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Roasted venison served with herb and garlic infused potato au gratin

Something different tonight, thanks to my father in law coming home with packs of venison for dinner and it was very nice too, very easy to cook also, which is always a bonus!

To compliment the venison I prepared a potato bake consisting of both nadine and sweet potatoes, these were baked in a creamy sauce infused with thyme, rosemary, garlic and roasted pine nuts, and I also served the meal with green beans.

The meat was taken from the rump of the deer, and it was very lean and dark red in colour.  Before cooking I patted the meat dry with paper towel to remove any excess liquids.

The creamy sauce for potato bake takes about an hour to prepare, and then a couple of hours to bake the completed dish, though you can do this earlier, and then reheat as when you need it.  To make the sauce combine 2 cups of milk, a cup of cream, 6 garlic cloves (bruise them first), a sprig of rosemary and a couple of sprigs of thyme and a quarter cup of freshly roasted pine nuts in a saucepan. Cook over low heat for twenty minutes, and then set aside for 30 minutes to allow flavours to infuse.  The creamy sauce smells fantastic at this point, it had my mouth watering!  Whilst the flavours infuse, slice the potatoes thinly, use a mandolin if you have one, I don’t so I just sliced as evenly as I could.  I almost forgot, you must remove the solids from the sauce before using in the baking dish.

Prepare the baking dish by greasing it with butter, then layer with potatoes alternating with the nadines and sweet potato, adding a little of the cream sauce to each layer and seasoning as you go with salt and pepper. I used 4 large nadine potatoes and 1 large sweet potato, which gave my about three layers of each.  Cover the dish with foil and bake for 90 minutes in an oven preheated to 180C, then remove the foil and bake a further 30 minutes.

Once you have removed the foil from the potato dish, it is time to boil the water for your beans and heat you ovenproof pan with a tablespoon of olive oil and 50g of butter.  Once the butter begins to foam in the pan, add the meat cooking it 2 minutes each side, and only turn it once.  When the second side has been cooked place the pan into the oven and roast for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven, cover and rest for ten minutes.  Whilst the meat rests add the beans to the boiling water and remove the potato bake from the oven, allow to cool for a couple of minutes before plating up.

Slice the meat on the diagonal and place on a warm plate with the potato bake and beans, spoon a little of the buttery sauce over the top and sprinkle with a few pine nuts.

Bon appetite! 

Roasted capsicum and tomato antipasto salad

In 2007 Jo and I hosted Christmas Day for the Murphy clan for first and only time, it was also the first time we had invited the entire family to our new home, which had just turned a year old the month before.
Now the Murphy clan is large, well huge in fact, in 2007 we numbered around 96 including Mum, her 12 children, their spouses, children and grand children.  As luck would have it, there were only 30 unable to attend lunch that day, leaving 66 of us to share in what we all hoped would be a lovely and memorable day.
I don’t think I need to explain the amount of work and preparation needed to go into hosting lunch for 66 people, to make matters worse, I let Jo talk me into having her traditional roast lunch, which meant having both the oven inside and the BBQ outside fully cranked churning out roasted meats and vegetables, nothing like a hot lunch on a summers day, right!

As it turned out, this Christmas Day 2007, turned out to be Perth’s second hottest on record at 41 degrees, it felt more like 46 with the heat generated by the oven and the BBQ , it was insanely HOT, we sweltered as the air-conditioning could not keep up inside and with so many people, we had tables set up outside on the patio for lunch, the heat all but ruined the day, it was dreadful.

Being as hot as it was, as well as the roasted vegetables, we had salads mostly brought along by my sisters and sisters in law, but there was one that I recall making myself that was so popular I have been requested to make it each Christmas since, as well as for other family gatherings we have enjoyed.  And really it is not meant to be a salad at all, but an antipasto dish which is meant to be eaten with crusty bread and sliced ham or salami, but I make it as a salad to complement both roasted and BBQ’d meats, as well as hams and salami’s, it is my roasted capsicum and tomato antipasto salad and it truly is to die for!
There are so many layers of flavour in this salad, the way it is put together ensures a good combination of flavours, so when you are spooning some onto your plate, take that second spoonful you were thinking to take, just to ensure you get to experience all of them.  The following makes a large salad so if there are only a few of you half the quantities, but then again there is nothing like tasty leftovers is there?

For salad

4 large red capsicums

2 large yellow capsicums

4 vine ripened tomatoes, the riper the better

6 semi dried tomatoes, patted dry of oil and thinly sliced

1 tbsp pine nuts

2 tbsp capers

4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped

1 garlic clove very finely sliced

A bunch of basil, try and get young leaves

For dressing

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

5 tbsp quality extra virgin olive oil

1tsp lemon juice

Some chopped fresh herbs

Salt and pepper

To make, start by roasting capsicum in an oven set to 200C for 40 minutes, I make it with 4 large red and two yellow, you can use green to, but the flavour is a little on the bitter side.  Once the capsicum is roasted place them in a plastic shopping bag, tie the handles off and set aside until they have cooled off, once cool remove the skins and break the flesh into ¼’s removing the seeds as you go.

Whilst capsicums are roasting prepare all other ingredients, the herbs I use for the dressing include 1-2 teaspoons each of fresh oregano, basil, mint, chives, sage all of which are finely chopped, it is best to put the dressing on an hour or two before serving, this allows he flavours to intensify throughout  the dish.

Now everything is ready it is just a matter of putting it all together, in the past I have just combined it all in a bowl, mixed and then spread out on the serving plate, but I find it is better for both presentation and flavour development to layer the ingredients starting with a row of tomato, then red capsicum a little bit of this and a little of that, then a row of tomato, followed by yellow capsicum and so on.  If you make the salad early, leave adding the dressing until a couple of hours before serving.

Be warned, once you make this for family and friends, they are going to want it again and again!

The Murphy Clan since 2009, celebrate Christmas as a family the week before Christmas Day, gathering at one of the siblings houses, this year we are celebrating at my sister Cecilia’s and her husband Tony’s home, this evening in fact, we are expecting a small gathering of 73, yes I am taking my roasted capsicum and tomato salad, just hope I get some before it all goes!

Merry Christmas