Venison fillet with portwine & orange sauce on fresh cep mushrooms

On my recent trip to Austria, I had a wonderfully leisurely lunch at a great restaurant in Salzburg - the Purzelbaum. Leaving everything on the menu aside that didn't immediately yell "Austrian", I ordered pumkin soup with pumpkin seed oil, apricot dumplings and an absolutely amazing main of venison.
Being a foodblogger, I have a nasty habit of re-creating a lot of the restaurant dishes I like in my own kitchen and this was no exception. We had some friends over who are probably the best guests you could wish for, as they eat absolutely everything - no allergies, no special diets and certainly no pickiness. So I had to seize the opportunity and make something other people might be hesitant about and so I decided on venison even if it is not the height of the season. The thing though is that here in the UK we are incredibly lucky to have some dedicated producers who rear game in their own parks and can pretty much provide meat all year round - whether breeding deer for consumption like domestic animals affects the quality of the meat, I can't say. The fillet I got last weekend was absolutely perfect, in any case, very tasty meat and very, very lean, but incredibly tender.
So there I was, in my own kitchen, doing my best to mirror what I had had at the Purzelbaum a few weeks earlier: fillet of venison, pan-seared and cut into medallions, an aromatic sauce which I made with portwine and orange juice, fresh cep mushrooms sauteed with shallots and parsley, bread dumplings with black truffles and fruity red cabbage. Unfortunately, I had to use one of the things I loathe and this experiment proved it again: as fresh truffles were nowhere to be found, I had to resort to supermarket truffles in a glass... which might have been OK visually, but added absolutely nothing to the taste. I could just have left them out, but I can be a bit stubborn at times ;-)
But all in all, this is something that will get a firm place in my repertoire - not only was the venison tasty and gorgeous, it was easy to make and I fell in love with the sides which were really good enough to have on their own... recipes here!
And before you cry out "ah, but the meat is overcooked!" - I can assure you it wasn't... but in the heat of preparations, I completely forgot to get our my camera and could only take a picture of left-overs the next day and of course, the meat had rested too much by then... it was perfect the night before though!

Venison fillet with portwine & orange sauce on fresh cep mushrooms
(serves 4)

800 g venison fillet (in one piece)*
4 tbsp oil

For the sauce:
50 g lean bacon* (finely diced)
vegetable oil
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1 bouquet garni (various herbs rolled into bay leaves - I have a dry version, but of course fresh is best)
200 ml port wine
200 ml vegetable or beef stock
200 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
1 level tsp porcini powder (ground porcini) - optional
20 g icecold, diced butter, for mounting

For the cep mushrooms:
600 g fresh cep mushrooms
3 shallots (finely sliced)
1 handful parsley (chopped)
lemon juice

First, prepare the sauce.
Fry the bacon in some vegetable oil, just enough to prevent it from sticking to the pan. If your bacon isn't too lean, you can get away with just frying it is as. Alternatively, if you have the bacon rind left over, "render" some of the fat by cooking it, cut side down, until some of the fat has been released. Remove the rind, then fry the bacon bits in the fat.
When the bacon is starting to brown, quarter the onion and halve the garlic and put into the pan unpeeled. Add the bouquet garni and leave everything to fry until the onion and garlic are browned.
Deglaze with the portwine, reduce by half. Pour in the stock and orange juice and once again reduce by half.
Strain through a sieve, discard the solid ingredients and return the sauce to the pan, cooking until it has reached the required consistency.
If in a rush, you can thicken it with thickening granules - or any method would work, but remember that some (like corn starch) might make your sauce quite cloudy and you would be better advised spending some time reducing the sauce instead.
Set the sauce aside until ready to serve, at which point you will re-heat the sauce and stir in the butter.

Prepare the mushrooms by cleaning them with a brush or a paper towel. Avoid washing them, as they will soak up too much liquid. Cut into fine slivers.

For the fillets, season with salt and pepper. Heat 4 tbsp of oil in a non-stick pan, add the venison and sear on all sides. Don't overcook, the meat is best enjoyed medium rare. Set to rest for 15 minutes before cutting into thick medallions.

While the venison is resting, heat the butter for the ceps in a large pan, fry the shallots until soft, then add the mushrooms and cook on a vigorous heat. Do not cover, to prevent excess liquid from building up.
Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with parsley and drizzle sparingly with the lemon juice just before serving.

Reheat the sauce, stirring in the butter with a whisk until it's completely melted.

Arrange the venison medallions on the cep mushrooms, pour over some of the sauce and serve with accompaniments like bread dumplings and red cabbage (recipes to follow soon on www.thepassionatecoom.com)

* I always use Austrian bacon from the tenderloin which is more like a cured ham tastewise, with lots of juniper and other spices. The bacon is only for the taste, so make sure you get a nice piece. Waitrose sells cured ham from Northern Tyrol by Handl, unfortunately it is cut into thin slices, but the taste is great. It is pretty expensive, but remember you'll only need a handful. Alternatively, go for pancetta, but cut some of the excess fat off.

Comments

[veuveclicquot]

How lucky you are that you have easy access to game! I've never tasted venison... sigh... Your picture is mouthwatering - now if only computers could come with a "taste this" option, we'd be all set!

[Jennifer Klinec]

This sounds so yummy! I'm always so excited about the arrival of game season here in the UK and the sight of all the pheasants hanging outside the butchers shops.

This looks like it would be fantastic with some spaetzle to soak up the sauce.

http://www.eatdrinktalk.co.uk

[Sue Vancil]

It is so rare to get good game recipes and this one looks fabulous! I recently brought 2 packages of frozen venison home with me from a trip to Illinois to visit family. My uncle deer hunts every year and was needing to clear out space in the freezer for his new game of this season. So I will share your recipe with my husband and try it out with our venison! Thanks!

[Scott at Real Epicurean]

Ah, Cep mushrooms - so in season! Any members of the Bolette family will share the same taste and texture (more or less) and will do the trick with this dish.
Were they hand picked?

[johanna]

ha! handpicked! i wish. although we have richmond park just round the corner, you're not allowed to pick what grows in there, as the deer need it for feeding. not sure why anyone would like to eat them raw, but i guess they don't know what they're missing!

[Howard]

Saw some amazing ceps at Borough Market this morning at the Wild Mushroom company. They looked like they'd been picked about a minute before I saw them (obviosuly not).

[johanna]

sounds like i'll have to go back soon, howard, i just love fresh wild mushrooms!

[Matt Rayner]

Johanna, congratulations on a truly astonishing blog. What a joy to find.
I'm here in Helsinki and it's mushroom season of course now. Soon the boys will be out elk hunting and hopefully my favourite student (I teach English to adults) will pull through and give me a nice big cut from the elk her husband shoots, just like she did last year.
Grüsse an Dich
Matt

[Steve keep it moist Jahr]

Johanna thank you so much for sharing your wonderful recipe it sounds delicous i will try it, I am getting a hind quoerter ready for the smoker! making room in the freezer for this years hunt. Again thank you.

[N8]

Johanna-
lovely blog...lovely food. I was just wondering where the "orange" in the "portwine and orange sauce" came into play. I am assuming you added it in with the rest of the sauce reduction...
Cheers!
N8