Roast Haunch of Venison Recipe

Here’s your second instalment of game recipes by Gametoeat.co.uk, where we’re focusing on venison. There’s plenty of deer around at this time of the year, particularly Fallow Deer and Red Deer which thrive between August and April, so you may well have been lucky enough to pull in a generous amount of meat in recent weeks. If you’re wanting to put together a tasty meal to show off your hunting skills, then take a look at this Roast Haunch of Venison recipe; guaranteed to make mouths water!

To serve four people, the ingredients you’ll need are as follows:

• 1 Venison Haunch (The back leg of a roe), this will be just right for 4 people

• 100g of wild garlic leaves, freshly picked and whole in form

• 50g of smoked garlic  -you can buy garlic smoked, but you can always smoke it yourself!

• 30g of Parmesan cheese, grated or sliced into small pieces

• 30g of whole pine nuts

• 100ml of olive oil

• A few pinches of Cornish sea salt - though regular salt would do just fine

• A few pinches of black pepper

Once you’ve gathered all of the necessary ingredients, you can start the preparations for roasting.

• To make your pesto, bring together your garlic leaves, the smoked garlic, the parmesan cheese, some pine nuts and the olive oil, and put them all straight into a blender or food processor until everything’s combined but not smooth - still fairly chunky and dense. So probably between 15 and 20 seconds is ideal. Once you’re happy with the consistency that’s your pesto made, as simple as that!

• Next, put a dash of oil in a frying pan and get it nice and hot. Use the black pepper and sea salt to season the venison haunch, before putting it in the pan once it’s hot enough to sear. Sear for two minutes on each side to get a bit of colour in there, and then take it off of the heat.

• Use your homemade pesto to cover the whole leg with, so the entire haunch has a nice layer of fragrant pesto covering it.

• Finally, heat a fan oven to 180 degrees Celsius and place the venison in the centre of the oven. Roast it for 90 minutes - it should be perfectly cooked and still tender.

• Take the joint out of the oven and leave at least 20 minutes of resting time before carving or serving. We’d recommend plating up with some crisp roast potatoes and green vegetables, but the choice is completely yours! For a smoky taste, we'd recommend sticking the joint on a pellet smoker for a few minutes.

This is a really tasty wholesome meal that’ll feed the whole family for Sunday lunch. For more recipes browse our advice section, or visit the Gametoeat website!