A real party pleaser, these smoked Wild Venison Shank Ssambap are great for hands off feast, leaving you time to enjoy and drink with your friends and family. The sauce and the fallow shanks can be cooking away long before your guests arrive and can all be thrown together last minute with lots of fresh flavours all jumbled onto a large platter for everyone to dig into DIY style.
But what is Ssambap?
Ssambap is a Korean dish, translated to rice with leaf wraps – ssam means wrap and bap means rice. Traditionally pork belly or trotters are used but our version with fallow shanks are packed full of flavour and the meat is beautifully unctuous. The leaves you use to wrap your rice and meat can be any edible leaf, a large nasturtium leaf, a large blanched nettle or even cabbage leaves lightly steamed would work brilliantly.
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For the Ssambap:
2 large venison fallow shanks
10g Frenchs mustard (the squeezy stuff for hotdogs!)
15-20g Salt Box Pastrami Seasoning
Small glass of nettle beer or beer of your choice
2 red chillies
Bunch of spring onions
2-3 tbsp crispy onions
20g toasted sesame seeds
3 baby gem lettuces, leaves separated and washed well
350g cooked and cooled sticky rice (follow cooking instructions on the pack)
Large bunch of fresh herbs – coriander, fennel fronds or chives all work well
A small handful of Green Olive Firewood whiskey smoking chunks
For the Korean-style BBQ Sauce:
45g gochujang
65g cherry plum chutney (any nice fruity chutney will work)
100g ketchup
65g brown sugar
65g tamari
70g rice wine vinegar
Small thumb of ginger grated
2 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper, to taste
15g sesame oil
Fill your Big Green Egg with charcoal up to the lip of the fire bowl and light. Set the Big Green Egg up for hot smoking by placing the Conveggtor plate on top of the fire ring inside with the legs facing up, allow the temperature to hit 120℃. Adjust the vents so that the Egg holds a temp of 120℃.
Rub the sweet mustard all over the fallow shank and scatter over a liberal coating of the Pastrami seasoning. Scatter the small handful of whiskey chunks through the gap between the ConvEGGtor plate and the side of the Egg. Place the grill on top of the ConvEGGtor plate and put the seasoned fallow shank on to the grill. Smoke the shank for around 2 hours maintaining the temperature at all times.
Place the shanks into an enamel dish or a double layer of foil, pour in a slug of nettle beer (or beer of your choice) and wrap up tightly. Place back in the smoker and cook for a further two hours or until a Thermapen registers a temp of 93℃. Remove from the smoker and check for doneness by now the venison shanks should be getting close to ready.
Finely slice the garlic and ginger and saute in the sesame oil. Once softened add in the rest of the ingredients and bring slowly to a simmer. Use a stick blender to blend the sauce. Pass through a sieve and pour into a warm sterilised bottle. The sauce recipe should make plenty, whatever is not used can be stored in the fridge for up to a month.
Once the fallow shanks are perfectly tender you can start glazing them by spooning over the Korean BBQ sauce and place back into the Egg and cook for a further 10-15 minutes or until the sauce is just starting to caramelise. Repeat this process again.
Place the fallow shank onto a platter and garnish with finely sliced spring onions, crispy onions, toasted sesame seeds and slithers of red chilli. Stuff the baby gem leaves with sticky rice and place around the shank. Let everyone dig in by taking shreds of the smoked shank and placing on top of their stuffed baby gem leaf. Serve with a little extra bbq sauce on the side, with plenty of extra toppings and fresh herbs.
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Wrapping the fallow shanks in foil or placing them in a covered fire proof dish stops them for drying out .
If you are struggling to get hold of fallow shanks, why not try a whole venison shoulder!
Interested in featuring more wild venison in your menus? Here are a selection of our favourite recipes:
Double Chilli Cheese Veni Smash Burgers
Venison Haunch Spun Over Fire with Rum Salmuera and Wild Chimichurri
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