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No. 20ScottishVenisonBeef

Highland After Dark

This one is a bit more of high-end restaurant meal -- even though it is meatballs

John Drummond

Three dark-crusted venison meatballs on a black plate, one halved to show a coarse, glistening interior with butter melting on it, beside a quenelle of golden clapshot, a pool of glossy dark whisky jus, browned mushrooms, a charred savoy wedge and a tangle of green apple matchsticks
Prep1hr
Cook50min
All up1hr 50min
Serves4
LevelHard

Mise en place

What you need

Tick each one off as it goes in.

The stock, ahead

The meatballs

The jus

The peat

Clapshot

Mushrooms and savoy

Apple and horseradish

Makes 4 serves

This one is a bit more of high-end restaurant meal -- even though it is meatballs.

Scotch is the point of it, not a novelty. It goes in three times: a sherried malt reduced with the shallot inside the meatball, more reduced into the jus, and a little raw at the end so you can still smell the cask. The peated Islay never touches the pan. A measured few drops go over the hot meatballs as the plate goes out.

What it came down to: - Venison leads. It's coarse-minced, folded through a smaller amount of fine beef that binds it, so you bite pieces of deer, not paste. Fat is added according to the venison label, because farmed venison runs from 3% to 8%. - The oats are cooked to a real porridge before they go in. Raw oats stay mealy. - The meatballs are never simmered in the sauce. Seared hard, roasted to 75°C, then rolled in the jus for 20 seconds. The crust survives. - The jus is reduced from stock that sets when it's cold. Carton gravy can't be a jus. - The mushrooms are browned and kept out of the sauce, so it stays glossy and doesn't turn into stroganoff. - Something sharp to come back to on the third meatball: apple with a little fresh horseradish.

No cream, no black pudding, no smoke from the Kamado. All three were tried on paper and lost: cream dulls the whisky, black pudding fights the venison, and the peat is already the smoke.

Venison: farmed venison shoulder, coarse-minced (ask the butcher to put it through once, on an 8 mm plate). If you can only get fine venison mince, hand-cut half the venison from a steak to 4 mm. No venison: lamb shoulder, minced coarse. It's an honest swap, but it'll taste of lamb.

It hasn't been made in this exact form yet.

AI reviewed by Grok, Codex & Claude

The method

Fifteen moves.

  1. Stock, Concentrate

    Chill a spoonful of the stock first. If it doesn't set, bloom the gelatine in a splash of cold water. Soak the porcini in the just-boiled water for 20 minutes. Lift them out and strain the liquor through a rinsed paper towel in a sieve. Reduce the stock with the porcini liquor and thyme to about 230 ml. No salt. Gelatine in now if you need it. Thyme out.

  2. Panade, Cook

    Oats and milk, simmered 6 minutes, stirring, to a thick porridge. Spread it on a plate and into the fridge until cold.

  3. Whisky Shallot, Reduce

    Shallot in the butter, no colour. Gas off, then the 18 ml whisky. Back on and reduce until glossy, tasting of raisin, never dark. Cool completely. If it tastes bitter, bin it: you can't fix bitterness inside a meatball.

  4. Farce, Mix

    Everything cold. Work the beef mince, salt and porridge together for 40 seconds until tacky. Fold in the venison, grated fat, whisky shallot, yolk, Worcestershire, thyme, mace and pepper in a few folds. Don't knead the venison to a paste. Fry a 20 g test patty to 75°C, cut it and taste it. It should glisten and taste of deer and raisin. Correct the salt by up to 0.5 g. Shape 12 balls of about 65 g with damp hands. Fridge 25 minutes.

  5. Swede, Roast

    Oven to 200°C fan. Swede with the oil, a pinch of salt and 20 ml water in a small dish, covered, for 20 minutes. Uncovered for another 15–20 minutes, until soft and caramelised at the edges.

  6. Potatoes, Boil

    In their own pot, from cold in salted water, 12–15 minutes until tender. Drain and dry on the heat until the surface looks matte.

  7. Clapshot, Rice

    Rice the hot swede and potato together. Never a blender. Fold in the brown butter, solids and all. Add warm milk only if it won't hold a shape, 30 ml at most. Salt and white pepper. Cover and keep warm.

  8. Savoy, Char

    Steam the wedges 6–7 minutes, until a knife goes through the core. Dry them properly. Char cut face down in a little of the dripping, 2–3 minutes, until the edges blacken. Off the heat: salt, the vinegar and the butter.

  9. Mushrooms, Brown

    Oven down to 185°C fan. Cast-iron pan, hot, a film of dripping. Mushrooms in batches until the liquid's gone and the edges are dark. Salt once they're brown. Lift them all out.

  10. Meatballs, Sear

    Same pan, more dripping. Six at a time, about 5 minutes, turning, dark golden all over, not black. Onto a rack over a tray.

  11. Meatballs, Roast

    Straight into the oven. Probe the biggest one from 5 minutes. Pull when the centre reads 75°C, usually 6–9 minutes. Rest 3 minutes.

  12. Jus, Finish

    While they roast. Shallot into the sear pan for a minute, no colour. Gas off, then the 45 ml whisky. Back on, reduce until glossy, about a tablespoon left. Not dry.

    Add the stock concentrate, Dijon and pepper, and reduce to about 180 ml, until a finger drawn across the back of a spoon leaves a clean line. Off the heat: redcurrant jelly, then the cold butter, then vinegar, a teaspoon to start. Salt in pinches. Taste it with a piece of meatball and clapshot.

    Then raw whisky, 1 ml at a time, up to 5 ml. Stop as soon as it smells of the cask and before it tastes hot.

  13. Peat, Measure

    With a 1 ml syringe: 1.85 ml sherried whisky and 0.15 ml Lagavulin, mixed. Make a little extra at the same ratio. Taste a drop on a hot crust. If it tastes like a bandage, halve the Lagavulin.

  14. Apple, Dress

    At the last moment. Apple in fine matchsticks, with the horseradish, vinegar and salt. Start with 1 g of horseradish and taste it with the meat. It should lift, not burn.

  15. Plate, Up

    Hot black plates. Roll the meatballs in the jus for 20 seconds and lift them out. A quenelle of clapshot, about 130 g, off centre. Three meatballs against it, one cut in half, cut face up. Jus pooled beside, not drowning them. Mushrooms out of the pool. Savoy, charred face up.

    Apple on the meatballs. 5 ml of the peat mix over the hot crusts of each plate as it goes out. Eat straight away. Contains: gluten (oats can't be labelled gluten-free in Australia; check the Worcestershire, Dijon and stock), dairy, egg, fish (Worcestershire), mustard and alcohol.

    The reductions don't remove the alcohol, and the finishing whisky is raw.

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