Venison brochettes with elderberry sauce and celeriac mash

Serves 4

Venison and elderberry is a delicious combination, especially delicately spiced with cloves and cinnamon. The elderberry syrup is also delicious poured over ice cream or made into a hot drink with lemon juice and boiling water – the best remedy I know for late autumn colds! If you don’t want to go foraging for elderberries to make the syrup, substitute with locally-made elderberry jelly and a pinch of ground cloves.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg venison haunch or saddle, cubed
  • 1tsp ground coriander
  • 1tsp ground cinnamon
  • 4 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • 1 small celeriac, peeled and cubed
  • 50g butter
  • 1/2 glass red wine
  • 100ml good beef stock
  • 4tbsp elderberry syrup (see recipe below)

Cooking instructions

  1. mix together the coriander, cinnamon and oil and massage into the venison cubes. Put into a sealed container and refrigerate overnight.
  2. about an hour before you want to serve, take the venison out of the fridge and thread onto 8 skewers –the meat should return to room temperature before cooking.
  3. put the celeriac into a saucepan of boiling salted water and cook for 30 – 45mins until tender. Drain and mash with the butter, a pinch of salt and a generous grind of white pepper.
  4. season, then pan-fry the brochettes over a medium-high heat for about 1 ½ minutes on each of the 4 sides until medium rare. Remove from the pan and keep warm.
  5. increase the heat of the pan and add the wine. Bubble until reduced by half before adding the stock and syrup. Continue to boil, stirring until reduced by a third. Taste for seasoning.
  6. spoon or pipe the celeriac mash into the centre of the plates, add 2 brochettes per person and drizzle the sauce around or serve alongside in a sauce boat. Steamed, shredded kale makes a lovely seasonal addition to the dish.

Elderberry syrup

  1. pick a bagful of ripe elderberries on a dry day. Wash well, strip the berries from their stems and simmer in a saucepan with just enough water to cover until the berries are soft (about half an hour).
  2. strain the liquid through a sieve lined with muslin & measure the juice. Add 450g sugar, 10 cloves and 1 cinnamon stick for every 600ml of juice.
  3. stir to dissolve the sugar over a low heat, then boil for 10 minutes. Pour into clean bottles and carefully screw on lids whilst hot.

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