Cooking an impressive roast couldn't be any easier with this guide from Marty Morrisey, taken straight from his stint on RTÉ's The Restaurant.
Ingredients
- 6 (200g each) venison loin
- 200 ml venison stock
- 30 g butter
- 100 ml port
- 250 g baby spinach
- for the roast roots:
- 100g chantenay carrots
- 2 parsnips
- 2 red onions
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tblsp olive oil
Method
- To make the roast roots, peel the carrots and parsnips and cut the parsnips into small diamond shapes, cut the carrots down the middle lengthways.
- Season them and place on a tray with the thyme, garlic and olive oil.
- Roast in a hot oven at 180°C, for about 20-25 minutes. Peel and cut the onions into quarters and toss in with the roots in the last 10 minutes of cooking.
- When the roots are golden and tender, remove from the oven and keep warm until service.
- To make the sauce, boil the venison stock in a pot and reduce by half, add the port and reduce again by one third, add a knob of butter and keep warm.
- Wilt the spinach in a pan, season and drain well. To cook the venison, heat the rest of the butter in a heavy oven-proof pan.
- Sear the venison loin on both sides until golden brown, season well and place the pan in the hot oven and cook until the venison is medium rare (about 5-10 minute) then remove from the oven and leave to rest.
- To serve, place some spinach on the centre of the plate, and arrange the root vegetables around it, Place the venison loin on the spinach and drizzle everything with the sauce.
