I finally roasted that Venison that I've been avoiding in the back of the freezer.

One of hubby's work colleagues gave him a huge haunch of venison some time ago as a thankyou for some helpful task he performed. We greeted it with lots off "OOhhs" and "mmm how delicious" comments - and then chucked it in the freezer and there it has stayed. Everynow and then I have prodded it and wondered what on earth to do with it, then furtively tucked it back in under the frozen fish. We had visitors to stay for the past week and I decided - thats it I'm defrosting this thing and cooking it.

It took a good day to defrost, and boy did it smell funny. Gamey - well that could be due to the fact its game - but it was smell I was not too hot on. I did a bit of research and found some instructions on cooking times and decided I wanted to cook it with lots of herbs and garlic. I took about 12 huge garlic cloves and crushed them - mixed it in with some Olive Oil and slathered the venison haunch with it. Then I picked some herbs from the garden and dressed it on top and underneath with sprigs of rosemary, bay leaves, thyme and oregano then I wrapped the whole thing in streaky bacon and left it to marinade for 7 hours (I'm sure it would be happy with less that was just how it worked out)

By the time I was ready to roast it the smell was replaced with something promising and I was feeling a lot more confident.

I preheated the oven to 220c / 425f / GM7 and once hot enough popped in the joint covered in my roasting dish. As my joint was dead on 2kg I roasted it on the high heat for 20 mins (if it had been over 2kg then it would have needed about 10 mins more on high) - then turned the heat down to 170c / 325f / GM3 and cooked it for 12 mins per 500g meat. So all in all it only took just over an hour to cook which surprised me (aparently venision needs a shorter cooking time than many other meats due to its leanness and density.) After cooking it needed a good 20mins to rest.

We ate it with a healthy version of a potato gratin (made with yoghurt instead of cream) steamed broccoli, french beans, carrots from the garden (and of course - Purple Greenies for my little one who now cannot get enough of them - thats shelled steamed runners to the uninitiated) and of course the vital home made gravy - yum!!

I have to say it was delicious and I've gone from being uncertain on how to roast this thing to dying for the next one to be offered.

Now I just have to come up with some recepies for the left over meat!!