Gallo Family Vineyards Autumn Red's Venison steak with blackberry sauce

Directions

1. 1. Crush enough back peppercorns to give your venison a light coating, don't make them too fine or the flavour will be overpowering 2. Finely chop enough dried mugwort to do the same 3. Mix the mugwort and pepper together and roll your venison in it, giving a light coating. 4. Leave in the fridge over night or if it is less than 2 hours before you cook the venison, leave it out on the side 5. If you do refrigerate the meat then make sure you take it out in good time for it to be at room temperature when you cook it
2. Horseradish root & potato rosti: 1. Cut the potatoes in half and boil for 5 minutes. 2. Remove from the pan and leave to drain and cool 3. Grate the potato with an ordinary grater 4. Grate some horseradish root into the mixture to taste and season with salt and pepper. 5. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan, form the grated mix into patties and fry until golden. If you have problems with the mix falling apart try adding a little flour or egg 6. Keep warm in the oven until the venison is ready
3. To cook the venison: 1. Season the meat with salt 2. Heat a large frying pan and cover with a film of oil 3. It should be just smoking. Add the venison steaks. Turn each piece as it colours - be careful not to let the pepper burn too much - and keep turning until the meat is well coloured 4. If you are cooking the meat to rare small steaks will take a matter of 2 or 3 minutes while larger ones will take under 10 minutes 5. Rest the meat for at least as long as it cooked for in a warm place and then slice across the grain. While the meat is resting make the blackberry sauce
4. Blackberry sauce 1. Press and sieve the blackberries 2. Add the Gallo Family Vineyards Autumn Red to the pan used to cook the venison, stir and reduce for a few minutes 3. Add the sloe gin, blackberries, blackberry jam and boil until the sauce coats the back of a spoon, add seasoning and sharpen with a squeeze of lemon juice
5. To serve: Place the potato rosti on a plate with the sliced venison steak. Spoon over the blackberry sauce and serve with wild cabbage or sea beet.