Venison and blackberries are natural bedfellows, and our Fresh Thyme and Blackberry Ketchup make it easy to create a beautiful venison steak dish with very little effort. In fact, the whole dish comes together in less than 30 minutes.
This venison steak recipe is inspired by Ottolenghi’s epic venison fillet with date labneh, blackberries, and peanut crumble served at his restaurant Nopi. It’s a stunning dish but is a recipe best saved for a leisurely weekend when you fancy spending hours in the kitchen. We wanted to create a similar experience with a few less steps - after all, our goal is to make it a little bit easier to make sensational meals at home, and here our blackberry ketchup really shines.
Our Venison Steaks with Blackberry Sauce recipe demonstrates just how perfectly our blackberry ketchup works as a sauce. You can use it straight out of the bottle (though if it’s been in the refrigerator you might want to warm it a bit before using it on the venison steaks). We kept the juniper salt from the original recipe because juniper goes so well with venison and it’s easy to make in a blender, but you can also season with salt and pepper if you’re pushed for time.
Venison Steaks with Blackberry Sauce
Ingredients
4 venison steaks
1 Tbsp groundnut oil
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 1/2 tablespoons date syrup or maple syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
Juniper salt (optional)
2 tablespoons juniper berries
3 tablespoons coarse sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
To serve
fresh blackberries
baby basil leaves or regular basil leaves, shredded
handful of pistachios, toasted and chopped (peanuts also work well, or dukkah)
1 bottle of A Little Bit Fresh Thyme and Blackberry Ketchup (you won’t need all of it)
Method
Lay out your venison steaks on a paper towel and press another paper towel on top - this helps the meat dry out so you get a nice crust when you sear it in the pan. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes, to come to room temperature.
Mix together the Greek yoghurt, date syrup, pomegranate molasses, and a pinch of salt. Set aside.
Make the juniper salt, if using, by blitzing the salt, juniper berries, and black peppercorns in a blender.
Season the steaks with the juniper salt (or salt and pepper).
Heat the groundnut oil in a frying pan. Cook the venison steaks for about 5 mins, then turn over and cook for 3-5 mins more (cook 3 minutes for rare steaks of 5 for well done). Remove the meat from the pan and set aside to rest while you start plating up.
To serve, spread the yoghurt out on each plate. Place the venison steaks on top of the yoghurt. Drizzle a bit of our Fresh Thyme and Blackberry Ketchup over each steak. Garnish with the crushed pistachios, fresh blackberries, and basil leaves.
