The following venison recipes work for me and are simple as I’m not a cook! They are simply a guide so substitute, amend and add as you see fit.
I find that it is best to cook venison loin and steaks quickly and venison casserole slowly.
If you have any great venison recipes then please email them to me and I’ll include them with an acknowledgement once I’ve tried them out!
Venison and prune burgers.
These are very tasty and worth a go.
Ingredients:
1kg/2lb 4oz minced venison
120g/4oz lard
250g/9oz tinned pitted prunes
285g jar of artichoke antipasta (from Tesco or similar) 50g/1¾oz finely chopped root ginger
50g/1¾oz garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
50g/1¾oz finely chopped fresh coriander
1½ tbsp red chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
20g/¾oz salt
250g/9oz finely chopped red onion
50ml/2fl oz vegetable oil
Method:
Mix the venison mince with all the other ingredients except for the onion and oil and set aside for 30 minutes. Heat half the oil in a pan and sauté the onions until they are soft. Remove with a slotted spoon and leave to cool.
Add the onions to the venison mixture and mix well. Shape into whatever size and shaped burgers you wish. Heat the remaining oil in a pan and cook the burgers on both sides on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until they are cooked but moist inside.
Venison and beef casserole with maple syrup.
Tried this the other evening and it was delicious! You can use all venison instead of half beef and any veg past it’s best. Had it with mashed potato.
Ingredients.
• Plain flour
• 1kg venison, cubed
• 1kg beef, cubed
• 60ml olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 250ml pure maple syrup
• 500ml red wine
• 750ml beef stock
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 500g mushrooms, quartered
• 250g shallot onions
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
Method.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Flour the cubes of meat, then brown them in the olive oil, in a large oven-proof dish.
Add the onions and maple syrup.
Reduce for 1 minute, then add the wine, broth, tomato paste, garlic, bay leaves and the rosemary.
Season with salt and pepper.
Bring to the boil, cover and bake in the oven for about 2 hours.
Fry the mushrooms in duck fat and set aside.
30 minutes before cooking has finished, add the shallots, carrots, celery and mushrooms to the casserole dish. Give them longer than 30 minutes if you want them softer.
Venison casserole.
Add some oil to a lidded oven tin and fry 2lb of venison casserole until it is browned. Add a litre of good beef stock, some mixed herbs, and put in the oven at around 170C for a couple of hours. I make up the beef stock using Knorr rich beef stock pots.
After a couple of hours add some passata, garlic, onions, carrots and any other vegetables you want to include. Add plenty of pepper and a little salt. Return to the oven for another couple of hours.
You can add baby potatoes to the vegetables if you want a one pot meal.
Add dumplings towards the end or when cooked drain off the liquid (keep for gravy), put the casserole in a square oven tin and cover with puff pastry. Return to oven for 30 minutes and venison casserole becomes venison pie.
Add pheasant, rabbit, duck in any combination to make game versions.
Haunch.
Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Weigh the joint.
Place the joint in a roasting tray and, if it’s under 2kg, roast for 20 minutes, or 30 minutes if it’s over 2kg. This ‘sizzle’ browns the joint beautifully.
Turn down the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3 and roast for a further 12 minutes per 500g of meat. This should give you medium-rare meat: just pink in the middle. Reduce the cooking time to 10-12 minutes per 500g if you prefer it rarer. If you like using a meat thermometer, take the joint out at around 60C for medium rare, 55C for rare.
Remove the meat from the tin, cover with foil and leave in a warm place to rest for 20 minutes.
Venison Steaks/Loin
Rub olive oil onto steaks/loin and place in medium hot pan for one minute each side so that they brown.
Then put into hot oven, 220C, for (loin and small steaks 4 minutes) (large steaks 6 minutes).
Remove from oven, turn steaks over and place on wooden board, cover with foil, allow to rest for 6 minutes. They should be pink in the middle and very tender.