Venison

Venison, I love venison.


I first ate it as a child, my Mum had a fondness for game meat, I grew up on pheasant, guinea fowl and rabbit which are quite hard to get a hold of here, although something tells me that my Mum wouldn't be able to go to the local butcher and pick up a unplucked pheasant anymore, such a shame.
I found my venison at my local organic farmers market, it is only held once a month and I finally remembered about it and got there before they had sold out of everything.
I don't 'do' early on a Saturday morning.
















I don't think I had eaten venison since my childhood until recently. I think of it now as one of my favourite dinners, a venison steak, served rare with a red wine, chilli and chocolate sauce. Chocolate compliments venison beautifully, not surprising really as chocolate goes very well with beef and venison is similar to beef, although richer and lower in calories, fat and cholesterol, yay!

Venison is best served rare....why would you want to eat it any other way?

I quickly seared it in a hot pan and then cooked for 3 -4 minutes each side. Plus 5 minutes resting time.

While the meat is resting you can get on with the sauce, it really is that quick.

Red wine, chili and chocolate sauce:


50g butter
150ml red wine (just whatever is sitting by the stove)
pinch of chilli flakes
1 tbsp good quality chocolate



Measure out the wine and quickly soak the chilli flakes in it.
Pour wine into the venison pan, de-glazing all the meaty cooking juices, simmer until it reduces by half,
add the chocolate to the pan, stir until melted,
whisk in the butter,
serve with rare venison and new season asparagus.

A must for game lovers, it is the tenderest meat, as it is very lean it doesn't like being overcooked, anything more than 'medium' would spoil it, the red wine and chocolate sauce is the ideal match for this meat, I don't think I would want to eat it any differently.
A word of warning, the couple of times my OH has eaten this he comments that it reminds him of liver, as I love liver it isn't a problem for me, but yes, I can also taste the similarities. So maybe not a meat for liver haters.