Elegant Winter Cooking: Roast Loin of Venison with Classic Seasonal Flavours

Venison has such an incredible depth of flavour and lends itself to all kinds of dishes, from carpaccio and tartare to stews, pies and even salads.

With this dish in particular the sweet butternut squash and sharp pickled walnut ketchup help to offset the earthy, rich flavour of the venison. The winter leaves and a nice crunch add freshness to the dish. 

If you can’t find creme de mure, any other fruit liquor such as Chambord works just as well.

When buying your loin of venison, you can ask your butcher to clean the loin for you, removing the chain and sinew. 

When buying venison look for a nice deep red colour and firm texture.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Method

1. Begin by making the butternut squash puree. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees fahrenheit. Halve the squash lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Score the flesh in a crisscross pattern, drizzle over the oil and season the squash, then roast until completely soft. Around 1-1.5 hours. One cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before scrapping out the flesh and transferring to a wide, heavy bottomed pan. Cook on a medium heat stirring regularly to prevent the puree from catching. Once the flesh has become dry and most of the water from the squash has evaporated transfer to a blender with the butter, cream, salt and pepper and blend until smooth. Transfer to a small pan and cover until needed. If making in advance, refrigerate. 
2. For the sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan on a medium heat and add the shallots. Sweat down without colour with the herbs, juniper and garlic in for around 5 minutes until the shallots become tender. Add the vinegar and reduce completely. Repeat with the sloe gin. Add the creme de mure and the sugar and reduce by half, then add the veal and chicken stock and reduce by half again. Strain the sauce through a seive and keep to one side, covered.
3. To make the pickled walnut ketchup place all the ingredients into a pan and simmer for 5 minutes, then blend until smooth. Once cooled the ketchup should have the consistency of a thick caramel. Transfer into a squeezy bottle or piping bag and set aside.
4. To cook the venison, cover the loin with a little oil and season all over with salt and ground white pepper. Heat a large oven proof frying pan on a high heat. When the pan is nice and hot place the loin of venison into the pan and caramelise the meat on all sides. Once nicely coloured add the rosemary, thyme, garlic and butter into the pan and place the pan into the oven for 5-8 minutes depending on the thickness, for medium rare. If your frying pan doesn’t have an oven proof handle transfer to a roasting tray). Remove from the oven and baste the venison with the butter, then allow to rest for 8-10 minutes.
5. Whilst the venison is resting, reheat the puree and the blackberry sauce. When the sauce is hot whisk in the butter to add richness and a nice sheen. 
6. To serve, carve the venison into 8 nice thick slices and arrange 2 slices onto each plate. Place 2 spoonfuls of the butternut squash puree onto each plate and then add 4 or 5 pea sized dots of the walnut ketchup onto each plate. Garnish with a few of the radicchio leaves. To finish the dish, add the blackberries to the sauce and then spoon over the slices of venison.