It’s almost time for All Saints and Halloween. Pumpkins are in danger. Orange is in fashion.

But you can’t eat just pumpkin for Halloween. At least Mrs J can’t. So the pumpkin is on hold for the moment and Mrs J is making another autumn classic – the wild stew.

Actually it should probably be called game stew in English. But wild stew sounds much more interesting. And it is made with meat from wild animals. So there.

Mrs J chose some venison for her stew this time.

Scandos may choose elk instead, central Europeans and other good folk may choose wild boar or other game. Mrs J likes venison for this because it marries particularly well with apples and other fairly sweet fruit.

Anyone mentioning Bambi at this point will be banned from Mrs J’s kitchen. For real.

The recipe is not terribly complicated and can be varied more or less forever substituting other types of game, jellies and alcohol, or adding other dried herbs.

First, clean and cut the meat. 500 grams of cubed meat should be sufficient for 3 people. Cut a couple of red onions in medium sized pieces.

Crush a teaspoon of whole white pepper. Add a teaspoon of dried thyme.

Brown the meat quickly in some butter in a frying pan. Transfer to your stew pot.

Throw the onions in the pan to brown slightly as well. While they are browning place a small knob of additional butter in a corner of your pan and your dump your crushed pepper and thyme in it, making sure the fat and the spices blend and the spices roast (without burning). When your kitchen smells nice and spicy and the onions are browned throw a tablespoon of flour over everything and give a good stir to mix it all. Then carefully pour over 0,75 dl of calvados (watch out for the alcohol steaming off, it’s hot y’all) and 3-4 dl of chicken stock. Mix in about a tablespoon of good apple jelly and about two tablespoons of red currant jelly. Add two tablespoons of soy sauce. Give the whole thing a boil.

Pour it all over the meat and let the stew do its thing on low heat under a lid for more or less as long as you can stand it. 30-40 min in the first stage is usually sufficient but it depends on the meat.

Then mix in 2 dl of creme fraiche. Mrs J uses 15% fat creme fraiche but feel free to go full fat if you prefer a richer stew. Let stew for another 30 minutes or so without a lid. Then add 2-3 tablespoons of crumbled blue cheese. Make sure to leave the heat on long enough for the cheese to completely dissolve. Add salt, pepper, more cheese or more jelly to taste.

At this point you can serve. Mrs J would recommend pressed or mashed potatoes to go with it. Maybe a bit of fresh thyme to please the eye. If you can’t stand peeling potatoes, go for some rice.

However, this is one of those stews that actually gets better if you let it cool and reheat it the next day. So this is what Mrs J is doing.

Don’t look now ’cause she’s just going to have a tiny taste…

P.S. Flowers today courtesy of Mrs J’s friend Mimi. Merci!