If you were thinking of having Venison for christmas dinner

[PoppyCoc]

what would you have it with? The traditonal roast potatoes, parsnips etc

And how would you cook it?

bump

Would you have a saddle, and pot roast it?

A shoulder joint is nice braised in red wine.

Roast potaotes, parsnips, swede and carrot mash too. Daupin potatoes?

Om nom nom

The pot roasting sounds easy, is it? I have only ever roasted a chicken before

Yes

I cook all my joints in my Creuset

[lazy mare]

Makes v tender meat

I heart venison.

BUT........

It's a slightly unusual taste, and if you've not had it before, get some before the Big Day to try.

HTH

And don't let your DC watch Bambi first....

I would have a fillet and marinate it and then roast it and serve it with roast potatoes and veg with a rich slightly sweet gravy.

Its probably a good idea to try some first.

Have you tried duck? That's what do would like me to cook

Its our first Christmas at home by ourselves. Normally we go to MILs. This will be the first Christmas dinner I have ever cooked and we are going to be adventurous rather than sticking to the usual turkey.

I don't normally cook roasts either so the whole thing is a new experience.

Not really sure which meat is best though

Marinating and then roasting sounds easy enough.

How do I make a gravy which is rich and slightly sweet?

Goose? Goose is delish, very fatty though so needs fat poured away a few times during roasting. Very forgiving meat to cook, won't go dry on you like turkey can (mainly because of all that fat).

I did consider Goose but then thought it might be too big for just us two adults (dd will only be 1 so she wont eat much of it)

They aren't that big though, you don't get anywhere near as much meat on say a 18lb goose as you do on a turkey of the same size. Duck would be really nice though, or venison, I do love a haunch of venison (I always pot roast mine in some marsala wine gravy).

Can we have some recipes for gravy from those who know? We're planning on having venison.

Also,look at this www.bdfa.co.uk/recipes/FHiAhFYnBqx.pdf

yum

To make your gravy sweeter, I would use a port wine reduction; remove meat, add port to deglaze the pan, add two cartons of fresh beef stock (I use one from Waitrose chiller cabinet), then reduce by half - simply delicious.

celeraic mash?

SOMEBODY STOP HER!

SHE'S GOING TO EAT RUDOLPH!

That's a bit of a tough sell to the kids, isn't it?
I mean, what do you say? 'It's OK children, Father Christmas doesn't need him any more, so he butchered him on the front lawn after he dropped off the pressies.'

Goose. you can make cassoulet with the leftovers using beans and saussges.

You need to do the Billy Connolly joke and garnish one plate with a cherry so they can shout "I got the nose!!!"

marinade it and serve with polenta and gorgonzola!! or you could do that for Boxing Day and do a lovely duck for Xmas Day.

thats a great one with the cherry