Braised venison shoulder and fried venison filet with chopped savoy cabbage and poppy-seed dumplings

One of Würzburg's most famous restaurants is the "Backöfele". Food is served from early evening until midnight, giving Chef Herbert Gier and his team enough time to prepare and serve around 500 meals.

This time he's serving us braised venison shoulder and fried venison filet with chopped savoy cabbage and poppy-seed dumplings

(for 4 people)

Ingredients:

250g venison filet

4 venison strips (roughly 1200g from venison shoulder)

Butter

Oil

150g celery, carrots, leeks

1/3 liter brown gravy stock

0.15 liters good red wine

50g chopped bacon

1 Bay Leaf

20 juniper berries

20 pepper corns

1 clove

2 cl cognac

1 tblsp cranberries

salt

pepper

a pinch of starch

Preparation:

Fry shoulder strips in oil with celery, carrots and leeks. Drench with redwine and brown gravy stock. Then add spices--bay leaf, juniper berries, pepper corns and clove. Add bacon.

Allow to braise in oven at 160° C for about 80 minutes.

Remove meat from broth. Strain, then add cranberries, cognac salt and pepper to taste and add starch to thicken gravy if needed.

Fry venison filet in butter (about five minutes) place in oven at 60° C for an additional five minutes.

Chopped Savoy Cabbage

500g savoy cabbage

Butter

30 g chopped bacon

30 g choped onion

nutmeg

salt

pepper

sugar

Chop cabbage in strips and blanche in boiling water for about 3 minutes. Cool in cold water. Fry with bacon, onions and butter. Flavor to taste with nutmeg, salt, pepper and sugar.

Poppy-seed Dumplings

400g potatoes (boiled)

1 egg yolk

10 g starch

1 tblsp poppy seeds

salt

nutmeg

oil or butter

Mash potatoes, add egg yolk, starch, salt, nutmeg and poppy seeds. Work into a dough and form moon-shaped dumplings. Coat in oil or butter and bake.