The full title for this was Woodland Venison With Blackberries, Roast Potato Stack & Chanteney Carrots but I guess there’s a space issue with that.

I can’t remember on timing, but experiment a bit. You can get excellent venison shoulder steaks from Leeds Market (the farm shop up Fishmongers Row is where I got mine) and it’s less expensive and tastier (in my daughter’s opinion anyway) than beef.

  1. Chop the spuds into Jenga blocks and season with Herbes De Provence, and soak in salt water
  2. Roughly chop rosemary needles and garlic and set aside to go in the spuds when roasted.
  3. Wash the carrots and place in cold water.
  4. Get a small saucepan for the jus, and add in about 4tbsp of balsamic. Add beef stock (about a pint), redcurrant jelly, pepper, a handful of blackberries, and heat gently. Leave it simmering but not boiling – the aim is to reduce it to bring the flavours together. Will take an hour or so.
  5. Parboil the spuds (about 20 minutes).
  6. Heat oven to as hot as it’ll go (warp factor 9 Mr Scott!) and prepare a roasting tin with goose fat. Put the tin in the oven.
  7. Take the venison out of the fridge – it needs to reach room temperature.
  8. Parboil the carrots.
  9. When the spuds are parboiled, put them in the goose fat and sprinkle with chopped garlic (about half a bulb) and roughly chopped rosemary needles. WEAR PROTECTION, HOT FAT HURTS 😛 Turn the oven down to 240C.
  10. The spuds will take about 30-40 minutes to roast. In this time you’re doing the venison.
  11. Season the venison with pepper and Herbes De Provence.
  12. Prepare a frying pan to searing hot and wang in a small knob of butter.
  13. Place the venison shoulder steaks in the pan and turn after about a minute to seal both sides. Do not cover the pan!
  14. Now sear the venison until it is cooked but still pink in the middle and then set aside under tinfoil to rest for a few minutes. Pour the jus in the frying pan to deglaze and leave it on a low heat. This is the point where you can go eat your starter 🙂
  15. (optional dependent on timing) Just before serving, sear for approx. a minute again while you pass the jus through a sieve.
  16. Slice each piece of venison and arrange on plate.
  17. Throw the rosemary and garlic into the roasted potatoes and shake, then empty out onto a plate with kitchen roll to de-grease.
  18. Plate up with the jenga spuds in a stack, three carrots per person, three (warm) blackberries and dribble the jus over, being careful to throw it over the side of the plate and onto the work surface.
  19. Go next door and stress about what your guests think of it while you hit the wine.

Enjoy 🙂

And now, a song courtesy of Tenpole Tudor:

(thanks Chris ;))