Pan-fried venison salad recipe
If I butcher my own venison I usually use the inner fillets from the back leg for this, but you can use the saddle fillet or loin too. My salad here is totally wild – pennywort, leaves of ox-eye daisies, wild chervil (cow parsley), wild chives and dandelion leaves that grow in the hedgerows around my house – but any combination of salad leaves works well. I picked the sea buckthorn berries last October and froze them; you can use any small berries, such as redcurrants, for sharpness.
Timings
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Serves
4 as a starter or light lunch
Ingredients
400g venison fillet(s), from the leg, saddle or loin
200g venison kidney and/or any other offal (optional)
a little vegetable or corn oil, for frying
4 handfuls of foraged edible leaves and/or herbs, or small cultivated leaves
For the dressing
30ml red-wine vinegar
100ml extra-virgin rapeseed oil
50g sea buckthorn or other small berries
Method
Season the venison fillet and offal, if using.
Heat a little oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan and add the meat and offal, cooking them for a couple of minutes on each side, depending on the thickness, and keeping them nice and pink inside. Transfer to a plate and leave to rest for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, mix together the vinegar and oil for the dressing, and add the berries. Season.
Slice the venison and offal and arrange on plates with the leaves, then spoon over the dressing.
