Venison

Bord Bia are doing a lot of good work to encourage us to eat in season and a quick look at their site www.bestinseason.ie will tell exactly what to look for in your local market.

For example Green beans are nearing the end of their season and Celeriac is just beginning, both go perfectly with the first of the autumn game.

Many of us forget that meat also has a season and autumn is Game season. It is illegal to shoot game during the spring and summer months (to allow the animals to breed and to keep their numbers up), but summer is long gone now so Grouse, Mallard and Venison are beginning to appear in specialist butchers such as Downeys in Terenure.

Venison is also a farmed meat so is available all year but the wild version seems to me to have a little more flavour, if not the consistency of texture of the farmed version.

Recipes for Venison often ask for the meat to be marinated in wine, vinegar and juniper berries for 2-3 days to tenderise and add moisture and flavour. Marinating works but is really only necessary for old tough animals, not like the young bucks most likely found in the butchers.

I treat venison haunches and legs much as I would a piece of beef; rub olive oil into the flesh with some salt and pepper, brown it in a hot pan and roast in a hot oven at 20 minutes per 500g plus an additional 25 minutes. Allow the meat to rest and it will be as tender as any roast of beef.

Similarly cook Venison steaks exactly as you would sirloin.

Venison is very low in fat and needs a good gravy to add moisture. The following is adapted from a recipe of the 19th century chef Antonin Carême.

Venison Sauce
Ingredients: 200ml of Pinot Noir (or any light red wine), 2 tbs of Red Wine Vinegar, the flesh of half a skinned Lemon (skin removed), 3 tbs of Redcurrant Jelly, 50ml Stock.

Bring all the ingredients except the stock to a boil and cook rapidly until the sauce has reduced by two thirds. Add the Stock (any brown stock) and reduce the sauce for another 2-3 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with some salt and pepper.