New Zealand Venison

Venison with cracked black pepper and sour cherry sauce

Serves: 4     Preparation: 20 mins     Time to cook: 30 mins    

Ingredients

Venison

600 g venison loin
1/4 cup cracked black pepper
salt to taste
olive oil

Polenta cakes

olive oil
2 cups coarse ground dried polenta
6 cups water
salt and pepper

Sauce

100 g dried sour cherries
30 ml cherry vinegar
60 ml cherry brandy
500 ml meat stock
1 tbsp unsalted butter

To serve

Assorted seasonal vegetables for 4

For the polenta cakes

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Oil a shallow baking try.

In a heavy saucepan, whisk together the polenta and water and place over medium heat. Bring slowly to a boil.  Stir often to prevent lumps. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until smooth. Season with salt and black pepper and carefully pour into the hot prepared skillet or dish.

Bake the polenta cake until it pulls away from the sides of the pan and is lightly golden (about 30 minutes). The cake will be crisp.

Take a cookie cutter and make 4 rounds. Heat a ribbed skillet pan and sear polenta cakes briefly to obtain a cross hatch effect.

For the sauce

Bring to a boil the cherries, vinegar, and brandy. Remove from heat and strain out the cherries. Add stock and reduce the liquid to half. Return the cherries and bring to a boil once more. Add butter to finish.

For the venison

Coat the venison with the pepper and season with salt. Sauté in a small amount of olive oil, lightly browning on all sides. Cook until rare to medium rare, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Let sit for 2 minutes.

To serve

Slice venison into 1/4 inch pieces and fan on the plate on top of the polenta cake. Ladle sauce on the venison and serve with steamed seasonal vegetables.