A great seductive dish, beautiful and decadent - perfect as a romantic dinner for two.
Ingredients
- potatoes
- apples
- butter
- milk
- venison fillet
- salt, fleur de sel
- pepper
- mixed herbs
Method
- Mash:
- First make up the mash, starting with nice fluffy potatoes, a little bit over-cooked - to which I have added some apples, nicely stewed until they are soft. Add in butter and some milk.
- Mash it all down with a fork and put the lid back on to keep it warm
- Venison:
- Coat the venison steaks with a little bit of olive oil. Instead of having the garlic cooking with them in the pan, I just want the taste of garlic, I don’t want it too strong.
- I just rub the venison all over with a nice fresh clove and sprinkle some salt over it, a quick grind of black pepper and straight into a hot grill pan.
- Cook it just as you would a rump steak. I like it nice and rare in the middle, so I brown it on all sides, for four minutes or so.
- When it’s cooked for as long as you like it, take it out of the pan and let it rest. That is really important.
- Sauce:
- Then de-glaze the pan with some beef stock, giving it a good stir to pick up all the little bits stuck to the pan which will give the sauce its flavour.
- Get the heat back good and high and add some herbs. It’s a game dish, so I add juniper berries, rosemary, bay leaf and sage.
- Over the heat, reduce the sauce and remove the herbs.
- To make the sauce into a jus, I add some jam, which will make it lovely and sticky and sweet. You can use blackberry, blackcurrent or a jelly, to make a nice smooth jus.
- Finally add some blackberries, currants or blueberries and poach them in the jus to make a lovely black sauce.
- To Serve:
- Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve with the apple and potato mash.
