to be fully submerged, add the meat and cover with stock. Bake at 100C for six to eight hours, topping with hot water as needed, checking towards the end – you want to stop cooking when the meat starts to fall apart.

Remove the meat. Strain the stock and put it back on the heat to cook down to about 500ml.

Carefully pull the meat apart with forks – take your time to get it down to threads.

Add the sauce to the meat, mix and push in the rosemary stalks. Let it sit off the heat for 10 minutes or leave the rosemary there if the dish is for later. Remove the rosemary and serve the ragu warm over the gnocchi (see recipe below), with grated cheese and parsley. And a bottle of something robust and rustic and of Italian origin; a nebbiolo would be fab.

Gnocchi
3-4 medium-sized potatoes
1 cup flour
2 egg yolks
salt
knob of butter

Steam or boil the potatoes until they are cooked through but not falling apart. Drain and leave to dry off for a few minutes. Make a ring of flour about plate sized and pass the potatoes through a potato ricer into the middle. If you don’t have a potato ricer just mash the spuds (but look out for this implement, it’s very handy). Make a well in the pile of potato and add the egg yolks and salt. With a fork mix the eggs and potato together and slowly combine the flour just a little at a time. Swap the fork for a pastry scraper and start to fold the dough over and over on itself – just a gentle folding action, adding flour until you get a soft dough that is pliable but not tough. Don’t overwork it.
Flatten to oblongs about 15cm long, 6cm wide and 1.5cm thick. Cut into 1.5cm ribbons. Roll these in flour and cut into 3cm lengths, dusting with flour as you go. Use a fork to roll the gnocchi over to give it that grooved look.

Cook the gnocchi in batches in rapidly boiling water until they float, scoop out, drain and put them into a bowl with butter.

>> Bryan Martin is winemaker at Ravensworth and Clonakilla, bryanmartin.com.au