I believe that we learn to eat what we consider normal food  by our parents at an early age.  Our customs, nationalities, and localities influence what we eat.  I didn’t grow up eating venison, rabbit or duck but they are now some of my favorite meats.  But I only began eating them as an adult.  My kids are eating these foods since we cook them more than is customary for where we live.  Duck and rabbit are not regularly served in our area restaurants and I think most locals would consider them odd to eat.  Deer is very abundant where we live, but still it’s not often eaten.   But good food, no matter what type, can be viewed as normal, or just delicious, when it’s introduced early.

I actually began to enjoy venison while working at a wonderful restaurant in Wellington, NZ.  Boulcott Street Bistro was one of the first places to regularly serve Cervena, the New Zealand-branded farm-raised venison.  It is a low fat, rich flavored meat that doesn’t have the same gaminess as wild deer which is hunted here in Connecticut.   I learnt to make a beautiful dish from Boulcott St’s menu in the early-mid 90’s: a seared Cervena venison filet with a black pepper port sauce.  It was the first dish I made my husband when we were dating.  It takes several days of prep if you make your own stock or just a couple of hours if you buy a good demiglace.  It took me days of prep. I think it endeared me to him, since I made him a restaurant-quality meal from scratch.  

More recently my husband was given a deer to butcher at his restaurant.  He brought home a piece of a leg that he’d marinated for 2 days and a sauce made from venison stock, port and currants.  It was so delicious and not too gamey.  The boys loved it so much we didn’t actually have enough to fulfill everyone’s desired amount.  We thought they’d like it, just not that much!

Two of the boys fighting over some of Daddy’s venison! 

Pan Seared Venison with CurrantPort Sauce

Marinate 1 pound venison (leg loin, filet) in:

1/2 bottle red wine

1/2 cup water

1 carrot, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

3 garlic cloves, smashed

4 bay leaves

leaves off 6 sprigs of thyme

6 juniper berries, smashed slightly

Portion meat into 5-6 inch lengths, trimmed of silver skin and fat.  Marinate at least overnight.  Remove venison from marinade and pan sear in sauté pan over high heat.   Once outside is browned, place in 350F preheated oven for 8-10 minutes.  Let rest for a few minutes.  Slice, serve with sauce.  It should be medium rare especially if farm-raised.

Port Wine Current Sauce

1 cup rich veal stock

1/2 cup ruby port

1 1/2 cups currants

1 shallot, chopped

Combine all ingredients and reduce over medium high heat, turning down as needed but keeping a rolling boil until thickened so that sauce coats the back of a spoon.  Add pat of butter and using immersion blender purée.  

My kids loved this, but we put the sauce on the side so they could taste it first.  Alcohol burns off so no need to worry about serving it to your kids.We served the venison with mashed Yukon gold potatoes (with skins on), string beans and spinach.

Finger licking good!

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