Our occasional contributor Kondratiev posted this recipe as a comment the other day:
Cooked this one last night using venison backstrap (loin):
Seared Venison Steaks with Baked Pear and Red Wine
Serves: 6
Ingredients
3 bosc pears (1/2 each)
1 small cinnamon stick, broken
5 black peppercorns
bottle red wine
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 trimmed 6 oz. venison steaks
Salt and ground black pepper
1 shallot, finely diced
1 tablespoon red currant jelly
2 oz. butter, plus extra for greasing
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter an ovenproof dish. Peel, core and halve the pears. Arrange snugly in the dish, hollow side up. Tuck in the cinnamon and peppercorns, then pour in half the wine. Sprinkle with sugar and dot with butter. Crumple up and wet a sheet of greaseproof paper, then lay it over the dish before covering with foil. Seal tightly and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until the pears are tender. Turn the pears after the first hour. Keep warm. You will need their liquid for the sauce.
2. Pour the oil into a non-stick frying pan and set over a high heat. Season the steaks and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Remove the steaks and keep warm. Reduce the heat and gently fry the shallot before adding all the wine, including that with the pears. Boil vigorously, scraping the pan as you do so, until it has reduced by half. Microwave the jelly and, once it has melted, then stir it in, remove the pan from the heat and quickly whisk in the 2 oz. butter. Strain into a warm sauceboat and serve immediately with venison and warm pears.
Here's a simpler recipe for marinated loin steaks. (Loin is just tenderloin steak without the bone.)
For a roast (a 4-5 lb haunch, say, which is chuck or rump or whatever), this is a simple basic pot roast. Here's a fancier venison pot roast.
Or for a stew, this sort of thing is good - if you use red wine instead of water. We would use shank, or any haunch or shoulder meat for this.
We hope all of our hunter readers, or friends of hunters, have some meat in the freezer. Please send us your favorite venison recipes in the comments -