Recipe of the week: Sika roast
Wild deer scraps and bones are deeply roasted and then simmered with kelp and black peppercorns to make a stock. The stock is reduced to a glaze. Mushroom-kelp broth and truffle juice are reduced to make a sauce and finished with brown butter and chopped black truffles.
The wild deer is grilled over hot charcoal while being brushed with the deer glaze, then carved into portions and served with the truffle sauce.
Wild deer
Wild sika deer
Deer stock
- Wild sika deer scraps and bones
- Black peppercorns
- Kelp
Deer glaze
- Deer stock
- Blueberry reduction (see below)
- Yeast broth reduction (see below)
- Smoked butter (see below)
Truffle sauce
- Reduced mushroom-kelp broth (below)
- Truffle juice
- Brown butter
- Black truffle
- White wine vinegar
- White wine reduction
To finish
- Wild deer
- Deer glaze
- Salt
- Toasted black peppercorns
- Truffle sauce
- Blueberry reduction
- 1kg blueberries
Blend the blueberries in a Thermomix until well puréed. Freeze the mixture in 1 litre containers, leaving room in the containers for expansion in the freezer.
Once frozen, remove the solid bricks from their containers and place them in a cheesecloth-lined perforated gastro pan set over a deep gastro pan. Cover and let stand in the fridge for 2 to 3 days, until thawed. Transfer the liquid to 1 litre containers and place in a dehydrator set to 60°C. Reduce to a sugar content of 80°Bx as measured by a refractometer. Let cool, then vacuum seal and freeze.
Yeast broth reduction
- 400ml filtered water
- 60g peaso
- 20g roasted yeast
- 12g freeze-dried gooseberries
Blend all the ingredients with an immersion blender until thoroughly homogenised. Transfer the mixture to a 1 litre airtight container and freeze.
Remove the frozen brick of yeast broth from the container and hang it in the same way as the blueberry reduction. Weigh the strained liquid, transfer to a clean container, and place it in a dehydrator set to 60°C. Reduce to 8% of the liquid's initial weight (63 °Bx as measured by a refractometer). Let cool, then vacuum seal and freeze.
Smoked butter
- 5kg butter, cut into 2cm cubes
Set up an offset cold smoker. Fill a smoking coil with wood dust and light the dust with a bit of white-hot charcoal. Place the butter in a perforated gastro pan and set the pan on one of the top racks of the smoker. Smoke the butter for 30 minutes, then check to make sure it smells rich and smoky; if so, remove from the smoker. Transfer the smoked butter to a clean airtight container and reserve in the fridge, or use to make smoked butter whey.
Mushroom-kelp broth
- Mushroom kelp
- 250g thick centre pieces of kelp
- 125g dried ceps
- 65g dried morels
- 35g dried black trumpet mushrooms
- 500g lacto cep water
- 25g freeze-dried lingonberries
- 125g muscovado sugar
- 5 litres filtered water
Master stock
- 250g thin outer pieces of kelp
- 125g dried ceps
- 65g dried morels
- 35g dried black trumpet mushrooms
- 500g lacto cep water
- 25g freeze-dried lingonberries
- 125g muscovado sugar
- 5 litres filtered water
Place the ingredients for the mushroom kelp and the master stock in separate rondeaus. Bring both pots to a boil, then cover and simmer on low heat overnight.
Strain the liquid in both pots.
Remove the thick pieces of kelp and reserve. With a superbag, squeeze the solids from both pots. Combine the strained stocks and reserved kelp in a pot and cook very slowly for 36 hours, or until the kelp becomes just tender.
Remove from the heat and let cool, then transfer the broth and kelp to airtight containers. Reserve in the fridge.
This is an edited extract, with recipes for peaso and lacto cep water omitted.
Taken from Noma 2.0: Vegetable, Forest, Ocean by René Redzepi, Mette Søberg and Junichi Takahashi (Artisan Publishers, £60)
