Venison Medallions with Haskap Sauce

How many truly memorable meals have you had in your life? Truly.

Though we have certainly dined in our fair share of lovely restaurants, I can count a handful of meals that I can actually specifically remember. One of them was a venison steak with cherry sauce that I had in a long gone restaurant many, many, many years ago. Yes, I’m that old.

It was memorable for a few reasons. First off, finding venison in a restaurant in the early 90’s in Alberta was pretty unusual. Even today game meats beyond bison are reasonably unusual fare. Secondly, the dish was so well balanced. The meat was tender and flavourful and the sauce was delicious and not overly sweet. After such a long time, I could not accurately reproduce the flavours as my memory has faded, but I remember thinking “this is one of the best things I have ever eaten”.

Restaurants have lots of tricks that though doable in one’s own kitchen, are not Thursday night doable, at least not in my kitchen. Things like demi-glace which make any pan sauce for meat dreamy. So when I set out to make my own version of venison with a fruit based sauce (I intend to try cherries one day soon) I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t match my memory of that super dreamy meal. However, we have a freezer full of lean meat to use up and I had a small bag of haskap berries that I had reserved for exactly this use.

I have used haskaps as a sauce for duck but I was eager to try it with venison and these little blue beauties have been waiting patiently in my freezer since the fall.

Haskap berries are super healthy and though they resemble elongated blueberries, they are much more tart and not as sweet – a good match for the game meat.

My medallions were cut from a small roast that my sister in law had marked as top/bottom. The meat is quite obviously grained and so I simply cut 1″ steaks across that grain to ensure that they would be tender.

After searing the steaks in a hot pan with a bit of ghee till done, I removed them to sit and added some beef broth (demi-glace would be even better), garlic, balsamic vinegar, haskap jam (because I had it – you could substitute red currant jelly, or find it online here) and some frozen whole berries to the pan until thickened just a bit. The sauce was finished with a little pat of butter to offer up some creaminess. Then any runoff from the meat was added back into the pan and the sauce was poured over the meat. Yum!

I’ll let you in on a little secret. For the most part, I find that balsamic vinegar is best used as a finishing ingredient. I find that the fab flavour that we have all come to expect from balsamic is completely lost in most recipes. That doesn’t mean that there is no place for it, acid is a key ingredient in balancing many dishes, it just means that I feel like most of the time you could substitute nearly any vinegar and get similar results. The sweetness here helps to balance the tartness of the berries but I suspect a sherry vinegar would work just as well. Either way,  if you have balsamic, don’t use the really good stuff.

This recipe could be used with a nice beef steak so don’t let a lack of venison stop you from picking up some haskap berries at the farmers market if you see them!

Venison Medallions with Haskap Sauce

Total Time: 10 minutes

Servings: 4

Author: www.miasdailydish.com

A delicious, not too sweet, sauce for grilled or pan fried steaks.

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Ingredients

• 4 - 1 " thick venison medallions steaks or backstrap
• Salt and pepper
• Ghee or butter
• 1/2 cup rich beef broth
• 1 Tbsp haskap jam or red currant jelly
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen haskap berries
• 2 tsp butter

Instructions

1. Season medallions with salt and pepper, bring to room temperature
2. Heat stainless steel skillet, add ghee to skillet and swish to coat pan
3. Place medallions in pan with plenty of room around each one, allow to brown on one side, about 3-4 minutes. When they will release from pan, flip and brown the other side. Remove from pan when a thermometer reads no more than 125°. Place on serving plate and tent with foil
4. Add broth, vinegar, garlic and jam or jelly to pan, scraping brown bits from pan
5. Bring to a boil, add vinegar and haskap berries. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 4 minutes until berries soften and sauce thickens slightly
6. Finish sauce with a small pat of butter, stirred into sauce until melted.
7. Pour any juices that have accumulated in the pan into the sauce and give it a quick stir.
8. Spoon sauce over medallions, serve any extra sauce on the side

Recipe Notes

If you have never cooked game meat before, do not overcook it or it will be very dry as it is extremely lean. I'd recommend medium rare at most.