Oh my words, was this recipe amazing!
We have some venison in the freezer that my husband shot awhile back and I’m still learning how to cook with it. Recently I was thumbing through a cookbook from an AMAZING restaurant we went to in Denver a few years ago called the Vesta Dipping Grill, and I came across this recipe that uses venison tenderloin. It wasn’t a complicated recipe, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I think even when I don’t have venison, I might make this with beef too. It was just outstanding!
My husband took a bite and closed his eyes. That’s how you know it’s off the hook good.
Listen, even if any of these ingredients seem odd to you, or if you don’t like curry, just whatever…you don’t taste any of that. It’s just a melding of flavors that you need to make for your family or the next time you have company to dinner!
Here you go! I made a few small changes and it worked out great, so I’m going to include those so you can feed a whole family with it!
Madras Grilled Venison
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
- 3 Tbsp yellow curry paste (I couldn’t find this at the store so I used 3 Tbsp curry powder that I mixed with a bit of water and oil til it became a paste)
- 4 7-oz pieces of venison loin
- salt and pepper to taste
- In a baking dish, whisk together the coconut milk, olive oil, and curry paste
- Add the venison to the marinade and toss to coat. Refrigerate overnight. (I didn’t have this kind of forethought so I put all of this in a vacuum sealed bag for 3 hours to speed the process and it was great.)
- Prepare a grill for high heat. Season both sides of each venison loin to taste with salt and pepper. Oil the grill and place the steaks on the hottest part of the grill. Grill for 2 minutes and flip. Grill for 2 minutes and flip again, keeping the steaks on the hottest part of the grill. Grill for 2 more minutes on each remaining side for rare temperature. (I went closer to 3 minutes per 4 sides and it was perfectly medium rare.)
- To serve, spoon the dried cherry-butter reduction onto each of 4 plates. Place slices of the venison tenderloin on the sauce and spoon the ginger-ale mushrooms over top!
Dried Cherry Butter Reduction
- 1/2 c dried cherries
- 1 c port (or you can use Sherry as well)
- 1/3 c heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp butter
- salt and pepper to taste
- In a small saucepan, combine the cherries and port. Cook the mixture over high heat until about a quarter of it cooks off.
- Add the cream, lower the heat and simmer the sauce to reduce until it is thick and syrupy. Swirl in the butter and wisk to mix well.
Ginger Ale Mushrooms
- 1 pound baby portobella mushrooms
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp peeled, minced ginger
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
- 2 Tbsp ginger ale
- 1 tsp chopped fresh basil
- salt and pepper to taste
- In a saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the ginger and the garlic and saute for 1 1/2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sweat them until they look wet and are cooked through. Add the ginger ale and reduce the liquid until the mushrooms have absorbed all of the ginger ale. Keep moving the mushrooms until they start to caramelize and are almost crisp around the edges. Add the butter and basil and season to taste with salt and pepper.
I also made some wilted kale which took maybe 5 minutes max. I put a little bit of fresh ginger and garlic in a couple Tbsp of olive oil in the bottom of a large pan and sauteed that for maybe 1 minute. Then I added the kale (kale cooks down a LOT, so put in maybe 4-6 cups worth or so. Then I used some of the ginger ale I had from the mushrooms and just poured maybe 1/4 cup to keep the kale from sticking from the bottom. Wilt that and serve it with your meal! Also you could serve this with roasted potatoes or rice as well! Bon Appetit!
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