Karoo roasted shoulder of springbok
Adapted from the Daily Maverick
Use a smallish shoulder like springbok or mountain reedbuck and leave the shank on as this adds a whole new dimension to the roast. The secret to this roast is to keep the lid on, tight as can be, throughout the cooking process.
Ingredients
1 venison shoulder roast, shank still attached
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
½ bottle white wine
10 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, cut into chunks
1 handful fresh rosemary sprigs
100g thickly sliced bacon
30ml smooth apricot jam or quince jelly
Method
Rub the roast with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Pour the wine into the roasting dish so that it is about 5cm deep.
Add the garlic, ginger and rosemary to the wine and place the roast in the dish.
Cover with rashers of bacon and seal the lid in place as described in the notes below.
Place in the hot (280°C) oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 150°C and continue roasting for two hours. Do not open the lid during this time!
After two hours remove from the oven and check (be careful of the steam when opening the lid). You should be able to pull out the scapula (the thin flat bone at the end) quite easily. If not, close up and cook for longer. Once ready, remove the roast from the pan and set aside to rest.
Strain the pan juices through a sieve, pushing through all the goodness with a spoon.
Return the juices to the pan with the apricot jam or quince jelly and bring to the boil whilst stirring and scraping all the sticky dark stuff off the bottom – lots of flavour here.
Thicken if necessary.
Notes
Bang all the ingredients into the roasting dish and then make a sticky dough by mixing some flour and water and use it to seal around the rim of the dish. When you put the lid on it forms an airtight seal so that nothing can escape.