Venison Minute Steaks with Griddled Plums Recipe

Ingredients

75g buckwheat
500g bunched carrots
4 plums
A hanful of rosemary, leaves only
8 juniper berries
2 venison minute steaks
75g 0% fat Greek style yogurt
150ml boiling water
2 tsp olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper

Prep: 15 mins | Cook: 30 mins

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Method

1. Heat your oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Tip the buckwheat into a pan. Cover with 150ml boiling water and simmer for 15 mins.

2. Chop the leaves off the carrots (keep them for later). Give the carrots a scrub and halve or quarter them, depending on how large they are. Arrange the carrots on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat in 1 tsp oil. Roast the carrots for 30 mins till tender and a little charred around the edges.

3. While the carrots cook, halve the plums and scoop out the stones with a teaspoon. Pop the plums in a bowl. Finely chop the rosemary leaves and add them to the plums. Tip the juniper berries into a pestle and mortar and lightly crush them. No pestle and mortar? Use a small bowl and a jam jar or the end of a rolling pin to crush them.

4. Add the crushed juniper berries to the plums with a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss the plums to coat them in the rosemary and juniper berries. Set aside.

5. Rub ½ tsp olive oil into each venison minute steak. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a griddle or frying pan till smoking hot. Add the steaks. If the steaks are thin (around 1 cm), fry for 2-3 mins each side for medium rare. If they're thicker (around 3cm), try 5-6 mins on each side. Transfer the steaks to a board or plate. Loosely cover with foil and leave to rest.

6. Add the plums to the pan, cut-side down. Fry for 4 mins till a little softened and charred underneath. Flip over and cook for another 2 mins. Take off the heat and set aside.

7. Add the plums to the pan, cut side down. Fry for 4 mins till a little softened and charred underneath. Flip over and cook for another 2 mins. Take off the heat and set aside.

8. Finely chop a handful of the carrot leaves. Stir half into half the pot of yogurt with a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the other half of the leaves to the roast carrots along with the buckwheat. Tumble to mix the carrots, herbs and grains. Serve the steaks with the carrots, plums and the herby yogurt.

9. Leaf it out^ Green, leafy carrot tops have a similar flavour to parsley Store them wrapped in kitchen towel in your fridge. Chop them into salads, beat into butter to top steaks or jacket potatoes, sprinkle on soups or blitz into pesto.