Catching up with the rest of 2014

Spareribs - glaze including orange marmelade, devon fire chutney and other random store-cupboard ingredients. Excellent.

Pheasant with glazed onions. Good flavour but the pheasant was rather tough.

Venison loin. Tender, flavoursome and delicious. Not quite as underdone as the photo suggests.

Shepherds pie. Very nostalgic, but perhaps a bit too cheesy.

Pork fillet flambé with apricots. Delicious and with some spectacular flambéing.

Meatballs and pasta. Lovely, fluffy but flavourful meatballs. Chilling before cooking helped to retain the right shape.

Herb crusted rack of veal. Looks good, but disappointingly sinewy veal, that needed at least 10 minutes more cooking.

Slow cooked pork with orange. Slow cooking resulted in lovely tender pork. The skin went into the oven separately at the end to crisp up and got a little bit too burned.

Venison with blueberries. Very nice flavour with the fruit, but not as tender as I had hoped.

Grilled mackerel. Simple and good but more attractive with the head and tail still on!

Venison Steak

Thursday, 3rd March

Venison Shank Steak from Camden Market, port wine gravy, Lyonnaise Potato (sort of) and chimichurri. Sliced potatoes, onions and garlic, mixed with oil and salt and cooked, covered, on a low heat for an hour. Fried the steaks in a hot griddle pan for 3 minutes each side, then let them rest for 10 minutes of a warm plate. Deglazed the pan with port and a splash of water, for the sauce. The steak had been in the fridge for a fortnight so it was beautifully tender and with just the right gamy flavour. And the potatoes tasted much better than they looked! Too much oil though.