Saddle of Venison with Red Wine Sauce

Preparation

1. Remove the skin, sinews and fat from the loin fillets; set the bones and sinews aside for the sauce. Rub the meat with olive oil, crushed juniper berries and coarsely ground pepper and leave at room temperature for at least 1 hour, otherwise the middle stays cold in the short cooking time.
2. For the sauce, chop the bones and sinews small and roast them in the oil in a pan until evenly browned, without letting anything burn, as anything scorched makes the sauce bitter. Briefly roast the onion, carrot and celeriac with them, add the tomato purée, garlic, bay leaf and juniper, and deglaze with the red wine.
3. Reduce the wine slightly, add the game stock and simmer gently for about 40 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve and reduce to about 300 ml; season with mustard, redcurrant jelly, salt and pepper and finally stir in the cold pieces of butter.
4. Preheat the oven to 200 °C (conventional). Heat the butter in a shallow dish in the oven (it must not brown) and salt lightly. Put the meat in, turn after 2 minutes and salt lightly, turn again after another 2 minutes and repeat twice more at 2-minute intervals.
5. Check after about 8 minutes: the meat should give slightly under a finger but not feel soft. Wrap the pieces in foil and rest for about 10 minutes so that no juice runs out when carving.
6. While the meat rests, fry the chanterelles in the hot oil, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the parsley.
7. Cut the meat into slices on the diagonal and serve with the hot sauce and the mushrooms; Spätzle, boiled potatoes or celeriac purée go well with it.

Drink with it

• Red wine · excellent match

  Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir), dry, with delicate fruit and soft tannins

  The tender, lean meat cannot take heavy tannin; the cherry and wild berry fruit of the Pinot picks up the berry note in the sauce, and the acidity keeps it fresh.

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• Red wine · good match

  Blaufränkisch, not too powerful

  Dark fruit and a spicy note mirror the juniper and roasted flavours of the sauce without overpowering the pink meat.

• Cognac and brandy · good match

  VSOP Cognac, neat at room temperature, to finish

  Raisin, wood and spice notes of the aged Cognac pick up the reduced red wine and game sauce.

  Cognac and Armagnac: Two Origins for Brandy ↗