Well hello there.  It has been awhile, hasn’t it? Sorry about that…

But, I have been cooking up a storm day and night even though I haven’t had a chance to post anything lately.  The first six weeks of classes at FCI flew by for me in a whirlwind. After a comprehensive written exam and a practical cooking exam, I made it successfully through Level 1. Whew! I’ve learned so many new techniques and recipes that are just now starting to become second nature to me.

Level 2 introduces many completely new topics such as cooking game, organ meat, and pastry, as well as menu design and nutrition.  So far we’ve covered game meats including venison (deer) and rabbit. I was able to take home some of the venison tenderloin leftover from class, so I decided to share it with you all in blogland.  And, as an added bonus, my chef gave me some very yummy spiced poaching liquid to make a delicious poached fruit dessert which I’ll save for another post.  Are you ready for this? :) Here we go.

The deer. Any of us who’ve ever driven down a country road at night know this fellow all too well.  They can be very destructive to motor vehicles.  But, I’ve now learned that they can be extremely delicious when cooked for dinner. Heh heh heh.

Don’t worry, it looks just like steak, only redder and leaner and tastes similar too, only stronger and more robust in flavor.

There we go.  Doesn’t that look TASTY? So, these are medallion fillets cut from a venison tenderloin. They don’t have much fat at all so they cook relatively quickly.  I brought them out of the fridge to let them come to room temperature and seasoned them with salt and pepper. While they rested, I got to work on my rice pilaf and my bordelaise sauce.

Rice pilaf is a fairly simple side item that I really enjoy with just about anything. Start by sauteeing some chopped shallots in butter until they are just opaque but not brown.  Then add in your rice and let it toast for a minute or two. Then add in the required amount of liquid for your rice, some salt and pepper, bring to a simmer and then cover and put  in a 350 degree oven. Let it cook about 12-14 minutes or until the rice is tender.

I also wanted something green on my plate so I heated up some frozen peas in a little butter too.

Then I added my peas to my rice and mixed it all together.  This is a sneaky way of getting kiddos to eat their veggies because once you mix it in they can’t eat the rice without the peas. And the rice is just too dang good to pass up. This mixture of peas and rice is actually very popular dish.  According to my chef, it is called Risi Bisi.  Who knew my peas and rice actually had a fancy name? :)

Top your peas and rice with a few blobs of butter, put the lid on and set it aside until it is ready to serve.

OK, that’s done.

Now, normally we wouldn’t start our sauce until our meat started cooking, but since venison cooks so quickly, I found it helpful to have the sauce base prepared ahead of time. Bordelaise sauce is a basic French sauce that pairs wonderfully with red meat. The primary ingredients are shallots, red wine, brown stock (usually veal or beef), and bone marrow to finish.  I normally do not have bone marrow on hand, so I finished the sauce with butter, which works just as well for home cooking purposes.

First, sweat some shallots in a little butter over medium heat.  Sweating a vegetable means to gently saute it without browning. So the shallots should be opaque, but essentially colorless when they are successfully sweated. My shallots got a little too much color on them, probably because my butter was too hot when I added the shallots, effectively searing them. So don’t follow my example in this case.

Add a little red wine and allow it to reduce until the pan is almost dry.  This allows all of the alcohol to cook out of the sauce, while concentrating the flavors of the wine. I added a little fresh thyme to flavor the reduction further, although I probably could have waited to add the thyme when I added my stock. But whatever…. I’m learning too.

See how almost all of liquid is gone? It makes a very syrupy consistency over the shallots.  Ok, after reducing the wine, add your stock.  I used a little demi-glace that I had leftover from one of my classes.  Demi-glace is basically a veal stock that has already been reduced to a syrupy consistency.  When it cools, it becomes like jello, but it melts into the sauce quickly and beautifully.

See?

Now reduce the sauce again by about half.

Once the sauce is reduced to the desired consistency, strain it to remove the shallots and herbs.

You should taste the sauce now and season it with salt and pepper as needed.  At this point, I would normally finish the sauce with some cold butter.  But I wanted to add another layer of flavors by including some of that delicious spiced poaching liquid. So I quickly reduced a little bit of the poaching liquid and then added it to my bordelaise sauce.

Then I finished the sauce with cold butter.

See how syrupy the sauce is?  The added butter helps to give it a gorgeous shine and that delicious smooth flavor that every sauce should have.

Now all that’s left to do is cook the venison.  I actually started the venison while my sauce was reducing so that they would be finished at about the same time.  Here is our lovely meat again.  Make sure to pat the fillets dry with paper towels so that they will brown properly.

Get the pan good and hot with a little oil and a tad bit of butter before adding the meat.  Having a hot pan is also very important in having properly seared meat.

Cook on one side for a couple of minutes to get a good brown color, then flip them over and repeat.

Then turn the fillets on their sides to get the edges brown and baste the meat with the fat in the pan.  It is a good idea to add some more cold butter to the pan at this point so that you have more tasty fat to baste the meat with.  Basting is a good way to help keep moisture in the meat since it is very lean and the butter also enhances the flavor.

Depending on how well done you like your meat to be you could finish cooking them in the pan or in the oven.  If you like your meat rare to medium rare, you could simply leave them in the pan after searing over a little lower heat.  If you want them to be more well done, slide your pan into the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes to finish the cooking.  Since my dinner guests wanted their meet cooked medium-well, I opted for the oven.  But the venison only stayed in the oven for about 5 minutes. Remember, it cooks extremely quickly since it is so lean.

Now everything should be ready to serve – venison fillet, lovely bordelaise sauce, and rice pilaf/peas.

Bon Appetit!