Thursday Night Quickie

Ah.

Tonight's dinner was easier than expected. Somehow I convinced Bruce to eat leftover pizza while I actually prepared a decent last-minute dinner for myself out of things sitting around in the fridge. Granted, most normal folks don't have venison "filet mignon" thawing in their fridge, but then, do you know anyone normal? I don't.



The venison came from Karen's neighbors – the hardcore hunters; who, by the way, are supernice folks. And if you are a hardcore hunter/sportsman or woman and you have extra game in your freezer, contact me. I'll buy (clears throat), I mean trade.

Afterwards, I felt a little evil for making something from scratch while Bruce ate leftovers, but then, someone's gotta eat the leftovers, and Lord knows I have puh-lenty of times!



So I took the deer meat, the Other Red Meat, and cut the silverskin away from it. Then I seasoned both sides with salt and pepper.

In a cast-iron skillet, I heated some oil to the smoking point on medium high then tossed in the fillet, which I had cut in half.



While I let that brown on one side for a few minutes, I gathered up some fresh herbs I also had laying around: basil, thyme, sage, parsley, and chives. I roughly pulled them/chopped them up and tossed them in a bowl with a little white balsamic vinegar and Bariani olive oil, plus freshly ground pepper and a little kosher salt.

After both sides of the venison were crusty, I lowered the heat to medium and flipped them once every 5 minutes until pressing the flesh, they seemed medium rare. At this point I removed them from the pan and let them rest on a cutting board for 5 or so minutes (I think it was actually longer).



I arranged my herb salad in the center of the plate and grated some fresh lemon rind on top with my microplane.

When the meat had rested, I sliced against the grain on the diagonal into thin (3/16") slices, and then arranged around the salad. I ended up only using one half of the meat.

Then, taking inspiration from a Ferran Adria trick I learned from the DVDs Bill brought back from Spain, I used a potato peeler to slice a few thin slices of avocado, which I placed on top of the salad. On top of that, a little coarse salt Karen brought back from Oregon, a drizzle of olive oil over the meat, and a crackling of pepper, and that's it!



Dinner served!

In, I reckon, about 15 or 20 minutes.

The venison was rich, juicy, and meaty, and not very gamey. It was mild, as far as game goes, and I've had lamb that was much stronger. Too bad venison isn't more available, because this is an excellent alternative to beef!

Grass-fed, too!

Paired with the fragrant herb salad, topped with the rich and fatty avocado salted so that it tastes like a veggie side of bacon...yum.



Super easy.

k.