Barbequed Venison roast
Whether I'm cooking for friends or family, I want delicious food and I want it to be easy to prepare. What I don't want to be doing is spending hours and hours cooking, then feeling so frazzled and tired when it comes to meal time.
I tend to prefer to have everything on the table (space allowing) so folk can tuck in help themselves. This lends its self very well to having dishes that can be made well in advance, with maybe a couple of things that need cooked at the last minute. Having 4 dear darling childerbeasts running about the place means that I need to be able to do things in short bursts.
Living the way we do means that I can pick and choose the cuts of meat that we have, animal by animal. But in doing this I have to be mindful of the fact that once Deer season is closed, thats it until September....
Roasts aren't something we have eaten a whole lot of the last couple of years, why? I really don't know,as they are so simple to do. This recipe is even simpler as the marinade really does help tenderise the meat, which reduces the cooking time!
I know that not all of you have access to venison like we do, but this recipe works just as well with beef, lamb or goat.
BARBECUED VENISON ROAST
- 1kg venison top roast
- 400ml tomato sauce
- 100ml balsamic vinegar
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 heaped Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 3 Tbsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 5 Bay leaves
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 1tsp chilli flakes
- Salt and pepper
Butterfly out the top roast so that the meat is all the same thickness.
Place all the other ingredients in a dish large enough to hold the meat or a freezer bag and give it a good mix.
Add the meat to the dish and make sure the meat is fully coated then cover and leave it in the fridge for at least 6 hours, overnight preferably.
Bring the meat out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before you want to cook it, doing this allows the meat to come up to room temperature.
Fire up the barbecue, then lift the meat out of the marinade and place it on the barbecue.
While the meat is cooking pour the left over marinade in to an oven proof pan and put it on the cooler side of you barbecue, it will quite happily cook and bubble away whilst the msat is cooking. It is really important that it is properly heated through as it has had raw meat in it.
Once the meat is cooked to your liking (medium rare for me!) take it off the barbecue and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes.
While the meat is resting bring the sauce to a boil, then pass it through a sieve to get rid of the herbs and fennel seeds.
Slice the meat into thin strips and drizzle over the sauce.
Serve and enjoy.
I guarantee once you make your own barbecue sauce you won't want to go back to shop bought!
If you give this recipe a try, I would love to know what you think.
Fraoch xx
