When our venison bresaola was selected to appear on the BBC artisan food show, Top of the Shop with Tom Kerridge, we got very excited about the second day challenge, which was to create a dish including the bresaola on the farm shop cafe menu.
The judges raved about this dish – a venison bresaola salad, which uses a range of things that work really well with venison bresaola. They felt it deserved a place in a Michelin-starred restaurant…. whoop whoop!
Inspired by the Sussex forests where venison roam, this dish is very pretty and super tasty. I designed it to look like a lush forest floor, with a venison bresaola and celeriac remoulade flower in the centre. This recipe makes enough for 6-8 people.
You can also use the relevant bits of recipes below for:
- A simpler salad of celeriac remoulade, mixed salad leaves and venison bresaola
- Pickled beetroot cubes or balls (if you have a parisienne scoop) with venison bresaola, on a cocktail stick, for a low-carb canapé
- Venison bresaola on lightly buttered rye bread, topped with celeriac remoulade – served either as an open sandwich or in small squares as a canapé
There are six components to this dish:
– Celeriac remoulade
– Pickled cucumber
– Pickled beetroot
– Venison bresaola
– Beetroot condiment – you can buy this from us, or use any beetroot relish. I used it to stick the venison bresaola ‘petals’ to create the flower
– Wild rocket, nasturtium leaves and edible flowers – you can buy wold rocket at most supermarkets. 2 packs will suffice for this recipe. Nasturtiums grow like weeds in some gardens but don’t worry if you don’t have them in yours. The rocket alone is perfect. I used nasturtium flowers and borage flowers (which again, grow like weeds in many allotments and gardens) to add seasonal colour (in September).
SHOPPING LIST
1 celeriac, small
Mayonnaise
Dijon mustard
Crème Fraiche 200g pot
1 cucumber
Mirin, 30ml
1kg of beetroot
1 star anise
1 tsp coriander seeds
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
A pinch of whole cloves
1 teaspoon allspice berries
1 bay leaf
A small pinch of dried chilli flakes
220ml of red wine vinegar
180g of caster sugar
2 packs Sussex Gourmand wild venison bresaola (100g)
Jar of beetroot condiment from Sussex Gourmand or any beetroot relish that is fine cut or a smooth consistency
2 packs wild rocket
SUSSEX WILD VENISON BRESAOLA
Take the packs out of the fridge half an hour before serving, cut them open and let the meat come to room temperature. Much like red wine, this improves the flavour.
CELERIAC REMOULADE
INGREDIENTS
Celeriac 1 small
Mayonnaise 200g
Dijon mustard 2 tsp
Crème Fraiche 200g
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Grate celeriac using the fine julienne grater on the food processor.
2. Swiftly add mayonnaise, mustard, and crème fraiche, to avoid the celeriac browning.
3. Cover and leave in fridge until ready to serve.
PICKLED CUCUMBER
INGREDIENTS
Large cucumber 1
Mirin 30ml
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the skin off the cucumber and then peel away long strands until you reach the seeds. Discard the seeded middle.
2. Pour the mirin over the cucumber strands and leave to pickle for 15 minutes before serving. Don’t prepare this in advance – schedule 15 mins before plating up.
PICKLED BEETROOT
INGREDIENTS
1kg of beetroot
1 star anise
1 tsp coriander seeds
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
A pinch of whole cloves
1 teaspoon allspice berries
1 bay leaf
A small pinch of dried chilli flakes
220ml of red wine vinegar
180g of caster sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Wash beetroot, trim and wrap in foil.
2. Cook in oven 90 mins for largest and 45 minutes if really small. 1 hr for medium sized.
3. Heat pickling mix and leave to cool.
4. When beetroot is cooked, remove skins whilst warm and cut big ones in half.
5. When cool, place the beetroot in sterilised jars and leave overnight.
ADDITIONAL ITEMS/GARNISH:
Rocket – a handful of rocket per serving. Approx. 15g per portion
Beetroot condiment – email us if you would like to add this to your order
Edible flowers and baby nasturtium leaves – if in season
Serve with warm bread rolls and salted butter
PUTTING THE PLATE TOGETHER
The aim of this salad is to look like a flower sitting on a forest bed.
• Place a 7.5cm baking ring in the centre of each plate and fill to 1.5cm high with celeriac remoulade. Flatten the surface and remove the ring.
• Take a few strips of pickled cucumber (drained on kitchen towel) and wrap around the outside of the celeriac circle, making sure you have 3-5mm of cucumber protruding from the celeriac.
• Drain the soused beetroot and slice in half, then cut into thin slices (3mm thick) lengthways. Wrap the beet slices around the cucumber, overlapping pieces at different intervals to create petal like shapes. You need around 12 pieces of beetroot.
• Take half a packet of venison (around 11-12 pieces usually) and lay the pieces out on a board, or plate, then place a small dollop of beetroot condiment or relish onto each piece. Stick each piece onto the beetroot petals, continuing the random placement of each petal.
• Place 2-3 small dollops of beetroot condiment either side of the celeriac, cucumber, beet and venison flower. Grab a small handful of rocket and sprinkle over the jam. Randomly place rocket and borage flowers and 2-3 nasturtium petals on top of the rocket each side, then add a few baby nasturtium leaves at the outer edges of the rocket.
If you prefer, you can make up one large salad and everyone can help themselves. You don’t need to bother with using a chef’s ring for the celeriac centre…. just pile it on with a spoon and then follow the other instructions, using all of each element, rather than individual servings.
Enjoy!
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