Sunday Roast haunch of venison with cubetti potatoes

I’m lucky enough to live on a road that hosts a farmers market every Saturday morning and it has everything – butcher, baker, beer maker… all you want for the perfect Sunday roast.

One of the stallholders is Southdowns Venison who provide wild venison straight from the park to the market. The guy who shoots then sells it is charm personified and I usually end up with burgers, a pie or occasionally a good roasting joint.

This week I picked up a boned and rolled (stop your sniggering at the back) haunch of venison – perfect for roasting. I’m often confused as to how to cook venison, so I asked Mr Charm Personified himself and he recommended 20 mins per kilo at 180… so that’s what I did. This recipe is for a kilo joint.

I chose to do this with cubetti potatoes as I wanted a faff-free Sunday and this means I can do this all in one dish and have minimal washing up

Music to listen to while preparing this dish: ‘You Came’ by Kim Wilde

Ingredients

• 1kg Venison haunch, boned and rolled
• 3 medium potatoes cubed (skin on or off is your choice)
• 1 Large onion, chopped to same size as potato cubes
• Leaves from 4-5 rosemary sprigs
• 8-10 Cloves garlic, peeled
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Add potatoes, onions, garlic and rosemary into a large and wide roasting dish, add a liberal glug of oil. Mix well, season with salt and pepper and pop in the oven.
3. Remove the joint from the fridge and let it get to room temperature.
4. At the point the potatoes have been roasting for 40 mins, you need to sear/render the fat on your haunch in a frying pan. Do this over a medium high heat to render any fat and sear the joint to get a good colour on it. This should take you about 20 mins.
5. Once seared, take the potatoes out the oven, and turn them over. Create a space in the middle of your pan and plonk the joint there. Return to the oven for 20 mins for a very rare joint…. How I like it.
6. After 20 mins, remove the meat from the pan, cover and let rest for 10 mins.
7. Return the potatoes (without meat) to the oven to crisp up the potatoes if needed. If all ready crispy, reduce temp to keep them warm while the meat rests.
8. Once rested, carve the meat and serve with your crispy potatoes.

Serve with a Montemajone Chianti Classico which rounds off the game-iness of the meat perfectly.