I’d like to thank Rebecca Woollard for sharing another delicious dish with us, and for allowing us to share the recipe in turn with you here. If you’d like to see more of her beautifully styled food you can find her on Instagram by searching the handle @rebecca_woollard.
Chargrilled venison steaks, hot buttered beetroot with dukkah and roasted roots
Ready in 1 hour 10 minutes
Serves 4
Cook’s note Find dukkah in larger supermarkets or online. Any leftover beetroot is delicious served with oily fish like mackerel, or with grilled chicken. It will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
For the roasted roots
500g salad potatoes (I used Nicola), cut into quarters or wedges if large
500g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and cut into wedges
4-5 tbsp olive oil
For the hot buttered beetroot
100g unsalted butter
4 medium beetroot, peeled and coarsely grated
2 dessert apples, peeled and coarsely grated
Juice ½-1 lemon
3-4 tbsp dukkah, to taste
4 venison steaks, around 2-3cm thick, large pieces of fat trimmed
Sunflower oil, for griddling
Watercress dressed with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin, to serve
- Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan/gas mark 6). Spread the potatoes and artichokes out over your largest baking tray in a single layer, season and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss well to coat, then spread them out again and roast for 50-60 minutes, turning once or twice, until golden, caramelised and crisp around the edges.
- Once the root vegetables have around 20 minutes left, melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Once melted, add in the beetroot and apple, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Stir for 2-3 minutes over the heat, coating the beetroot and apple well with the butter and allowing some of the juices to run into it. Season well with salt and squeeze in the lemon to taste. Once the beetroot is piping hot but still with some bite, remove from the heat and set aside.
- Heat a griddle pan over a high heat until smoking. Lightly oil and season the venison steaks with salt, then cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, pressing the meat down, until well charred. This should give you rare/medium-rare meat – cook for a minute or two longer for medium-well done. Once the venison steaks are cooked, remove to a plate, cover with foil and leave to rest for 5-6 minutes.
- Quickly heat the beetroot back up to sizzling, then toss through the dukkah. Divide the root vegetables between plates with the beetroot and a venison steak each, then serve with the watercress salad.