Venison steaks with peppercorn and wild mushroom sauce

From Waitrose Food

Serves 4

Ingredients

15g dried wild mushrooms

4 venison steaks (about 135 -140g each)
1 1/2 black peppercorns, coarsely ground in a pestle and mortar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 shallot, finely sliced
100ml fresh chicken stock, heated
4 tbsp brandy
4 tbsp double cream

Sweet potato boulangere
50g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
1 onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
2 tbsp thyme leaves
500g sweet potatoes, sliced as finely as possible
500g charlotte potatoes, sliced as finely as possible
100ml fresh chicken stock, heated
grated nutmeg

Start by making the sweet potato boulangere. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease a 1 litre overproof baking dish. Melt 25g butter in a large pan and fry the onion, garlic and thyme for 5 minutes until soft. Add the potatoes, season, and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Spread out in the baking dish and pour over the hot stock. Grate over a little nutmeg and dot with the remaining 25g butter. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until golden. Leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Meanwhile, soak the dried mushrooms in 200ml just-boiled water; set aside.

Season the venison steaks with salt, then press the crushed peppercorns onto the meat.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. When it starts smoking, add the butter and steaks. Fry for 3-4 minutes on each side for medium rare, then transfer to a plate and cover with a loose sheet of foil to rest.

Return the pan to a medium-low heat. Drain and roughly chop the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid. Add the shallot and mushrooms to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes. Pour in the mushroom soaking liquid (apart from the gritty bit at the bottom) with the hot stock and brandy. Bubble over a medium-high heat until reduced and sticky. Add the cream and bubble for 1 minute more; season to taste. Slice the steaks adding any resting juices to the sauce.

Serve the steaks topped with the sauce, accompanied by the sweet potato boulangere.

Wild mushroom and venison stroganoff

From Jamie at Home
Serves 2
Ingredients

200 g white rice
extra virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely sliced
300 g venison loin, fat and sinews removed, trimmed and sliced into finger-sized pieces
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
250 g mixed exciting and robust mushrooms, wiped clean, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped, stalks finely chopped
1 knob butter
1 good splash brandy
zest of ½ lemon
150 ml crème fraîche or soured cream
a few little gherkins, sliced

This venison stroganoff is absolutely fantastic – of course, you can use more traditional beef fillet instead of venison, and any mushrooms you like, but there’s something about venison and wild mushrooms that works so well together. Have a go at this and you’ll know what I mean! The whole point of this dish is that by the time you start cooking the meat, it will all come together quickly. The meat will be quite pink – cook it for longer if you want but it will go slightly tougher.

Cook the rice according to the packet instructions until it’s just undercooked and drain in a colander. Put the rice back in the pan, cover with tinfoil and leave to steam – this will give you incredibly light and fluffy rice.

Heat a large frying pan on a medium heat and pour in a lug of extra virgin olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and cook for about 10 minutes until softened and golden. Remove from the heat and spoon the onions and garlic out of the pan on to a plate. Keep to one side.

Season the meat well with salt, pepper and paprika. Rub and massage these flavourings into the meat. Place the frying pan back on a high heat and pour in some more olive oil. Add the mushrooms and fry for a few minutes until they start to brown. Then add the meat and fry for a minute or two before adding the parsley stalks (you can do this in two pans or in batches if your pan is not big enough) and the cooked onion and garlic. Toss and add the butter and brandy.

You don’t have to set light to the hot brandy, but flaming does give an interesting flavour so I always like to do this. Once the flames die down, or after a couple of minutes of simmering, stir in the lemon zest and all but 1 tablespoon of the crème fraîche and season to taste. Continue simmering for a few minutes. Any longer than this and the meat will toughen up – it doesn’t need long as it’s been cut up so small.

Serve your fluffy rice on one big plate and your stroganoff on another. Simply spoon the remaining crème fraîche over the stroganoff, then sprinkle over the sliced gherkins and parsley leaves. Eat at once!

Sausage and chorizo goulash

From BBC – Something for the Weekend
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
knob of butter
700g/1½lb good quality beef sausages, chopped
300g/10½oz spicy chorizo sausage, chopped
2 onions, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, chopped.
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 red chillies, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely sliced
200ml/7fl oz beef stock
175ml/6fl oz soured cream
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
cooked long-grain rice, to serve

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.

Heat the oil and butter in a large ovenproof frying pan and fry the beef sausages and chorizo for 5-7 minutes, or until browned all over.

Remove the sausages from the pan using a slotted spoon and set aside. Fry the onions and garlic in the same pan for 3-4 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the flour and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

Add the paprika, chillies and pepper and stir until well combined. Pour in the beef stock, return the beef sausage and chorizo to the pan and cook in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
Remove the frying pan from the oven and skim off any fat that’s risen to the surface with a slotted spoon. Stir in the soured cream and parsley until well combined.

Serve the goulash with long-grain rice.

I love goulash, that combination of soured cream and meat is always quite amazing. Didn’t use beef sausages as I couldn’t find it at Marks and Spencer. Instead I used venison sausage which I think works quite well.