Slow braised venison shank with celeriac mash

As mentioned earlier we picked up some lovely venison shanks from the market and I decided to braise them and serve them up with celeriac mash.

In a large, oven-proof pan I started to soften three roughly chopped carrots, a couple of quartered onions and a couple of chopped sticks of celery in a little of the recently purchased Kent cob nut oil (although any vegetable oil works, obviously).  In also went two crushed cloves of garlic, a squeeze of tomato puree, a couple of bay leaves and a half teaspoon each of dried oregano, thyme and sage.  Once the vegetables had started to soften a little and the pan was fairly hot I poured in half a bottle of red wine.

In a separate pan I seared the shanks in a little more of the oil; seasoning with a little salt and pepper as I went.  These then went into the vegetables and the pan was deglazed with a little more wine and that too added to the braising melting pot.  I then added enough boiling water to just cover the shanks.  On went the lid and into a 140* oven for three and a half hours.  I checked twice and turned the shanks to ensure they were well and truly slow cooked.

For the mash I peeled and chunked up the celeriac, popped it all in a pan and covered with milk.  Into this went a couple of cloves of garlic and some seasoning.  The celeriac was cooked, at a simmer rather than a boil, until tender (about 20 minutes).  When cooked I drained and reserved the milk then blitzed the celeriac with a hand blender; adding a little of the milk to keep the mixture loose.  Into this was then stirred a leek which had been finely sliced and cooked until soft in about 25g of butter.  This was seasoned with a little black pepper.  No salt as there was already plenty in the mash.  A diced apple and about a tablespoon of chopped parsley was added in the last few minutes of cooking.

Once the shanks were cooked until the meat was literally falling off the bone I lifted them from the pan and kept them warm; wrapped in foil.  I drained the vegetables from the sauce and then reduced the liquid by about half and stirred in a few lumps of cold butter to make the resulting sauce good and glossy.

Served as shown with plenty of sauce for the mash to suck up.  They were delicious and a pleasant change from lamb; which could be cooked in exactly the same way.