Recommendations
Venison stew with Zuidam Oude Genever
In the roasting pan the venison goulash falls apart after three hours of simmering into a sauce of onion, garlic, cinnamon, chilli flakes, tomato purée, orange juice and dates, with a salsa of pistachio, orange and za’atar on top. Set against it is an old genever made from equal parts malted barley, rye and maize, whose malt wine has aged in small wooden casks.
From the shelf
The bottle
Zuidam Oude Genever comes from the Zuidam distillery in Baarle-Nassau. It is an oude jenever of 35% vol in a 100 cl bottle, distilled from equal parts malted barley, rye and maize: the barley forms the base, the maize brings sweetness and the rye spiciness. The distillate goes through the still three times and in part a fourth time over juniper, liquorice root and aniseed; the malt wine is aged in small wooden casks after dilution to 45%. For the designation oude jenever, at least 35% vol and at least 15% of the alcohol from malt wine is required.
The combination
Why this works together
This venison stew is a dish with two kinds of sweetness: the dates and the orange juice bring fruity sweetness, the cinnamon brings a warm spiced sweetness, and underneath lies game that is naturally iron-like and dark. The chilli flakes and the za’atar in the salsa keep the whole sharp. A young jenever would find no foothold in such a plate. This oude genever brings the three grains that hook in at exactly the right places: the maize with its sweetness for the dates, the rye with its spiciness for the cinnamon and the za’atar, and the malted barley with its grain roundness for the dark meat. The liquorice and the aniseed from the fourth run of the still go along with the orange, and the ageing in small wood gives just enough cask flavour not to let the stew seem thinner than it is. That puts the glass in the middle of the dish instead of beside it.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 25 minutes, plus 3 hours braising
- Type main course
What you need
- 500 g venison goulash
- 1 tablespoon wheat flour
- 15 g unsalted butter
- 1 medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- a quarter teaspoon of chilli flakes
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 250 ml chicken stock
- 2 oranges
- 50 g pitted dates
- 15 g unsalted pistachios
- 5 g fresh celery
- 1 teaspoon za’atar
How to make it
- Cut larger pieces of meat to 3 to 4 cm, pat them dry and toss them in the flour with pepper and salt.
- Heat the butter in a casserole and brown the meat all over in batches for 10 minutes over medium heat. Remove the meat from the pan.
- Cut the onion into half rings and fry them for 5 minutes in the fat left behind. Add three quarters of the finely chopped garlic with the cinnamon and the chilli flakes and fry this for 1 minute.
- Add the tomato purée and fry it for 1 minute. Put the meat back, pour in the stock and bring everything to the boil.
- Peel a third of one orange and set the peel aside. Squeeze out the rest to about 50 ml of juice. Coarsely chop the dates.
- Add the orange peel, the juice and the dates to the meat. Cover the pan and let the stew simmer for 3 hours over low heat until the meat falls apart; stir now and then and reduce the sauce if necessary.
- Toast the pistachios for 4 to 5 minutes in a dry pan and let them cool. Cut the second orange into cubes of 1 cm. Finely chop the celery, the remaining garlic and the nuts and mix everything with the za’atar; season with pepper and salt.
- Spoon the salsa over the stew and serve.
In the glass
Serving
Pour the Zuidam Oude Genever at room temperature into a tulip glass, filled to the brim. The ageing in small wood and the liquorice come out at around 18 °C; chilled, little of that remains and you are mostly left with alcohol next to a warm stew. Put the bottle on the table and top up with small glasses, so the jenever does not warm beyond room temperature.
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