Venison Minute Steaks with Griddled Plums & Carrot Top Tzatziki Recipe

Ingredients

75g buckwheat
A 500g bunch of carrots
4 plums
A handful of rosemary, leaves only
8 juniper berries
2 venison minute steaks
75g 0% fat Greek style yogurt
150ml boiling water
2 tsp olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper

Prep: 15 mins | Cook: 30 mins

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Method

1. Heat your oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Tip the buckwheat into a pan. Cover with 150ml boiling water and simmer for 15 mins.

2. Chop the leaves off the carrots (keep the leaves for later). Give the carrots a scrub and halve or quarter them, depending on how large they are. Arrange the carrots on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle over 1 tsp olive oil and toss the carrots to coat. Roast in the oven for 30 mins, till tender and a little charred around the edges.

3. While the carrots cook, halve the plums and scoop out the stones with a teaspoon. Pop the plums in a bowl. Finely chop the rosemary leaves and add them to the plums. Tip the juniper berries into a mortar and pestle and lightly crush them. No mortar and pestle? Use a small bowl and a jam jar or the end of a rolling pin to crush them.

4. Add the crushed juniper berries to the plums with a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss the plums to coat in the rosemary, juniper and seasoning. Set aside.

5. Rub ½ tsp olive oil into each venison minute steak. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a griddle or frying pan till smoking hot. Add the steaks. If the steaks are thin (around 1cm), fry for 2-3 mins each side for medium rare. If they're thicker (around 3cm), try 5-6 mins on each side. Transfer the steaks to a board or plate. Loosely cover them with foil and leave to rest.

6. Add the plums to the pan, cut-side down. Fry for 4 mins till a little softened and charred, then flip them over and cook for another 2 mins. Take off the heat and set aside.

7. Finely chop a handful of the carrot leaves. Stir half into half the pot of yogurt with a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the other half of the leaves to the roast carrots along with the buckwheat. Tumble to mix the carrots, herbs and grains. Serve the steaks with the buckwheat and carrots, the griddled plums and the herby yogurt

8. Tip: Green, leafy carrot tops have a similar flavour to parsley. Store them wrapped in kitchen towel in your fridge. Chop them into salads, beat into butter to top steaks or jacket potatoes, sprinkle on soups or blitz into pesto.