Venison with cherry sauce

Michael Craig

We are lucky to have beautiful venison meat dropped off to us from local hunters but, these days, venison is readily available in most supermarkets. This rich, gamey meat is popular and we love using strong flavours with it. For this recipe we made thyme potato rostis, honey-glazed carrots and our rich cherry sauce to go alongside.

Thyme potato rosti

1 Tbsp	Butter
5	Agria potatoes, peeled
3 tsp	Chopped thyme
1	Egg
1 Tbsp	Olive oil

Carrots

12	Baby carrots
2 Tbsp	Honey
1 Tbsp	Olive oil
1 tsp	Salt
1 handful	Chives, cut into 4cm batons

Venison and sauce

600 g	Venison, loin (Main)
2 Tbsp	Cracked black pepper
1 serving	Olive oil, for frying the venison
1 glass	Red wine
5	Peppercorns
1	Bay leaf
1 can	Cherries, preserved, reserve the juice (Main)
50 ml	Balsamic vinegar
500 ml	Beef stock
1 Tbsp	Unsalted butter

Directions

Rosti

1. Grate the potatoes and squeeze out any excess moisture.
2. Combine the grated potatoes with the thyme, egg, olive oil, salt and pepper. Measure out 2 Tbsp of the mixture and form round patties. Do this to all of the mixture.
3. In a frypan, heat the olive oil on a medium heat. Cook the rosti for 3 minutes on each side until they are cooked through and golden on the outside.

Carrots

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Put the carrots into a roasting pan and toss with the oil and some salt and pepper. Roast for 2 minutes.
3. Drizzle the vinegar and honey over the carrots, toss well and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes.

Cherry sauce

1. Add the red wine, peppercorns and bay leaf to a pot and reduce by half.
2. Add cherry juice, vinegar and beef stock and reduce by half.
3. Add the cherries and heat. Remove the peppercorns and bay leaf. Whisk in the butter.

Venison

1. Coat the venison with the pepper and season with salt.
2. Heat the olive oil in a medium pan, add the venison and sear on all sides. Cook until rare to medium-rare, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Let rest for 2 minutes.

Serve all the components together and garnish with the chives.

See more meat recipes from Kasey & Karena

• Spiced lamb chops with balsamic beetroot
• Pork steaks with chunky apple gravy