Medallions of wild venison - with a Port and Cherry Sauce

Venison is not a cheap meat, but pound for pound, it’s not that much more expensive than lamb. It makes for a superb treat every once in a while, especially when camping in a forest.

Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
You’ll need a pan.

Serves four

Ingredients
250g loin of venison
Two knobs of butter
Small glass of port (about 100ml)
Handful of fresh cherries, pitted and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
220g baby leaf spinach
Fresh ground black pepper

Get cooking...
Melt a small knob of butter in a pan over a moderate heat. Throw in the pitted and chopped cherries, together with the port and the sugar. Simmer gently with a lid on for ten minutes. The cherries will soften but not lose their form.

While the cherries are simmering, melt a knob of butter in a non-stick frying pan and once hot, place the venison loin in the pan. It should be sizzling nicely as it goes in. Depending how well done you like your meat cook it for about four or five minutes on each side for medium rare. Six or seven minutes each side will see the meat well done. 

Once cooked, remove the meat from the pan and place on a plate to rest.

Pour the cherries into the frying pan and simmer vigorously to reduce. This way, the juices from the meat aren’t wasted as they add a good depth of flavour to the sauce. 

Slice the loin into 5mm slices, plate up and drizzle with the cherry and port sauce. Season to taste. 

I serve this with wilted spinach, which works really well with the earthy flavour of the venison. Just a tiny splash of water in a hot pan, add the spinach and stir as it wilts in a matter of seconds.