This week’s food photography assigment is one cocktail, one stew and one soup.

I don’t understand the cocktail craze, at least not the sweet, sticky ones, any more than I have ever understood why grown people drink those awful softdrinks or whatever they are called – coke, fanta etc. – nor, for that matter, why children are allowed to drink them on a daily basis nowadays. All that sugar. Gross. But I’m sure big pharma is happy, especially the insulin manufacturers. Also laughing all the way to the bank is the mind-boggling diet- and weightloss industry. Absurd, in view of the fact that it is just simple maths (number of calories IN vs. number of calories OUT) – even I can figure that one out although I am innumerate (is that what it is called – the equivalent of dyslexic but with numbers?).

And soup – naahh – not in soup cooking mode – but a stew is good timing since I am preparing a venison stew for one of those rare occasions where I am actually having a couple of friends around for a meal.

• 4 tblsp flour
• 800 g venison in 2 cm cubes
• olive oil
• 2 onions (I always use red since I find the yellow onions a bit too sweet), peeled and chopped (they do not have to be very finely chopped)
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 sticks celery, trimmed and sliced
• 1 tablespoon juniper berries, crushed
• “Needles” from 2 sprigs rosemary, chopped
• 50 g butter
• 6 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley
• Stock
• 1 clove garlic , peeled and finely chopped

Mix 2 tblsp of the flour with salt and black pepper well and then mix in the venison, coating thoroughly.

Brown the meat in olive oil for a couple of minutes and add

onion, carrot, celery, juniper, rosemary and butter. Simmer covered for five minutes. Add a sprinkle of water or stock if necessary.

Remove the lid and continue to fry, stirring occasionally. When the onions start to caramelize, add the chopped parsley stems with the remaining flour and stock. Keep the parsley leaves for later.

Simmer the stew till the meat easily breaks apart. If you have been using stock cubes rather than stock, add water if necessary.

Chop and mash the galic, the parsley leaves, a tsp of salt and a good grinding of black pepper to a paste and add to the stew shortly before serving.

I am serving this with a mash of potato and celery (adding some milk, sour cream and butter).