SOYA & GINGER VENISON FILLET

 Seeing as it was national barbecue week last week and the weather was good, we decided to cook up the venison fillet we still had left.

First thing to do is trim off any sinew (the stringy bit!)

The best way to do this is using the same technique as skinning a fish.

Place on a chopping board.

Start with the sinew facing upwards and using the tip of a sharp knife, lift up a corner of the sinew and carefully slice the meat away until you about 25mm loose.

Turn the meat over so the sinew is underneath, continue to slice along whilst pulling the sinew. 

Keep the knife flat to the chopping board. 

The meat is now ready to marinate.

Do this at least a couple of hours before or over night if you have time.

1tspn dried ginger

2 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tsp ground nut oil

2 tsp vegetable oil

pinch of salt

pinch of sugar

Cook on the BBQ for 4-5 minutes a side, constantly turning.

We cooked ours to a core temperature of 55 degrees which is medium rare.

Thinly slice across the grain of the meat as shown and serve



  

                  

French stick with cranberry and Dijon mustard

                              

  

VENISON ON THE BAR-B-Q

I have a friend who regularly hunts deer and last week, I helped him joint his latest bag.

In return I was rewarded with a months supply of meat. A great trade I think.

From the selection of cuts, I chose 'haunch' for this weekends Bar-B-Q, the first of many.

Venison is a particularly lean meat, especially this time of year, coming out

of the winter and can easily dry up if cooked too long.

A little preparation before the cooking - I had decided to bone and roll the haunch

To help baste the meat and keep the moisture in, I wrapped some beef fat

from the local butcher, around the joint.

And then on to the barbie for an hour....ish!

We have a converted oil drum and use wood not charcoal mainly because I

have an endless supply of it but I also like the way it cooks and the smokey flavour it adds.

Use a meat thermometer with large joints.

Core temperature should be between 50-55 degrees for red meat.

Beautifully succulent with just an ever so slight game taste.

With the juices from the meat, I made a red wine and cranberry jus

and served with a fig and cashew nut cous-cous, mixed leaves and green beans. 

Perfect for a sunny Sunday afternoon

A DAY OF MOWING AND HOEING, PLANTING AND SEWING

Another cracking day in the garden and how productive we've all been!

First job of the day was to fix the bean frame that was flattened by a tree that

 came down on the veg patch last winter

Will rides the sit on mower, for the first cut of the year - it only seems like yesterday since....

.....me and Will in 2000 - how things change.

  

Courgettes get a watering - hope we have some rain soon!

We have a few large pots and containers near the house that we plant extra produce in.

This large tin carrier has holes drilled in the bottom and is half filled with stones and rubble for drainage.

It works well for lettuce, radishes or spring onions.

A friend gave us a few strawberry plants last summer which we planted and were amazed how quickly we got fruit and how much.  The plants have multiplied and we've now transferred some to pots.

And please to see that our young gooseberry bush has survived the winter

A little sunshine and our herbs are coming to life, how Ive missed you! 

Seeds sewn today included carrots, turnips, cabbage, spring onion,

lettuce, chard and purple sprouting broccoli

Our landing window sill is perfect for growing plug plants through spring -

more successful than the propagator we used to have.

Here we have dwarf beans, climbing beans, courgettes, cabbages and carrots.
That's our fig plant in the middle that we started growing last year.
We brought it in for the winter and it will go back out just as soon as the last frost has been and gone.
Our patio area is south facing and gets the sun all day, so the fig tree should flourish.

SNOW AROUND OUR WAY!

And the chickens survived the night!