Moose stew with wine and chocolate

Another exotic ingredient for southern latitudes people; Moose.

I had the luck that Ms North's uncle is a great moose hunter and gave me almost 1.5kg piece of moose. I am really grateful he gave me that, because I had never eaten moose and because it is so damn expensive, starting 90€/kg (I know, it hurts!)

So I had a bit of dilemma of how to cook it; Ms North is vegetarian for 15 years so she has no idea how to cook it, then I remembered how my grandad use to cook wild boar and how delicious it is (for me the best game meat).

In the part of Pyrenees where my family comes from, it is typical to cook game giving it previously a marinate and then super slowly and with chocolate.

Ingredients

1kg moose
1,5 - 2 L of red wine
2 bay leaves
rosemary
1 large leek
2 carrots
500g small scallions
100g dark chocolate 
salt, pepper and olive oil

Preparation

We are going to marinate the moose for 12h, so it becomes more tender. Cut the moose in big chunks and place them in a big bowl, cover with red wine and 2 bay leaves and a flat tea spoon of rosemary. Let it marinate overnight in the fridge.

Next day, remove the moose from the marinate and place the wine in a pot to boil, you want to boil the wine because it is diluted a bit of blood and other stuff typical from game meats. Let it boil for few minutes and remove all the foam that forms in the top.

Meanwhile in a big pot, add a bit of olive oil and fry the meat for all sides, we don´t want to cook the meat but to seal the interior for the next cooking. When this is done pour the wine you had boiled and place the pot to the oven, covered by aluminium folio at not higher than 120°C (100-110 is recommended) for at least 6h 30 minutes or 7h. 

You can cook some scallions at the same time in the oven.

After that, smash the chocolate, add it to the stew and mix around till it mixes with the stew's sauce. You can remove a bit of the "juice" if you think there is too much.
The chocolate I added is called "chocolate a la piedra"; it is a type of chocolate which feels granulated and has a bit of flour, so it helps to thicken the sauce.

For this kind of stew, is better to let to rest it for 12-24h.

Hope you like it!
Mr South