It's all in the game: Red Deer shanks (Rot Hirsch steltzen)

I managed to crowbar the shanks from my mate who had shot a nice 2 year old stag a few days ago (he had no choice I had my carrier out of my pocket in a flash) and they where gone, disappeared, vanished, I managed to magic them back though when I got home! He needed my help to skin and butcher it, so fair dues. Thanks mate.

I put 2 of them in the freezer for a rainy day (I do hope it rains soon as MY freezer is full), the other two I dusted all over in my dry spice herbs and sealed into a plastic container. These I left for 3 days, then took them with me up to Kiel.

This was done in the Slow cooker but can also be done in the oven at a low heat.

You will need for the slow cooked deer shanks:

Game spices, rub well into the shanks (see my recipe or buy ready ground) and left in a cool place for a couple of days

1 glass of red wine added to the shanks 24 hours prior to cooking.

with a small handful of freeze dried root vegetables

A few small onions chopped
3 cloves of garlic crushed and diced
1 sprig of thyme
a few leaves of sage
some sprigs of rosemary
1 bunch of soup vegetables consisting of, a couple of carrots, a piece of celeriac, white of a leek, a bunch of parsley including stalks
Some good stock ( we had some nice lamb stock in the freezer)
10 crushed pepper corns.
teaspoon of course salt
100g of speck or fatty smoked bacon

Dice the veg quite small, put in the bottom of the Slow cooker, fry the onions and speck add to SC, then add the shanks,the garlic and the wine marinade, add the stock.

Add the fresh herbs, peppercorns and salt

Pop on the lid set on high for an hour turn down low and go and do the shopping at the market or watch Saturday kitchen. Leave the shanks for about 5 hours on low to do their thing.

I had some nice fresh Bavarian semmel knödeln, a finished product, cooking at a slow rolling boil

we had bought some fresh red cabbage at the market, to this was added a glass of red wine a small schnapps glass of raspberry vinegar, a tea spoon of whole cumin seeds, salt and pepper to taste

Remove the shanks from the SC and strain the liquid through a funnel sieve, pushing the veg well down to remove all of the goodness and taste! boil this up in a small sauce pan, with some dried rosemary needles a desert spoonful of blackberry and sloe jelly (or any other jelly like black current of black cherry, I have even added orange marmalade), reduce until it coats the back of a spoon.

We had bought some chanterelles and brown mushrooms at the market, these fried together with a bit of speck and a chopped shallot in a little olive oil made a nice accompaniment. Just in case there was a chance that we would be hungry we done some buttery potato and turnip mash.