Venison With Blackberry and Red Wine Sauce

This is a French dish and quite rich with some big flavours and a lot of butter. The seperate components are not difficult to prepare but the timing is a little tricky and may take some practice. The recipe below will serve four.



60 grams of clarified butter
16 pickling onions
150 grams of fresh blackberries (I couldn't find any in the supermarket so I used a tin of whole blackberries in syrup with most of the syrup drained off)
3 tablespoons of redcurrant jelly (again I couldn't find exactly what i wanted so I used a redcurrant and cranberry jelly I found in the supermarket)
12 venison medallions, approximately 750 grams of venison.
120 ml of red wine
400 ml of liquid beef stock
1 tablespoon of softened butter
1 1/2 tablespoons of plain flour
Salt & pepper
Asparagus
Potatoes

Peel the onions by slicing off the ends and removing the skin (just take a small slice off the base so that the onion stays together while cooking). Peel and cut your potatoes into pieces for roasting, here I used a star shaped pastry cutter.
The onions and roast potatoes will take around about the same length of time to cook 45-50 mins.
Boil the potatoes for about 2 minutes, oil and then put in the oven at 180C. Heat half the clarified butter in a saucepan and add the onions. Cover the onions with a sheet of crumpled baking paper which has been run under a tap so that it is wet and then place a lid on the pan. Cook on low for 45-50 mins stirring occasionally.
Put the berries in a saucepan with the redcurrant jelly and 4 tablespoons of water. Boil for 5-10 mins until the fruit is soft anf the liquid has thickened slightly, put aside.
Season the venison with plenty of freshly ground black pepper (the meat should be coated on both sides with the pepper) and a little salt. Heat the rest of the clarified butter in a frying pan and cook the venison in 3 batches over high heat. Turn the medallions once only and brown both sides (do not cook through, it should only take 2-3 minutes for each batch). Place seared meat on a plate, cover with foil and a tea towel to keep warm.
Add the red wine to the frying pan and boil for 20 seconds then add the stock and simmer to reduce by half, taste constantly to ensure the flavour is right, add a little more red wine if too strong.
When the onions and potatoes are about 10 minutes from being ready put the foil covered plate of venison into the oven.
Steam the asparagus.
Mix the flour and butter together to form a smooth paste (beurre manié) and whisk into the sauce to thicken it over a low heat. After 1 minute place the fruit mixture you prepared earlier into a sieve and strain into the sauce, mix, taste and adjust flavour. Serve on hot plates.