Recipe from Nigella Express.

I’ve had Reindeer twice in before in my life, once salami style on top of a pizza in Norway, and once slow cooked served with Mash potatoes and a berry sauce in Helsinki. The latter was one of the best meals I have ever eaten. Now I don’t know the real difference between Reindeer or Venison (is there even one?) but I’ve never cooked venison before, nor seen it for sale often in the local supermarkets, I hope this wouldn’t be as hard to come by as that bloody marrowbone!

As luck would have it, the local big supermarche had venison steaks. The recipe in the book calls for a loin, but this serves six. I am one, so I went for the steaks. The way to cook them doesn’t change at least.

We never really had steak much growing up, it was definitely more as a special occasion treat, and I only ever cooked it for the first time in the summer of #Lockdown1. The recipe called for a good griddlin’ for 15 mins, but given I had a steak, not a loin, I would go for the similar rules to steak grilling. After I had Googled the rules for Steak grilling times (I usually go for Medium Rare) I went for it and got my griddle on.

The steaks had been sitting in their pre-griddle marinade for a few hours and that saucy-sizzle sound that comes from the meat touching the pan is just glorious. It reminded me again of my time in Helsinki and the sound the cold water makes when it hits the hot stones of the Sauna. Bliss. Unlike that time though this wasn’t going to end with me going for a quick dip in the Baltic Sea!

Whilst the steaks were resting in their foil tent I made the Gin & Apple sauce, again veering slightly from the recipe which called for Red Delicious apples, I went for the closest-to-red Gala Apples I could find for nowhere seemed to sell Red Delicious. I fried these up and pressed them through a sieve to get the sweet, sweet apple sauce, which was still a light pink in colour thanks heavens!

Together their flavours blend brilliantly and I would absolutely make this again, sorry Rudolph.