“Come, we have a hot Venison pasty to dinner”
William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
This venison Wellington is part of a Valentine’s day dinner for two – along with prawn and fennel cups and saucers and blood orange sorbet. Why ‘Wellington’? Well, it’s a venison adaptation of the well-known dish Beef Wellington – beef wrapped in pastry lined with goodies of one kind or another, in this case armagnac-soaked prunes with shallots.
Naturally the universal assumption is that the original beef version was named after the famed Duke of Wellington, he of the gumboot fame. However, according to Clarissa Dickson Wright,
“This dish has nothing to do with that splendid hero, the Duke of Wellington; it was invented for a civic reception in Wellington, New Zealand, but it is a splendid addition to any party.”
At any rate the sharpness of the mustard in this venison Wellington goes particularly well with whatever sweet jelly you choose to serve with it – I found some pomegranate jelly last time I visited my local farmshop, Newlyns, but cranberry jelly would also be good, and, if you are lucky enough to find/make medlar jelly, that is sublime. The use of the cranberries in the sweetheart cabbage brings the whole dish ‘together’.
Variations on the theme
For an alternative way of serving venison Wellington, try the approach try Nina Matsunaga’s approach at The Black Bull. This is how Marina O’Loughlin, writing in The Sunday Times puts it:
“Then a flawless wellington of wild venison, as glossy as a cookbook spread and tasting as gorgeous as it looks: the meat cut thick, juicy and rosy, wrapped in mushroom duxelles and excellent pastry, buttery mash on the side, plus a pool of something dark that delivers the thrilling astringent slap of pickled walnuts.”
You can also use minced venison… mix with garlic, parsley, some apple, Dijon mustard, mushrooms, onion, breadcrumbs and some beaten egg. This is probably more like the venison pasty Shakespeare is writing about.
I often add a spritz of apple vinegar to the cabbage before serving.
Venison Wellington with sweet jelly and cabbage with cranberries
Serves – 2
Ingredients
- 1 generous venison fillet steak – 180-250g/6-8 oz
- 4 banana shallots, chopped really small
- 4 teasp smoked salt
- Indonesian long pepper
- 100g, 4 oz, two-fifth of a packet, of butter
- 3 tbsp Armagnac or you can use cooking brandy. You may need a bit more – enough the cover the chopped prunes
- 1 Earl Grey tea bag
- 4 pitted, dried prunes
- 2 tbsp grainy mustard
- ½ teasp soft brown sugar
- 320g pack ready rolled puff pastry (butter if possible (as long as none of your guests are lactose intolerant), Jus Rol do one now, or, if you can find Dorset Pastry puff pastry that is the Rolls Royce of pastries)
- ½ a sweetheart cabbage, shredded
- 1 leek
- 50g dried cranberries
- cranberry, redcurrent, or pomegranate jelly to serve
- handful of herbes de Provence
- beaten egg – one egg would do for four individual Wellingtons
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 210°C (Aga top right), put plates in to warm and boil a kettle.
- Make a mug of Earl Grey tea in a big mug, only filling half the mug.
- Soak the cranberries in the tea. Chop the prunes, and soak them in two tbsps of Armagnac (or more to cover).
- Then cook the shallots with about half the butter, ½ teasp soft brown sugar, and 2 teasp smoked salt until caramelised – about 15 minutes.
- Add the prunes and Armagnac to the shallot mixture.
- Put in freezer to cool quickly.
- Get a buttered, non-stick frying pan really hot, season the steak VERY generously with the salt and pepper, and brown it on each side. take out, cut it in half and set aside.
- Cut the pastry into four pieces, all larger than the steak, two a bit larger than the other two.
- Cover a baking tray with baking paper (or bake-o-glide).
- Slather the steaks with the mustard and place in the middle of the smaller pieces of pastry.
- Brush the edges of the pastry with the milk, and put the shallot mixture on top of the meat.
- Cover with the other two pastry squares, brushing the whole with more milk and piercing with a knife. You can even go a bit over the top and shape the parcels into hearts!
- Push the edges of the pastry together with a fork to make it look professional. Make a couple of slits in the top.
- Put into the (Aga roasting) oven in a roasting tin for 12 minutes for rare steak.
- Remove the venison, cover with foil and leave to rest.
- Add a couple of tablespoons of the shallot mix and 1 tbsp Armagnac to a small saucepan, whisk in a couple of walnuts of the remaining butter (use cappuccino whisk) – this makes the gravy glossy. If it doesn’t look enough add a little beef stock made from a cube. Add some herbes de Provence. Perhaps some more Armagnac …. or red vermouth.
- Using the same frying pan that you used for the onion mixture, fry the shredded cabbage in the rest of the butter for a bit longer than five minutes with the rest of the shallots, the very thinly sliced leek and the (drained) cranberries.
- Serve the Wellingtons with the cabbage.
If you’re interested in learning about game, we have an episode all about it on our podcast Serving Up Sustainability! You can listen below.
Music to play as you make this
Cavatina from The Deer Hunter
You might also like…
Our recipe for venison steak with rich chocolate and blackberry sauce
Our tips on what to do with leftover venison
More information on sustainable food