Some Ideas for Venison

Venison is one of those ingredients which is constantly praised but never seems to catch on. It's a really lean meat, the same price as a decent cut of steak and has a wonderfully rich, gamey flavour. I'm lucky in that we have some very good butchers in Otley plus a farmers market where I can get really good venison, however most supermarkets now stock it too so if you haven't done so yet I suggest you try it!

As far as cooking it goes the only rule I'd follow is to cook it rare, the fat content is so low that it can dry out if over cooked. A good venison steak can just be seared for a couple of minutes on either side to seal it and then served pink in the middle so I suppose if you're squeamish you might want to give it a miss. For something a bit different try mixing some grated orange zest with some lapsang souchong tea leaves and rubbing the mix on the outside of the venison before cooking (thanks to David Everett-Matthias for this recipe!).

Being such a rich meat venison lends itself well to sweet companions. Venison and pear is a wonderful combination, you could either poach the pear in some red wine or simple fry slices of it in a generous amount of butter. My favorite sauce to accompany a venison steak is made by reducing a pint of beef stock by three quarters with 8 crushed juniper berries and a tablespoon of red currant jelly, then adding a tablespoon of cassis (the black currant liquor) and finish by whisking in a couple of knobs of chilled butter. Juniper and venison have a natural affinity and the red currant jelly and cassis create a beautifully sweet and sticky sauce to cut through the richness of the meat.

Finally what about chocolate? A couple of chunks of bitter chocolate thrown into a reduction of port and stock make an amazing sauce for venison, or even a drizzle of chocolate-infused oil.

I'd always serve it with simple sides, perhaps some mash and green beans, though roasted, quartered beetroot is also a great match.